Text nos. 1–34 comprise the Kalḫu Annals, a long running account that is reconstructed from several largely duplicate versions (or "series"), each of which was originally inscribed from beginning to end on the walls of a different room or corridor of Tiglath-pileser III's palace. The inscription was divided into smaller units or columns of text that were written over one or two consecutive sculpted slabs. The units were separated by narrow, uninscribed vertical bands. In this volume, each unit of annals is edited as a separate "text" (see pp. 4–8 and below for further information). The reconstructed text of the Annals covers barely one third, if not less, of the whole inscription. The Kalḫu Annals was obviously composed towards the end of the king's reign. The known pieces may represent four or five different versions of Tiglath-pileser's Annals. Following Tadmor, Tigl. III, text nos. 1–34 are divided into three series: Series A, the "Hall of the Seven-Line Series"; Series B, the "Hall of the Twelve-Line Series"; and Series C, the "Colossal Slabs [Series]," in which slabs originating from two or three halls are actually included to form a single composite.
Series A of the Kalḫu Annals was originally written over numerous sculpted slabs in a ca. 1.5 m wide horizontal band (column) that was placed between upper and lower registers (but over sculpture in some entryway and corner slabs), an area which accommodated only seven lines of text. The text on only six of these slabs, comprising twelve units of the Annals, is known today. These are edited as text nos. 1–4, 18–19, 23–24, and 26–29. A small portion of the original composition survives today, with the extant text comprising parts of the prologue (nos. 1–3) and parts of reports of Tiglath-pileser's 1st palû (745; text no. 4), 8th palû (738; text nos. 26–28), 9th palû (737; text no. 28), 11th palû (735; text nos. 18–19), and 15th palû (731; text nos. 23–24).
Series B of the Kalḫu Annals was originally written over numerous carved orthostats in a ca. 2 m wide horizontal band that was situated between upper and lower registers, an area which accommodated twelve lines of text. The inscribed slabs of the "Hall of the Twelve-Line Series" are known from copies that A.H. Layard made while he was in the field and from originals now in the British Museum. Since the pieces that were shipped to London were damaged while in transit, Layard's drawings (Layard, MS A) help greatly in the restoration of the reliefs, as do his draft copies of the texts. The text on only five of these slabs, comprising eight units of the Annals, is known today. These are edited as text nos. 5–8 and 14–17. A small portion of the original composition survives, with the extant text comprising parts of reports of Tiglath-pileser's 1st palû (745; text nos. 5–6), 2nd palû (744; text nos. 6–8), 8th palû (738; text nos. 14–15), and 9th palû (737; text nos. 15–17).
Series C of the Kalḫu Annals was originally written on numerous slabs across sculpted figures in an area ca. 2–3 m wide; each slab contained twenty to thirty lines of text. The inscribed slabs of the "Colossal Slabs [Series]" are mostly known from draft copies made at Nimrud as only one of the "gigantic" orthostats was transported back to England. A few additional slabs were discovered in 1976 during the Polish excavations of Nimrud. The text on only twelve slabs, comprising fourteen units of the Annals, is known today. These are edited as text nos. 9–13, 20–22, 25, 30–32, and probably 33–34. A small portion of the original composition survives, with the extant text comprising parts of reports of Tiglath-pileser's 2nd palû (744; text no. 9), 3rd palû (743; text no. 9), 7th palû (739, text no. 10), 8th palû (738; text nos. 11–13 and 30–32), and 13th palû (733; text nos. 20–22), as well as an account describing the construction of Tiglath-pileser's palace (text no. 25). The preserved sections on two of the slabs (text nos. 21–22) parallel, but do not duplicate, each other just enough to be certain that there are at least two different recensions of the Annals represented in Series C.
The three series combined preserve parts of the Annals' prologue, reports of Tiglath-pileser's 1st–3rd (745–743), 7th–9th (739–737), 11th (735), 13th (733), and 15th (731) palûs, and an account of the construction of Tiglath-pileser's palace. Rather than presenting each series separately, and each series as a complete text, this volume edits each unit of the Annals individually and arranges the units chronologically within the narrative. Duplicate passages (text nos. 26–32) are generally placed at the end, after the last preserved unit of the Kalḫu Annals (text no. 25). Similar, but not duplicate passages coming from different recensions of Series C (text nos. 21–22), however, are edited separately and consecutively within the flow of the narrative. Therefore, each "text" in this section of the book refers to a single unit of the Annals, which may contain as few as seven (Series A) or twelve (Series B) lines of text or as many as twenty or thirty lines of text (Series C), and not, as elsewhere in this volume and in the RINAP series, to a complete text.
For this reason, the term "Lacuna" in the editions of the Kalḫu Annals is used slightly differently than for other inscriptions edited in this volume. For text nos. 1–34, "Lacuna" is used when lines are missing within the unit (i.e. "text") itself, and "Gap" is used when text is missing between units of the Annals. For example, the lines missing at the beginning of text no. 9 are regarded as a lacuna, while the missing unit(s) of text between text nos. 4 and 5 is considered as a gap. Moreover, to facilitate the narrative flow, additional information is provided before and after the first and last lines of each edition. These pieces of information generally comprise statements such as "Continued in text no. X" or "Continued from text no. X."
Hayim Tadmor & Shigeo Yamada
Hayim Tadmor & Shigeo Yamada, 'Annals: General', RINAP 1: Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser V, The RINAP 1 sub-project of the RINAP Project, 2019 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap1/tiglathpileseriiitextintroductions/]