This inscription of Tiglath Pileser I is found on an octagonal prism and
on some other clay fragments discovered at Kalah-Shergat and at present in
the British Museum. The text is published in the "Cuneiform Inscriptions
of Western Asia," Vol. I, pp. ix-xvi. Four translations of this
inscription, made simultaneously in 1857 by Sir H. Rawlinson, Mr. Fox
Talbot, Dr. Hincks, and Dr. Oppert, were published in that year under the
title of "Inscription of Tiglath Pileser I, King of Assyria, B.C. 1150."
Dr. Oppert has also given a revised translation in his "_Histoire de
l'Empire de Chaldée et d'Assyrie,_" 8vo, Versailles, 1865, extracted from
the "_Annales de la Philosophie chrétienne_" of the same year, 5e Series,
p. 44 and foll. The translations simultaneously published were submitted
to the Asiatic Society in that year as a test of the advance made in
Assyrian interpretations and the close approximation made by scholars in
their interpretation of Assyrian texts. The notes contain some of the
different readings of the other Assyrian scholars at that time and give a
few of the principal varieties of reading some of the words. It was
generally considered a very triumphant demonstration of the sound basis on
which the then comparatively recent Assyrian researches were placed and a
confutation of certain opinions then prevalent, that no certain or
accurate advance had been made in the decipherment of Assyrian
inscriptions. On the whole for its extent and historical information
relating to the early history of Assyria this inscription is one of the
most important of the series showing the gradual advance and rise of
Assyria, while as one of the first interpreted it presents considerable
literary interest in respect to the details of the progress of Assyrian
interpretation. It is also nearly the oldest Assyrian text of any length
which has been hitherto discovered and is very interesting from its
account of the construction of the temples and palaces made by the King in
the early part of his reign. S.B.