Inscriptions, texts nos. 20-39

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The Standard Inscription (no. 23)

Rassam Obelisk (no. 24)

Lion statues (no. 28)

Banquet Stele (no. 30)

Statue of Ashurnasirpal II (no. 39)

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20

Elaboration from Hawkins, AnSt 19 pp. 111-20

A number of stone stele fragments have been found in the village of Babil, in southeastern Turkey near the border with Syria, and are now stored in the Adana museum, where J. D. Hawkins has examined and collated the inscription. According to K. Kessler, Lehmann-Haupt mentioned a fragment which seems to have disappeared.
An invocation to the gods similar to the one on text no. 17 (Nimrud Monolith) opens the inscription (lines 1-14a) and is followed by name, titles and genealogy of Ashurnasirpal. This part is parallel to text no. 1 i 18b-34, from which many restorations have been made. The narration is then missing, although Grayson (RIMA 2, p. 262) suggests that it must have recorded a campaign along the Upper Tigris, in the area of modern Babil.

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Bibliography

21

KAH 2 no. 88 (VAT 09782)

Two clay tablets from Ashur are inscribed with an annalistic text. The discovery of exemplar 2 has provided the necessary evidence to allow Grayson ascribing the inscription to Ashurnasirpal (RIMA 2, p. 265).

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Bibliography

22

KAH 2 no. 87 (VAT 10944)

A fragment of clay tablet from Ashur bears an annalistic text which could be ascribed to one king between Aššur-dān II and Ashurnasirpal II, the latter considered more probable by Grayson (RIMA 2, p. 267).

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Bibliography

23 - "Standard Inscription"

North West Palace, Slab B-23, BM 124531 (ex. 27) © The Trustees of the British Museum

The so-called "Standard Inscription" of Ashurnasirpal is an inscription engraved on more than four hundred exemplars, including all the big sculpted reliefs in limestone that lined the walls of the North West Palace at Nimrud. Each orthostat was inscribed with the same text, which occupied the central part of all of them, so that the impression would be of a single continuous inscription running through all the walls of the palace. Some of the slabs are "tripartite," with a central band for the inscription and upper and lower registers of sculpted reliefs. However, in most cases the inscription is carved over the sculpted central portion of the reliefs (see image above). Also because of its importance in the general arrangement of the palatial architecture, this is one of the most famous texts of the Neo-Assyrian period, which has been studied from multiple different levels of analysis, e.g., the historical context of its creation, the process of production, in the framework of the relationships between text and images.
On the Oracc platform, there are two projects where one can find useful information about the Standard Inscription:

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Bibliography

24 - "Rassam Obelisk"

BM 090925 + BM 118800 + BM 132013 (from Reade (and Walker), Iraq 42 Pl. I and p. 6) © The Trustees of the British Museum

Several pieces of black stone with remains of reliefs and inscriptions found by H. Rassam at Nimrud are part of a obelisk belonging to Ashurnasirpal II. In the late Seventies of the twentieth century, the members of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum have provided a reconstruction of the original position of the fragments and J. Reade has published a complete study on the monument in 1980 (see bibliography below).
The fragments were found in the so-called "Central Building," where the obelisk had been deliberately broken into pieces in antiquity (perhaps Hellenistic times). The reconstruction of the obelisk shows that it had originally scenes in reliefs depicting numerous subjects of tribute of the Assyrian ruler, accompanied by a series of captions indicating the identity of each tribute bearer. At the top of the monument was still preserved a small portion of the original inscription, which seems to have been a version of the "Standard Inscription." Fragments of a similar obelisk, possibly also to be ascribed to Ashurnasirpal II, had been found at Ashur (text no. 1004).

The preserved captions of the obelisk are edited here as nos. 71-78

Main inscription; Reade (and Walker), Iraq 42, Pl. II

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Bibliography

25

A squeeze of a stone object from Nimrud was referred to by Le Gac in his edition of Ashurnasirpal II's inscriptions as a duplicate of various lines from text no. 23: lines 1-5 (but ending with UGU DÙ-ši-na KUR.KUR.MEŠ "over all countries"), and final lines 14-22 (starting with URU kal-ḫu maḫ-ra-a "the ancient city of Kalḫu"). The squeeze is, hoever, now destroyed (see RIMA 2, pp. 191-192), and no edition can be provided.

Bibliography

26

BM 115631 (ex. 16) © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Several foundation stone tablets were found in different places (in secondary contexts) at Nimrud. The tablets bear all a text that offers a more detailed description of the construction of the so-called "North West Palace" (lines 64b-72). The text is introduced (lines 1-58a, cf. the parallel passage in text no. 1 iii 113b-136) by the name, titles and genealogy of the king with a description of his conquests in geographical, rather than temporal, order (cf. text no. 54). The mention of "the city Carchemish of the land of Ḫatti" (line 22) instead of "Mount Lebanon and the Great Sea" as the western limit of Ashurnasirpal's reign makes this inscription earlier than most of the annalistic texts of this ruler. Some, but not all, of the exemplars ends with concluding blessings and curses.

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Bibliography

27

A squeeze of a stone object from Nimrud was referred to by Le Gac in his edition of Ashurnasirpal II's inscriptions as a duplicate of text no. 23: 1-13 (ending with mu-la-iṭ ek-ṣu-te "encircler of the obstinate"), and of text no. 1 iii 127-128 (ending with DU.DU-ku-ma> "has always acted"). This arrangement of the text makes it a parallel of text no. 26. The squeeze is, hoever, now destroyed (see RIMA 2, pp. 191-192), and no edition can be provided.

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Bibliography

28

BM 118895 © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Two stone monumental lions standing at the entrance of the temple of the goddess Šarrat-nipḫi in Nimrud present an inscription on their obverse (edited here) and one on their reverse (see text no. 32). The text, which is a duplicate of parts of texts no. 1 and/or 23 begins with a dedication to the goddess followed by royal name and titles in a very similar way to text no. 1; this first part occupies the entire first column of the inscription. Columns ii 1- iv 13 are inscribed with a description in geographical order of the conquests of Ashurnasirpal II, which is parallel to text no. 1 iii 114-125. It follows (v 1-6) a description of the construction works at Nimrud (= text no. 1 iii 132-134) and of various temples of the same city (cf. text no. 29: 13'-23' and no. 30: 53-77). The inscription is concluded by a section of blessings.

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Bibliography

29

Le Gac pp. 195–196

A squeeze of an inscription originally from Nimrud, but from an unknown object, was published by Le Gac. The text present passages parallel to text no. 28. Only part of the last lines of the last line of the introduction is preserved (an invocation to a god). It follows a section of name and titles of the king and a description of Ashurnasirpal's conquests (lines 2'-8') and a description of the construction works at Nimrud (lines 9'-17'). The text ends with blessing and curses.

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Bibliography

30 - Banquet Stele

IMM - (ND 01104) © The Trustees of the British Museum.

A large stone slab (104.5 x 128 cm) was found in the North West Palace at Nimrud during one of the expeditions of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq led by M. Mallowan on the site. The originality of this text lays in the fact that it records the menu for the lavish banquet held for the dedication of the same palace were the stele was discovered (lines 102-154). This part comes after a historical introduction that corresponds to an abbreviated version of Ashurnasirpal II's "Standard Inscription," and a detailed description of the construction works at Nimrud, including a detailed list of the names of different species of trees imported and planted by the Assyrian ruler in his new capital.

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Bibliography

31

BM 124571 © The Trustees of the British Museum.

The present inscription is engraved on the backs of three large stone slabs which were originally mounted adjacent to one another at the entrance of the temple of Ninurta in Nimrud. To see the texts on the obverse, go to texts nos. 5-7. A further inscribed slab was next to text no. 3. The inscription begins with name and epithets of the king, a description of the construction works at Nimrud (parallel to text no. 1 ii 125-135). There is then a specific reference to the dais of the god Ninurta. The text ends with a prayer to Ninurta.

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Bibliography

32

BM 118895 © The Trustees of the British Museum.

This text was inscribed on the back part of the statue of a lion standing at the entrance of the temple of the goddess Šarrat-nipḫi in Nimrud (text no. 28). The inscription is carelessly written with a number of scribal errors. The text starts with king's name, titles and genealogy (lines 1-7a). It follows a description (parallel to the similar passage of the Standard Inscription, text no. 23: 8b-11a) of Ashruansirpal's conquests in geographical order. It then describes the construction works on the temples of Šarrat-nipḫi, Ninurta, Gula and Sîn at Nimrud, with detailed description of the creation of a statue of Ištar and its dais destined to the temple of Šarrat-nipḫi.

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Bibliography

33

K 04526 + 1882-05-22, 0499 © The Trustees of the British Museum.

A clay tablet fragment stored at the British Museum bears a royal inscription. The tablet can be either a pattern for or a copy from a monumental inscription. The text, after name, titles and genealogy of the king, and summary of his conquests, concerns the construction works at Nimrud, but with some important differences with the other monumental inscriptions from Nimrud, and with some resemblance to texts coming from Nineveh. The Kuyunjik number on the tablet does not proof without doubt its provenance from Nineveh, but a provenance from central Assyria is anyway most probable. The text is fragmentary in the end, although it clearly has a blessings and curses section.

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Bibliography

34

Several stone slabs from the North West Palace at Nimrud bear this text, which is, for its most part, a duplicate of text no. 1 ii 125-132a, but with the sentence "I founded therein my royal palace," instead of the description of the works on the Ninurta temple.

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Bibliography

35

WAGM 373 + WAGM 374 © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Several stone slabs originally coming from the North West Palace at Nimrud bear an inscription that has a lot of similarities with texts nos. 23 and 34, with a description of the building of Nimrud and its palace. The introduction, instead, is parallel to yet another text, no. 32: 1-7a.

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Bibliography

36

Rm 1084 and Rm 1085

Two fragments of stone slabs from Nimrud bear this inscription, which although no name is preserved can be fairly certainly ascribed to Ashurnasirpal II. Only the concluding formulae are preserved, but it is probable that the building mentioned was the temple of Ninurta. It is possible that text no. 37 was part of the same text.

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Bibliography

37

Rm 1096

A small part of a text on a stone slab fragment from Nimrud comes almost certainly from Ashuransripal II's inscriptions. In fact, it is possible that it was part of text no. 36. However, not enough is preserved to warrant an edition.

Bibliography

38

One complete inscription and several portions of texts from fragmentary stone tablets bear this text, whose introduction (lines 1-8a) is parallel to a passage from text no. 1 (ii 125-131). The central body of the text is dedicated to the reconstruction works on the temple of "the divine Kidmuru" for "the goddess Ištar, mistress of the divine Kidmuru." The text ends with a blessings and curses section. For works on the same structure see text no. 30: 53-77. Other objects from this temple also bear inscriptions, edited here as nos. 39 (stone statue) 98 (altar), 99 (mace head), 109 (clay cones), and 132 (brick).

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Bibliography

39

BM 118871 © The Trustees of the British Museum.

A stone statue of king Ashurnasirpal II was found by Layard in the Šarrat-nipḫi temple in Nimrud bears this short inscription, which adds a brief delineation of the limits of Assyria kingdom to the name, titles and genealogy of the king.

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Bibliography

Nathan Morello

Nathan Morello, 'Inscriptions, texts nos. 20-39', The Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo) Project, The RIAo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/theassyrianempire883745bc/ashurnasirpalii/texts2039/]