In a letter to A.H. Layard sent from Mosul (dated 30 Jan. 1854), H. Rassam reports that he discovered two slabs in Room I of the North Palace that had inscriptions, including an epigraph with three long lines (ca. 61 cm in length) that was written above a tent; he notes that that text was not as well preserved as the four-line epigraph (text no. 29) that was engraved on slab 1. Because Rassam seems not to have copied, transliterated, or translated the inscription, the contents of this text are no longer known. Because the reliefs in Room I, like Room XXXIII of the South-West Palace, were concerned with the defeat of the Elamite king Teumman at Tīl-Tūba and that of the Gambulian ruler Dunānu at Ša-pī-Bēl, presumably this epigraph provided information about the immediate aftermath of the Assyrian-Elamite battle near the Ulāyu River in 653.
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Part of a one-line epigraph on a badly damaged wall slab identifies the battle line of the Assyrian king, who is given the epithet "the one who established the de[feat of the land Elam]." The relief presumably depicts an event from Ashurbanipal's war with Teumman (see the commentary).
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The original findspot of the fragment is not known, but it is possible that it belongs to one of the two known second Elamite campaign relief series: the one in Room XXXIII of the South-West Palace or the one in Room I of the North Palace. This second Elamite campaign-related epigraph is also preserved on two of the clay tablets inscribed with texts concerning Ashurbanipal's wars against the Elamite king Teumman and the Gambulian ruler Dunānu (Borger, BIWA p. 304 no. 31): (1) K 2674 + Sm 2010 + 81-2-4,186 iii 12´–13´; and (2) Sm 1350 obv. 1 (see Part 2). The restorations are based on those two tablets.
A small fragment of a wall relief is inscribed with a four-line epigraph recording the defeat of the Elamite king Teumman and his troops at the city Tīl-Tūba, near the Ulāyu River, in 653.
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Contrary to P. Gerardi's statement in JCS 40 (1988), this object is not a plaque affixed to a relief, nor is it in a private collection. BM 135122 is displayed with BM 124802a–c and BM 135109, reliefs from Sennacherib's Palace at Nineveh. The original findspot of the fragment is not known, but it is possible that it belongs to one of the two known second Elamite campaign relief series: the one in Room XXXIII of the South-West Palace or the one in Room I of the North Palace.
The damaged Tīl-Tūba-related epigraph can be restored from duplicates known from two clay tablets that contain the so-called Teumman and Dunānu cycle of epigraphs (Borger, BIWA pp. 304 no. 33): (1) K 2674 + Sm 2010 + 81-2-4,186 iii 15´–17´; and (2) 81-7-27,246 obv. 7´–8´ (see Part 2).
After Teumman was defeated and beheaded at Tīl-Tūba, Ashurbanipal installed a fugitive member of the Elamite royal family, Ummanigaš (Ḫumban-nikaš II), as king of the land Elam. This five-line epigraph — which is engraved on one of the sculpted wall slabs that decorated Room XXXIII of the South-West Palace (slab 5, lower register) and which appears above an Elamite being led by the hand by an Assyrian officer — records the celebratory entry of Ummanigaš into the cities Madaktu and Susa in the year 653.
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This damaged epigraph is also known from one of the clay tablets that is inscribed with numerous short texts reporting on Ashurbanipal's wars against the Elamite king Teumman and the Gambulian ruler Dunānu (Borger, BIWA p. 302 no. 17): K 2674 + Sm 2010 + 81-2-4,186 ii 11–14. The tablet version contains minor orthographic variants and that text was used to restored signs no longer preserved on BM 124802 (see Part 2).
A label written on a relief from Room XXXIII of Sennacherib's "Palace Without a Rival" (South-West Palace, slab 6, lower register), which Ashurbanipal had redecorated after the battle of Tīl-Tūba, identifies the depicted city as Madaktu, an important Elamite city where Ashurbanipal installed Ummanigaš (Ḫumban-nikaš II) as king in lieu of Teumman. The relief and epigraph are related to that event, which took place in 653.
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A relief in Sennacherib's "Palace Without a Rival" (South-West Palace, Room XXXIII, slab 6, upper register) contains an eight-line epigraph stating that Ashurbanipal made two Elamite envoys (Nabû-damiq and Umbadarâ) stand before messengers of the Urarṭian king Rusâ III and hold writing boards with hostile messages. The text appears in front of the image of the king standing in his chariot and above the team of horses.
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Similar descriptions of Rusâ sending his messengers to Assyria are known from text no. 6 (Prism C) vii 20´–28´, text no. 7 (Prism Kh) vii 11–20, and an epigraph written on a clay tablet (Sm 1350 rev. 9´–12´; Borger, BIWA p. 307 [see Part 2]). Note that the latter text combines the Nabû-damiq and Umbadarâ incident with that of the flaying of Mannu-kī-aḫḫē and Nabû-uṣalli of Gambulu.
An unfinished three-line epigraph that is inscribed on one of the walls of the palace of Ashurbanipal's grandfather Sennacherib (South-West Palace, slab 4, upper register) states that the Assyrian king had the tongues of two men ripped out before having those anti-Assyrian rebels flayed. From numerous inscriptions (for example, text no. 3 [Prism B] vi 71–74), the identities of the two men are known: They are Mannu-kī-aḫḫē (the deputy of the Gambulian ruler Dunānu) and Nabû-uṣalli (a city overseer of the land Gambulu).
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This epigraph is also known from one of the clay tablets inscribed with epigraphs concerning Ashurbanipal's wars against the Elamite king Teumman and the Gambulian ruler Dunānu (Borger, BIWA p. 303 no. 28): K 2674 + Sm 2010 + 81-2-4,186 iii 2´–4´ (see Part 2). Compare Rm 2,364 obv. 1´–2´ and Sm 1350 edge 1–2 (see Borger, BIWA pp. 306–307). Note that the Sm 1350 epigraph combines the flaying of Mannu-kī-aḫḫē and Nabû-uṣalli of Gambulu incident with that of Nabû-damiq and Umbadarâ standing before Urarṭian envoys with hostile messages inscribed on writing boards (see text no. 35).
A label written on a relief from Room I of the North Palace (slab 9, upper register) identifies the depicted city as Arbela, one of the main cult centers of the goddess Ištar. The text is inscribed just above the depiction of the city's outer wall.
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A descriptive nine-line epigraph is written just above the depiction of the horses of Ashurbanipal's processional carriage, in the middle row of the lower register of a relief depicting the Assyrian king reviewing booty (including the seal, crown, and staff of the recently deceased Šamaš-šuma-ukīn) and high profile prisoners (as well as submissive foreign rulers) after the Assyrian army captured Babylon in 648. The relief and epigraph adorned part of one of the walls of Ashurbanipal's throne room (North Palace, Room M, slab 13).
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This epigraph is also known (with some deviation) from three of the clay tablets inscribed with short texts recording some of the details of Ashurbanipal's wars against Šamaš-šuma-ukīn (king of Babylon) and Tammarītu of Elam (Borger, BIWA pp. 311–312 no. 61): (1) K 4453 + K 4515 ii 15´–22´ and Bu 89-4-26,116 ii 4´–11´; (2) Rm 40 obv. 1–6; and (3) VAT 11264 rev. 2´–9´ (see Part 2).
A damaged epigraph preserved on a fragment from a wall slab that once decorated one of the rooms of Ashurbanipal's palace at Nineveh (North Palace) may record an event concerning the Elamite king Ummanigaš (Ḫumban-nikaš II), whom Ashurbanipal had appointed as king after Teumman in 653, or the hostile king of Babylon Šamaš-šuma-ukīn. The relief and epigraph likely refer to events of Ashurbaniapl's third Elamite campaign (probably 652), assuming they concern themselves with Elam, and not Babylon.
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The suggestion that this epigraph pertains to Ummanigaš is based on aškunuš ana šarrūti ("(whom) I appointed as king") in line 1; see, for example, text no. 3 (Prism B) vi 87. Another possibility is that the text deals with Ashurbanipal's brother Šamaš-šuma-ukīn, whom he records in several texts as having installed as king of Babylon; see, for example, text no. 23 (IIT) line 108.
Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers
Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers, 'Epigraphs, Part 2 (text nos. 30-39)', RINAP 5: The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Sîn-šarra-iškun, The RINAP/RINAP 5 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2019 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap5/rinap51textintroductions/epigraphspart2texts3039/]