A stone block discovered at Aššur with a sixteen-line Akkadian inscription of Sîn-šarra-iškun written on it is the only presently-attested inscribed stone block from the last sixty years of the Assyrian Empire.[69] The text records that Sîn-šarra-iškun constructed the Nabû temple at Aššur anew on an empty plot of land. Interestingly, this account contradicts the one presented in inscriptions written on clay cylinders and prisms, which state that the temple had been rebuilt on its earlier Middle and Neo-Assyrian plans.[70] The findspot of the stone block at Aššur is not known so it is unclear whether or not it was actually incorporated into the physical structure of that holy building.[71]
[69] Ssi 12. Inscriptions on this material support are well attested from the reigns of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. See Grayson and Novotny, RINAP 3/2 pp. 13–14 and pp. 249–270 Sennacherib 169–189 and pp. 317–327 Sennacherib 224–229; and Leichty, RINAP 4 pp. 137–144 Esarhaddon 61–67, pp. 164–165 Esarhaddon 81–82, and p. 314 Esarhaddon 2002.
[70] For details on that building project, see the section Sîn-šarra-iškun's Building Activities below.
[71] K. Kessler (ISIMU 14–15 [2011–12] pp. 39-43) notes only that the stone block was in the Aššur Site Museum until at least 1987.
Jamie Novotny
Jamie Novotny, 'Stone Blocks', 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/StoneBlocks/]