As mentioned above, only one text edited in this volume has a more or less firm date: Text no. 223 (K 2411). However, the date written on the tablet — Simānu (III) 27th of the eponymy of Awiānu (655) — is not the month, day, and year the tablet was inscribed, but rather the date that Ashurbanipal had two cult objects of the god Marduk (his bed and throne) returned to Babylon. As for the remaining inscriptions included in this volume, only suggested dates of composition can be provided, and not for all texts. Most of the inscriptions whose date of composition can be determined with some degree of confidence (usually within a range of two to three years) were composed during Ashurbanipal's third decade as king, starting in his 20th regnal year (649) and ending sometime between his 25th and 27th years on the throne, depending on when Šamaš-daʾʾinanni, governor of Babylon, held the post of eponym (644, 643, or 642).[116] Relatively few inscriptions of Ashurbanipal from the first two decades of his reign, especially from Assyria, have been positively identified. Most of these early texts date between 668 and 660. Few inscriptions from the period between 659 and 650 are presently known and even fewer inscriptions from his last years on the throne (640–ca. 631) have been identified.
Because it is not always possible to suggest a single, specific year for most texts edited in this volume, the authors have decided not to provide a chart of proposed dates according to regnal years and their corresponding eponym officials, as was done for the inscriptions edited in RINAP 5/1.[117] Instead, the chart below gives general dates for some of the inscriptions of Ashurbanipal known from clay tablets. These are:
| Approximate Dates | Text Nos. |
|---|---|
| ca. 668 | 185, 220 |
| ca. 668–653 | 231 |
| ca. 666 | 196 |
| ca. 663–662 | 207 |
| ca. 663–649 (before 655?) | 219 |
| ca. 661–659 | 209–214 |
| ca. 660 | 186 |
| 655 | 223 |
| ca. 655–650 | 116, 222 |
| ca. 652–650 | 115, 195, 200–202 |
| ca. 650–648 | 155, 203–205 |
| ca. 649–IV 648 | 190 |
| ca. 649–646 | 78–80, 82–86, 88, 127 |
| ca. 649–642 | 73–77, 87, 126, 128, 131, 133, 135 |
| ca. 648–641 | 114 |
| ca. 647–646 | 89, 130 |
| ca. 646[118] | 90, 106, 112, 129, 136 |
| ca. 645[119] | 91–92, 96–97, 100–102, 154, 188, 197–199, 217 |
| ca. 645–642 | 95, 103, 134, 139–141 |
| ca. 645–640 | 98–99, 104, 227–230 |
| ca. 644–642[120] | 105, 107–110, 132, 138, 142–145, 148, 156–158, 194, 215–216 |
| ca. 638 (or later) | 224–225 |
For further information about some of the proposed dates, see the commentaries to the individual inscriptions.
[116] The eponymy of Šamaš-daʾʾinanni is dated respectively by M. Falkner (AfO 17 [1954–56] pp. 100–120), S. Parpola (PNA 1/1 pp. XVIII–XIX), and J.E. Reade (Orientalia NS 67 [1998] pp. 255–265) to the years 636, 645, and 644. The years 645 and 636 are too early and too late, but 644 is plausible. Based on Ashurbanipal's annalistic texts, there is little doubt that Šamaš-daʾʾinanni held the office of eponym shortly after Nabû-šar-aḫḫēšu. The earliest and latest possible dates are 644 and 640 respectively. The authors tentatively date the eponymy of Šamaš-daʾʾinanni between 644 and 642, with preference given to 643 (or 642). For details, see Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 pp. 32–33.
[117] See Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 pp. 30–33 for information on the eponym dates for the reigns of Ashurbanipal and his successors, as well as relevant bibliography on the arrangement of the post-canonical eponym officials.
[118] 646 is the authors' proposed date for the eponymy of Nabû-nādin-aḫi, governor of Kār-Shalmaneser. The terminus post quem for these texts is the fourth Elamite campaign (= Elam 5) in 647. Note that S. Parpola and J.E. Reade have both suggested that Nabû-nādin-aḫi held this post one year earlier, in 647, while M. Falkner has postulated that he was eponym much later in Ashurbanipal's reign, in 634. See Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 p. 32, for further information.
[119] 645 is the authors' proposed date for the eponymy of Nabû-šar-aḫḫēšu, governor of Samaria. The terminus post quem for these texts is the fifth Elamite campaign (= Elam 6) in 646. Note that M. Falkner, S. Parpola, and J.E. Reade have all dated the eponymy of Nabû-šar-aḫḫēšu, governor of Samaria, to the year 646. See Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 p. 32 for more details.
[120] 644–642 is the proposed range of dates for the eponymy of Šamaš-daʾʾinanni, governor of Babylon. See n. 116 above and Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 pp. 32–33 for further details.
Jamie Novotny
Jamie Novotny, 'Dating and Chronology', RINAP 5: The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Sîn-šarra-iškun, The RINAP/RINAP 5 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2022 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap5/rinap52introduction/datingandchronology/]