The corpus of firmly identifiable Esarhaddon inscriptions currently comprises one hundred and forty-three texts; twenty-nine late Neo-Assyrian inscriptions which may be attributed to Esarhaddon, although some arbitrarily, are also edited here (1001–1029). Two texts are ascribed to a wife of his, Ešarra-ḫammat, and eight inscriptions to his mother, Naqīʾa (Zakūtu). Inscriptions of Esarhaddon are presently found on a wide variety of clay, stone, and metal objects, specifically:
Object Type | Text No. |
---|---|
Clay prisms | 1–9, 57 (exs. 1–4 and 7–9), 58, 104–112, 1001–1004, 2003 |
Clay cylinders | 10–18, 59, 77–80, 93, 113, 127–130, 133–136, 1005–1006, 1030, 2004 |
Clay tablets | 30–56, 57 (ex. 6), 60 (ex. 2), 76, 99–101, 116–117, 126 (ex. 8), 1010–1020, 2005–2006 |
Bricks | 23, 88 (exs. 1–2), 89, 96, 119–125, 126 (exs. 1–7), 131–132, 137–139, 1009 |
Clay object (uncertain) | 92 |
Stone bull colossi | 83–84 |
Stone human-headed lions | 85 |
Steles | 97–98, 102, 1007–1008 |
Rock face | 103 |
Stone slabs | 20–22, 86–87, 88 (ex. 3), 94–95 |
Stone blocks | 61–67, 81–82, 2002 |
Stone tablets | 57 (ex. 5), 60 (ex. 1) |
Stone door-sockets | 68–69 |
Stone vessels (various types) | 25–29, 70–73, 91, 1022–1029 |
Gaming boards | 24 |
Basalt cuboid | 114 |
Small stone objects, including amulets and eyestones | 74–75, 142–143, 1021, 2001, 2007–2009 |
Cylinder seals (including impressions) | 90, 118 |
Other stone objects | 19 |
Silver bucket | 140 |
Bronze object | 2010 |
Bronze lion | 141 |
Six clay tablets, now all in the Kuyunjik collection of the British Museum, record or refer to the object upon which the inscription was written (or intended to be inscribed). These were: a statue of the king (no. 38), a necklace of the king (no. 43), a base of the statue of the god Marduk (nos. 44–45), a stele (no. 48), and a bull-colossus (no. 99). In addition, there are numerous letters, economic texts, prophecies, queries and treaties that were written during his time on the throne; these are edited in volumes of the State Archives of Assyria series (SAA), produced by the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project under the direction of Dr. Simo Parpola. Many of the events of his reign are also recorded in Mesopotamian chronicles; translations of the relevant chronicle passages are presented below (pp. 6–8).
Erle Leichty
Erle Leichty, 'Corpus of Inscriptions', RINAP 4: Esarhaddon, The RINAP 4 sub-project of the RINAP Project, 2019 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap4/RINAP4Introduction/CorpusofInscriptions/]