ABC 22 (Chronicle P)

Chronicle P (ABC 22) is one of the historiographical texts from ancient Babylonia. It deals with several conflicts between Assyria, Babylonia, and Elam in the fourteenth to twelfth century BCE. It may be a Babylonian adaptation of the Assyrian Synchronic Chronicle.

For a very brief introduction to the literary genre of chronicles, go here. The translation on this webpage was adapted from A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975) and Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (Atlanta, 2004).

The tablet, BM 92701 (82-7-4, 38), upon which Chronicle P is inscribed is in very poor condition. The fragment is 180 mm wide and 120 mm long and represents only about one third of the original tablet. The fragment comes from the bottom portion of the chronicle.

Chapter
i
ii
iii
iv
Section
2'
3'
4'
5'
6'
7
8'
9'
10'
11'
12'
13'
14'

Column I

[i.2'] [lacuna]

... king of Karduniaš and ...

[i.3'] 'king of Assyria between them made a treaty and together they fixed the boundary.

[i.4'] ... he rebuilt and restored it.

[i.5']  

'Kadašman-harbe, son of Karaindaš, son of Muballitat-serua,

[i.6'] 'the daughter of Aššur-uballit,note king of Assyria, ordered[7] the overthrow of the Suteans

[i.7] 'from the east to west, and annihilated their extensive forces.

[i.8'] He reinforced the fortresses in Mount Šaršar.note He dug wells and

[i.9'] settled people on fertile lands to strengthen the guard. Afterwards

[i.10'] the Kassite people rebelled against him and killed him. Šuzigaš, a Kassite,

[i.11'] the son of a nobody,note they appointed as sovereign over them. Aššur-uballit,

[i.12'] king of Assyria, marched to Karduniaš[13], to avenge Kadašman-harbe, his daughter's son, and

[i.13'] 'Šuzigaš, the Kassite,

[i.14'] he killed. Aššur-iballit put Kurigalzu, son of Kadašman-harbe, on his father's throne.