Inscriptions from Sippar (text no. 262)

Ashurbanipal 262

Several clay cylinders, all presumably from Sippar, preserve an inscription that records Ashurbanipal's restoration of Ebabbar ("Shining House"), the temple of the sun-god Šamaš. The favorable mention of the king of Babylon, Ashurbanipal's older brother Šamaš-šuma-ukīn, indicates that the text was composed before 652, therefore, at some point between Ashurbanipal's first regnal year (668) and the start of the Šamaš-šuma-ukīn Revolt (652). This text is sometimes called "Cylinder L[ondon]²."

Access the composite text [/rinap/rinap5/Q008351/] or the score [/rinap/scores/Q008351/] of Ashurbanipal 262.

Sources: (1) BM 091115 (1882-07-14, 1043) (2) BM 056639 (1882-07-14, 1044) (3) DT 272 (4) BM 056634 (1882-07-14, 1032) (5) BM 078264 (Bu 1888-05-12, 0120) (6) MMA — (7) BM 028384 + BM 050843 (1882-03-23, 1837+ 1898-10-11, 0020)

Commentary

H. Rassam found exs. 1–2 and 4 at Sippar; ex. 3 comes from G. Smith's expedition to Kuyunjik, but was probably not found at that site. Ex. 5 was purchased by E.A.W. Budge and ex. 6 comes from the Wolfe expedition of 1885. Part of ex. 7 (BM 28384) was acquired by the British Museum from K. Minassian and part (BM 50843) comes from a shipment sent by Rassam, some of whose pieces came from Sippar.

Exs. 1–3, 5 and 7 are written in contemporary Babylonian script, while ex. 4 is in archaizing Babylonian script. Exs. 5–6 could not be located for collation when Frame was working on RIMB 2; however, R. Borger later saw ex. 5 and the edition for this exemplar in the score follows his transliteration in BIWA. Ex. 6 is said to have (parts of) lines 11–12; since similar, though not exactly duplicate, lines appear in other inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (for example, Asb. 242 lines 12b–16a), it is not impossible that MMA — (ex. 6) does not bear a copy of this inscription. Following a comment by H. Winckler (OLZ 1 [1898] col. 76), M. Streck included the fragment 81-2-4,174 among the exemplars of this text (Streck, Asb. p. XLII). For that small piece, see Asb. 252. The line arrangement and master line follow ex. 1, with help from ex. 4 for the end of line 18, from ex. 7 for the ends of lines 21–26, and from Asb. 263 lines 25–26 for the ends of lines 19–20. A score of the text is presented on Oracc and the minor (orthographic) variants are listed at the back of the book.

This inscription must have been composed prior to 652, when Šamaš-šuma-ukīn, the king of Babylon and Ashurbanipal's brother, began a rebellion against Assyrian control over Babylonia, since lines 11–12, 21–22, and 26 refer to him in a positive manner.

Bibliography

1884 5 R pl. 62 no. 1 (ex. 1, copy in type)

1885–86 Craig and Harper, Hebraica 2 pp. 87–89 (ex. 1, edition)

1886 Bezold, Literatur pp. 113 §64.3.c and 349 (ex. 1, study)

1886 Lyon, Manual pp. 23–24 and 74–75 (ex. 1, transliteration, study)

1890 Abel and Winckler, Keilschrifttexte p. 31 (ex. 1, copy)

1892 Lehmann-Haupt, Šamaššumukîn 1 pp. 25–26, and 2 pp. 18–21 and 61 and pls. XXV–XXVII no. 9 (L² (exs. 1–4, copy, edition; exs. 1–4, 6, study)

1898 Winckler, OLZ 1 cols. 75 and 77 (exs. 3, 5, study)

1904 Smith in Harper, Literature pp. 129–130 (ex. 1, translation)

1905 Jastrow, Religion 1 p. 418 (ex. 1, partial translation)

1916 Streck, Asb. pp. XLI–XLII and 228–233 no. 2 (L²) (exs. 1–6, edition)

1922 BM Guide p. 230 no. 36 (ex. 1, study)

1927 Luckenbill, ARAB 2 pp. 370–372 §§956–959 (ex. 1, translation)

1994 Lawson, Concept of Fate p. 77 n. 31 (line 14a, study)

1995 Frame, RIMB 2 pp. 212–214 B.6.32.12 (exs. 1–7, edition)

1996 Borger, BIWA p. 387 to Streck pp. 228-233 no. 2 L² and LoBl pp. 108 and 112 (exs. 5 and 7, transliteration)

2010 Novotny, Studies Ellis pp. 111, 120, and 127 (lines 16–18, study)

Grant Frame & Jamie Novotny

Grant Frame & Jamie Novotny, 'Inscriptions from Sippar (text no. 262)', 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/RINAP53TextIntroductions/Ashurbanipal/Sippartext262/]