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Several fragmentarily-preserved clay prisms discovered at Aššur are inscribed with a text stating that Ashurbanipal's son and successor Sîn-šarra-iškun constructed a temple for the god Nabû in that city. The inscription records that the building had been so neglected in the past that Nabû and his consort Tašmētu were forced to live in the (neighboring) temple of the Assyrian Ištar, where they scraped by on meager portions of leftover offerings. In typical Assyrian style, Sîn-šarra-iškun claims that he built the temple from top to bottom. Afterwards, the king reports that he had Nabû and Tašmētu ushered into their newly-constructed home and fêted with an overabundance of food offerings. The text, as far as it is preserved, is a (near or exact) duplicate of Ssi 10. Three exemplars bear dates, but those lines are not sufficiently preserved to identify in which eponym year(s) the prisms were inscribed. Scholars generally refer to this inscription as "Cylinder A."
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The master text is a conflation of the exemplars. In the places where the exemplars overlap but the lineation is different in those exemplars, the lineation of the master text is taken from the following: ex. 3 for i 10´; exs. 4 and 5 for iii 3´–6´; and ex. 5 for iv 9´–27´ and v 9–17. Ex. 1 preserves the lower portion of col. i and ex. 2 preserves the upper portion of col. ii. However, neither exemplar preserves a top or bottom edge for its respective prism, and so the division between cols. i and ii in the master text is somewhat arbitrary since there is only one line missing after the contents of ex. 1 and before the contents of ex. 2. Regarding cols. iii and iv, the master text for the end of those columns is taken from ex. 3, which does not preserve a bottom edge for its col. iii, while iv 28´ appears to be the final line of its col. iv. In contrast, the last line of col. iii in ex. 5 is iii 22´ and the final line of its subsequent column is iv 27´. A complete score is presented on Oracc. The orthographic variants that appear in this inscription are listed at the back of the book.
A small portion of a clay prism, now comprising two fragments, is inscribed with a text reporting on Sîn-šarra-iškun's construction of the temple of Nabû at Aššur. Its preserved contents are similar to Ssi 7 and 10.
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Two small fragments of a clay prism discovered at Aššur bear an Akkadian text of Sîn-šarra-iškun. Although little of the inscription is extant, it is presumed that it recorded this king's construction of the Nabû temple at Aššur; for example, compare Ssi 7–8 and 10–12. This inscription is likely a shorter version of Ssi. 7 and 10 (Frahm, KAL 3 pp. 90–91); it is also earlier than those two inscriptions. The object was inscribed during the eponymy of Aššur-mātu-taqqin, governor of the city (U)pummu.
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A (near or exact) duplicate of Ssi 7 is inscribed on three clay cylinders discovered at Aššur. This inscription fills in several gaps in the prism version of the text, including some details about the alleged building history of Nabû's temple. According to this text, which is also commonly referred to as "Cylinder A" in scholarly publications, Sîn-šarra-iškun had Nabû's temple rebuilt from top to bottom on the foundations of an earlier building, one that had been worked on by the Middle Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I and Aššur-rēša-iši I and the Neo-Assyrian ruler Adad-nārārī III. This statement, however, is contradicted in Ssi 12, which states that the Nabû temple was constructed anew on a vacant plot of land. Since the archaeological record supports what is stated in Ssi 12, one should disregard the building history included in "Cylinder A." It appears that when the building report of this text was drafted, its composer(s) might have believed that there had been an earlier Nabû temple built at Aššur (on that exact spot) and (partly) conflated its building history with that of the Ištar temple; early twentieth-century German excavations have revealed that the foundations of the western part of the Nabû temple were laid above the remains of several earlier temples. Later, when the scribes realized their mistake, references to the temple's history were no longer included in reports of this accomplishment of Sîn-šarra-iškun; compare Ssi 11–12. For further details, see Novotny, Kaskal 11 (2014) pp. 162–165. Ex. 1 was inscribed in the eponymy of Bēl-aḫu-uṣur, the palace overseer.
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The master text is based on ex. 1 with help from ex. 2 where the former is damaged; the lineation of the inscription differs in several places among the exemplars. Ex. 1 has a horizontal ruling between every two lines of text and then two horizontal rulings before the date; this pattern of horizontal rulings may have also been followed in ex. 3, which contains one horizontal ruling among the three lines of text that it preserves. In contrast, ex. 2 contains no horizontal rulings except for one before the first line and after the final line of text that precedes the date. A full score of the inscription is presented on Oracc. All of the minor (orthographic) variants are listed in the critical apparatus, at the back of the book.
A short inscription stating that this son and successor of Ashurbanipal built a temple for the god Nabû at Aššur is inscribed on numerous clay cones. The text claims that Sîn-šarra-iškun had the foundations laid during a favorable month, on an auspicious day, and that the workers performed their work happily. Several of the exemplars were inscribed during the month Tašrītu (VII), in the eponymy of Saʾīlu, the chief cook.
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On the majority of exemplars (exs. 1–11), the inscription is written in five (although ex. 8 seems to have a few more) progressively shorter lines that form concentric circles around the opening on the top of the cone. The way in which the contents of the inscription are divided into those five lines varies among the exemplars (compare the division of lines in exs. 1, 5, and 6). The lineation (and text) of the master text follows ex. 5. The remaining exemplars have the inscription written in blocks of lines that appear in various locations on the head of the cones. Ex. 13 has the first half of the inscription written as a square block of text above a round opening that is in the center of the cone's head, while ex. 12 has the second half of the inscription written as a square block of text below the opening in the head of its cone. The other half of the inscription on these exemplars would have appeared on the opposite side of the openings in the cones, but those portions of the exemplars are not preserved. Exs. 14 and 15 seem to have the inscription written as a single block of text that covers the entire top of the cone, although not enough of these two exemplars is preserved to be certain.
The lineation of the conflated transcription provided in the initial publication of these objects by V. Donbaz and A.K. Grayson (RICCA p. 56) is unfortunately the result of a misunderstanding of Donbaz' copy of A 3549 (ex. 5 here). Like ex. 1, A 3549 is a fairly complete exemplar of the inscription, and so it was published as their "source a" and used as the basis for their transcription. In line with the majority of exemplars, the inscription on this object is written in five lines that form concentric circles around the opening on the top of the cone (see the photo in Nunn, Knaufplatten pl. 32 no. 1519). Given the fact that the intact lines of that exemplar are relatively long, Donbaz copied them (see RICCA pl. 32 no. 236) as consecutive lines of text in which long lines were continued on subsequent lines in the copy rather than how they appeared on the object itself, as was done for his copies of the other exemplars of this inscription. In this way, lines 1, 2, and 3 of A 3549 are each presented as three consecutive lines in the copy, line 4 is presented as two consecutive lines, and then line 5 appears as its own line. Since Donbaz did not provide line numbers in his copy, it gives the impression that the inscription on A 3549 was written as twelve consecutive lines, and this was taken as the lineation for their conflated transcription though no exemplar bearing this text preserves such a lineation. A score of the text is presented on Oracc and the minor (orthographic) variants are listed at the back of the book.
This stone block is inscribed with a sixteen-line Akkadian text recording the construction of Nabû's temple at Aššur. Unlike other texts of Sîn-šarra-iškun recording this accomplishment, this inscription indicates that the new structure was constructed on an empty plot of land, and not rebuilt on the foundations of an earlier temple, as Ssi 7 and 10 record. This recently-published inscription confirms what has been long known from the archaeological record: Sîn-šarra-iškun did not simply rebuild an existing temple of the god Nabû at Aššur, but rather constructed an entirely new place of worship for him.
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Numerous inscribed bricks record that Sîn-šarra-iškun had one of the enclosed courtyards of the Nabû temple at Aššur paved with baked bricks; the work was carried out according to the craft of the deity Nunurra.
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Although several of the bricks were not available for study (exs. 12–16, 18, 20, and 22), the text on the remaining exemplars is inscribed by hand and not stamped. The lineation of the inscription varies drastically among the exemplars; it is written over eight lines (ex. 6), twelve lines (ex. 8), thirteen lines (exs. 2–3, 7, 13, 17, 19, and 24), fourteen lines (exs. 5, 9, and 23), fifteen lines (exs. 4 and 21), and sixteen lines (ex. 11). Even when exemplars share the same number of lines, the division of those lines is inconsistent. The majority of the bricks contain no additional markings other than the inscription; however, exs. 2, 4, 13, 17, 19, and 21 have a vertical ruling to the left of the text that serves as a left margin and the inscription on ex. 23 is surrounded by a square box. The most unique brick is ex. 6. Its text is written in a rectangular box, with horizontal rulings between each line of text. Given that the text was written over only eight lines, it appears that the scribe had to draw an additional right vertical ruling for the right margin after several of the lines went past the initial vertical ruling set for the margin (see the copy in Jakob-Rost and Marzahn, VAS 23 pl. XLIV no. 148). The master text is taken from ex. 17.
No score for this brick inscription is presented on Oracc, following RINAP editorial practices. The minor (orthographic) variants, however, are listed at the back of the book.
A fragment of a brick discovered at Aššur preserves part of the beginning of an Akkadian inscription of Sîn-šarra-iškun. Although it is not sufficiently preserved to be able to determine which project of this Assyrian king it records, it might have stated that Sîn-šarra-iškun constructed the Nabû temple in that city since all of the extant texts of his from Aššur record that accomplishment.
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A clay tablet discovered in the "N 2" Archive at Aššur (Pedersén, Archives 2 pp. 29–34) bears archival copies or drafts of two dedicatory inscriptions, both written in the name of Ashurbanipal's son Sîn-šarra-iškun. The text on the obverse (this inscription) records the fashioning of a kallu-bowl (and) a šulpu-bowl for the god Nabû in his temple at Aššur; for the inscription on the reverse, see the following text. The scribal note (subscript) indicates that the inscription was engraved on the reddish gold vessels.
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The text written on the reverse of the same tablet that is inscribed with Ssi 15 records that Sîn-šarra-iškun had a silver spoon made for Nabû's consort Tašmētu. Based on the subscript, it is assumed that the ceremonial spoon bore a copy of this inscription.
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Another clay tablet discovered in the "N 2" Archive at Aššur (Pedersén, Archives 2 pp. 29–34) is also inscribed with two short texts of Sîn-šarra-iškun. The first inscription (this text) states that this Assyrian king dedicated an ešmarû-plated banquet table to the goddess Antu at Aššur (for the second inscription, see the following text); the table was constructed from musukkannu-wood, a hard wood often used in the manufacture of divine and royal furniture. This draft or archival copy of the inscription was presumably written on the table's metal plating.
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The same tablet that is inscribed with Ssi 17 bears a draft or archival copy of a second dedicatory inscription. This text immediately follows the previous one on the tablet's obverse and continues onto the reverse, with lines 3–4 written on the bottom edge. It records that Sîn-šarra-iškun had a musukkannu-wood and ešmarû-metal table made and dedicated to the goddess Šala (the wife of the storm-god Adad), presumably for her cult at Aššur. The inscription was probably incised on the table's metal plating.
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Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers
Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers, 'Inscriptions from Aššur (text nos. 7-18)', 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/sinsharraishkun/ashurtexts718/]