| 79-7-8 etc. | tablets in the collections of the British Museum |
| AAA | Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology |
| ABL | R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters (London and Chicago 1892-1914) |
| AfO | Archiv für Orientforschung |
| AHw. | W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (Wiesbaden 1965-1985) |
| ANE | Department of the Ancient Near East of the British Museum |
| AOAT | Alter Orient und Altes Testament |
| AOS | American Oriental Series |
| Bezold Cat. | C. Bezold, Catalogue of the Cuneiform in the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum |
| BM | tablets in the collections of the British Museum |
| Bu | tablets in the collections of the British Museum |
| CAD | Chicago Assyrian Dictionary |
| CDA | J. Black, A. George and N. Postgate, A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (Wiesbaden 2000) |
| CNA | Corpus of Neo-Assyrian Texts (Helsinki) |
| CRRAI | Rencontre assyriologique internationale, comptes rendus |
| CT | Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum |
| Dietrich Aramäer | M. Dietrich, Die Aramäer Südbabyloniens der Sargonidenzeit (700-648) (AOAT 7, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1970) |
| DT | tablets in the collections of the British Museum |
| Fs Grayson | G. Frame (ed.), From the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea: Studies on the History of Assyria and Babylonia in Honour of A. Kirk Grayson (PIHANS 101, Leiden 2004) |
| Fs Reiner | F. Rochberg-Halton (ed.), Language, Literature, and History: Philological and Historical Studies Presented to Erica Reiner (AOS 67, New Haven 1987) |
| Frame Babylonia | G. Frame, Babylonia 689-627 B.C. A Political History (Istanbul 1992) |
| Hh | lexical series HAR.ra = hubullu (MSL 5-11) |
| Ito 2015 | S. Ito, Royal Image and Political Thinking in the Letters of Assurbanipal (PhD Diss., Helsinki 2015) |
| JCS | Journal of Cuneiform Studies |
| JNES | Journal of Near Eastern Studies |
| K | tablets in the collections of the British Museum |
| KAV | O. Schroeder, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts (Leipzig 1920) |
| Ki | tablets in the collections of the British Museum |
| LAS | S. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal I, II (Neukirchen-Vlyun 1970, 1980) |
| Oppenheim Letters | A. L. Oppenheim, Letters from Mesopotamia (Chicago 1967) |
| Payne Smith | J. Payne Smith, A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (Oxford 1903) |
| PBS | Publications of the Babylonian Section, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania |
| Piepkorn Asb | A. C. Piepkorn, Historical Prism Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (Assyriological Studies 5, Chicago 1933) |
| Pfeiffer State Letters | R. Pfeiffer, State Letters of Assyria (AOS 6, New Haven 1935) |
| PNA | The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (Helsinki 1998-) |
| RCAE | L. Waterman, Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, I-IV (Ann Arbor 1930-1936) |
| Rm | tablets in the collections of the British Museum |
| SAA | State Archives of Assyria |
| SAAB | State Archives of Assyria Bulletin |
| SAAS | State Archives of Assyria Studies |
| Sm | tablets in the collections of the British Museum |
| StOr | Studia Orientalia |
| WO | Die Welt des Orients |
| ZA | Zeitschrift für Assyriologie |
W and Y in the critical apparatus (followed by page number) refer to collations in RCAE and S. Ylvisaker, Zur babylonischen und assyrischen Grammatik (Leipziger Semitische Studien 5/6, Leipzig 1912) respectively. KD, SP and RW indicate collations by K. Deller, S. Parpola and R.M. Whiting.
| Asb | Assurbanipal |
| DN | divine name |
| GN | geographical name |
| MA | Middle Assyrian |
| NA | Neo-Assyrian |
| NB | Neo-Babylonian |
| SB | Standard Babylonian |
| coll. | collated, collation |
| dupl. | duplicate |
| e. | edge |
| lw. | loanword |
| mng. | meaning |
| obv. | obverse |
| psx. | possessive suffix |
| r., rev. | reverse |
| s. | (left) side |
| sup. ras. | (written) over erasure |
| unpub. | unpublished |
| ! | collation |
| !! | emendation |
| ? | uncertain reading |
| : | cuneiform division marks |
| * | graphic variants (see LAS I p. XX) |
| 0 | uninscribed space or nonexistent sign |
| x | broken or undeciphered sign |
| ( ) | supplied word or sign |
| (( )) | sign erroneously added by scribe |
| [[ ]] | erasure |
| + | joined to |
| (+) | indirect join |
| → | see also |
| // | paralleled by or duplicate of |
Sanae Ito
Sanae Ito, 'Abbreviations', The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Babylonia, and Vassal States, SAA 21. Original publication:Winona Laka, IN, Eisenbrauns, 2018; online contents: SAAo/SAA21 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2025 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa21/Abbreviations/]