A Fragment of a Synchronistic King List (VAT 11931)

A small fragment of a clay tablet (VAT 11931) discovered at Ashur by the Germans at the beginning of the twentieth century may be inscribed with a copy of a Synchronistic King List [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/272-synchronic-king-list/]. The names of some of the rulers from the period of the Uncertain Dynasties [/ribo/babylon6/index.html] (978-626 BC) are preserved in lines 1'-6'.

What little survives on this sliver of clay may tentatively be read as follows:

	Lacuna
1')	[N (years)] Aš[šur-nādin-šumi]	[...]
2')	[N (years)] Šū[zubu (Nergal-ušēzib)]	[...]
3')	[N (years)] Šū[zubu (Mušēzib-Marduk)]	[...]
4')	[N (years)] Sennach[erib]	[...]
5')	[N (years)] Esar[haddon]	[...]
6')	[N (years)] Ashur[banipal]	[...]
7')	27 (years) [Erība-Adad (I)]	[...]
8')	35 (years) [Aššur-uballiṭ (I)]	[...]
9')	10 (years) [Enlil-nārārī]	[...]
10')	12 (years) [Arik-dīn-ili]	[...]
11')	[N+]13 (years) [Adad-nārārī (I)]	[...]
12')	[N+]10 (years) [Shalmaneser (I)]	[...]
13')	[N]+7 (years) [Tukultī-Ninurta (I)]	[...]
	Lacuna

Because the arrangement of the material presented above makes little chronological sense -- with the eighth- and seventh-century rulers appearing before their fourteenth- and thirteenth-century predecessors -- it has been tentatively proposed by A. Kirk Grayson that: (1) the contents were (originally) from a large four-column clay tablet inscribed with a Synchronistic King List [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/272-synchronic-king-list/]; (2) the kings listed in lines 7'-13' may have come from the beginnings of lines from col. iii (the right column of the reverse face); and (3) the rulers listed in lines 1'-6' may have come from the ends of lines from col. iv (the left column of the reverse face) and had to be squeezed into a small amount of space. Thus, Grayson's reworked hypothetical and problematic translation reads as follows:

	Lacuna
iii 1')	27 (years) [Erība-Adad (I)]	[...]
iii 2')	35 (years) [Aššur-uballiṭ (I)]	[...]
iii 3')	10 (years) [Enlil-nārārī]	[...]
iii 4')	12 (years) [Arik-dīn-ili]	[...]
iii 5')	[N+]13 (years) [Adad-nārārī (I)]	[...]
iii 6')	[N+]10 (years) [Shalmaneser (I)]	[...]
iii 7')	[N]+7 (years) [Tukultī-Ninurta (I)]	[...]
	Lacuna
iv 1')	[...]	[N (years)] Aš[šur-nādin-šumi]
iv 2')	[...]	[N (years)] Šū[zubu (Nergal-ušēzib)]
iv 3')	[...]	[N (years)] Šū[zubu (Mušēzib-Marduk)]
iv 4')	[...]	[N (years)] Sennach[erib]
iv 5')	[...]	[N (years)] Esar[haddon]
iv 6')	[...]	[N (years)] Ashur[banipal]
	Lacuna

Selected Bibliography

Grayson, A.K., 'Königslisten und Chroniken. B. Akkadisch,' in: D.O. Edzard (ed.), Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 6/1–2, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1980, pp. 121–122 §3.13.

Schroeder, O., Keilschrifttexte aus Assur verschiedenen Inhalts (= Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 35), Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1920, no. 9.

Jamie Novotny

Jamie Novotny, 'A Fragment of a Synchronistic King List (VAT 11931)', The Royal Inscriptions of Babylonia online (RIBo) Project, The RIBo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2024 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/KingLists/FragmentVAT11931/]