At least nine stone vessels, one from Aššur and the rest presumably from Nineveh, are inscribed with a short proprietary label of Ashurbanipal. Because none of the inscriptions are fully intact, it is impossible to know with certainty if the text included only Esarhaddon or both Esarhaddon and Sennacherib in the king's genealogy; see the commentary for details.
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003767/] or the score [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/scores/Q003767/] of Ashurbanipal 68.
On three of the exemplars (exs. 4–6), images of a table and a lion are incised to the left of the inscription, facing the beginning of the text. In the repertoire of Assyrian hieroglyphs (Leichty, RINAP 4 pp. 238–243 no. 115), the lion represents the king; see that text for further details and bibliography. The master text is a composite of exs. 1–9, with help from the uncertain exemplars. A score is presented on Oracc.
Because none of the inscriptions are fully intact, it is impossible to know with certainty if the text included only Esarhaddon or both Esarhaddon and Sennacherib in the king's genealogy; see the comments of Fr.W. von Bissing (ZA 46 [1940] p. 161 no. 9 n. 2), and I. Finkel (in Searight, Assyrian Stone Vessels p. 22). At present, it cannot be ruled out that this inscription ended in one of the following ways: (1) A mAN.ŠÁR-PAP-AŠ MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI "son of Esarhaddon, king of the world, king of Assyria"; (2) A mAN.ŠÁR-PAP-AŠ MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI A md30-PAP-MEŠ-SU MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI "son of Esarhaddon, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria." Tentatively following von Bissing, the former is preferred here.
Based on exs. 17*–19*, assuming they bear copies of this inscription and not of some other text, one expects the text to end with šar māt aššur ("king of Assyria"), and not šar māt aššurma (with enclitic -ma) and, therefore, Sm 2220 is tentatively edited with text no. 69. The objects 81-7-27,180 and Sm 2380 are excluded here because it seems more likely that they should be attributed to Esarhaddon, and not Ashurbanipal; see Searight, Assyrian Stone Vessels p. 24 no. 74 and p. 26 no. 91. 82-5-22,603A, BM 118779 (K 8551, 82-5-22,607A), Ki 1902-5-10,25, Sm 2243, Sm 2220, and 55-12-5,11 are also not included since those pieces may have been inscribed with a text of Sîn-šarra-iškun (or Aššur-etel-ilāni); see Searight, Assyrian Stone Vessels p. 23 nos. 62 and 64, p. 25 no. 82, p. 26 no. 89, and p. 56 nos. 389 and 391. It is possible that the following other stone vessel fragments could be exemplars of this inscription or text nos. 69–70: Sm 2378, 55-12-5,20, 55-12-5,477, BM 139629, 1994-11-5,340, DT 502, Bu 91-5-9,248, 55-12-5,13 + 81-7-27,178, and 55-12-5,6. These are edited as Grayson and Novotny, RINAP 3/2 pp. 341–343 and 345–347 nos. 1002–1003 and 1007–1010, and Leichty, RINAP 4 pp. 308–311 nos. 1023, 1025, and 1027 respectively.
A flat-based, double-rimmed stone bowl from Nineveh bears the end of a short proprietary inscription of a descendant of Sennacherib. Although the attribution is not certain (see the commentary), the text is included here arbitrarily as a certain text of Ashurbanipal following the suggestion of I. Finkel and J.E. Reade (in Searight, Assyrian Stone Vessels p. 53). Three other small vessel fragments may be inscribed with this same inscription; they are, however, too fragmentary to be certain if they duplicate this text or contain some other late Neo-Assyrian inscription.
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003768/] or the score [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/scores/Q003768/] of Ashurbanipal 69.
BM 135453, which is more than half complete, was pieced together from five fragments made of mottled black and white diorite.
The enclitic -ma after šar mat aššur ("king of Assyria") and the use of a single title for Sennacherib probably suggest that the inscription should be attributed to Ashurbanipal, rather than some other late Neo-Assyrian king. Note, however, that the writing of Assyria as KUR AŠ is not yet attested in the certain Ashurbanipal vessel fragments (see text no. 68). At present, an attribution to Ashurbanipal seems more likely than one to Esarhaddon and, therefore the inscription written on BM 135453 should be tentatively assigned to the former. It is possible that Sm 2243, 55-12-5,11, and Sm 2220 (exs. 1*–3*) are duplicates of this text or text no. 70, or of some other seventh-century Assyrian inscription (possibly belonging to Aššur-etel-ilāni or Sîn-šarra-iškun).
A flat-based stone bowl from Nineveh bears the end of a short proprietary inscription that should probably be ascribed to Ashurbanipal; see Finkel and Reade in Searight, Assyrian Stone Vessels p. 58. The vessel, which is over half complete, was made of brown and white agate. It was reportedly broken in antiquity and repaired at that time using a bituminous adhesive.
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003769/] of Ashurbanipal 70.
Based on Esarhaddon's titles ({šar kiššati šar māt aššur "king of the world, king of Assyria"), an attribution to Ashurbanipal is fairly certain. If this text had belonged to Esarhaddon, one would have expected a few more titles; compare Leichty, RINAP 4 pp. 71–72 no. 25, pp. 73–74 nos. 28–29, and p. 173 no. 91. An attribution to Sîn-šarra-iškun, an Assyrian ruler who includes four generations in his genealogy, is unlikely as one would expect Esarhaddon to be referred to only as šar māt aššur ("king of Assyria"). Thus, as already proposed by I. Finkel and J.E. Reade (in Searight, Assyrian Stone Vessels p. 58), BM 118766 probably bears an inscription of Ashurbanipal.
Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers
Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers, 'Inscriptions on Stone Vessels (text nos. 68-70)', 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/stonevesselstexts6870/]