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Secondary sourceDocument1920 (photograph of ancient cylinder)

Rassam Cylinder, First Egyptian War of Ashurbanipal

E. A. Wallis Budge · 1920 (photograph of ancient cylinder)

A photograph of a clay cylinder recording Ashurbanipal's account of his war in Egypt, published with translation by E. A. Wallis Budge.

The cylinder records Ashurbanipal's own account of his war in Egypt, though this image is a later published photograph.

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Black-and-white plate from a published book titled 'The First Egyptian War' under 'ASSURBANIPAL'. On the left, a tall six-sided clay cylinder covered in rows of cuneiform script. On the right, columns of small transliterated text with translation lines and footnote notation.
Rassam cylinder, First Egyptian War of Ashurbanipal. Text translated by George Smith (1871); photograph published by E. A. Wallis Budge, 1920.

About this source

What it is

This is a photograph of the Rassam cylinder, a six-sided clay cylinder covered in cuneiform script recording Ashurbanipal's account of his first war in Egypt. The text was first translated by George Smith in 1871, and this photograph appears in a later publication by E. A. Wallis Budge from 1920, showing the cylinder alongside transliterated and translated text.

Why it matters

The cylinder is one of the royal inscriptions through which Ashurbanipal recorded his military campaigns for later generations. Its translation by 19th-century scholars like George Smith and Budge opened up Assyrian history to modern readers, showing how much of what we know about Ashurbanipal comes from deciphering these ancient texts.

Look closer

  • Why might a king want to have his wars recorded in writing on a clay object?
  • What challenges might scholars have faced translating this cuneiform script?
  • How does seeing the translation next to the original text change how you read the source?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ashurbanipal on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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