Ashurbanipal 186

1The space before the horizontal ruling on the obverse of ex. 1 was originally inscribed, but the scribe subsequently erased that text and smoothed over the clay, although there are traces of some of the signs still remaining. Later, the scribe used this space to write an editorial addition to the Large Hunting Inscription (see the commentary). The editorial addition comprises lines 2´–6´, while traces of the erased inscription appear in lines 1´–2´, 6´, and in the seven lines after line 6´. E. Weissert (in Parpola and Whiting, Assyria 1995 pp. 341–342 n. 9) labeled the erased inscription of ex. 1 as “Text A” and the editorial addition as “Text C.”

2x x: Bauer, Asb. p. 87 read aq-bi “I commanded,” but this is far from certain. The first x comprises only traces of wedges along the break of the tablet, while the latter x almost looks like ŠIM, although it lacks a winkelhaken before the final two verticals.

3On ex. 1, the Large Hunting Inscription is written after the horizontal ruling that appears on the obverse of the tablet (see the commentary). E. Weissert (in Parpola and Whiting, Assyria 1995 pp. 341–342 n. 9) labeled this as “Text B” of ex. 1, and following his practice, the first line of the inscription in the present edition is designated as line 1 despite the fact that it is not the first line of the tablet.

4Ex. 4 includes an additional line of text, [...] UGU LÚ.KÚR.MES-ia “[...] over my enemies,” after line 9 of the master text.

5Ex. 4 includes an additional line of text, [...] za-ma-ni-ia “[...] my enemies,” after line 10 of the master text.

6The scribe of ex. 1 placed a horizontal tick mark on the left edge of the tablet that is about even with the top edge of the signs of line 25 (corresponding to rev. 3 of that exemplar). It is unclear what this scribal notation means, especially since the additional lines written on the left edge of the tablet belong to other locations in the tablet’s narrative (see the on-page notes to line 28 and left edge 1) and so this scribal mark does not appear to be related to them. It is possible that it was placed here to mark the beginning of the hunting narrative itself after the historical material concerning the Elamites and the transitional statement in line 24 (compare the scribal notation at text no. 227 obv. 6 discussed in the on-page note).

7Ex. 1 does not have line 28 of the master text in the body of the tablet as the scribe goes from line 27 to line 29 (corresponding to rev. 5 and 6, respectively, of that exemplar). Instead, line 28 is written on the left edge of the tablet in two shorter lines along the edge of the reverse (designated as left edge 2–3 of that exemplar). T.G. Pinches (in S.A. Smith, Keilschrifttexte 2 p. 69), M. Streck (Asb. p. 212 n. o), and R. Borger (BIWA pp. 330–331) argued that this material belongs between lines 27 and 29 of the master text. This is supported by the fact that the scribe drew a line beginning just underneath the ina of line 27 and continued it onto the left edge of the tablet; he then inscribed left edge 2–3 of the exemplar immediately to the right of that line, thus indicating where these lines were to be inserted (see Figure 16). The omission of line 28 can probably be explained as a haplography since both lines 27 and 28 begin with ina. Thus, the two lines on the left edge of ex. 1 are included here in the edition of the text as line 28.

8As a literary device, the scribe is narrating Ashurbanipal’s conquest of lions with the same language that is used throughout Assyrian royal inscriptions to describe the kings’ victories over human enemies.

9la-ab-niš ⸢ú-kàṣ⸣-ṣi-ṣu ṣu-up-⸢ra-te^?⸣ “they mutilated (their) fingernails in a ... way”: CAD L p. 34 sub labnu and CAD Ṣ p. 251 sub ṣupru A 1.a.1´ translate the line, “they broke their fingernails as if (they were throwing) throw sticks.” However, the exact meaning of lab/pniš is uncertain. This line contains the only attestation of the word, and the association of lab/pnu with “throw stick” is based only on references in lexical lists. Thus, the present translation tentatively follows the one provided by CAD G p. 53 sub gaṣāṣu B 2.

10After the EDIN sign, which is about one and a half signs away from the right edge of the reverse, there are traces of seven or eight signs that wrap onto the edge of the tablet and continue for about three-quarters of the way across that edge. These signs are difficult to identify because all of them appear to have been erased by the scribe.

11M. Streck (Asb. p. 212 n. e) suggested that left edge 1 (which is written along the edge of the obverse of ex. 1) might belong after line 23, although he indicated that its placement after line 18 could also be a possibility. T. Bauer (Asb. p. 87 n. 1) instead argued that it can only be inserted after line 18 since it best fits into the narrative at that location. In contrast to both these opinions, E. Weissert (in Parpola and Whiting, Assyria 1995 p. 342 n. 9) believed that this line does not belong to the text of the Large Hunting Inscription at all, but rather was written as a correction to the text on the obverse that appeared before it. Given that left edge 1 is written along the obverse of the tablet, this would place the beginning of the line — although not preserved — at some point to the left of the area in which the text before the horizontal ruling was written and ultimately erased (Weissert’s “Text A”; see the introduction). Since the scribe of the tablet drew a line from the front of the other editorial addition on the tablet to where it belonged in the narrative (see the on page note to line 28), it is likely that he would have done the same for this editorial correction, thus making Weissert’s interpretation the most plausible.