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An inscription of a late Neo-Assyrian king is found on a fragment (K 13749) from the right side of one face of a clay tablet, but the king to whom it belongs is uncertain. The fragment preserves the ends of eleven lines that only contain five signs at most. However, the limited language that is extant might suggest that this part of the inscription dealt with renovations to some type of structure, with line 9´ indicating that the Assyrian king had an object constructed for it, although the reference to the type of object made is now broken away.
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81-7-27,280 is small fragment from the center of a clay tablet containing an inscription of an Assyrian king, most likely Ashurbanipal. Little of the text's contents remain, but lines 1´–6´a describe work on an unnamed building, while line 6´b mentions Eḫulḫul ("House which Gives Joy"), the temple of the god Sîn at Ḫarrān. Work on the Eḫulḫul temple is mentioned once in an inscription of Sargon II (Frame, RINAP 2 p. 374 Sargon II 84 line 6´), but often in inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (see, for example, Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 p. 217 Asb. 10 [Prism T] ii 29–43 and iii 5–12). Assuming that the text belongs to the reign of Ashurbanipal, J. Novotny (Eḫulḫul p. 107) suggested that lines 1´–6´a pertain to that king's rebuilding of the House of Succession at Nineveh (compare Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 p. 207 Asb. 9 [Prism F] vi 55–56a and p. 263 Asb. 11 [Prism A] x 101–102) and lines 6´b–7´ deal with his work on the Eḫulḫul temple at Ḫarrān (the subject of the building report of Jeffers and Novotny, RINAP 5/2 pp. 285–286 Asb. 207 [LET] rev. 43–67). If this is correct, the inscription is possibly part of a prologue composed after the completion of these structures, which would mean that it was composed late in Ashurbanipal's reign.
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This fragment, K 16899 + Sm 1048, comes from the center of one face of a clay tablet and bears an inscription of a late Neo-Assyrian king, possibly Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal. The extant text concerns the presentation of different types of stones, aromatics, and sacrifices to the gods. Although additional deities were likely mentioned in the lacunae, references to the deities Šerūa (line 6´), Nabû (line 6´), and Aššur (line 9´) are preserved. In addition, line 9´ mentions Esagil ("House Whose Top Is High"), the temple of Marduk at Babylon. The join of K 16899 and Sm 1048 was made by Z. Földi, and the authors would like to thank him for bringing this to their attention.
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A dedicatory inscription of a late Neo-Assyrian king, probably Ashurbanipal, to the goddess Zarpanītu is found on Rm 337 + Rm 451. The fragment comes from the upper portion of a clay tablet and preserves parts of two faces. The obverse contains an opening dedication to the goddess that gives her epithets, while the reverse preserves part of the text's curse formula. The name of the object that had been fashioned for Zarpanītu is no longer preserved, and the scribe did not include a subscript on the tablet that would have contained such information. However, an epithet in obv. 8 describes Zarpanītu as "the goddess of pleasure" (i-lat tak-né-e), and it is known from inscriptions of Ashurbanipal that he had a "pleasure bed" (mayyāl taknê) made and placed in her bed chamber, Kaḫilisu, for her and her husband, Marduk, to use (see, for example, Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 p. 216 Asb. 10 [Prism T] i 46–54). Thus, it is possible that the present inscription related to the fashioning of this object (see also Asb. 1025–1026). Moreover, the divine trio Anu, Enlil, and Ea (obv. 10) are also mentioned in some of Ashurbanipal's Ḫarrān inscriptions (see Jeffers and Novotny, RINAP 5/2 p. 288 Asb. 208 obv. 11 and p. 312 Asb. 216 obv. 13 [partially restored]), and the phrase "the holy shrine" (ki-iṣ-ṣi el-li) in obv. 9 is used for the Emeslam temple in a dedicatory text of Ashurbanipal to Nergal (ibid. pp. 345–346 Asb. 227 obv. 6), which suggest that Rm 337 + Rm 451 belongs to the reign of Ashurbanipal as well.
K 4498 is a fragment from the reverse of a clay tablet that contains the concluding blessings of an inscription of an Assyrian king, probably Ashurbanipal. Although the subscript is not preserved after the horizontal ruling, rev. 3´ mentions a "pleasure bed" (mayyāl taknê). Ashurbanipal had such an object made and placed in Zarpanītu's bed chamber, Kaḫilisu (see the introduction to Asb. 1024; compare also Asb. 1026).
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A fragment (K 8361) from the bottom of a clay tablet, which preserves parts of two faces, contains an inscription of a late Neo-Assyrian king, probably Ashurbanipal. The text appears to be a dedicatory inscription from the king to the divine couple Marduk?and Zarpanītu, and it mentions a pleasure bed (mayyāl taknê) in rev. 8. Ashurbanipal had a pleasure bed made and placed in Kaḫilisu, Zarpanītu's bed chamber, for this divine pair to use (see the introduction to Asb. 1024; compare also Asb. 1025). One should also note that in the corpus of royal inscriptions, the god Dunga (rev. 4) is mentioned in Sennacherib's inscriptions dealing with the akītu-house at Aššur (see, for example, Grayson and Novotny, RINAP 3/2 pp. 254–255 Sennacherib 173).
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K 6681 comes from the left side of the obverse of a clay tablet and bears an inscription of a late Neo-Assyrian king, possibly Ashurbanipal or Sîn-šarra-iškun. The extant contents are the epithets of the Assyrian king that appear at the beginning of the inscription subsequent to the mention of the royal name. Unfortunately, the general language of the epithets does not allow for a certain ascription to which king this text belongs.
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This small fragment (K 6806) comes from the reverse of a clay tablet and bears an inscription of a Neo-Assyrian king, possibly Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal. The fragment only contains parts of three lines of text: rev. 1´–2´ comprise the conclusion of the text, while rev. 3´ after the horizontal ruling is the tablet's subscript. Although hardly anything of the original inscription remains, the subscript establishes that it was written on the wild bulls (AM.MEŠ) of Borsippa. Inscriptions of Esarhaddon (Leichty, RINAP 4 p. 117 Esarhaddon 54 [Smlt.] rev. 10b–16a) and Ashurbanipal (Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 p. 216 Asb. 10 [Prism T] ii 1–6) describe how these two kings had wild bulls fashioned for Ezida ("True House"), Nabû's temple at Borsippa.
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A fragment from the upper right corner of a clay tablet preserves part of a dedicatory inscription to the god Nergal. Although neither the name of the deity nor that of the Assyrian king who commissioned the inscription are preserved, the text almost certainly belongs to the reign of Ashurbanipal and most likely pertains to his construction work on Nergal's temple Emeslam ("House, Warrior of the Netherworld") at Cutha (see Jeffers and Novotny, RINAP 5/2 pp. 344–357 Asb. 227–230). This interpretation is based on the fact that obv. 1–11 appear to supply the ends of the lines to the opening dedication and mention of the royal name and titles of the so-called "Nergal-Laṣ Inscription" (ibid. pp. 345–346 Asb. 227 obv. 1–11); restorations to those lines are tentatively taken from the latter. However, after the introductory sections, the contents of the historical narrative of these two texts differ, and despite the fact that several phrases appear in both, the account originally contained on the present tablet was most likely its own inscription (compare obv. 12–24 with ibid. p. 346 Asb. 227 obv. 12–25 and p. 350 Asb. 228 obv. 1´–12´). The reverse of the tablet preserves the conclusion of the inscription, which is followed by a horizontal ruling and then blank clay to the top edge of the tablet, but since the fragment comes from the right side of the tablet, it is possible that the scribe had included a subscript that is now completely broken away. The connection between this text and Ashurbanipal's Nergal material was identified by T. Mitto, and the authors would like to thank him for bringing this to their attention.
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A poorly-preserved late Neo-Assyrian relief, with parts of its thirty-six-line Akkadian inscription still intact, is carved on a rock face at Shakaft-i Gulgul, located in the Zagros Mountains, on the southwestern slopes of the Kabir Kuh in Iran. Although the identity of the ruler who had this round-topped, stele-shaped monument cut into this mountainous ridge is uncertain, it is highly plausible that it was Ashurbanipal or his father Esarhaddon. The proposed attribution is based on the author of the text's claims that (1) the god Aššur had decreed that he would be king while he was still in his mother's womb, (2) the gods Nabû and Marduk had endowed him with intelligence and wisdom, and (3) the great gods had safely installed him on the throne of his father. These themes are well known from many inscriptions dating to the long reign of Ashurbanipal. The passage recording the principal reason(s) for which the monument had been carved is unfortunately almost completely destroyed; sadly, only a few signs are legible in 17b–21. As is usually typical for late Assyrian rock reliefs, the inscription concludes with a short building report recording the creation of the monument, advice to a future ruler to respect the carved image and accompanying inscription, and curses against anyone who alters or destroys the king's record of his deeds.
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This rock relief was discovered in the summer of 1972 by L. Vanden Berghe. The monument, which was already in very poor condition at the time of its discovery, depicts a left-facing Assyrian king, whose height extends from the top to the bottom of the shallowly-carved niche, and divine symbols, which are depicted on both sides of the king's head (seven circles [Sebetti], a crescent moon [Sîn], an eight-pointed star [Ištar], a winged disk [Šamaš], and a horned crown [Aššur]). In 2009, a similar monument was found by two mountaineers about eleven kilometers away, approximately two kilometers north of Heydarabad-e Mishkhas, in the Ilam province of Iran, near the source of the Sarab-e Mishkhas River; for details, see Alibaigi, Shanbehzadeh, and Alibaigi, IrAnt 47 (2012) pp. 29–33. Unlike the Shakaft-i Gulgul rock relief, which has an accompanying thirty-six-line Akkadian inscription, the Heydarabad-e Mishkhas monument was uninscribed.
The Shakaft-i Gulgul inscription uses a mixture of Assyrian and Babylonian sign forms, which is typical of late Neo-Assyrian inscriptions written on stone; on this phenomenon, see, for example, Grayson, AfO 20 (1963) pp. 88–89 and nn. 18–19. The Babylonian sign forms are: BU in lines 24, 31, and 35; LI in lines 28, 32, 34, 35, and 36; LU in line 13; LUGAL in lines 2 and 35; RU in lines 14, 23, 27, and 30; ŠEŠ in line 34; TA in lines 22, 23, 24, 28, and 34; TU in lines 3, 14, and 30; Ù in line 1: and UZ in lines 14 and 32. Each line of text is separated by a horizontal ruling and the inscription is written over the image of the king. As A.K. Grayson and L.D. Levine (IrAnt 11 [1975] p. 32) have already noted, the inscription appears to have been carefully prepared and, as far as the text is preserved, only one error is known; in line 31, the conjunction u ("and") is erroneously added before the adjective rabûtu ("great"; written GAL.MEŠ).
As for the identity of the king who had this monument commissioned, this is not certain because the relevant part of the inscription (especially lines 4–5) is completely destroyed. Grayson and Levine (IrAnt 11 p. 33) have suggested that Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and, particularly, Ashurbanipal might have been the late Neo-Assyrian ruler in whose name the Shakaft-i Gulgul inscription was written. J.E. Reade (IrAnt 12 [1977] p. 35) has argued that the rock relief could not have been earlier than 688 since the "gesture of holding an object to the nose, instead of extending one finger, is clearly Babylonian in origin ... [and] Sennacherib introduced many Babylonian customs into Assyria, and into the cult of the national god Ashur, especially after his final capture of Babylon in 689 : this gesture must be another of them, signifying perhaps the integration of Babylonian and Assyrian kingship, or Ashur's appropriation of many of Marduk's attributes." Although he dated the monument to the reign of Ashurbanipal since "[t]he only recorded campaigns, in the appropriate area, are those conducted on Ashurbanipal's behalf during the Elamite wars of 653–646," Reade believed that the rock relief had been executed by an Assyrian field commander, rather than by Ashurbanipal himself, on the basis of the "remarkably plain appearance" of the monument (ibid. pp. 42–43 and 36–37 respectively). R.J. van der Spek (IrAnt 12 [1977] pp. 45–47), however, has put forward the idea that it was more likely Ashurbanipal's father Esarhaddon, rather than Ashurbanipal himself, who had had the Shakaft-i Gulgul monument commissioned, although conceding that "to choose between them is ... very difficult, if not impossible"; he correctly noted that Sargon II and Sennacherib can be excluded as the possible royal author since these two kings generally did not refer to their fathers in their inscriptions (see the comments in the on-page note to line 5). Van der Spek's preference for Esarhaddon was based on (1) the divine sequence of Nabû then Marduk being more commonly attested in the known inscriptions of Esarhaddon (for example, Leichty, RINAP 4 p. 12 Esarhaddon 1 [Nineveh A] i 17) than in those of his son Ashurbanipal, where Nabû is mentioned before Marduk only once in extant inscriptions of that ruler (Jeffers and Novotny, RINAP 5/2 p. 324 Asb. 220 [L4] i 34´); (2) the mention of Esarhaddon undertaking a campaign in Ellipi in contemporary textual sources, especially referring to himself as the nāsiḫ Ellipi ("the one who depopulated the land Ellipi") in one of his inscriptions (Leichty, RINAP 4 p. 181 Esarhaddon 97 [Monument B / Tel Barsip Stele] line 20); (3) no positively-identified rock reliefs being known from Ashurbanipal's reign, whereas at least one such monument is attested for Esarhaddon (ibid. pp. 191–193 Esarhaddon 103 [Monument C / Nahr el-Kelb Inscription]); and (4) the god Enlil not being enumerated among the gods who favored the king in Ashurbanipal's inscriptions, while that deity is in Esarhaddon's texts (for example, ibid. p. 104 Esarhaddon 48 [Aššur-Babylon A] line 3). Although van der Spek's Points 1–3 are valid, Point 4, however, is not correct as Ashurbanipal does list Enlil among the gods who favored him in at least one inscription (Jeffers and Novotny, RINAP 5/2 p. 105 Asb. 113 obv. 3); the text written on Rm 2,243 + 81-2-4,251 is probably a draft or archival copy of a text that was engraved on a stele or a rock face. Apart from the fact that under Ashurbanipal there were many opportunities for the creation of the Shakaft-i Gulgul rock relief, especially between 653 and 645, as Grayson and Levine (Iranica Antiqua 11 p. 35), as well as Reade (IrAnt 12 pp. 42–43), have already concluded, there are some pieces of textual evidence in support of Ashurbanipal being the monument's royal creator. In lines 8b–10a — which are very similar to Jeffers and Novotny, RINAP 5/2 p. 323 Asb. 220 (L4) i 5´ — the god Aššur is the deity who determines Ashurbanipal's royal destiny while he is still in the womb. In the extant Esarhaddon corpus, this role is assigned to the goddess Ištar; Leichty, RINAP 4 p. 97 Esarhaddon 43 obv. 12b–14 uses different language to describe the king's pre-birth favor; specifically that text states išruka ana [širikti], "she gave me (a royal destiny) as [a gift]," rather than išīm šīmtī, "he determined (a royal destiny) as my lot." The closest parallel for lines 12–13a — d30 dUTU šá ku-un-ni ⸢BALA⸣-ia i-da-atSIG₅ e-tap-pa-lu a-ḫa-meš "the gods Sîn and Šamaš discussed with each other favorable omens concerning the stability of my r[eign]" — is Jeffers and Novotny, RINAP 5/2 p. 228 Asb. 186 ("Large Hunting Inscription") line 6: d30 dUTU ina an-ni-šú-nu ke-e-ni ITI-šam iš-⸢ta⸣-nap-pa-ru-u-ni i-da-at dum-qí "the gods Sîn (and) Šamaš regularly sent me auspicious signs every month through their firm 'yes.'" In lines 13b–15a, the inscription's royal author states that "the gods Nabû (and) Marduk granted me a broad mind (and) extensive knowledge as a gift" (dAG dAMAR.UTU uz-nu ra-[pa-áš]-tu ḫa-si-⸢su⸣ pal-ku-u iš-ru-ku ši-rik-ti). In at least two inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Marduk is credited with bestowing these gifts on his earthly representative; see Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 p. 281 Asb. 15 i 2´–3´ and Jeffers and Novotny, RINAP 5/2 p. 323 Asb.l 220 (L4) i 10´. Although fuznu rapaštu hasīsu palkû, "broad mind (and) extensive knowledge," is known from texts of Esarhaddon (Leichty, RINAP 4 p. 107 Esarhaddon 48 [Aššur-Babylon A] line 62b and p. 205 Esarhaddon 105 [Babylon C] iii 29–30), it is the god Ea, in his manifestation as Nudimmud, not Nabû and/or Marduk, who grants these gifts to Esarhaddon. At present, the content and language of lines 8b–17a have more in common with Ashurbanipal's inscriptions than they do with those of Esarhaddon. As van der Spek (IrAnt 12 p. 45) has already noted, given the complete absence of a royal name in the text itself, it is "very difficult, if not impossible," to know for certain if Ashurbanipal or Esarhaddon was the late Neo-Assyrian king who had had the Shakaft-i Gulgul monument commissioned.
Joshua Jeffers & Jamie Novotny
Joshua Jeffers & Jamie Novotny, 'Uncertain Texts, Part 3 (text nos. 1021-1030)', 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/uncertaintextspart3texts10211030/]