The following inscription is engraved (lines 1 to 49) on the back and (lines 50 to 81) on the left side of a stele of reddish stone brought from Babylon by Mr. Rassam, and now in the British Museum. The stele is rounded at the top, and on the face Aššurbanipal is represented in high relief in his tiara and royal robes, supporting on his head with his two hands an object which looks like a basket of woven reeds. The meaning of this attitude has been discussed in a learned paper by Mr. Evetts, and his conclusion is that the king is represented “in his capacity as priest carrying the instruments of sacrifice” (P.S.B.A. 1891). In the inscription the king, after setting forth his glory and titles, goes on to record how that he completed the work of restoration and adornment, which Esarhaddon his father had begun in Êsagila and the other temples of Babylon, that he brought back the image of Marduk, which in the reign of a former king (Sennacherib) had been carried away to Assyria, that he reorganized the public worship and other internal affairs of Babylon, and established his brother Šamaššumukin on the throne.
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