Maker unknown :[Gypsum slab with cuneiform inscription. ca 879 B. C.].

Identifies king Assurnasirpal and his achievements and concludes with a description of the palace itself.

The full text has been translated by the Asiatic Antiquities Department of the British Museum, and the following are extracts:

1. The palace of Ashur-nasir-pal, the priest of Ashur, the darling of Bel and Ninb, the beloved of Anu and Dagan, the strong one among the gods, the mighty king, the king of hosts, the king of Assyria, the son of Tukulti-ninib ...

2. ... the valiant hero, who with the help of Ashur, his lord, proceedeth, and among the princes of the four quarters [of the world] hath not a rival; ...

3. [I am] the king, who, from beyond the Tigris even to Mount Lebanon and the Great Sea, the whole of the land of Lake, and the land of Sukhi, together with the city of Rapiki, hath cast into subjection under his feet, and [the territory] from the source of the river Subnat even to the land of Urarti hath conquered with his hand.

4. The former city of Calah, which Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria who preceded me, had built, that city had fallen into decay and lay prostrate. That city I built anew ...

A palace of cedar, and a palace of cypress, and a palace of juniper, and a palace of urkarinnu-wood, and a palace of miskannu-wood, and a palace of pistachio-wood, and a palace of tamarisk ... for my royal dwelling and for my lordly pleasure for ever I founded therein. And beasts of the mountains and of the seas of white limestone and alabaster I fashioned, and in the gates thereof I set them up, and I adorned it, and I made it glorious, and with fastening bolts of bronze I secured it; and doors of cedar, and of juniper, and of miskannu-wood, in the gates thereof I fixed in place; and silver, and gold, and lead, and bronze, and iron, the spoil of my hand from the lands which I had conquered, in great quantities I took and I placed therein.

Quantity: 1 curio(s).

Physical Description: Stone slab ; gypsum 550 x 300 x 50 mm in wooden crate

Provenance: Mr Webster acquired the stone from the Montrose Museum, Angus (See news item in The Dominion, 17 April 1959, page 10).