This text is inscribed on a large stone slab that might have originally served as a pavement slab in the Central Palace at Kalḫu, a building later dismantled by Esarhaddon. The slab is the first in a series of slabs that altogether contained a long summary inscription. The text opens with the formula "Palace of Tiglath-pileser" and a list of the king's titles and epithets. This is followed by a condensed account of Tiglath-pileser's military campaigns, which are summarized according to a set geographical principle. The following events are recorded in this text: the establishment of Assyrian domination over Arameans living in northern Babylonia and along the east bank of the Tigris (745) (lines 4–7); the conquest of Chaldea (743 and 731) (lines 8–15a); the offering of sacrifices to various Babylonian gods and goddesses (731) (lines 15b–16); the conquest of Namri and Media (744, 737) (lines 17–20a); the defeat of Sarduri, king of Urarṭu (743, 735) (lines 20b–25a); the campaign to Ulluba (739) (lines 25b–29); and the annexation of cities in Ulluba and Urarṭu (739, 736, and 735) (lines 30–36). Since the text contains an incomplete date formula (ul-tu SAG LUGAL-ti-ia, without its expected continuation a-di x BALA.MEŠ), a precise date of composition cannot be determined with certainty. Comparison of the account of the wars against Sarduri, king of Urarṭu (743, 739, 736, and 735), with accounts of the same events in other summary inscriptions (text nos. 40–41, 47, and 51) composed after the king's 17th palû (729) suggests a late date of the composition. The noticeable absence of the title "king of Babylon," however, suggests that the inscription was composed before Tiglath-pileser III ascended the Babylonian throne (729). Therefore, the most probable date of the composition is ca. 731–730. Tadmor referred to this text as Summary Inscription 1 (Summ. 1) in Tigl. III.
Access Tiglath-pileser III 39 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003452/]
Source:
The slab was found by A.H. Layard during his first season of excavations at Kalḫu (1845–47) in the ruins of the South-West Palace. According to Layard, ICC p. 17, the inscribed slab was discovered "on the ground, before Nr. 18, Wall K, Plan II." The slab was apparently moved by Esarhaddon's workmen from its original location in the Central Palace and probably broken during the move to the South-West Palace, where it was to be reused in the construction of that royal residence. This is suggested by the fact that the slab was already in several pieces when Layard found it. In addition, more of the slab was lost when BM 118936 was transported from Nimrud to the British Museum. Layard's unpublished draft copy (MS A pp. 127–128; reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pls. XLIII–XLIV) is now our only source for the missing pieces of the inscription. The text was collated from the original in the British Museum, from a photograph, and from Layard, MS A. For the problems involved with working with Layard's copy, see Tadmor, Tigl. III p. 120. For a detailed discussion about the date of composition and the incomplete formula in line 4, see Tadmor, Tigl. III pp. 269–272 (Supplementary Study E).
On the 4th of December 1854, in the northeast corner of the South-West Palace at Kalḫu, W.K. Loftus discovered a large stone slab inscribed with nineteen lines of a summary inscription of Tiglath-pileser III, together with another inscribed stone slab (text no. 41). After the opening formula "Palace of Tiglath-pileser" and a list of the king's titles and epithets (lines 1–3), the text recounts some of Tiglath-pileser's military achievements. The inscription, now badly damaged, must have originally contained a geographical summary of events that took place between his accession year (his 1st palû; 745) and his 17th palû (729), as indicated by the chronological note in line 3, and therefore it must have been composed after 729. Only the beginning of the text is preserved and the extant portions contain descriptions of events in Babylonia — i.e., the subjugation of the Arameans, sacrifices offered to the god Marduk in Babylon, and the conquest of Chaldea (Bīt-Šilāni and Bīt-Šaʾalli) (731) (lines 4–18a) — and those in the Zagros region, against Namri and Media (744, 737) (lines 18b–19). Text no. 41 partially duplicates this inscription and may contain a further summary of the events that immediately follow those preserved on this slab. Like the colossal slab bearing text no. 39, the slabs bearing this inscription and text no. 41 must have formed the first part of a series of several stone slabs in which the king's conquests were described according to a set geographical pattern, although they represent a recension shorter than the one found in text no. 39. This text was edited as Summary Inscription 2 (Summ. 2) in Tadmor, Tigl. III.
Access Tiglath-pileser III 40 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003453/]
Source:
The inscription could not be collated from the original since the slab was left at Kalḫu. W.K. Loftus prepared a squeeze ('paper cast') and a copy before leaving the field. According to a note accompanying Loftus' draft copy (Notebook pp. 16–17), which is housed in the British Museum, the inscription was written on the "Back of slab No. 11, Chamber A, South West Palace Nimroud" (reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. XLV; see also p. 316 [Addenda et corrigenda]). The squeeze was studied by G. Smith, who made a roughly restored copy (reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. XLVI), and then by P. Rost, who published a copy made from the same squeeze. Rost mistakenly thought that a single slab bore this inscription and text no. 41; for further details, see Tadmor, Tigl. III p. 128. The squeeze has since been lost or destroyed. The present edition is based on Loftus' draft copy, but some of Rost's improved readings and G. Smith's restored draft copy are also taken into account.
Thirty-two lines of a summary inscription of Tiglath-pileser III are preserved on a large slab unearthed by W.K. Loftus on the 4th of December 1854 in the northeast corner of the South-West Palace at Kalḫu. The beginning and end of the inscription are completely missing and the extant text contains descriptions of the conquest of Chaldea (731) (lines 1'–4'a); the conquest of Namri and Media (744, 737) (lines 4'b–15'a); the defeat of Sarduri, king of Urarṭu (743, 735) (lines 15'b–26'); and the conquest of Ulluba and Ḫabḫu (739) (lines 27'–32'). Lines 1'–5' duplicate the final preserved lines of text no. 40 (lines 14–19). It is assumed that the slabs bearing this text and the previous inscription, when complete, contained duplicate texts. Therefore, this inscription must have originally contained a geographical summary of events that took place between Tiglath-pileser's accession year (his 1st palû; 745) and his 17th palû (729), and thus must have been composed after 729. Tadmor edited this text as Summary Inscription 3 (Summ. 3) in his Tigl. III.
Access Tiglath-pileser III 41 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003454/]
Source:
The inscription could not be collated from the original since the slab was left at Kalḫu. W.K. Loftus prepared a squeeze ('paper cast') and a copy before leaving the field. According to a note accompanying Loftus' draft copy (Notebook pp. 12–15; reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. XLVII; see also p. 316), the inscription was written on the "Back of slab No. 1, Chamber A, South West Palace Nimroud." G. Smith made a rough draft copy from the squeeze, but with the addition of restorations (reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. XLVIII); he did not, however, indicate in his copy the extent of the restorations. P. Rost also prepared a copy and an edition from the same squeeze. Rost mistakenly thought that a single slab bore this text and text no. 40; for further details, see Tadmor, Tigl. III p. 128. The squeeze has since been lost or destroyed. The present edition is based on Loftus' draft copy, but some of Rost's improved readings and G. Smith's restored draft copy are also taken into account.
This summary inscription is found on a large, fragmentarily preserved stone slab, most likely a colossal pavement slab like the one inscribed with text no. 39. The object was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century at Kalḫu, but left in situ. It is probably the second slab of a long summary inscription that was written from beginning to end on three consecutive slabs; the first and third slabs of the series have not survived, save perhaps for a tiny fragment (text no. 45) containing part of a description of Tiglath-pileser's Babylonian campaigns. The extant text contains reports of the following events in the west: the annexation of northern and central Syria (738) (lines 1'–5'a); the annexation of Damascus (733–732) (lines 5'b–8'a); the campaign against Ḫanūnu of Gaza (734) (lines 8'b–15'a); the partial annexation of Israel (733–732) (lines 15'b–19'a); the campaign against Samsi (733) (lines 19'b–27'a); the receipt of tribute from Arab tribes (733–732) (lines 27'b–33'); the appointment of Idibiʾilu as the "gatekeeper facing Egypt" (734) (lines 34'–35'); and possibly the setting up of a stele (lines 36'–38'). This text is referred to as Summary Inscription 4 (Summ. 4) in Tadmor, Tigl. III.
Access Tiglath-pileser III 42 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003455/]
Source:
The inscription could not be collated from the original since the slab was left at Kalḫu. G. Smith copied the text from squeezes then in the British Museum (see Bezold, Cat. 2 p. xiv), restored the text as much as he could, and published a copy in 3 R (pl. 10 no. 2); his restorations were noted in boldface type. Prior to the publication of 3 R, G. Smith made separate copies of the individual fragments from the squeezes, which he labeled a–g (reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pls. XLIX–L), as well as an earlier draft of the reconstructed text, which served as the basis for the copy published in 3 R (reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. LI). The text of the lithographic plate in 3 R has many improved readings as compared to its earlier draft since it appears to have utilized Smith's older copies of the individual fragments. Therefore 3 R pl. 10 no. 2 is used as the main source for the present edition. In some cases, however, the draft copies of the individual fragments have the correct signs, and thus they are noted and incorporated here. The squeezes have since been lost or destroyed.
This text was inscribed on a large stone slab that was discovered in the ruins of the Central Palace at Kalḫu in the mid-nineteenth century. The slab was left in situ. The inscription, which is fragmentarily preserved, is written in two columns and the extant text contains a list of cities, arranged according to country, which are in turn listed from north to south. The areas mentioned are: Naʾiri and possibly some areas adjacent to it (i 1–11a); Enzi, another land, and Urarṭu (i 11b–24); Bīt-Agusi (i 25–ii 7); Unqi (ii 8–15); Hamath (ii 16–24); Damascus (= Bīt-Ḫazaʾili) (ii 25–[...]). The slab is part of a larger series that lists all of the major cities of countries annexed in the west. Moreover, this inscription belongs to a separate category of text, unparalleled elsewhere in Assyrian royal inscriptions. Tadmor referred to this text as Summary Inscription 5 (Summ. 5) in Tigl. III.
Access Tiglath-pileser III 43 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003456/]
Source:
The inscription could not be collated from the original since the slab was left at Kalḫu. G. Smith copied the text from a squeeze then in the British Museum; the squeeze, now lost or destroyed, served as the basis for his copy in 3 R (pl. 10 no. 3). H. Rawlinson made a rough copy of the inscription (reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. LII) and his draft deviates in several places from G. Smith's published copy. P. Rost likewise made a copy of the text (Tigl. pl. XXVII) and it appears to be more reliable than those of Smith and Rawlinson; the variants in ii 8 show that Rost must have utilized the same squeeze as G. Smith. With regard to the squeeze itself, it appears that it was damaged and mostly illegible in places, thus giving rise to the many conflicting readings of the signs. The present edition is based on the copy published in 3 R, but with improvements from the copies of Rawlinson and Rost.
A broken slab discovered by A.H. Layard in the ruins of the South-West Palace at Kalḫu preserves eighteen lines of a summary inscription of Tiglath-pileser III. Layard noted in his field journal (MS A p. 68) that the "slab [was] much destroyed. Inscription across large figure with mace." The text of this fragmentarily preserved inscription contains accounts of the following events: the delivery of tribute, possibly from a pharaoh of Egypt (name not preserved) to Kalḫu (734 or 733) (lines 1'–2'); the defeat of Samsi (733) (lines 3'–8'a); the submission of Arabian tribes (733–732) (lines 8'b–15'); the appointment of Idibiʾilu as the "gatekeeper facing Egypt" (734) (line 16'); and the partial annexation of Israel (733–732) (lines 17'–18'). Because the text is badly damaged and inscribed on a sculpted orthostat like the text of the Annals (Series C), there has been some debate among scholars whether this inscription belongs to the category of annals or summary inscriptions. As pointed out by H. Tadmor (Tigl. III pp. 198–199), comparison of the events in the west as recorded in Tiglath-pileser's Kalḫu Annals and other summary inscriptions suggests that this text is indeed a summary inscription, although of a special category that contains a different and shorter version of the events of his reign. This text was edited as Summary Inscription 13 (Summ. 13) in Tadmor, Tigl. III.
Access Tiglath-pileser III 44 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003457/]
Source:
The inscription could not be collated from the original since the slab was left at Kalḫu. Therefore, the present edition is based on Layard's published copy in ICC (p. 66), his draft copy in MS A (p. 68; reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. LIX), and a draft copy of H. Rawlinson (reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. LX). Rawlinson's draft copy, which begins with line 7, appears to have been made while the slab was in situ, while he was at Nimrud in 1853–54, and therefore this copy is of primary importance.
This text is preserved on a small fragment of a large stone slab discovered in the mid-nineteenth century at Kalḫu. This piece may be the only remnant of the slab that preceded the one that bore text no. 42; this is suggested by the fact that the fragments were copied on the same page in G. Smith's notebook (Notebook 5 fol. 11r). The extant text contains a summary of events in Babylonia parallel to text no. 40 lines 6–10. Because text no. 41 is probably a duplicate of text no. 40 (see the introductions of these texts), it is not impossible that this fragment comes from the missing part of the slab inscribed with text no. 41. If this proves true, then this piece, which describes the subjugation of Aramean tribes, represents a passage now missing from the beginning of text no. 41; there is a one- or two-line lacuna between the last line of this text and the first line of text no. 41. It cannot be excluded, however, that the fragment is from another slab, one inscribed with a duplicate of text nos. 40 and 41. Tadmor edited this text as Summary Inscription 14 (Summ. 14) in his Tigl. III.
Access Tiglath-pileser III 45 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/Q003458/]
Source:
The inscription could not be collated from the original since the slab was left at Kalḫu. Therefore, the present edition is based on G. Smith's draft copy (reproduced in Tadmor, Tigl. III pl. LX). G. Smith did not publish this fragment and seems to have ignored it in his translation of Tiglath-pileser's inscriptions in his Assyrian Discoveries.
Hayim Tadmor & Shigeo Yamada
Hayim Tadmor & Shigeo Yamada, 'Summary Inscriptions, Part 1', RINAP 1: Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser V, The RINAP 1 sub-project of the RINAP Project, 2019 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap1/Tiglath-pileserIII:TextIntroductions/SummaryInscriptions/Part1/]