The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (630–627 BC), and Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), Kings of Assyria, Part 3 (Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period)

The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668-631 BC), Ashur-etel-ilani (630-627), and Sin-shar-ishkun (626-612BC) edited and translated by J Novotny, J Jeffers, and G Frame, is the last in the series The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) and is numbered 5/3.The other volumes are:1 The Royal inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser V, H Tadmor, and S Yamada2 The Royal inscriptions of Sargon II, G Frame3/1 The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib Pt. 1 AK Grayson and J Novotny3/2 The Royal inscriptions of Sennacherib Pt. 2 A K Grayson and J Novotny4Tthe Royal inscriptions of Esarhaddon, E Leichty5/1 The Royal inscriptions of Ashurbanipal Pt. 1 J Novotny and j Jeffers5/2 The Royal inscriptions of Ashurbanipal Pt. 2 J Novotny and J Jeffers.Each volume transliterates and translates the royal cuneiform inscriptions of each Assyrian king named in the title. Each volume usually begins with the longest texts that contain a historical narration, most of which will be dated towards the end of the rule of each king. These are followed by texts written earlier in each reign, which may contain a longer account of some of the king's earlier achievements, or incidents omitted for various reasons from the later account. These are followed by texts relating to the king's building activities, often arranged geographically, starting with Assyria and then Babylonia, Syria, and elsewhere. Finally, the volumes include short texts, usually inscribed on palace and temple artifacts. Some of these will refer to their owner, sometimes a wife or a son of the king or one of his many officials. The translations are not composites of the different recensions of each king's account of their reign. The reader can see how the king's view changed over time, no doubt to the benefit of the king involved. The approach does however mean that the same boastful descriptions of slaughter, torture, and general mayhem are repeated many times.This particular volume covers some of Ashurbanipal's shorter narrative texts (often shorter because of damage), his building activities, and short texts on artifacts. Importantly it includes the texts of Ashur-etel-ilani and Sin-shar-ishkun, Assyria's last rulers (the previous two volumes name them but deal exclusively with Ashurbanipal). The translators discuss the chronological problems relating to their rule and to elucidate the argument include the translations of two texts that have acquired the name, the Babylonian Chronicle (covering the years 626-623 BC and 616-608 BC). The translators subscribe to the view that Ashurbanipal's reign was shorter than previously supposed and Sin-shar-ishkun's longer. This is however a modern historical construction, not found in any contemporary text. The ancient sources, the Babylonian Chronicle fragments, the inscription of Addad-guppi, mother of Nabonidus, (the last Babylonian king), the Babylonian financial and legal texts found at Nippur, Ur, and elsewhere, and the fact that there are too many Assyrian annual magistrates (called limmus), for the period involved (no matter what chronology is accepted), cannot be made to fit a unitary account. One or more of them have to be amended or dismissed. At its most stark, neither Ashur-etel-ilanni nor Sin-shar-ishkun seems to be aware of the impending catastrophe. Sin-shar-ishkun does not refer to the victories ascribed to him by the Babylonian chronicle, yet if the chronicle is to be believed Assyria and Babylonia were involved in continuous warfare for at least 4 years and probably 14.The RINAP series will be the definitive translation of the numerous Assyrian official texts for the foreseeable future unless they find some palace with walls covered with inscriptions that give a radically different account. Importantly it has achieved what it set out to do, that is, translate everything to do with the last period of Assyrian power (744-612 BC). The State Archives of Assyria Series (1 to 22) have translated the non-public, administrative, literary, prophetic, and oracular texts and have completed two volumes of correspondence to and from Ashuerbanipal, which compliments RINAP. Between them, they give as full an account of the Assyrian experiment at empire as it is possible to get.