The cone was inscribed by Ashir-rim-nisheshu, who gives his own
genealogy and records the restoration of the wall of the city of Ashur,
which he states had been rebuilt by certain of his predecessors on
the throne. The principal portion of the inscription reads as
follows: "Ashir-rim-nisheshu, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of
Ashir-nirari, the viceroy of the god Ashir, the son of Ashir-rabi, the
viceroy. The city wall which Kikia, Ikunum, Shar-kenkate-Ashir, and
Ashir-nirari, the son of Ishme-Dagan, my forefathers, had built, was
fallen, and for the preservation of my life... I rebuilt it." Perhaps no
inscription has yet been recovered in either Assyria or Babylonia which
contained so much new information packed into so small a space. Of the
names of the early viceroys mentioned in it only one was previously
known, i.e. the name of Ikunum, the son of Erishum, is found in a late
copy of a votive text preserved in the British Museum. Thus from these
few lines the names of three rulers in direct succession have been
recovered, viz., Ashir-rabi, Ashir-nirari, and Ashur-rim-nisheshu, and
also those of four earlier rulers, viz., Kikia, Shar-kenkate-Ashir,
Ishme-Dagan, and his son Ashir-nirari. Another interesting point about
the inscription is the spelling of the name of the national god of the
Assyrians.
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