Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC, Vol. 1: 1114-859 BC

Richard W. Parker is an assistant professor of classics at Brock
University in St. Catharines.

The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia is an ambitious series that aims
to publish as a collection the royal records produced in such ancient
centres as Babylon, Nineveh, and Ur. The grand project consists of
subseries on the Assyrian, Babylonian, and Early periods, plus
supplements. The objects bearing these ancient records are scattered
around the world in museums or on the original sites. Their contents
have been previously published in sundry journals and monographs, in a
bewildering range of editorial standards and formats. The intent of this
project is to publish the collection in a standardized format designed
to be accessible to specialist and lay audiences alike. This volume is
the second in the subseries on the Assyrian Periods, both of which are
products of A.K. Grayson, an eminent University of Toronto
Assyriologist.

The volume is organized chronologically, with texts pertaining to a
particular ruler grouped together and prefaced by a sketch of political
and cultural developments during his reign. The sketches themselves form
a convenient summary history of Assyria. Each text in the collection is
assigned an identifying code, denoting subseries (Assyrian, Babylonian,
Early), dynasty (if any), ruler, text, and specific exemplar of the
text.

Texts are presented in a standardized format: a brief description of
the object inscribed (including material, state of preservation, genre,
date, and brief summary); a catalogue of the objects (giving museum and
excavation numbers, the dimensions and extent of preservation, and
method of collation); a commentary; a bibliography; and, finally, the
text (transliterated from cuneiform, with an English translation in
parallel columns). The divisions of text into lines and columns on the
inscribed object are clearly indicated; major variants and issues
relating to the establishment of the text and its meaning appear in
footnotes.

The volume’s usefulness is enhanced by indexes and by microfiches
with complete transliterations of exemplars in the form of “musical
scores,” allowing users to criticize the text for themselves.

Lucid and well-organized, the series is already a scholarly standard;
its friendliness to lay readers can only feed their fascination with the
civilizations “between the rivers.”