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Several fragmentarily preserved clay prisms discovered at Aššur are inscribed with a text stating that Ashurbanipal's son and successor Sîn-šarra-iškun constructed a temple for the god Nabû in that city. The inscription records that the temple had been so neglected in the past that Nabû and his consort Tašmētu were forced to live in the (neighboring) temple of the Assyrian Ištar, where they scraped by on meagre portions of leftover offerings. In typical Assyrian style, Sîn-šarra-iškun claims that he built Egidrukalamasumu ("House Which Bestows the Scepter of the Land") from top to bottom. Afterwards, the king reports that he had Nabû and Tašmētu ushered into their newly-constructed home and fêted with an overabundance of food offerings. The text, as far as it is preserved, is a (near or exact) duplicate of text no. 10. Three exemplars bear dates, but those lines are not sufficiently persevered to be able identify in which eponym year(s) the prisms were inscribed. Scholars is generally refer to this inscription as "Cylinder A."
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003868/] of Sîn-šarra-iškun 07.
A small portion of a clay prism, now comprising two fragments, is inscribed with a text reporting on the Sîn-šarra-iškun's construction of Egidrukalamasumu ("House Which Bestows the Scepter of the Land"), the temple of Nabû at Aššur. Its preserved contents are similar to text nos. 7 and 10.
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003869/] of Sîn-šarra-iškun 08.
Two small fragments of a clay prism discovered at Aššur bear an Akkadian text of Sîn-šarra-iškun. Although little of the inscription is extant, it is presumed that it recorded this king's construction of the Nabû temple at Aššur; for example, compare text nos. 7–8 and 10–12. This inscription is likely a shorter, earlier version of text nos. 7 and 10 (Frahm, KAL 3 p. 91). The object was inscribed during the eponymy of Aššur-mātu-taqqin, governor of the city (U)pummu (623*).
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003870/] of Sîn-šarra-iškun 09.
A (near or exact) duplicate of text no. 7 is inscribed on three clay cylinders discovered at Aššur. This inscription fills in several gaps in the prism version of the text, including some details about the alleged building history of Egidrukalamasumu ("House Which Bestows the Scepter of the Land"). According to this text, which is also commonly referred to as "Cylinder A" in scholarly publications, Sîn-šarra-iškun had Nabû's temple rebuilt from top to bottom on the foundations of an earlier building, one that had been worked on by the Middle Assyrian kings Shalmaneser I and Aššur-rēša-iši I and the Neo-Assyrian ruler Adad-nārārī III. This statement, however, is contradicted in text no. 12, which states that Egidrukalamasumu was constructed anew on a vacant plot of land. Since the archaeological record supports what is stated in text no. 12, one should disregard the building history included in "Cylinder A." It appears that when the building report of this text was drafted, its composer(s) may have believed that there had been an earlier Nabû temple built at Aššur and (partly) conflated its building history with that of the adjacent (and underlying) incarnations of the Ištar temple; early twentieth-century German excavations have revealed that the foundations of the western part of the Nabû temple were laid above the remains of several earlier temples. Later, when the scribes realized their mistake, references to the temple's history were no longer included in reports of this accomplishment of Sîn-šarra-iškun; compare text nos. 11–12. For further details, see Novotny, Kaskal 11 (2014) pp. 162–165. Ex. 1 was inscribed in the eponymy of Bēl-aḫu-uṣur, the palace overseer (616*).
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A short inscription stating that this son and successor of Ashurbanipal built a temple for the god Nabû at Aššur is inscribed on numerous clay cones. The text claims that Sîn-šarra-iškun had the foundations laid during a favorable month, on an auspicious day, and that the workers happily performed their work. Several of the exemplars were inscribed during the month Tašrītu (VII), in the eponymy of Saʾilu, the chief cook (620*).
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A stone block bears a sixteen-line Akkadian inscription recording the construction of Nabû's temple at Aššur. Unlike other texts of Sîn-šarra-iškun recording this accomplishment, this inscription indicates that Egidrukalamasumu ("House Which Bestows the Scepter of the Land") was constructed anew on an empty plot of land, and not rebuilt on the foundations of an earlier temple as text nos. 7 and 10 record. This recently-published inscription confirms what has been long known from the archaeological record: Sîn-šarra-iškun did not simply rebuild an existing temple of the god Nabû at Aššur, but rather constructed an entirely new place of worship for him.
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003873/] of Sîn-šarra-iškun 12.
Numerous inscribed bricks record that Sîn-šarra-iškun had one of the enclosed courtyards of the Nabû temple at Aššur (Egidrukalamasumu) paved with baked bricks; the work was carried out according to the craft of the deity Ninurra.
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A fragment of a brick discovered at Aššur preserves part of the beginning of an Akkadian inscription of Sîn-šarra-iškun. Although it is not sufficiently preserved to be able to determine which project of this Assyrian king that it records, it may have stated that Sîn-šarra-iškun constructed the Nabû temple in that city since all of the extant texts of his from Aššur record that accomplishment.
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A clay tablet discovered in the "N 2" Archive at Aššur bears archival copies or drafts of two dedicatory inscriptions, both written in the name of Ashurbanipal's son Sîn-šarra-iškun. The text on the obverse (this inscription) records the fashioning of a kallu-bowl (and) a šulpu-bowl for the god Nabû, in his temple at Aššur. The scribal note (subscript) indicates that the inscription was engraved on the reddish gold vessels.
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The text written on the reverse face of the same tablet that is inscribed with text no. 15 records that Sîn-šarra-iškun had a silver spoon made for Nabû's consort Tašmētu. Based on the subscript, it is assumed that the ceremonial spoon bore a copy of this inscription.
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Another clay tablet discovered in the "N 2" Archive at Aššur is also inscribed with two short texts of Sîn-šarra-iškun. The first inscription (this text) states that this Assyrian king dedicated an ešmarû-plated banquet table to the goddess Antu at Aššur; the table was constructed from musukkannu-wood, a hard wood often used in the manufacture of divine and royal furniture. This draft or archival copy of the inscription presumably was written on the table's metal plating.
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003878/] of Sîn-šarra-iškun 17.
The same tablet that is inscribed with text no. 17 bears a draft or archival copy of second dedicatory inscription on its reverse face: This text records that Sîn-šarra-iškun had a musukkannu-wood and ešmarû-metal table made and dedicated to the goddess Šala, presumably for her cult at Aššur. This inscription was probably incised on the metal plating of that object.
Access the composite text [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003879/] of Sîn-šarra-iškun 18.
Jamie Novotny
Jamie Novotny, 'Ashur Inscriptions (text nos. 7-18)', RINAP 5: The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Sîn-šarra-iškun, The RINAP 5 sub-project of the RINAP Project, 2017 [http://oracc.org/sinsharraishkun/ashurinscriptions/]