Very few monuments (round-topped steles and rock reliefs) of Ashurbanipal are known to have been set up outside of the Assyrian heartland and Babylonia. A poorly-preserved Assyrian relief, with a thirty-six-line Akkadian inscription, carved into a rock face at Shakaft-i Gulgul — which is located in the Zagros Mountains, on the southwestern slopes of the Kabir Kuh, a mountainous ridge that separates western and eastern Luristan — might be the only-presently-attested rock relief of Assyria's last great king, although the attribution to him is not entirely certain.[79] The prologue of the weathered monument, which could have also been carved during the reign of his father Esarhaddon,[80] states that (1) the god Aššur determined the king's royal destiny while he was still in his mother's womb, (2) the god Enlil called the king by name to rule over the land and people, (3) the gods Sîn and Šamaš gave auspicious signs about the establishment of the author's reign, (4) the gods Nabû and Marduk bestowed the king with intelligence and wisdom, and (5) the great gods placed the king safely on the throne of his father. The passage recording the principal reason(s) the monument was commissioned, which might have given us further clues about identity of the Assyrian king in whose name the inscription was written, is almost completely destroyed; only a few signs remain.[81] The text concludes with a short building report recording the creation of the monument, advice to a future ruler to respect the carved image and accompanying texts, and curses against anyone who alters or destroys the king's record of his (pious) deeds, which was created "for the admiration of the kings, [my] descendants."[82]
[79] Asb. 1030. For an earlier edition and study of this monument, see Grayson and Levine, IrAnt 11 (1975) pp. 29–38.
[80] The king's name and the name of his father in Asb. 1030 lines 4–5 are completely missing. For further information about the royal 'author' of the Shakaft-i Gulgul inscription, see the commentary of Asb. 1030.
[81] Asb. 1030 lines 17b–25a.
[82] Asb. 1030 lines 24b–25a.
Jamie Novotny
Jamie Novotny, 'Rock Reliefs', RINAP 5: The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Sîn-šarra-iškun, The RINAP/RINAP 5 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2023 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap5/RINAP53Introduction/SurveyofInscribedObjects/RockReliefs/]