(Beginning destroyed)

[...... who l]oves his princeliness,

[...... wh]ose m[ind], Nanna, the [...]..., has t[urned] to (re)settling the wasteland.

The true king [......] whose lordship the goddess Ninmena[nna ha]s magnified, that he may not oppress the weak, and may cause the feeble to prosper.

ruling

ruling

The town of Maganuba, [a ...... c]ity, which [lies] like a fortress in the district of Nineveh, [......] its woods, in its irrigated fields [...... the] plough was left idle, in its meadow lan[d ......] the lives of the people of Nine[veh], which former princes [who had] exercised [the kingship of Assyria before me] and gov[erned the subjects of Enlil ......] no one among them [...... had known] how to have the land settled [......].

With a plan [conceived] in my wide understanding [......] I d[ecreed ......] the building of a city and a temple of Ea. That city I built anew [......] and I placed [......] in it, and [I called its name] Dur-Šarruk[en]. The fields surrounding it, in accordance with tablets [of purchase] I [......]ed to its owners, and [their] herds [I ......], and so that no injustice should b[e caused I ......].

[The town] of the bakers ... Adad-ner[ari (III)], son of Šamš[i-Adad (V), a king] who preceded me, had exempted (from taxes) and given to Qanuni, [Ahu-l]amur and Mannu-ki-abi. He imposed on [them] ten homers of crushed grain for offerings to Aššur [and] Babu, and sealed them a tablet.

That [tow]n had reverted to fields, and the people who had lived in it had been ev[ic]ted from it by the spade. I paid great respect to the command of Aššur, my lord, who named me, who [makes] my kingship flourish and magnifies my arms, and I cleared ninety-five hectares of land for Aššur in the irrigated fields of the town of the clergymen in the district of Nineveh, field for field,

and gave them to Šulmu-šarri, Paršiddu and Ubur-Issar, the sons of Ahu-lamur, to Riṣiṣu, the son of Qanuni, and to Mannu-ki-abi, and their sons. The previous ten homers of crushed grain, which Adad-nerari (III) had decreed [as offeri]ngs for Aššur, [I reaffirmed ......; in ...]..., hardship and f[amine], their [...] they shall bear and they shall not default [all th]e year round.

The corn taxes of that land shall not be collected, the straw taxes shall not be gathered; it is exempt for all time in order to provide crushed grain for Aššur.

So that the offerings of Aššur should not cease and that the decree of an earlier king not be altered, I sealed the tablet with my royal seal and gave it to them.

[I]n the fear of god, which Aššur, my lord, had decreed for me, and to give the temple its full due, to strengthen the offerings, to guide the world, and to exalt myself, I received ninety-five hectares of l[and of the town of the] bakers, in return for the land of the town of the clergymen, as an exchange [...] from [their h]ands.

[That] land I [allotted] and assigned to the province of Dur-Šarruken, and himself [......] possessions, [ten] homers of crushed grain [...] I exempted (from taxes) and [......].

A future prince whom Aššur [......] and his shi[ning] countenance and joyful [he]art [......] like me, Sargon, mig[hty] prince, [......, nominates to] rule the land and people: let him add to the land which supplies the offerings of Aššur and [......]; from the hands of these men and [their sons let him not take away].

Let him greatly respect the command of Aššur, Šamaš, Adad, Ber, [...... and let him not cast aside] my seal impression. [May] Aššur, the lord, father of the great gods, creator [of himself], to the limits of heaven and earth swiftly [......], may he desire his priesthood, [......], may he render [to him in t]heir entirety the lordship of the world and the judgment [of its people].

Nineveh, month Sivan (III), 9th day, eponym year of Aššur-ba[ni, governor of Ca]lah, 9th year of Sargon, king of Assyria (713 B.C.).

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