This text is from a broken obelisk now in the British Museum.
It was found at Nineveh. It is written in the third person.
Therefore, it sounds quite different from the usual inscription
which is written in the first person. This obelisk probably was
inscribed with the annals (that is the military exploits) and
hunting exploits of Adad-nirari II The inscription, however, has
gaps and was probably never finished.
The king hunts
The gods Nin-urta and Nergal, who love his priesthood,
granted him the skill to hunt in the field and he embarked upon
ship belonging to the people of Arvad. He slew a dolphin
(nahiru) in the midst of the Great Sea. He slew mighty wild
bulls near the city of Araziki, which lies opposite the land of
Hatti, and at the foot of Mount Lebanon. Her captured calves and
collected herds of them. He brought down elephants with his bow;
he captured elephants alive and brought them to the city of
Assur. 120 lions with his brave heart and his courageous attack,
he slew from his hunting chariot. On foot with the javelin he
brought down [.......] lions. The gods in the high mountains
commanded him to hunt them.
In the days of cold and frost and snow, in the days when
Sirius in ascendant and glowed like copper, in the mountains of
Ebih, Urshe, Azameri, Ankurna, Pizitta, Paarsagish and Kashiari,
all mountains of the land of Assyria, in Mount Hand on the
border of the land of Lulumme, and in the mountains of Nairi,
ibexes, mountains goats, hinds and stags the king captured in
nets, and large herds of them he collected. He caused them to
bring forth their young Like flocks of sheep he counted them.
(392)
Annals of Adad-nirari II from Assur
Hunting
The gods Ninurta and Nergal, who love my priesthood, gave me
the animals of the field. They commanded me to follow the chase.
360 lions I slew from my chariot, by my strong attack. On my
swift feet with the javelin I slew them. 240 wild oxen I slew.
Seven mighty wild bulls, charging, I caught alive. Six elephants
I killed as they rushed at me. I cast them into pits. Four live
elephants I captured. Five ashkippu I captured. Lions, wild
oxen, elephants, deer, wild goats, wild asses, gazelles,
MAL-SHIR birds in herds I gathered.(375)
Campaign against Hanigalbat
I marched against Hanigalbat for the fourth time. In the
wisdom of my heart I overthrew the cities around it. In order to
level the city I dug a ditch around it. The local ruler's
possessions, valuable mountain stone, chariots, horses, wives,
sons and daughters, an enormous booty, he collected in front of
me. On him and his brothers - with bonds of copper I had them
bound, and I brought them to my city Assur. The mighty power of
Assur, my lord, I established over Hanigalbat. (366)
I proceeded against Hanigalbat for the sixth time. A moat
such as had never existed before I cut around it into the solid
rock. I made it 9 cubits wide. Below, I made its bottom reach
down as far as the water table. The city wall I leveled into
that ditch as a flame would level it. They cried over it - a
mighty roar as of a fierce, leveling storm. (368)
At the command of Assur, the great god, my lord, out of his
city I took, his gold, his possessions, precious mountain-stone,
his gods, his chariots and teams of horses... the staff he used
in battle, golden chairs, dishes of shining gold, inlaid
objects, costly inlaid weapons, a golden tent befitting his
royalty whose weight I could not lift. All the wealth of his
spacious palace I carried off. (368)
Building activities
Palace of cedar- wood, a palace of boxwood, a palace of
pistachio-wood, a palace of tamarisk-wood, in my city Assur I
built. Two dolphin (nahiru) four burhish and four lions of
AT-BAR-stone, and two bull-colossi of alabaster, and two burhish
of white limestone I fashioned and in the gates of the palace I
set them up.(394)