A reading, published with its checks still open. A Vigslist translation.
A hymn in the Ešarra (KAR 345). Its colophon counts the composition at 39 lines; this tablet preserves parts of 36.
Published as a reading. No first-translation claim is made for this piece. The checks that would settle such a claim are named in the notes below and are still open; the wording on this page claims nothing they have not settled.
A Vigslist translation — witness reading. Status: WORKING READING, claim withheld. Built overnight 2026-10-22 from the live eBL record. Nothing here is published; the claim waits for Richard's read and the program's triple-check.
WITHHELD. The live eBL record serves a transliteration and lists exactly two references, neither an edition: the KAR hand copy, and Borger's Handbuch note, which names the piece "Hymnus auf einen assyr. König" — a hymn to an Assyrian king. The record's uncurated references add only the museum's acquisition book (Erwerbungsbuch Assur). It carries zero EDITION references and zero #tr.en translation lines. The desk print check (2026-10-22) located no edition and no translation of this text in any language. Formal eyeball of the Assur edition series (KAL) contents remains owed to the print-check wave; until Richard reads this and gives the word, this is a witness reading, not a first-English claim.
A hymn sung inside the Ešarra, Aššur's temple — the temple is named three times on the obverse (lines 4, 10, 22). The one praised is loaded with the epithets of gods and kings at once: "lord, king of true things"; "mighty…, opener of understanding, Nudimmud" — Nudimmud is Ea, the god of wisdom, named as a title here; "called by the name of Enlil"; "king of the world-regions, warrior"; "beloved of Aššur, desire of Ninurta"; "joy of heart that (has been) since of old." The reverse calls him "provider of all the cult-centres" and "judge of the gods, for the regular offerings," and addresses "your lordship" directly. Whether the hymn's subject is a king praised in divine language (Borger's reading) or a god in royal language, the clay as served does not decide — the name itself is in the broken beginnings of the lines. What survives is the praise, not the praised one's name.
The transliteration is the eBL record's, reproduced as served. Brackets [ ] are breaks in the clay; (x) an unread sign; # a damaged sign; / an alternative reading the record could not decide between. The English renders what is actually on the clay and nothing else. On this tablet the beginnings of the obverse lines are almost all broken away — the praise survives at the lines' ends — and lines too broken to carry sense are given as traces and say so.
Counts: 36 line-units — 0 whole, 12 part, 24 fragments, 0 invented.
1. [x x]-di-id pi/ud x […] (fragments — traces only)
2. [x x A]N?-e du/ab ši-mat […] "[…] the fates […]" (fragments — šīmat, "the fates/destinies," at the line's middle; the sentence is gone)
3. [x (x) ḫ]a-mi-im kiš-šu-ta […] "[…] who holds kingship fast […]" (part — ḫamīm kiššūta, "who gathers/holds fast kingship." The first epithet to survive whole)
4. [x (x)] da?/li-aḫ-tu ra-im e₂-šar₂-ra […] "[…] who loves the Ešarra […]" (fragments — raʾīm Ešarra, "lover of the Ešarra" — Aššur's temple named; the line's frame is broken and the reading of its first word is uncertain in the record, so the line is kept at fragments)
5. [x] x-tu-ia EN LUGAL ki-na-a-t[i …] "[…] lord, king of true things […]" (part — bēlu šarru kīnāti: "lord, king of what is true/just." A royal-divine title, intact as a phrase)
6. [x (x)] x-tu ša {d}nin-men na[p/m[ul …] (fragments — {d}nin-men is the goddess Ninmena, "Lady of the Crown"; the line breaks inside her name's phrase)
7. [x x] aš₂/ḫur/ṣu-ti {uru}BAL.TIL KUR-e KUR.KUR x […] (fragments — BAL.TIL is the city Aššur written in Sumerian; KUR-e, "the mountain(s)," KUR.KUR, "the lands." Geography without its sentence)
8. [x x d]an ku pi-it ḫa-si-si {d}nu-dim₂-m[ud? …] "[…] mighty…, opener of understanding, Nudimmu[d …]" (part — pīt ḫasīsi, "opener of the understanding/ear"; Nudimmud, Ea's name as an epithet of wisdom)
9. [x x n]i? na [x x (x)] x DINGIR-MEŠ a-na re-ṣu-ti-[ia? …] "[…] the gods, to [my?] aid […]" (fragments — DINGIR-MEŠ, "the gods"; ana reṣūti, "to the aid of." The speaker steps into his own hymn — if reṣūtīya, "to my aid," is read, this is a first-person voice inside the praise; the record marks the pronoun uncertain, and this page keeps it uncertain)
10. [x x (x)] bi [x x (x)] i+na e₂-šar₂-ra an x (x) tir# […] "[…] in the Ešarra […]" (fragments — the temple named a second time; the rest is broken signs)
11. [x x (x)] x [x x (x)] ir x-ta ta-šim-t[a …] (fragments — tašimta, "understanding," at the line's end; no sentence survives)
12. [x x] x-ki-ru-ti [x] x [x] x […] (fragments — traces only)
13. [x x (x)] x [x] gi-mir# kal# KUR#.KUR# ki ti […] "[…] all the lands […]" (fragments — gimir kal mātāti, "the whole of all lands," in damaged signs; a totality phrase, kept as a phrase)
14. [x x] x ŠA₃ DINGIR-ti-šu u₂-šar-riḫ be-[lut?-su? …] "[…] the heart of his divinity; he exalted [his] lord[ship …]" (part — libbi ilūtišu, "the heart of his godhead"; ušarriḫ, "he made splendid/exalted." Divine language for the praised one, whatever his name)
15. [x x i]m ni-bit {d}+en-lil₂ mu-x-ir […] "[…] called by the name of Enlil […]" (part — nibit Enlil, "named/called of Enlil" — the praised one carries Enlil's name as a title)
16. [x (x)] x LUGAL UB-MEŠ-te qar-ra-du […] "[…] king of the world-regions, warrior […]" (part — šar kibrāti qarrādu: "king of the (four) quarters, the warrior")
17. [x (x) t]ab?/ša]m?/m]i?/l]u₄?-piš AN.ZIB₂ LUGAL ni […] (fragments — AN.ZIB₂ is a divine name written as a riddle of signs; the record cannot settle the readings around it, and this page does not)
18. [x (x) na-r]a?-am aš+šur ḫi-ših-ti {d}nin-[urta? …] "[…] beloved of Aššur, desire of Nin[urta …]" (part — narām Aššur, "beloved of (the god) Aššur"; ḫišīḫti Ninurta, "the desire/want of Ninurta." The praised one stands between the two great gods of Assur)
19. [x x (x)] ḫu#-ud lib₃-bi ša iš-tu ul#-la# […] "[…] joy of heart, which from of old […]" (part — ḫūd libbi, "joy of the heart"; ša ištu ulla, "which since distant time…" — an ancient joy, its clause unfinished)
20. [x x x] x ri?-MEŠ-šu e-mu-u[q …] "[…] his strength […]" (fragments — emūq-, "strength," at the break; the line's subject is lost)
21. [… b]i? t[u₄?/ni[m? …] (fragments — traces at the edge of the break)
22. […] e₂-šar₂-r[a …] "[…] the Ešarr[a …]" (fragments — the temple named a third time, at the obverse's end)
23. […] DUMU.MUNUS […] "[…] the daughter […]" (fragments — DUMU.MUNUS, "daughter"; whose daughter, the broken line does not say. The rest of the obverse is broken away)
1′. [x x x x] x [x] x x […] (fragments — traces only)
2′. [x x x x] šu?# ul ra-a-[…] (fragments — ul, "not," and a word broken at ra-a-; no sense survives)
3′. [x x x] x e₂ ni diš ta r[i/z[i/g[i …] (fragments — traces only)
4′. [x x x] x nu ḫa# […] (fragments — traces only)
5′. [x x x x] UGU AD-MEŠ […] "[…] over the fathers […]" (fragments — UGU, "over/upon"; AD-MEŠ, "the fathers/ancestors." A phrase, kept as a phrase)
6′. [x x x x] ri ma# x […] (fragments — traces only)
7′. [x x x x x x x] x za-nin kiš-[šat ma?-ḫa?-zi? …] "[…] provider of all the cul[t-centres …]" (part — zānin kiššat maḫāzi, "provider of the totality of shrines" — the one who keeps every cult fed)
8′. [x (x) da?-a?]-a-nu DINGIR-MEŠ a-na gi-ne₂-e […] "[…] judge of the gods, for the regular offerings […]" (part — dayyānu ša ilāni, "judge of the gods"; ana ginê, "for the regular (daily) offerings")
9′. [x x] ki ša x šid nu ni lu x ir […] (fragments — traces; the signs will not carry a rendering)
10′. [x x] nun?# [x] x gu#/alla# x [x (x)] x be? x […] (fragments — traces only; nun, if read, is "prince," but the record marks it uncertain and the line is rubble)
11′. [x] x bir-ki ma ṣi-it# [x x] an x […] (fragments — birki, "knees" or "lightning," ṣīt, "rising/issue" — two nouns in rubble; this page draws no sense from them)
12′. [x] x-bu EN-ut-ka UGU# x […] "[…] your lordship, over […]" (part — bēlūtka, "your lordship," addressed directly; the hymn ends its praise speaking to him, as the psalm in this wave also turns at its end to "my lord")
13′. (colophon) ($___$) 39 MU.BI.IM […] "Its lines are 39 […]" (part — MU.BI.IM, "its lines": the scribe's own count. The composition was 39 lines; the tablet in our hands preserves parts of 36 units, and 0 of them whole — the count is the scribe's promise of what the hymn was, against what the clay still gives)
None. No ušumgal, no muš, no mušḫuššu, no bašmu, no ṣerru appears anywhere in the served text.
Copy: Erich Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religiösen Inhalts II (WVDOG 34, 1923), no. 345. Genre note: Rykle Borger, Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur I (1967), p. 103. Transliteration: the eBL Fragmentarium record for VAT 9986 (CC BY-SA 4.0), pulled live 2026-10-22; no editor named on the record. This reading: the program's, built from the served transliteration only.
Vigslist translations — AI-assisted, cross-checked against the record. Working reading; not yet published.
Nuvira Technologies conducts this research with AI assistance, cross-verified against the primary sources to scholarly integrity standards. Uncertain readings are marked; broken lines are left broken.
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