Assyrian King List

Incomplete lists of Assyrian kings have been discovered in every one of Assyria's three capitals: Aššur, Dur-Šarukkin, and Nineveh. There are also two fragments. The texts of these copies are more or less consistent and goes back to one original, which was based on the list of yearly limmu-officials, who were appointed by the king and had to preside the celebration of the New Year festival.

As a consequence, modern scholars tend to believe that the numbers of regnal years mentioned in the Assyrian King List are correct; however, there are minor differences between the copies. Down to the reign of Aššur-dan I, they offer identical information, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that the list is more or less reliable until his regnal years, 1178-1133. Before 1178, the three documents show divergences.
 

Edition:

Assyrian King List

Note 1:
Probably, the author of the Assyrian King List wanted to create the impression that these rulers, with their rhyming, invented names, were nomad kings.

Note 2:
It is not clear what is meant with 'ancestors'; nor is it understood why the sequence of kings is reverted. Perhaps, we must read 'my predecessors', but this raises the question who is their descendant. Note the calculating error: the writer has mentioned ten kings, but one of them, Apiašal son of Ušpia, has already been mentioned among the seventeen who lived in tents.

Note 3:
Bricks with inscriptions of some of these rulers are indeed known.

Note 4:
Sargon and Naram-Sin are also the names of kings of Akkad who probably ruled in the twenty-fourth and twenty-third centuries BCE. However, the two men mentioned in this list appear to be more recent.

Note 5:
If this Ila-kabkabi is identical to the king mentioned before, the word 'son' must be read as 'descendant'.

Note 6:
'Son of a nobody' means that someone seized power, although he did not belong to the royal dynasty. It appears that Aššur-dugul's reign was contested not only by the six kings mentioned in the next section, but also by Mut-Aškur, Rimu-xxx, and Asinum.

Note 7:
This appears to be the correct date. The implication is that Aššur-nadin-apli  ruled four years (the tablets mention 3 and 4) and Ninurta-apil-Ekur three (the tablets mention 3 and 13).

Note 8:
It is difficult to establish the length of the two 'brief' reigns of Ninurta-tukulti-Aššur and Mutakkil-Nusku, which makes all the dates offered above hard to verify. However, we know for certain that Aššur-uballit I, who was dated to 1353-1318, exchanged letters with his Egyptian colleague Akhenaten (1353-1336). The error can not be very large (five years?).

Note 9:
From the Assyrian Eponym List, it is known that Tiglath-pileser III became king in April/May 745.

Note 10:
Another tablet, written by a different scribe, contains another colophon:

Written and checked with the original. Tablet of Bêl-šuma-iddin, Aššur's exorcist. May Šamaš take away the man who steals this tablet.