So far, seven “tablets” are known, which belong to a lexical series which “gives a hodge-podge of words and phrases relevant to business documents mixed with laws” (N. Veldhuis, "The Cuneiform Tablet as an Educational Tool," Dutch Studies on Near Ea­stern Languages and Cultures 2 [1996] 11-26). This series is called after its first entry ana ittišu (Sum. ki-ulutin-bi-še₃), “upon pertinent notice given.”

This text artifact in the Vorderasiatische Museum, Berlin, is a copy of the sixth tablet of this series. There is so far just one other manuscript (K 4317+), dating to the neo-Assyrian period and belonging to Assurbanipal’s royal library in Nineveh. This manuscript has just a small fraction of the list preserved. The Middle Assyrian manuscript, on the other hand, preserves almost the entire text.

As we have seen in earlier posts, the lexical texts from Assur are already bilingual. Each column of this four-column tablet has two sub-columns with a Sumerian version on the left and its Akkadian equivalent on the right. This column-based format of bilingual texts was mainly used for lexical texts. We will come across a different format when discussing copies of literary compositions.

In ana ittišu, each phrase is separated by a ruling from the subsequent one. The tablet’s colophon states that it’s source is Nippur. Forerunners of this lexical list are in fact known from Old Babylonian Nippur (ca. 1900-1600 BC).

CDLI entry: P282494

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Studying the extant colophons in the so-called "reconstructed Iibrary" M2 allows us to a certain extent to reconstruct the scribal sphere of a particular period in Assur's history. It is not known, whether the scribes attested in the colophons worked together or were educated at the same place. Little to nothing is known about these aspects of Middle Assyrian administration. The texts copied by the two brothers Marduk-balassu-eresh and Bel-aha-iddina offer a rather vivid picture. They checked each others copy in several instances. That may suggest that both were educated at the same time. However, we do not look at a full record.

This quite well-preserved tablet contains six columns of text. This list of objects made of wood is part of a large multi-thematic series, known by its first entry as ur₅-ra : hubullu, whose forerunners are known from the Old Babylonian period. By the Middle Assyrian period we already have a more or less standardised text.

As a general feature of lexical texts of this period, this list offers Akkadian equivalents to Sumerian terms. Each column contains two sub-columns with the Sumerian version on the left and the Akkadian on the right. Additionally, each Sumerian term is written with the classifier GIŠ to mark wood and wooden objects.

CDLI entry: P282430

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

It is unfortunate that hardly anything is known about the royal scribe Ninurta-uballissu and his sons. There are no letters, no administrative or legal documents, that may give us any hints about this family. The only testimony thus far are (currently) 23 texts, which can be assigned to one of the three sons of Ninurta-uballissu. There might be even more in the corpus (for an overview see K. Wagensonner, WOO 6 [2011]). Connecting lines in the diagram mark those tablets, where Marduk-balassu-eresh checked the copies of Bel-aha-iddina and vice versa.

(1) Marduk-balassu-eresh
(1.A.) Lexical texts
- Ea, tablet II
- Aa, tablet III/1 (= 16)
- Ura, tablet V
- Ana ittishu, tablet VI
- Ana ittishu, tablet VII
- Kagal, tablet B
- Nabnitu, tablet IV
(1.B.) Literary texts
- Lugal-e I-IV
- Lugal-e IX-XII
- Lugal-e XIII-XVI
- An-gim
- Nin-Isina's Journey to Nippur
(1.C.) Varia
- Astrolabe B

(2) Bel-aha-iddina
(2.A.) Lexical texts
- Ura, tablet III
- Diri, tablet II
- Ana ittishu, tablet III
- Kagal, tablet A
- Kagal, tablet II
[- Diri, tablet III]
(2.B.) Literary texts
- Nin-Isina's Journey to Nippur

(3) Sin-shuma-iddina
(3.A.) Lexical texts
- Ea, tablet I
- Izi, tablet XII
(3.B.) Literary text
- Unidentified

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The colophon of VAT 8875 may serve as good example of the range of information that can be gained from this data. This well-preserved tablet contains the sixth part (lit. "tablet") of the lexical series Ana ittišu, a list that contains judicial terminology and may be interpreted as a kind of phrase book.

The colophon is separated by a double ruling from the main body of the text. As mentioned in an earlier post, remarks may be written over this double ruling. The first line of the colophon contains a catch line, which refers to the first line of the subsequent "tablet" in the series. Such catch lines are used for lexical series that consist of several "tablets" in the series (DUB) or for literary compositions, which are copied on several tablets (e.g., "Ninurta's Exploits" which is copied on four tablets with four sections each; see later posts).

What follows is a technical apparatus containing information on the series, the amount of lines, and the provenance. In most cases the provenance is not rather accurate. In most instances of this "library" it is either Babylon or Nippur, where the sources supposedly originate from. There is just one case in this corpus, two copies of "Nin-Isina's Journey to Nippur," which provides more accurate data on the provenance.

The third main section of the colophon contains information on the scribe and his patronym. In some cases, not in this particular instance, this section also contains information about the individual, who checked the copy (IGI.KAR2). The colophons on the tablets written by two sons of the royal scribe Ninurta-uballissu contain a formula that contains a wish against the erasure of their name on the tablet.

Finally the tablets frequently bear a date.

CDLI entry: P282494

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The Middle Assyrian evidence for the first tablet of the lexical series Ea is quite good. The two texts presented here, VAT 10172 and BM 108862, are the main manuscripts for the reconstruction of the series. Both tablets bear colophons, although on the latter the colophon is unfortunately mostly broken off. The tablet on the left-hand side was written by a certain Sîn-šuma-iddina, son of the royal scribe Ninurta-uballissu. We will later deal in more detail with the textual heritage of this family, whose sons were responsible of copying more than 20 tablets. The colophon of this tablet states that the source for the copy was an "old" tablet. Indeed his copy makes use of archaising sign forms once in a while. This feature is missing on the second tablet, whose palaeography is clearly Middle Assyrian.

CDLI entries: P282497; P453275

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Each entry contains a very specific set of information: (1) A vertical wedge is the general marker for lexical entries; (2) a sign reading for the subsequent logogram (often written in smaller script);
(3) a Sumerian logogram; [(4) an analytical representation of the logogram (mostly part of the 1st millennium tradition]; and (5) an Akkadian equivalent.

CDLI entry: P282497

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Sign syllabaries represent the major source for both the sign values and the Akkadian meanings of Sumerian signs. In the later scribal tradition, there are, in particular, two sign syllabaries of great importance: (1) Ea and (2) Diri, both using a quite similar syntax in representing lexicographical data. The former list, whose first entry is e-a : A : nâqu, in general collects Sumerian logograms that are represented as single signs. Diri, on the other hand, contains logogram groups and their various readings and Akkadian equivalents.

The present tablet belongs to the lexical series Ea and is a copy of its first “tablet.” As a matter of fact, the Middle Assyrian evidence can be seen as the most important source for this series before the 1st millennium texts. This is due to its relative good preservation (together with P453275). The content and sequence of the list’s entries did not change significantly compared to the 1st millennium evidence, and thus the Middle Assyrian manuscripts form the basis for our reconstruction of Ea.

The sequence of the entries of Ea follows in some sense a pattern that presents simple or basic sign forms first and, subsequently, more and more complex sign forms. The first sign, A, is rather simple. Next are combinations of the sign A, A with inscribed characters (for instance, A×IGI [EYE within WATER]= Akkadian bakû, “to cry”), and so on.

CDLI entry: P282497

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The site of Assur, located on the western shore of the Tigris, yielded textual finds from many periods of Mesopotamian history. Very rich are the finds dating to the Middle Assyrian period (ca. 1400-1000 BC). The subsequent posts focus on the so-called "reconstructed library M 2," a collection of texts, whose larger part is considered to belong to an official library. However, their original setting is unknown. Some of these texts found their way to the later Neo-Assyrian capital Nineveh and were included in the "palace library."

The text depicted here is a bilingual copy of the Sumerian literary composition "Ninurta's Exploits." The bilingual sources from Middle Assyrian Assur represent the most important source for the Akkadian translation of Sumerian literature before the 1st millennium BC.

CDLI entry: P282600

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Conditions of tablets vary greatly and change over time. The example shown represents a tablet which had split into many fragments due to salt activity within the fabric. The fragments are brittle and crumble easily making it difficult to reassemble the interior. Since they cannot be reattached easily and in order to protect the remains from further deterioration during handling a removable fill was made. A thin plastic sheet was placed over the tablet before applying Polyfilla (calcium sulphate/cellofas) to the break edge. Once dry the fill and sheet were removed and the fill refined, sealed and painted before attaching it to the object. Polyfilla is lighter weight than plaster and much softer; using it to create as support fill allows the object to be held without putting pressure on the original surface which is delicate.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

Numerous cuneiform tablets exhibit dark spots and stains on their visible surfaces. The discoloration doesn’t represent damage, but it does diminish the readability of affected texts. This phenomenon was recently studied by C. Gütschow (“Methoden zur Restaurierung von ungebrannten und gebrannten Keilschrifttafeln—Gestern und Heute,” BBVO 22 [2012] 75ff.). Analyses showed that these stains derive from manganese, that is a natural component of clay. After excavated tablets dry out, the manganese reaches the tablet surface and oxidizes.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

This Hellenistic legal document is shown here being re-assembled using low tension clamps to secure the sections while the adhesive cures. The adhesive was applied in some areas as a liquid and in others as cured sheets which were reactivated with solvent.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

Here, the tablet Ashm 1974-580 is shown after the treatment. It shows several removable fills used to support fragments where the substrate has been lost. The fills have been painted to a solid colour so that they aren’t distracting to the object but also clearly distinguishable from the original. The fills have not been cast directly onto the object and can be easily removed with a small amount of solvent.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

Though appearing stable at first, the text Ashm 1974-580 suffered quite a lot. Parts of its surface were flaked off and left a greater number of fragments. To a great extent these fragments bear text and fragments of signs.

Recently most of the fragments could be rejoined to the tablet. Since the inner core is quite unstable as well, parts of the supporting material are gone. In order to re-attach some fragments, it was necessary to add a modern support.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

This four-sided prism contains a frequently copied Sumerian literary composition, which is nowadays called the "Kesh Temple Hymn." Although the inner clay body appears to be in a relatively good condition, some areas on the surface became unstable. In the course of a recent treatment of the prism a loose fragment (highlighted) could be rejoined to the tablet. Since any supporting material was gone, the fragment needed to be lifted onto a modern fill.

The surface of the prism contains many smaller cracks. In order to stabilise the surface and prevent additional fragments from falling off, a thin adhesive was applied with a micropipette to consolidate the cracks.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

This large four-sided prism containing several Sumerian literary compositions has received treatment some time ago. In order to stabilise the fragile body of the prism, the losses were filled with plaster. Unfortunately plaster that has been cast directly onto the tablet cannot be removed easily; making it difficult to replace with a more suitable material. A further complication is that plaster has been deposited on the surface adjacent to the fills leaving a fine layer of plaster. This layer is obscuring parts of the inscribed surface of the text.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

The large tablet Ashm 1923-404 (containing an Old Babylonian version of a profession list) unfortunately represents a rather degraded clay body. It is one of those objects in the Ashmolean Museum, which is at risk of irreparable damage, if it does not receive treatment to secure the surface as far as possible.

Parts of the surface have already been lost; other areas are at risk of flaking off. Two areas are highlighted here. The red area shows a part of the surface, which is extremely worn out. Most of the inscription is gone. Both obverse and reverse have been imaged with the camera dome. Reflectance Transformation Imaging discussed in earlier posts thanks to the raking light can still help to make remains of the inscription visible.

The green area represents earlier treatment of the tablet. This kind of pattern with little round dots can be found on a greater number of tablets. These are not ancient traces, but a shadow of the surface the tablet was dried on during the desalination process. The circles are actually salt drawn to the surface where it could escape more quickly due to holes in the material they were placed on.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

The majority of cuneiform artefacts were discovered unfired in the soil. In cases such as Palace G in Ebla, which has been destroyed by fire, the tablets were burnt already in antiquity. Furthermore, many so-called "library" texts were fired in antiquity as well. Until quite recently it has been customary to fire tablets in museum collections in order to better preserve them. The firing of a tablet, however, changes the chemical and physical characteristics of the clay. The firing not always led to the desired result and did the artefacts more harm than good. It became necessary to modify the firing process according to the analysis of the clay fabric of each artefact.

Historically firing was followed by desalination in water to remove soluble salts. However this treatment is not always effective and the approach is debated because the salt can be a significant part of the object's structure. Controlling the environment and specifically the humidity that these objects are stored has been shown to be an effective way of preventing salt movement and therefore damage. Cases are shown here of salts remaining in the clay body even after firing and desalination. Depending on the conditions of storage these salts might reach the surface and build smaller or larger encrustations. Examples: two Old Babylonian legal texts P315345 and P315343; and an Early Old Babylonian royal inscription with a larger area covered with thick salt encrustation.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

Including the collection of cuneiform artefacts of the Bodleian library the Ashmolean Museum holds 4,515 objects, which makes this collection the second-largest in Britain after the British Museum and one of the major European collections of text artefacts from the Ancient Near East. In preparation for the digitisation of the collection by CDLI the greater part of the collection has been surveyed between June and September 2012 (undertaken by the conservator Dana Norris). In the course of the assessment the tablets have been measured in order to start preparation for re-housing each tablet individually in storage boxes.

The assessment revealed that 15 % of the collection is in a very good condition and almost two thirds of the texts are stable. 38 objects of the collection were at risk of irreparable damage, would they not receive treatment. About 140 objects (the afore-mentioned 38 including) had loose or unstable fragments. Some of the largest objects in the collection may have suffered from the firing and subsequent desalination process that took place in the late 1970s due to the physical shape and thickness of the clay.

credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus

(3) In the next step Image 3 is copied onto the merged Images 1 and 2. On this image the light comes from the right side. Therefore the better lit areas are selected. After feathering this the selection, it is copied onto a new layer and the original Image 3 can be deleted.

(4) It is now necessary to do some adjustments, which involve selecting areas of transition and modifying exposure and other settings. Since captures from light sources are taken, that lie opposite of each other, the transition points between the selected areas frequently appear problematic (especially in the case of tablet with a great curvature on the reverse).

After having all that done, this representation can be included in an already existed (flat-bed scanned) fat cross, in order to increase readability.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Much work is being done on developing an online RTI-viewer, which allows to adjust the light angles in a web-based environment (see, for instance, the Portable Light Dome). In the meantime captures taken by the camera dome can be used to gain a good 2D-result. It must be stressed that this process cannot be automatised. Each side need to be treated individually. The end result sometimes may seem over-edited, but it is aimed at provided the most readable result.

After processing the raw files to a PTM file, this file is opened in a locally installed RTI-viewer (see earlier posts). Depending on the curvature of the object either three or four images with different light angles need to be exported. On the left-hand side three such exported shots of Ashm 1922-176 are shown with indication of the various light sources (yellow points on green). Image 1 uses light from the upper left corner, Image 2 from the lower left corner and Image 3 from the right side.

(1) In a first step all three shots are opened in Photoshop. First, Image 2 is copied onto Image 1. Since on Image 2 the light comes from the lowerleft corner, we can select the areas of better visibility.

(2) The selection needs to be feathered in order to avoid sharp borders and have a smooth transition between the different images. That being done the selection is copied into a new layer. The original Image 2 can now be removed. In some cases one of the layers needs some adjustments.

Of course, parts of Image 3 still need to be blended over this result. This will be shown in tomorrow's post.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The script and Photoshop actions discussed in the last couple of days can also be used to automatically process large quantities of raw images. In order to do that a folder containing raw files is taken. The script searches for the first file that contains "be" (standing for bottom edge) and then selects all files that start with the same element (in this case a museum number).

The remaining parts of the process are similar to those described before. The files are merged together into one document. Then the background is removed and the sides are preliminary aligned. This preliminary fat cross is then saved with the museum number as file name.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

After the sides are aligned to produce a preliminary "fatcross" (see [4] on the left) each side can now be placed.

(5) Since the black background of each layer was removed in an earlier step, the sides can easily be aligned and placed quite close to either obverse or reverse. The obverse is surrounded by all four edges with the top edge above and so forth. Remains of the support (or foams) may now obstruct several sides. In a further step, a script helps reducing the manual labour in removing these problems as far as possible. Both obverse and reverse are cleaned. The remaining areas can be quickly cleaned with the eraser tool.

Last but not least, dust and little scratches need to be removed, but the pollution on scans depends on the frequency of cleaning the glass and of course on the text artefact itself, which might lose dust during the imaging process. Flat-bed scanner need to be renewed after scanning a certain amount of objects, since scratches cannot be avoided completely.

In tomorrow's post the processing of a large batch of raw files using this method will be presented.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

As we have seen yesterday, the individual sides are copied into one document. The script uses the raw files. There is no need to crop the sides individually, since the subsequent step in the script deals with the background (see upper left corner).

(3) First, the levels (brightness, contrast, etc.) are adjusted. This darkens not just the individual side (making the inscription more visible), but the background as well, which now should be pitch black. Photoshop's Magic Wand selects automatically a specific point in each layer (the upper left corner at position 0,0 is chosen for this purpose). The background is deleted. Since the edges are scanned with the help of a support, remains of this support may still be visible. The remains can easily be removed with the eraser, after all edges are aligned correctly.

(4) In the next step the script preliminarily puts all sides in the right area. Since the script does use the original raw files, final adjustments need to be done manually. However, most of the bakcground is gone now and hence it is possoble to move the edges rather close to obverse and reverse without obstucting them with the respective backgrounds.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The advantages of flat-bed scans in terms of processing times and efforts have been made clear (see Digitization Guidelines). Most of the manual labour of creating "fatcrosses" can be done by using scripts and actions. On this and the pages that follow in the next couple of days, one way of processing scans is being presented.

Let us have a look on creating a fatcross for one tablet, Ashm 1922-176, a letter from the famous Šamaš-hazir correspondence discussed earlier (CDLI-entry: P450713).

(1) First the individual sides (bottom edge (be), left edge (le), obverse (o), reverse (r), right edge (re), top edge (te)) need to be selected. The script copies these files into one document and into individual layers.

(2) The interim result of this first part is a patch-work of the individual sides. The layers are renamed to fit the sides.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Once all six sides (or even more in case of a cone or prism) are processed, they can be stitched together to a "fatcross," i.e., a representation of the text artefact making all sides visible.

Since the distance between object and camera lens differs depending on the side taken (unless the distance is adjusted using the respective focus, which is however time-consuming), the size of each side need to be adjusted individually. Furthermore, although specific settings in the afore-mentioned software Photomatix Pro help to reduce the background noise, in many cases the background need to be cleaned carefully.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Earlier we saw that merging together photos taken with different exposure lengths and hence producing High Dynamic Range photos lead to a better output of shadows and highlights on text artefacts.

In most cases three shots suffice to get good results. Although images can processed manually to get an HDR photo, it is worthwhile to use specific software for doing so. Photomatix Pro, for instance, allows for adjusting various settings in order to gain a balanced photo.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The camera dome collects 76 images that are processed to a Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTM) file. These processed files are opened in a locally installed viewer (called RTIviewer). In this program the light angles can be manipulated. For gathering an interim 2D image, three or four different light positions are saved individually.

In the left upper image the light position is (as indicated within the green circle) in the left upper corner; on the right side there is an extracted image with the light position in the right lower corner.

In Adobe Photoshop, these three (or four) images are merged and areas of good exposure and detail are kept and blended in order to gain an evenly lighted 2D result that can be combined with processed images from a flatbed scanner.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

After discussing various imaging techniques that are used by CDLI, let us return to Reflectance Transformation Imaging. Whether using a camera dome or just placing a shiny ball in an object's vicinity, it is necessary to process the gathered raw images. The essential key is a file that contains the light positions (x, y, and z axis) of each LED in the camera dome (or positions of light sources that are reflected in the shiny ball).

A so-called PTM-fitter merges the raw images together and calculates the various light angles. The resulting PTM-file can be viewed in a RTIviewer. In this program the various effects of the light sources on the text artefact can be simulated.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The camera dome at the Ashmolean Museum produces 76 images (as explained earlier each with a different light angle). The individual light positions are saved in a lp-file, which is in fact a text file containing a list of all LEDs and the corresponding x, y, and z axes (see the screenshot below on the right side).

Cultural Heritage Imaging provides a RTI-builder, which allows for easy processing the raw images from the camera dome. In doing so, they program uses the file with the light positions and calculates the different light angles. In case an object is imaged without a dome and using a glossy ball, the individual positions of the light sources need to be extrapolated in each processing by selecting the ball on the shots. The program then detects the highlighting reflections of the light on the glossy ball and thus calculates the light positions.

This program furthermore allows to crop the area. Therefore, valuable storage space is saved.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

As mentioned in yesterday's post, a steady work-flow guarantees not just a faster imaging, but is also less prone to errors (e.g., forgotten sides). CDLI's digitization guidelines, contain instructions of how to use such a work-flow. In doing so, starting with the right side (obverse or reverse) of a tablet is less crucial and can easily be corrected in the processing afterwards. (For some periods identifying obverse or reverse may pose difficulties. Furthermore, splinters from the surface of larger tablets quite frequently cannot be identified as belonging to either obverse or reverse.)

The work-flow can be used for one tablet at a time, but also for a bunch of tablets. Smallish administrative texts dating to the Ur III period, for instance, can be scanned in groups of up to 24. For edges it is necessary to use a kind of support. CDLI uses a "tablet box," which is a kind of frame with several compartments (see the photo on yesterday's post). In these conpartments the tablets can be inserted and hold in place with foam pieces.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

For larger collections of cuneiform text artefacts as the Ashmolean Museum the camera dome is used for about 20-25 % of the holdings. This technology is used, in particular, for high impact objects as well as damaged and sealed surfaces. Imaging texts with the camera dome takes a certain amount of time. The camera dome needs about 6-7 minutes per side.

All text artefacts are imaged using a conventional flat-bed scanner (here, the Canon 5600F, which proved to allow for very good results). Flat-bed scanning has several advantages. First, the whole process is faster (especially by employing a certain work-flow; see the next post) compared to other imaging techniques. Since each surface has always the same distance to the scanner, the speed of processing the raw files is significantly faster than processing images produced with other techniques (a nice side-effect is that given the resolution the size of an artefact can be calculated).

In the section "Processing" following soon, the processing techniques of scans will be presented in more detail.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

High Dynamic Range Photography (short HDR) allows for a better management of the shadowy and light spots of objects and therefore captures a greater dynamic range between the darkest and lightest spots of an image. This method is quite suitable for text artefacts. The camera is mounted on a copy-stand facing down (alternatively a tripod can be used). A light source casts light onto the object from the upper left corner. A reflector (either another light source or a piece of aluminium foil) on the opposite corner reflects the light back to the object.

The camera is set to M(anual mode). A mid-range shutter speed is chosen. Automatic Exposure (AE) bracketing allows for generating three (or up to nine) shots each with a different exposure length (short, middle, long). Single shots often can lead to a loss of detail.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

In case the object that needs to be imaged with Reflectance Transformation Imaging technology is oversized and does not fit into the dome (the maximum size of the object must not exceed a third of the dome's diameter), it is possible to use this imaging technique also without a dome. The great advantage of a camera dome is that it eliminates any ambient light and offers a completely darkened environment.

A hand-held flash replaces the LEDs attached to the inside of the camera dome. In order to have the light source approximately at the same distance to the object the easiest method is to use a piece of string, whose length is three times as large as the object's height.

At any point (or at several) a shiny ball (most adequate are either a red or black snooker ball) is placed that reflects the light source (from the hand-held flash) at every shot taken.

When processed the computer can calculate the location of the light source in relation to the reflection on the ball. Whereas the number of LEDs within a camera dome is fixed, so-called "Highlight RTI" allows for as many shots with different light positions as possible.

The object imaged here is a Neo-Assyrian relief from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus & Lafont, Bertrand

The diameter of the camera dome is approximately 1 m. The schematics on the right show demonstrate how the dome works. On the its inside 76 light sources (LEDs) are attached. One after another they cast light onto the surface of an object, which is placed in the centre. In order to gain the best results, the artefact is on level with the horizon of the hemisphere.

In a couple of days time we are going to have a look into the viewing and processing of images produced by such a camera dome. For further information on this technology and its use for the digitisation of ancient documents see the webpage of Cultural Heritage Imaging.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The camera dome used by the project "Creating a Sustainable Cuneiform Digital Library" at the University of Oxford uses 76 daylight-LEDs, which are attached to the inside of the plexiglas dome. A high resolution digital camera is mounted on the top of the dome, looking straight down through a hole. The object is placed on a stage in the centre lifted up to the horizon.

This technology named Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) is used to create a Polynomial Texture Map (PTM) of any object whose surface has a texture. The 76 individual raw files each using a different light source and therefore a different light angle, are merged together. In the resulting PTM-file the various light angles can be simulated.

Tomorrow's post will show the inside of the camera dome as well as a cross section.

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This tablet in the Ashmolean Museum collects incantations from a medical ritual that is known as ugu, "scull," the full title being in translation "If a man's head is feverish." This ritual series collects medical conditions and a respective treatment, which includes the preparation of potions and ointments as well as their application.

K 2354+ is a large manuscript from the library of the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal from Nineveh, which contains the first section of the ritual series. In contrast, the example in the Ashmolean Museum contains specifically incantations that belong to section I-IV of the series.

CDLI entry: P274683

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The cuneiform culture attests to a vast corpus of omina. Divination, the observation of signs on the organs of a sheep, was one of the major tools for predicting the future and come to a decision. While liver omina are well-known from cuneiform texts, omina regarding the sheep's lungs are quite scarce.

This quite large and unfortunately fragmentary tablet in the Ashmolean Museum originates from the excavations in ancient Kish and therefore belongs to the rich finds of scholarly texts from the first millennium BC Babylonia. There are several parallels known for this text (collected by A. R. George, "Review of OECT 11," [1990], ZA 80, 159). Most notable is a fairly well preserved manuscript from Nineveh dating to the Middle Assyrian period and coming originally from Assur (K 205).

Besides liver models in clay there are also a couple of examples of model lungs. The most significant example comes from Nimrud (CTN 4, 60). It is a three-dimensional model of a sheep's lungs and other internal organs. A further example is CBS 470, whose surface is divided into fields by lines. Each field is inscribed with either the cuneiform sign for "left," "right," or both to indicate whether the omen is good ("right") or bad ("left").

Coming back to our text, the following two omens may be cited:

If the lower part of the lung is split on the right, then the totality of my army will disintegrate. My army will collapse in its main body.
If the lower part of the lung is split on the left, then the totality of the enemy army will disintegrate. The enemy army will collapse in its main body.

CDLI entry: P348953

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

About 75 documents in the Ashmolean Museum date to the Hellenistic period (323-63 BC). Outstanding is a larger group of brick-shaped legal documents.

This contract (see T. Doty, Cuneiform Archives from Hellenistic Uruk [1977], 102ff.; P. Corò, Prebende Templari in Età Seleucide [2005], 307ff.) deals with the lease of a butcher's allotment (ṭābihūtu) for a period of 10 years. Compared to other prebends like brewer's prebend or the baker's prebend the individual leasing such an allotment will do the work that is connected with it and enjoys its income. Kidin-Sîn agrees to pay cuts of meat to Anu-mar-ittannu.

Furthermore the document contains clauses in order to prevent the seller (Anu-mar-ittannu) to otherwise sell the allotment, and to prevent Kidin-Sîn from subcontracting the allotment to other parties. Both parties receive a copy of the contract.

In the Hellenistic period the stamp seal came into new fashion. It is a common feature of such documents that the parties and witnesses sealed with their respective seals. The impressions are labeled.

CDLI entry: P342373

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Tabular accounts, which present information on horizontal and vertical axes are known, in particular, starting with the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC). This tablet in the Ashmolean Museum is such a tabular account. The information is organised and presented into columns and rows. It records the lengths, widths and depths of earth works. The table presents the volumes of canals dug and not yet dug and assigns these works to workmen or overseers. Additionally the document gives subtotals and totals of lengths and volumes at various points. The text groups the information into headed columns. Although the tablet bears no date, the names mentioned as well as the palaeography makes the area of Larsa in the time of the Babylonian kings Hammurapi or Samsu-iluna plausible.

The tabular complexity of this text is astonishing, for its organisation follows each, a horizontal and vertical axis. Furthermore, it has three levels of calculation: (1) entries marked with "that PN did" in the right-most column; (2) the descriptive phrase running the whole width of the tablet; (3) the grand total at the end. (edition: E. Robson, "Accounting for Change: The Development of Tabular Book-keeping in Early Mesopotamia," in: M. Hudson & C. Wunsch (eds) Creating Economic Order [2004], 112ff.).

CDLI entry: P347361

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This tablet in the collection of cuneiform artifacts of the Bodleian library, which is now part of the Ashmolean Museum, contains a mathematical problem, whose goal is to find the length and area of a triangle (edition: E. Robson, SCIAMVS 5 [2004], 24ff., no. 14). The area is described as a furrowed field, on which "furrows descrease on furrows by 6 rods." Therefore, the text provides information on the hypotenuse of the triangular area. Furthermore, it gives us the width of the field and the amount of furrows. On top of the obverse the text gives a diagram that shows the pertinent triangle.

The first problem is to calculate the length (line 4: UŠ EN.NAM). In lines 5-13 the calculations are described step by step. Since the width was already provided, the next problem is to find out the area of the triangle. The calculation of the latter is less complicated. It is simply needed to multiply half of the width with the length.

CDLI entry: P368255

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Mathematical texts come in many guises. This large multi-column tablet in the Ashmolean Museum contains a metrological list of capacities, weights, and areas. Metrological lists, such as this example, occur early in the Old Babylonian curriculum of apprentice scribes. A good grasp of numbers and the various ways of measuring were essential for a future administrative scribe.

Metrological lists are hence quite common in our documentation. Christine Proust mentions 187 tablets that can be assigned to this type of mathematical text (see C. Proust, CDLJ 2009:1). Thanks to their organisation in various sections and a clear structure of the metrology these texts provide valuable data on the different notations and the systems behind these notations. For a similar example see HS 249+1805 in the Hilprecht collection in Jena.

CDLI entry: P368260

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The Ashmolean Museum houses a text dating to the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2340-2200 BC), which was interpreted as mathematical exercise text. Parallels are known. So is ZA 74, 60 a tablet in the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago (edition: R.M. Whiting, "More Evidence for Sexagesimal Calculations in the Third Millennium B.C." ZA 74 [1984], 59ff.). Exercises such as these show that sexagesimal place notation, which is known in Old Babylonian mathematical texts and served to express fractions, was already used in the 3rd millennium. Both texts end with the Sumerian phrase ba-pa₃. An even closer parallel to this small tablet in the Ashmolean Museum is ZA 74, 65. Both, this tablet and our text mention an individual named Ur-Ištaran.

CDLI entry: P215434

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This tablet in the Ashmolean Museum belongs to the Old Babylonian archive of Mannum-mešu-lissur in Nippur and was published by G. R. Hunter in the eighth volume of the Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts. Texts such as this one deal with agreements for adoption. Besides documents that deal with the adoption of children in order to fulfil the social need to provide parents to orphans or heirs for childless couples other texts attest to the economic aspects of adoption. They may declare properties to be shared by the inheritors or assignments of custodianships for specific gates and so forth.

This particular document is dated to the reign of Sin-iqišam. It contains the shares of two sons. The individual shares contain properties (houses and fields) including their various locations (in relation to adjacent plots) as well as temple offices (or prebends), which are given for specific periods.

The document ends with the phrase:

Together they have agreed to the division. In future each will not make a claim against the other. Thus have they sworn in the name of the king.

A parallel of this document is provided by OECT 8, 17.

Edition: E. C. Stone and D. I. Owen, Adoption in Old Babylonian Nippur and the Archive of Mannum-mešu-lissur (= Mesopotamian Civilizations vol. 3) no. 53.

CDLI entry: P283645

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This administrative document records very large amounts of reeds revceived by Shulgi-ili from three named “scribes of the brewery” and from the important imperial administrator known as the Sukkal-maḫ. The first two scribes are said to come from Drehem (ancient Puzriš-Dagan), the administrative and quite possibly redistributive center established close to Nippur by Shulgi; the third scribe is said to be from Nippur itself. The delivery from the Sukkal-maḫ is ascribed to the work of the conscripts of Girsu.

A simple search using CDLI’s new seals catalogue results in five almost identical documents recording the same transaction from the years Ibbi-Suen 1 and 2.

On the four other artifacts, the seal of Shulgi-ili is found directly on the tablet, whereas our Ashmolean tablet, itself unsealed, was placed in a sealed envelope. Shulgi-ili is otherwise mostly known in Drehem records as a deliverer of fattened animals; thus, the reeds in these accounts, whose qualification zi demonstrates that they were used as fodder, were destined for these same animals.

CDLI entry: P142785

credit: Dahl, Jacob L.

Thanks to the excavations at the ancient site of Kish, the Ashmolean Museum houses a substantial collection of late lexical material from Mesopotamia. These texts are generally dated to the neo-Babylonian period. They reach from elementary lists of signs to complex compendia of lexical items.

This relatively well-preserved tablet appears to be as yet unpublished. It furthermore cannot be found in Oliver R. Gurney’s index of the lexical texts of the museum published in MSL SS 1. The content clearly relates this text to the geography sections of the thematic lexical series ur₅-ra : hubullu (edited in MSL 11). This series in its canonical version consists of 24 “tablets” covering a wide range of topics. The geography sections are preserved on tablets 20-22 of the series. Our text is important for the reconstruction of tablets 21-22, starting with important place names like Nippur and Isin. The reverse contains, among others sections on temple names, gate names and, finally, stars.

CDLI entry: P450731

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This lexical text in the Ashmolean Museum dates to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC). This period marks a time, when a new repertory of lexical texts has been compiled. Among the vast corpus of lexical texts dating already to the early second millennium, it is multi-thematic series ur₅-ra : hubullu that represents a complex inventory of words.

This multi-column tablet deals with topographical terms, among others a long list of rivers and canals. The list starts with the "ditch" (Sum. e.g.₂). The second entry is pa₅, "small canal." The list then goes on and proceeds with a long enumeration of river names marked by the classifier ID₂. All three designations are central to agriculture. Water for irrigation came from a river or major canal either to smaller canals (pa₅, Akk. atappu) or ditches (e.g.₂, Akk. īku).

The remaining text, as far preserved, contains other topographical designations and food stuff (e.g., designations of barley).

Quite a few designations are also attested in the later tradition of this lexical series, most notably in on the 22nd tablet (the series ur₅-ra : hubullu in its canonical version frm the late 2nd and 1st millennia BC consists of 24 tablets). In tomorrow's post a much later version of this list dating to the first millennium BC will be presented.

Edition: E. Reiner (with the collaboration of M. Civil), The Series HAR-ra = hubullu, Tablets XX - XXIV (MSL XI), 1974, pp. 144ff.

CDLI entry: P452252

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This lexical text was compiled in the late Uruk period (ca. 3200-3000 BC). It contains a list of metals and metal objects, following a sophisticated sequence based on semantic and graphical characteristics. This word list belongs to a group of archaic thematic word lists that, at the beginning of the third millennium, spread from Uruk to other cities in the ancient Near East. The best evidence for this particular list originates from the northern Babylonian sites of Fara and Tell Abu Salabikh, both dating to the ED IIIa period (ca. 2600-2500 BC). The list even reached the Syrian site of Ebla, attested there in an almost perfectly preserved manuscript.

While some archaic word lists, at least so far as we know, cease to be transmitted after the end of the Early Dynastic period, other lists continued in use until the early 2nd millennium, alongside the emergence of many new (genres of) lexical texts in the late Early Dynastic period. Still, the evidence for these texts in the second half of the third millennium is quite scarce.

The quite well-preserved seven-sided prism in the Ashmolean museum (originally published by O. R. Gurney in 1969 Iraq 31, pp. 3ff.) contains a version of the Metals list that dates to the Old Akkadian period. An important peculiarity about this version is the addition of a semantic classifier to each of the entries. This classifier ‛uruda’ precedes designations of objects made of copper. Otherwise, the text itself does not differ substantially from the Early Dynastic versions. Besides this modification, one should note the alternation of entries with and without the sign AN in a large section of the text. This feature is already present in the archaic versions. Patterns like this one are not uncommon in the early lexical corpus. The qualifier AN has been interpreted in several ways. Besides being a divine marker, it has also been argued that it might be an early form of the Sumerian designation for tin, an-na, or, since AN is also the Sumerian designation of the heavens, for “meteoric” iron.

CDLI entry: P213492

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The cultic calendar was of immense importance in Mesopotamia. This tablet in the Ashmolean Museum is a type of composition that was known to the ancient scribes as kakku sakku, "sealed, stopped up". A. Livingstone describes such texts as "expository works in which events from rituals are detailed and then explained by equating them with mythological events" (Livingstone, Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works [1986], 115). As was noted by O. R. Gurney in his edition of the text in OECT 11, the only close parallel to the text in the Ashmolean Museum is VAT 9947 (see Livingstone 1986, 126ff.).

Other compositions that loosely relate to such a text are the series Iqqur ippuš or the so-called Astrolabes (see, for instance, Astrolabe B). Most information regarding our text can be gained from the first column, which is better preserved. This column deals with days of the second month in the Babylonian calendar (iti-gu₄, Ayyaru). Astrolabe B relates to the gu₄-si-su festival in Nippur, which preceded the preparations of the coming plowing and sowing. That text states: "The month Ayyaru, the Pleiades, the Seven Gods. The Opening up of the ground; the oxen are yoked, the land becomes arable. The plows are washed; the month of heroic Ningirsu, the great ensi of Enlil." The tablet in the Ashmolean Museum deals with rituals performed on various days during specific months.

Edition: Gurney, O. R. 1989. Literary and miscellaneous texts in the Ashmolean Museum. OECT 11, Oxford, pp. 26ff.

CDLI entry: P348949

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This intriguing work of Akkadian religious poetry sings the praises of Amurru, a god of the steppe. According to one plausible interpretation, our text dates to the reign of Rim-Sin (1822-1763 BC), who ruled for sixty years over the southern Mesopotamian city of Larsa until his defeat at the hands of king Hammurabi of Babylon in 1763 (following the so-called middle chronology).

If the attribution to Rim-Sin is correct, then “Amurru and his crook” is currently one of the oldest extant works of Akkadian literature. The technical skill evinced in our poem’s carefully balanced verse, which is designed to be heard rather than read, suggests that Akkadian compositions such as these had a longer history than our limited sources allow us to see. In previous centuries, according to our evidence, Sumerian had been the literary language of choice. One of the most popular Sumerian genres was the hymn: a brief song of praise addressed to a god, at the end of which a king would request divine favor or thank the god for having granted his favor previously.

There is some evidence to suggest that under the kings of Larsa, among whom Rim-Sin was prominent, Sumerian literature in general began to decline, and that hymns in particular began to be composed in Akkadian. This development was to produce some of the early masterpieces of Akkadian literature under the dynasty of king Hammurabi of Babylon. While our text is no such masterpiece, it is nevertheless artfully composed and exhibits many phrases and grammatical features that are characteristic of high literary Akkadian. The religious outlook of “Amurru and his crook” is typically Mesopotamian: the singer praises Amurru both for his importance among the other gods of the pantheon and for the generosity and clemency he shows to mankind. The crook—the symbol of Amurru, who seems to be a pastoral god of the western steppe—has the power to “give life to the people,” as the hymn says. This may involve a pun on the word meaning “crook” (Akkadian: gamlum) and a similar-sounding word meaning “to be kind” (Akkadian: gamālum).

Edition: Gurney, O. R. 1989. Literary and miscellaneous texts in the Ashmolean Museum. OECT 11, Oxford, pp. 15-19

CDLI entry: P348900

credit: Metcalf, Christopher

The "Kesh temple hymn" is one of the few Old Sumerian literary texts, which is preserved not just through manuscripts from the ED IIIa period (ca. 2600-2500 BC), but also through a high amount of manuscripts dating to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC). This composition belonged to the corpus of ten literary texts, which were copied by apprentice scribes in the Old Babylonian "school". This collection is nowadays known as "Decad".

This manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum is one of the few copies of this composition, which were inscribed on a prism. The inner structure of the text is maintained by the repetition of a refrain that was already extant in the earliest versions from Tell Abu Salabikh dating to the ED IIIa period (ca. 2600-2500 BC). In the Old Babylonian version this refrain reads in translation as follows:

Will anyone else bring forth something as great as Keš?
Will any other mother ever give birth to someone as great as its hero Ašgi?
Who has ever seen anyone as great as its lady Nintur?

This refrain is followed by the remark e₂-n-kam-ma-am₃, "it is the nth house." The "Standard version" in the Old Babylonian period contains either 8 or 10 of such stanzas.

The content of this temple hymn can be summarised as follows (after C. Wilcke, "Die Hymne auf das Heiligtum Keš," Fs. Vanstiphout [2006], 201ff.):
(1) Enlil praises Kesh and the goddess Nisaba writes down the song
(2) (Enlil approaching the temple), characteristics of the temple seen from the distance
(3) Visual and acoustic impressions of the temple
(4) Dimensions, architecture, colours, and shape of the temple
(5) Purpose of the temple for the gods and humankind
(6) The temple on its inside
(7) The temple on its outside
(8) Continuation of the description of the temple
(9) Cultic personnel and ceremonies
(10) Invitation to come to Kesh and participate at the feast

CDLI entry: P452248
ETCSL translation: 4.80.2

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Within the Old Babylonian scribal education collections of literary letters were used to instruct apprentice scribes. Besides a collection known as Sumerian Epistolary Miscellany (SEpM), of which this prism may serve as example, the school curriculum also knew further collections as, for instance, the Correspondence of the Kings of Ur (CKU) and the Correspondence of the Kings of Larsa (CKL).

This prism in the former Weld-Blundell collection and now part of the Ashmolean Museum is associated with the Sumerian Epistolary Miscellany (SEpM; see A. Kleinerman, Education in Early 2nd Millennium BC Babylonia. The Sumerian Epistolary Miscellany, 2011).

SEpM contains eighteen literary letters and four miscellaneous compositions. These compositions are linked through their epistolary nature and their close relation to the city of Nippur. The prism in the Ashmolean Museum is just linked via SEpM 22 to the afore-mentioned collection. The remaining compositions collected on it, belong to the correspondence of the Kings of Larsa. The prism contains the following compositions:

(1) Inim-Inana to Lugal-ibila (= SEpM 22; ETCSL 3.3.12)
(2) Sin-iddinam to Utu (ETCSL 3.2.05)
(3) Ninszatapada to Rim-Sin
(4) Nanna-mansum to Ninisina
(5) Sin-iddinam to Ninisina

The first literary letter is a quite short composition. Its content is appropriate for a pupil in the Old Babylonian school, whose curriculum mainly consists of Sumerian texts. It contains some instructions for how to treat children at school. The teacher is responsible for them and must not let them go, even if the pupil says so. Intriguing is the first part:

Do not neglect Sumerian! For the second time, I am sending you a message in the proper language.

In the Old Babylonian period, Akkadian was the vernacular. The curriculum of young scribes often betrays that fact. Though pupils had to copy bilingual lists as well, the major part of the curriculum was centred around Sumerian scribal lore.

CDLI entry: P345806

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Excavations in the area of ancient Kish yielded a substantial number of Old Akkadian texts. This tablet in the Ashmolean Museum was found in the eastern part of the city complex of Kish, called Tell Ingharra. Unfortunately the lack of any precise archaeological record does not allow any further judgements regarding the original location of the tablet. The tablet is written in a fine Old Akkadian ductus.

This tablet is one of the rare examples of incantations that can be dated to the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2340-2200 BC). It is certain that the contents of this tablet are to be interpreted as an incantation "designed to overcome the resistance of a recalcitrant girl against the love of a young man" (Westenholz, A. & J. G. Westenholz. 1977. “Help for rejected suitors. The Old Akkadian Love Incantation MAD V 8,” Orientalia NS 46, 198-219). The composition plays with the topos of the fertile garden, an oft-found feature of love-songs. Many of his motifs and figurative expressions occur in other, later literary compositions as well.

CDLI entry: P285640

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The Old Akkadian period (ca. 2340-2200 BC) witnesses the first significant corpus of letters in Mesopotamia.

This letter in the Ashmolean Museum has been published by Ignace J. Gelb (MAD 5, 2; edition in B. Kienast & K. Volk, Die sumerischen und akkadischen Briefe [1995], 141f.; siglum Ki 1). It is a letter of a certain Abbaja to a person named Dudua. Many letters like this one start with the particle en-ma, "thus," a precursor of later umma. In contrast to letters of later periods, which normally start with the addressee's (and therefore are introduced by the preposition ana), Old Akkadian letters generally mention the sender first. There are no blessings involved, even not in longer examples as P213212, a letter in the British Museum.

The body of this letter starts with the intriguing sentence "Why are you not my father?" (mi-num2 u3-la a-bi2 ad-da). The reason for this enigmatic question becomes clear in what follows. It must be noted in any case that kinship terms are frequently used to indicate ranks. Hence "father" refers to an individual higher in rank. The letter-writer goes on: "You not even trust me with 3000 liter barley."

The subsequent sentence bītum eri, lit. "the house is empty," was interpreted in a sense that the letter-writer still makes reproaches: "Is the firm broke?" He assures that he will be able to pay the requested amount of silver. He finally requests a message and Dudua's son to be sent.

CDLI entry: P213213

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This is one of the few letters addressed to Zinû, who was the wife of Šamaš-hazir. He instructs his wife not to hold back barley and dates, which are destined to be given to the hired workers by Igmil-Sîn. The matter is pressing, because - as Šamaš-hazir mentions - he wrote to Igmil-Sîn regarding the building of ships. In what follows, it seems that Šamaš-hazir entrusts to his wife the endeavor to manage the logistical tasks around the construction:

According to the salary that is given the task shall be fulfilled. Barley and dates may be given out in my absence (lit. without me). They must not be negligent at the construction of the ships. They must not be idle.

Besides Igmil-Sîn Šamaš-hazir instructed also another individual to build a ship. He orders his wife to give out a certain amount of barley and dates for the hired workers.

CDLI entry: P384859

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

In this letter in the Ashmolean Museum the ruler Hammurapi of the first dynasty of Babylon (ca. 1792-1750 BC) writes to Šamaš-hāzir, the head of the cadastre office in Larsa. This high official was responsible for the distribution and administration of royal land in the hinterlands of Larsa. Letters such as this example frequently deal with problems of ownership. In this letter a shepherd brought to the king's attention that four years earlier a certain Etel-pî-Marduk took away a field from him and enjoys the outcome ever since. Despite the fact that the shepherd informed Sîn-iddinam, the highest official in the province of Yamutbal, nothing happened.

The king wants this matter investigated and settled, since the shepherd has a sealed document issued in the palace. If his claim is just, he shall be returned the respective field in addition to the amount of barley Etel-pî-Marduk took from it in the previous years. Furthermore the king wants a full report on the matter.

This letter shows quite vividly that the king was directly involved in legal matters as well. Our letter mentions a "divine weapon," which gave divine authority to the judgements the royal official carrying it made. The plots of land were comparatively small. Due to the great amount of complexity registers needed to be kept in order to indicate who had the legal right to receive the usufruct of a field. Šamaš-hāzir's task was to watch over these assignments, which were confirmed by inserting a stake into the respective plots. In order to reclaim a field, when it was unjustly took over, a tenant needed to safeguard the document that asserted his rights.


CDLI entry: P384863

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The tablet shown here entered the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in 1926 and was published by G. R. Hunter four years later in the series Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts, volume 8, no. 9, republished by E. C. Stone and D. I. Owen, Adoption in Old Babylonian Nippur and the Archive of Mannum-mešu-lissur (= Mesopotamian Civilizations vol. 3) no. 41. It belongs to a group of particularly well-preserved Old Babylonian legal documents in the collection. Most of these texts had envelopes.

This text from Nippur describes the terms of an adoption. It states that Mannum-mešu-lissur purchased the guardianship (nam-en-nu-un) of a statue for 15 days annually, as well as for the same amount of time the custodianship of a gate. These two tasks used to be the prebend of a certain Sin-lidiš. As purchase price for these prebends, Mannum-mešu-lissur paid two shekels of silver “as its full purchase price” (Sumerian sa₁₀-til-la-bi-še₃).

Being a legal document, it of course also contains clauses in order to prevent that the seller or his family may lay any claims against this purchase and the prebend-ownership:

In future Sin-lidiš and his heirs, however many there are, are to raise no claim against the guardianship of the statue of the Ekur-igigal (and the custodianship of the) Asala Ubšu-ukkina gate. Thus has he sworn in the name of the king.

This royal oath formula mu lugal-bi in-pa₃ is followed by a list of witnesses (including the scribe of the document). The document is dated to the 12th year of the ruler Samsu-iluna, or ca. 1740 BC. Both enclosed document and envelope are sealed. The sealing concentrates on the seal legend and not on the pictorial depiction of the seal cylinder. The text is repeated on the envelope. Following any suspicion of fraud or manipulation of the agreement between the two parties, the envelope could have been opened and the contents of the enclosed tablet inspected.

CDLI entry: P283655

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

These fragmentary and poorly understood texts testify to the longevity of the cuneiform writing system, and the importance of the cuneiform culture even at a transformational time when Mesopotamia was no longer ruled by native dynasties. A majority of the so-called Greaco-Babyloniaca, but not this exemplar in the Ashmolean Museum, have an inscription in cuneiform on one side and a Greek transcription on the other, and can therefore be described as school exercises.
Ashm 1937-993 is monolingual, but perhaps a transcription of a Sumerian-Akkadian bilingual incantation (Maul 1991), although this has been contested (Geller 1997).

S. M. Maul, “Neues zu den ‛Graeco-Babyloniaca’,” ZA 81 (1991) 87-107.
M. J. Geller, “The Last Wedge,” ZA 87 (1997) 43–95.

CDLI entry: P412445

credit: Dahl, Jacob L.

In contrast to Egypt, labeled vessels are a rare sight in Mesopotamia. This shard in the Ashmolean Museum is the rim of a beer jug. The same as the lexical list containing pots and garments shown two days ago, it dates to the Uruk III period (ca. 3200-3000 BC) and originates from the site of Jemdet Nasr.

Interesting are the two signs to the left, one depicting a regular vessel with neck and spout, conventionally transliterated DUG_a; the other one the same vessel, but with horizontal markings. Based on later sources as well as on numerous proto-cuneiform accounts documenting the use of malted grain to produce the drink found in DUG vessels, we are confident that this sign represents “beer” (Sumerian kaš). The other two preserved signs are EN_a NE_a. This sequence occurs several times in Late Uruk administrative documents as well. In a small economic record, for instance, a similar sequence is associated with another variant of the sign KAŠ, although this variant is interpreted by specialists to stand for a dairy product rather than a fermented drink. While not attested in the professions lists of the Uruk period, EN_a NE_a is most likely to be considered a title or profession.

CDLI entry: P005309

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The early second millennium saw the emergence of a new set of thematic lists. Most notable is a large multi-thematic series, whose first entry is ur₅(HAR)-ra : hubullu (short Hh or Ura). The whole series in its canonical version from the late second millennium onwards contained 24 sections, lit. "tablets."

This large fragment in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum contains the tenth "tablet" of this lexical series. The many other manuscripts known to be part of this section help to reconstruct its original content. The tablet had three columns on each side (this can also be determined from the curvature of the edges). Each column was subdivided into two sub-columns with the Sumerian version on the left and the Akkadian equivalent on the right.

The list starts with the entry DUG : karpatu. Entries 1-336 of the list deal with various designations of vessels that are categorised as DUG. As a marginal note one might add the intriguing detail that in the first column of the tablet the sign DUG appears always on the left edge and not, as expected, on the obverse. This might give clues to the nature of DUG as (mute) classifier in this text.

After a section of various different vessels the second larger part of this list in entries 388-510 contains various designations for clay (IM).

CDLI entry: P451706

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The lexical tradition in Mesopotamia started already in the 4th millennium. The earliest lexical texts in Mesopotamia date to the Uruk IV period and come from the site of Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia. About 15 % of the texts found at Uruk can be classified as lexical texts, i.e., texts that did not serve an administrative purpose (see a list of the lexical texts from Uruk). The larger part of these texts date to the ensuing Uruk III period (ca. 3200-3000 BC). These word lists can be considered the roots of Mesopotamian lexicography. The manuscripts spread all over Mesopotamia and as far as Syria, where we find copies of them in the ED III-period (ca. 2600-2500 BC).

This example in the Ashmolean Museum contains mainly a list of pots and garments dating to the Uruk III period. Between both section occur short groups of entries, which designate soups and sorts of cheese. It is yet not entirely clear, why the categories pots and garments were combined in one composition. Noteworthy is a long list of entries, which contain the complex graphemes composed of the frame sign DUG and inscribed with different kinds of commodities. It is important to emphasise that most of these sign combinations are not attested in contemporary administrative accounts. The purpose of the exhaustive treatment of sign combinations is, in the current state of our knowledge, to exploit the still young proto-cuneiform writing system. The tablet in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum is one of just two lexical texts found in Jemdet Nasr in Northern Babylonia. It demonstrates that in the Uruk III period at the end of the 4th millennium the lexical texts from Uruk started to spread to other places. Just a bit later versions of some of the Urukean word lists are attested in Ur (see a list of the lexical texts from Ur).

Our text is, however, not attested at Ur. We have to wait until around 2600-2500 in the ED IIIa period that a later version of this list of pots and garments reappears in the textual evidence. These later versions copy Urukean lexical texts mostly entry by entry and therefore serve as templates for the reconstruction of the archaic compositions, which are in fact rather fragmentary. It is SF 64, in particular, whose good preservations makes this text so valuable for the reconstruction of earlier versions.

The archaic list of Pots and Garments finally leaves the stage at the beginning of the second millennium. The only known manuscript so far is unfortunately rather fragmentary. But it is, nevertheless, more than just a copy of the list. It adds pronunciation glosses to the entries and therefore provides important phonetic information.

For the next text artefact to be discussed we will move on to a late stage of lexicography in Mesopotamia: the Neo-Babylonian period, and show another list of pots.

CDLI entry: P000713

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

One of the most significant inscribed objects from ancient Mesopotamia, this text records a large tract of land divided among the important members of society, showing the emerging hierarchization of early complex society. Conventioanlly referred to as the ‘field of the EN’ account, it contains area calculations for six large fields. It has been shown that the scribes prepared this particular distribution of productive land by dividing a grand total into three equal thirds, allotting two to the EN (later Sumerian ‘lord’), and dividing the other third unevenly amongst five high officials. One of these is the EN-SAL, whom some have interpreted as ‘wife of the EN.’ The text provides evidence of the role of scribal administrators in the distribution of resources, thus providing stark textual evidence for the socio-economic stratification of society in the earliest phases of recorded history.

Edition: H. J. Nissen, P. Damerow & R. K. Englund, Archaic Bookkeeping: Writing and Techniques of Economic Administration in the Ancient Near East, Chicago 1993: University of Chicago Press, pp. 55-57.

CDLI entry: P005069

credit: Kelley, Karthryn E.

The economic importance of the office of ‘chief cattle administrator’ (Sumerian šuš₃) is elucidated from a broken, but still powerful, series of accounts of sheep and goats and their products from the Umma province. These records include SET 130, SET 273, and the top-level account Ashm 1924-666, a wool-account concerning the governor. The third year of Amar-Suen is particularly well documented, since both SET 273 and Ashm 1924-666 covered that year. Both of these accounts dealt with wool, and both belong to the standard type having a “debits” section and a “credits” section. In both accounts, the value of the “debits” surpassed that of the “credits” resulting in a “deficit” recorded just prior to the colophon. One text (SET 273), was a wool account concerning Ur-E’e, a “chief cattle administrator” of the governor of Umma, the other (Ashm 1924-666) a wool account concerning the governor himself. The three first entries of each account (following the “remainder” [si-i₃-tum]) are identical. The amount of wool recorded in the account of Ur-E’e is approximately one third of the amount recorded in the account of the governor. The account of the governor is likely to have recorded the entire production of the province, making Ur-E’e and his colleague (presumably En-KAS) responsible for the majority of the Umma wool-production.

Although a crucial section of Ashm 1924-666 is not preserved, and although we are left with only Ur-E’e’s wool-account from that year, it is clear that Ur-E’e and En-KAS shared the responsibility for the largest part of the Umma sheep and goat production.

See J. L. Dahl, The ruling family of Ur III Umma: A Prosopographical Analysis of an Elite Family in Southern Iraq 4000 Years Ago, Leiden 2007: 88-91.

CDLI entry: P142826

credit: Dahl, Jacob L.

The Ashmolean Museum houses an astonishing number of four-sided prisms, originally part of the Weld-Blundell collection. This example contains a forerunner to the lexical series Diri and is known as "Diri Oxford". Its continuation (with some parts overlapping) is written on yet another prism (Ashm 1923-400).

This lexical series, whose first entry in the late canonical version reads diri : SI.A : (w)atru, "surpassing," can be considered a complex sign vocabulary giving Sumerian readings for logogram groups. In this respect, it supplements the second major sign syllabary Ea : A : nâqu. In their canonical version the entries in both series follow the same pattern: the first column is reserved for syllabically written sign-readings for logograms (or, in the case of Diri, complex logogram groups), which are given in the second column. In late versions of both lists, a third column contains analytical explanations for the sign(s) used in the second column. A fourth column, finally, provides an Akkadian translation or equivalent. The readings in Diri cannot be directly inferred from the constituents of the logogram groups.

Both prisms in the Ashmolean Museum are "forerunners" inasmuch as, first, no sign-readings are given and, second, the later standardized version differs in respect to the number of entries and their sequence. Given the first observation, the prisms differ from other more or less contemporary sources that provide sign-readings and therefore add this important lexical layer.

CDLI entry: P447992

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Enuma Elish is a mythological tale describing a power struggle amongst the gods. Often called ‘The Babylonian Creation Epic’, it relates battle and intrigue at the very beginning of the cosmos, with creation of the human world as the end result of a stable universe. The myth describes the rise of Marduk, the only god powerful enough to defeat the armies of the sea-goddess Tiamat, how, through his victory, he becomes the supreme god in the Babylonian pantheon. The bodies of the defeated gods are turned into the basic elements of the new world: underground rivers, the earth, and the sky. Marduk orders his realm by establishing the dwelling places of the gods, determining the courses of the sun and the moon, and regulating the lengths of days. Finally, he creates man: ‘He shall be charged with the service of the gods, so that they may be at ease!’
Tablet I sows the seeds of the conflict. When the god Apsu plots the murder of his rebellious children, the god Ea kills him before he can execute the plan. Marduk is born, a fully-grown and formidable warrior, and Tiamat spawns an army to avenge her dead husband.

The opening lines of the poem (from which it takes its name) are partly preserved on our Ashmolean tablet:
When on high the skies were not yet named,
When below the earth had not been named,
Apsu was supreme, their ancestor,
Tiamat was creator, the mother of all.
The Ashmolean tablet was excavated at Kish in Southern Mesopotamia in 1924 by the 1923-1933 joint expedition of the University of Oxford and the Chicago Field Museum.

Translation:
Dalley, S., Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Foster, B., Before the Muses, Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2005.

Primary publication of this tablet (cuneiform text):
Langdon, S., Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts 6, Paris : Librairie orientaliste P. Geuthner, 1927.

CDLI entry: P450752.

credit: Wisnom, L. Selena

The Sumerian King List (SKL) is an important chronographic document from ancient Mesopotamia. It lists a long succession of cities in Sumer and its neighboring regions where kingship was invested, the rulers who reigned in those cities, and the length of their reigns. The list starts with the remote mythical past when kingship had descended from heaven. The rulers in the earliest dynasties are described as reigning for fantastically long periods. Some of these rulers, such as Etana, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, are mythical or legendary figures known also from Sumerian and Babylonian literary in their royal inscriptions, the length of their reigns becomes more realistic. The King List ends with the reign of a Mesopotamian ruler presumably contemporaneous with the author or redactor of the SKL.

Following is the passage regarding the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2340-2200 BC) (a recently published manuscript dating to the Ur III period exchanges the reigns of Rimush and Man-ishtusu):

In Agade, Sargon, whose father was a gardener, the cupbearer of Ur-Zababa, became king, the king of Agade, who built Agade: he ruled for 56 years. Rimush, the son of Sargon, ruled for 9 years. Man-ishtusu, the older brother of Rimush, the son of Sargon, ruled for 15 years. Naram-Suen, the son of Man-ishtusu, ruled for 56 years. Shar-kali-sharri, the son of Naram-Suen, ruled for 25 years. 157 are the years of the dynasty of Sargon. Then who was king? Who was not king?

See: Jacobsen, Thorkild. 1939. The Sumerian King List. AS 11. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

CDLI entry: P384786
cdli:wiki entry: Sumerian King List
ETCSL: Translation

credit: Yi Chen, Samuel

The Neo-Assyrian period (ca. 911-612 BC) is best portrayed by the huge numbers of Assyrian reliefs depicting the kings and their deeds. Other cornerstones of our knowledge of the Neo-Assyrian period are the “State Archives” of Assyria, and, of course, the scholarly transmission of literary and lexical texts, omens, medical and magical compendia in the vast Kuyunjik collection of Nineveh, gathered by the last powerful king Ashurbanipal (and maybe his predecessor Esarhaddon).

This tablet in the Manchester University Museum is a legal document dating to this—in terms of textual and archeological data—rich period. This kind of tablet shape is well documented in the period and is also found on texts in the Kuyunjik collection (now in the British Museum). An example is K 318a, which is in fact an envelope that has been sealed—as our example—with three stamp seals. A further example is K 313. The documents start by identifying the seal—either cylinder seal, stamp seal or impressions of finger nail marks. In our case it is the seal of an individual named Ha-za-a-a-an.

Formally I’d entifying obverse and reverse of these documents can be difficult. One expects the seal impression on the reverse. The case is clear after the important date formula is identified, which normally is expected at the end of the document. Neo-Assyrian documents are dated using eponyms. On the left edge there is additionally a personal name written in Aramaic.

CDLI entry: P432454

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The collection of the Manchester University Museum keeps a couple of texts dating to the Old Assyrian period (ca. 1950-1850 BC). Yesterday's text artefact was an envelope that probably can be dated to the same period. There are no complete Old Assyrian texts in the collection, but some fragments.

Among these fragmentary tablets is this example containing a letter. Unfortunately, just the upper half of the tablet is preserved. Old Assyrian letters use an easily recognisable tablet shape. For a complete example see a letter in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. These letters originate mainly from the merchants' settlement in Kanesh, the modern site of Kültepe in central Anatolia. There, 22,000 texts were discovered. Further texts dating to this period and showing similar physical characteristics come from smaller sites in Anatolia.

The bulk of the Old Assyrian texts from Kültepe does not originate from archaeological diggings. Therefore, they lack important stratigraphic information. Many collections bought tablets on the antiquities market, and hence Old Assyrian texts and fragments are nowadays rather dispersed. A major collection of tablets - letters in particular - are nowadays kept in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

The body of the letters starts directly after the address. It does not contain any blessing so commonly known from the slightly later Old Babylonian correspondence.

CDLI entry: P431268

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Business documents were frequently clad into clay envelopes in order to protect the tablet inside against any manipulation. Sometimes the content of the enclosed document is repeated (at least in abbreviated form) on the outer surface of the envelope. If there is any suspicion about the validity of the legal transaction, they envelope could be broken and the original be verified. Envelopes often bear seals.

This example in the Manchester University Museum dates to the Old Assyrian period (ca. 1950-1850 BC). The collection keeps a couple of text artefacts dating to this period. Broken envelopes as this one were often discarded after being opened. Hence the original tablet enclosed in this envelope is, so far, not known (and the text that can be seen in the positive impression on the inside of the envelope is too fragmentary for a sound identification.

Remarkable are the two preserved seal impressions, one showing a contest scene (referring back to Early Dynastic models), the other showing a couchant bull supporting an object (probably not the "winged gate" known from Old Akkadian seals, but maybe a kind of altar). Before that bull men are falling from an equid that is depicted above them. This scene is separated by a snake-like divider from another scene showing, most likely, individuals bringing offerings before a deity(?).

CDLI entry: P431279

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This small document dating to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) contains a receipt for barley (edition: Szlechter, Tablettes juridiques et administratives, pp. 94f.). Two harvesters (Hurussu and Belšunu) received 270 liters of barley. In the first two lines their respective shares are noted. The verb is given in Sumerian (šu-ba-an-ti-e-meš): "they received." They testified this receipt by impressing their respective seals. Their seals are labelled on the left edge.

The text dates to the 10th year of Ammi-saduqa. Before the witnesses and the date the text ends with the legal clause u2-ul i-il-la-ku-ma / ki-ma s,i-im-da-at šar-ri, "if they don't come, (then the penalty is according) to the royal decree."

CDLI entry: P315369

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This document dating to the 21st year of the Old Babylonian king Ammi-ditana contains a sale contract (edition: Szlechter, Tablettes juridiques et administratives, pp. 48ff.). It contains two items: (1) six sheep (value: 18 2/3 shekel of silver) and (2) two oxen (value: 24 shekel of silver). These animals are the igisû-offering for the first and seventh month. They belong to the herald of Inana-of-Uruk and constitute the levy (nemettum) owed to a certain Nanaya-ibnišu.

Noteworthy is the following clause in the text: "He will give his calculation to PN, when PN inspects and buys(?) the cattle and sheep, PN2 will step up and pay the silver, his calculation, he will pay the silver for the rations of the sukkallu and the tax collector for his calculation."

CDLI entry: P315365

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This is another example of the Old Babylonian legal texts kept in the Manchester University Museum (edition: Szlechter, Tablettes juridiques et administratives, pp. 10ff.). The text dates to the 33rd year of Ammi-ditana. The date is given on the top edge of the tablet following a long list of witnesses.

The main section of the text testifying the legal act is indented, leaving space for the impression of a cylinder seal in the left third of the obverse and the reverse. This was done in order to keep the seal legend visible and therefore authenticate the document properly. In fact, the whole surface of the tablet is sealed.

The text is about the share of inheritance. It starts with twp properties of land, one in the area of Habus. This location is known, among others, from several letters from the Kish area. A part of this corpus is in the John Rylands Library in Manchester and was edited by Kraus in AbB 10. Another, larger, lot of letters in the British Museum is currently being prepared for publication by John Nicholas Reid and Klaus Wagensonner. Besides the two properties the inheritance included two slaves and a certain amount of gold as well.

Unfortunately the middle part of the text is broken away. On the reverse it is stated that there is not to be put claim against the sister of the inheritors, who is identified as naditum-priestess of Marduk in Babylon. This mention led Szlechter to the assumption that the document might originate from Babylon. Nevertheless, regarding the clauses used for the inheritance share, he concluded that this tablet in fact originates from Kish, and this confirms the provenience of the letters mentioned above.

CDLI entry: P315372

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This is another of the quite substantial number of legal and judicial documents dating to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) and kept in the Manchester University Museum. The state of preservation of this tablet is quite good. Though sometimes faint, the whole surface is sealed. As was common practice, the seal legend was featured predominantly, while its figurative scene on the seal was of less importance. The space before the date formula at the bottom of the reverse was left empty in order to carry the whole seal legend without being obstructed by text. There is no area on the tablet (not even on the left edge), where the whole seal was impressed. Even there the seal legend predominates. (For another example see P264844).

The document dates to the 31st year of the Old Babylonian king Ammi-ditana (edition: Szlechter, Tablettes juridiques et administratives, pp. 62ff.) The date formula starts at the bottom of the reverse mentioned month, day, and finally the year name, which extends towards the top edge. The document concerns tenant farming. It states that 30 acres of arable land, which are in the possession of the naditum-priestess Dan-erissa, are leased by Rish-Marduk in order to cultivate them. The rent for one year will be measured out at the gate of the gagûm.

The collection contains several of such lease documents. Another well preserved example is P315378, which dates to the 14th year of Ammi-saduqa and concerns 30 acres of land as well.

CDLI entry: P315350

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) is one of the major epochs in the emergence of lexical lists in Mesopotamia. The earliest lexical tradition goes back to the end of the 4th millennium. The (mostly thematic) lists compiled in southern Uruk were to a great extent meticulously transmitted throughout the 3rd millennium and even into the 2nd. Nevertheless, in this long time span “new” lists emerged, some of them thematic, others containing entries whose arrangement followed graphical characteristics.

The major thematic series that emerged in the Old Babylonian period is a series whose first entry reads ur₅-ra : ḫubullum. In its late stage, this multi-thematic series consisted of 24 tablets containing several thousand Sumerian terms together with their Akkadian equivalents.

The main evidence for the early stages of this series originates from Nippur and to a great extent from the school tradition. In fact, the huge numbers of school tablets found in several (private) houses in Nippur’s residential quarters (foremost the so-called “House F”) served to reconstruct the “Nippurean” school curriculum. Besides copying lexical texts, an apprentice’s duty also was to master his skills in copying more complex, literary texts.

This large tablet in the Manchester University Museum contains a long list of trees and wooden objects, and can be identified as a forerunner to the third tablet of ur₅-ra : ḫubullum. It dates to the Old Babylonian period and seems to originate from a school milieu. The columns—sa far as the are preserved—are not spaced very carefully. There is just one column of text on the reverse. The remaining space is already divided into columns, hence prepared to be filled with further entries.

CDLI entry: P432448

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This administrative account originates from the rich documentation of Umma. Thanks to its year-name, the text can be dated to the second year of the king Šu-Suen. It records a quite substantial number of boating implements. First, it accounts for 790 ^gešumbin ma₂. The Sumerian word umbin generally means finger or toe nail, but in this context it designates a part of the boat (possible the planks). The second group of items listed is surely destined for the construction of a boat. In this instance, 59,290 wooden nails are issued. This is a number unparalleled in the corpus. Another document (MVN 16, 834) mentions 18,000 of the same sort of nails.

The early publication of this tablet completely ignored the seal impression covering most of its surface. In many text publications, even of later date, just the legend on the text was impressed, something like current letter-heads used in official correspondence. The impression on the reverse shows that it was important to Babylonian scribes that the legend remain clearly visible. This particular seal, belonging to a certain Ur-Nungal, is well-known in the Ur III period. Another and more complete impression of the same seal can be found on several texts in the John Rylands Library, also in Manchester. The example shown here to the lower right is JRL 872, a pyramidal-shaped clay label. Its “base” was sealed with the same cylinder seal. Texts like these help to reconstruct partial or partly preserved seal impressions (of this particular seal, some 171 artifact witnesses are currently known in the CDLI files).

CDLI entry: P112293

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This legal text in the Manchester University Museum dates to the 23rd year of Samsu-iluna in the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC). The text records the exchange of two finished houses (e2 du3-a). The location of the first house is given by providing information about adjacent buildings. The front side lies on “broad street” (line 4: sila dagal-la). This house is exchanged for a slightly larger one belonging to the entum priestess of the god Zababa.

Intriguing is the mention that “by directive of the king” (ina qabê šarrim) three individuals (among them the mayor [Akk. rabiānum] of Kish and a certain Munawwirum, who might be identical with a well-known individual in Kishite letters) would transfer the property.

The text closes with a long list of witnesses, a common feature of such texts, and a date formula (edition: Szlechter, Tablettes juridiques et administratives, pp. 53ff.)

CDLI entry: P315377

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The Manchester University Museum keeps a couple of letters that date to the Middle Assyrian period (ca. 1400-1000 BC). The full corpus of letters dating to this period is not large. In a recent survey, Jaume Llop (AuOr 30 [2012]) presents an updated list of 238 published and unpublished texts originating primarily from the political centers Assur and Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta. Others come from such provincial centers in the kingdom as Tell Sheh Hamad and Tell Chuera.

This kind of tablet shape, with its square outline and slightly rounded corners, was already known in the Old Babylonian period, where it was—though rarely—used for letters as well (see, e.g., P385540). This format differs substantially from common rectangular tablets (for an example, see yesterday’s text).

Middle Assyrian letters, however, exhibit some intriguing differences. Although the address formula follows older examples (“To so-and-so speak, thus so-and-so”), in letters of the late 2nd millennium BC the address is separated from the body of the letter by a lined ruling. This kind of text separation can be also observed in the Middle Babylonian correspondence found in Amarna in Egypt. Letters of the Middle Assyrian period, as this example in Manchester, may contain a date. Another feature found quite frequently in this corpus is the indentation of lines in the area of the lower left corner.

This well-preserved example originates from Assur (excavation no. Ass. 14410; see Llop, AuOr 30 [2012] no. 45). It belongs to the archive of Babu-aḫa-iddina mentioned in our text. The letter is addressed to two individuals named Assur-bela-šallim and [Assur]-zuquppani by a certain Nabu-belu-da’iq. The text can be classified as a letter order and belongs therefore to the larger group of official correspondence.

As the sender of letter indicates, he writes on behalf of Babu-aḫa-iddina. He requests a report about the available wax (gaba-lal3; edition: Freydank & Saporetti, Babu-aḫa-iddina. Die Texte, 74, MCS 2, 14 2). A new edition and commentary including hand-copy is forthcoming (K. Wagensonner, CDLN 2014:013).

CDLI entry: P431253

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The John Rylands Library houses a substantial set of Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC) letters, but only a negligible number of Old Babylonian administrative and legal texts. The collection of the Manchester University Museum, on the other hand, has a relatively large number of administrative texts dating to the early 2nd millennium. This text is one of the few letters in the Manchester Museum dating to the Old Babylonian period.

In this letter the sender, a certain Marduk-ḫazir complains about the lack of the addressee’s support. Obviously,transfer it to other, more capable hands so that it could be properly tended (see the edition in Kraus, AbB 10, no. 52):

Regarding the management of the field and of the requirements about which my servant Apil-ilišu asked you, don’t be negligent! Cultivate the field ... and use (its harvest). Or give it over to other hands, in order that it may be cultivated!

CDLI entry: P431267

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Among the text artifacts in the Manchester University Museum is this rectangular prism fashioned out of limestone. The inscription is nicely carved into the stone and follows the conventions of those on clay tablets. This can be seen on the left surface that imitates the direction of the script with lines turned 90 degrees.

The inscription is certainly royal. Although we know the use of archaizing sign forms from later royal inscriptions, the sign-forms in this text may favor an Old Babylonian date (ca. 1900-1600 BC). The text of the “left edge” appears to be divided into two columns. Unfortunately, the surface is quite worn out. Nevertheless, short passages can be understood. Thus, we find an interesting reference to the Old Babylonian king Abi-ešuḫ. The passage reads provisionally: “Abi-ešuḫ brought them to fall with the weapon up to three times" (left edge, i:2-5: a-bi-e-šu-uh ... / a-di ša-la-ši-šu / in ka-ak-ki-im / u2-ša-/am-qi2\-is?-su-nu-ti).

Despite a long reign of 28 years, just two inscriptions are thus far known that can be directly assigned to this king. Alternatively, and since large portions of the text are lost, the text might just refer back to his reign.

CDLI entry: P432449

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

In 1952, Fish published a hand-copy of this text (see Fish, MCS 2, 61f.) as a hymn to the god Marduk. In the next issue of the Manchester Cuneiform Studies, the Sumerologist Adam Falkenstein drew attention to the duplicates already published by Weissbach in his Miscellen, plts. 13-14. In his hand-copy, Fish omitted most of the text on the reverse, remarking that the “reverse is hardly legible,” just the composition’s subscript and the colophon.

Following the CDLI’s imaging mission to the Manchester University Museum, it is now clear that the reverse is by no means in such a bad condition. The text fits well to the remaining manuscripts of this type of composition.

The text is a late bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian prayer of the šu-il₂-la-type that was used in public worship (see, for a discussion and edition, Jerrold S. Cooper, “A Sumerian šu-íl-la from Nimrud with a prayer for Sin-szar-iškun,” Iraq 32 [1970] 51-67). Basically, it contains a list of cities, temples and deities, followed by a refrain. The Sumerian mostly uses the so-called Emesal-dialect attested in other prayers. Beyond our Manchester text, now to be considered one of the better preserved examplars, four further manuscripts are known, among others K 4933 in the Kuyunjik collection of the British Museum.

CDLI entry: P432447

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The museum collection of the Manchester University Museum contains roughly 200 cuneiform artifacts, of which a great percentage are Old Babylonian legal and administrative documents.

Among the few literary texts in the collection, one tablet stands out. It is a unique, well-preserved tablet with six columns of text containing a Sumerian literary composition. Although the provenience of this tablet is unknown, it certainly can be dated to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC), a major period for the compilation and transmission of Sumerian literature.

The composition is sub-divided into stanzas. Following Bendt Alster’s discussion of the text these coincide with the shift of speakers (for an edition and study see B. Alster, “The Manchester Tammuz,” ASJ 14 [1992] 1ff.). The main players are the goddess Inanna, her spouse Dumuzi, and their audience.

The composition can be regarded as an accumulation of songs that might originally have been independent texts. Compilation tablets (German Sammeltafeln) are quite common in the Old Babylonian period. VAT 7025 in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, is another example with tablet contains four Sumerian literary compositions.

CDLI entry: P355698

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

In this detail from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III we see the king, holding a bow, and facing an emblem of the sun god Shamash. The bow is symbolic of the function of the king as warrior and great hunter. Outside of this detail, on the whole image we can see his field marshal, and another official, symbolic representations of the king as great warrior and as head of government.

CDLI entry: P423554

credit: Shifflette, William

In this scene from the Black Obelisk, tribute from Patina is being brought to the great king Shalmaneser. Patina was rich in silver, gold, tin and ivory. These materials would have constituted the tribute of this ambassador.

CDLI entry: P423554

credit: Shifflette, William

This detail from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III depicts Jehu of Omri, king of Jerusalem. Jehu was king of Israel during the 9th century BC, and is depicted kissing the feet of Shalmaneser. This is illustrative of the relationship between Israel and the Assyrian state, which shifted between a state of vassalage and an annexed territory. By kissing the king’s feet, he is showing that he is a vassal ruler of Shalamaneser, and that Israel was a vassal state at the time the Kalhu was established.

CDLI entry: P423554

credit: Shifflette, William

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III was erected in 825 BC and it stood in the courtyard of one of the central buildings of Kalhu (mod. Nimrud). Its stepped top is thought to imitate the shape of a ziggurat, and though the exact purpose of the stele is not known with certainty, this visual cue may be a reference to one or more of the gods of the Neo-Assyrian pantheon. Kalhu was the center of a renewed Assyrian state, and this obelisk served as a tribute and description of the greatness, power and achievements of the king. Its four-sided layout allowed the king’s artists to highlight certain high-points of the inauguration and recent triumphal history of the king. A few of these scenes have been selected to accompany this pictorial representation of the obelisk in full form.

CDLI entry: P423554 (Oracc’s page)

credit: Shifflette, William

When Sargon II founded his new capital of Dur Sarukhin, he enclosed it within a wall that had seven entrances. In front of those entrances were the lamassu. Their purpose was to both protect the city and to serve as an object that would bear the weight of the arches above. The lamassu are believed to have represented different deities. Their inclusion of a human head, a bull’s body, and wings were meant to convey the meaning of encompassing all life within them, thus their nature of protection. Furthermore, when looking at them from the front, on thinks that they are standing, but when looking at them from the side, they seem to be walking. Whatever their true purpose may have been, the lamassu still continue to amaze with their beautiful designs.

credit: Aslanyan, Rafayel

The scene that decorates the edges of the king’s robes, as mentioned before depicts the scene of fertilization. Having a fertile land in ancient Mesopotamia was one of the important aspects of the daily lives of the people if not the most important. The scene shows a winged creature, most likely Assur, assisting the king in dipping the pinecone, which is in the right hand (the masculine hand) into the bucket of the left hand (the feminine hand). Then sprinkling the tree in front of them in order to have fertile land. The significance of this scene is that is shows the bond between the king and the God – showing that the king is the representative of the God on Earth. Furthermore, the sheer amount of detail that went into these reliefs shows how important the palatial propaganda was to the elites and to the people.

credit: Aslanyan, Rafayel

The scene is meant to show Shalmaneser’s support of Marduk-zakir-Sumi in his efforts against the latter’s rebellious brother Marduk-bel-usati. Shalmaneser III’s reign was one that was full of rebellions all throughout the empire. Thus, Shalmaneser III had to carefully maneuver through the political scene of the time in order to not isolate himself from the others. The scene at of the throne base is a testimony to the diplomatic relations that Shalmaneser III established in order to keep the empire in tact. While most of the Assyrian reliefs are of military might and punishment, this one is of grace and diplomacy towards a friend. So, the relief shows that the Assyrians knew that in order to keep the balance they would have to respect the local rulers as well.

credit: Aslanyan, Rafayel

The Black Obelisk includes five scenes of tribute. Each one is depicted using four panels and each represents a tribute given from a different region. Also each one of the scenes has a cuneiform script that identifies the scene. The regions depicted are, Sua of Gilzanu (Northwest Iran), Jehu of Bit Omri (Ancient Israel), An Unnamed Ruler of Musri (Probably Egypt), Marduk-Apil-Usur of Suhi (Middle Euphrates, Syria and Iraq), and Qalparunda of Patin (Antakya Region of Turkey). The significance of this piece is that it shows the extent of the Assyrian Empire. The obelisk presents different people from different regions paying tribute to the all powerful king of Assyria, thus showing that by the time of Shalmaneser III, Assyria was a regional superpower and encompassed many different people.

CDLI entry: P423554

credit: Aslanyan, Rafayel

The inscription on the stele here (to the upper right, an Iraqi workman standing next to the artifact in situ) tells of a grand party that was attended by thousands and of the astonishing amount of food that was prepared for the guests. The stele also boasts about Assurnasirpal II’s accomplishments in the theater of war, citing his successful campaigns in the surrounding regions such as Urartu and Lebanon. Furthermore, apart from the inscription itself, the contents include various divine symbols and the king himself. Also in the description are the creation of various gardens and the reconstruction of older temples. Apart from being a commemorative piece, the purpose of the stele was to support the propaganda of the all-powerful king and to boast to the people of his accomplishments. It must be mentioned that the city of Nimrud had existed prior to Ashurnasirpal II, but the stele tells of the establishment of the city as the new capital. Thus, creating a bond between the new king and the city which would not have been the same had the capital been left in Assur.

CDLI entry: Q004484

credit: Aslanyan, Rafayel

On the left, deportees appear with hands upraised in positions of obeisance. Sennacherib is on the right side seated on a throne with attendants. Within the Neo-Assyrian empire, deportations were utilized for a variety of purposes. In the case of Lachish, the deportations occurred due to the prior Judean rebellion, therefore these deportations likely functioned as both punishment and as a way to exercise greater control over the empire through resettlement in foreign lands. Note the prominent position that Sennacherib has in the relief. The king is raised above the surroundings as he sits on an elevated throne. An inscription appears on either side of his head, which further portrays the importance of this figure to both illiterate and literate. The inscription in this detail states that Sennacherib is the king of the world who sits on a throne as the booty of Lachish passes before him. The king’s face was damaged in antiquity, perhaps by successive rulers or by foreign conquerors.

Image source

credit: Williams, Jeremy I.

The detail on the left shows three prisoners being impaled by Assyrian soldiers. In the relief, this image is located above captives who are walking away from the city, in front of the gate of Lachish. All three men are naked with heads sagging, suggesting that they are deceased. It is unclear as to whether this image was intended to have taken place during or after the battle. If the impaling occurred during the battle, it would certainly serve as an example of what may happen to inhabitants if they did not surrender. If the scene occurred following the siege, it may have functioned as a deterrent for future rebellion as well as a display of Assyrian power. The impaled prisoner on the far right is positioned in front of the other two and occupies the tallest stake, which is being stabilized or set in place by two soldiers. Some understand these details as suggesting that this particular captive was a prominent leader of Lachish, perhaps a governor or commander. This extreme form of humiliation and torture would also function to show the immense power of Sennacherib over the elite leader of this city. The detail on the right similarly depicts naked Judean captives, yet in this case, the prisoners are depicted as being flayed alive. With great detail, the artist shows the ribs of the Judeans, suggesting a lack of food in the city of Lachish during the siege.

Image source1, source2

credit: Williams, Jeremy I.

Defensive, and offensive weapons abound in depictions found in ancient art and literature. It will not surprise anyone that the sling is one of the oldest and simplest weapons of antiquity, yet it is rarely portrayed in the Iron Age apart from Assyrian works. No less than 66 slingers are depicted in the various reliefs of Sennacherib (705-681 BC). Nevertheless, the ancient slingers only appear in such limited contexts as this scene of the siege of Lachish. Engaged soldiers are stationed behind archers at the back of the attacking neo-Assyrian troops, suggesting that the range for slingers was greater than that of archers. Lachish’s excavated flint sling stones measured approximately 5-6 cm in width, further demonstrting the presence of these skilled marksmen in battle. Seventy slingers would have sufficed to launch a crippling barrage of stones against the city’s defenders.

Image source

credit: Williams, Jeremy I.

The Neo-Assyrians are well known for their military tactics. With great detail, the artist depicted the attack of the city of Lachish, located in the southern Levant. On the lower left, a battering ram is depicted going up the siege ramp. It is unclear whether these siege engines were built on site, but this may well be the case as the Neo-Assyrians regularly cut down trees as part of general siege tactics. The battering rams were pushed up the ramps with archers and others following for protection. In all, the relief contains five battering rams on top of the siege ramp. This may be an indication of the importance of the battle as there are rarely more than two depicted in a single siege. These machines are depicted in Neo-Assyrian reliefs as early as Ashurnasirpal. With regard to Judean defense tactics, the relief depicts a variety of ways that inhabitants of Lachish may have defended themselves. Here, archers are depicted defending a tower. Additionally, there appear to be burning torches being thrown down onto attackers. Elsewhere in the relief, four chariots or carts are portrayed as being thrown down onto the Assyrians. The vehicles appear to be on fire as they are falling down. Some understand these to represent war chariots being used as weapons as they were no longer useful in the battle.

Image source

credit: Williams, Jeremy I.

The relief depicted here in laborious hand copy carries two separate scenes occurring sequentially of the siege of Lachish (located in the southern Levant) during Sennacherib's campaign against the kingdom of Judah. The left side depicts the siege of the city complete with a siege ramp and fighting while the right side portrays both the deportation of captives and the removal of spoils. The Assyrian army is stationed on the siege ramp, attacking the gatehouse while the Judeans defend themselves. Originally, the scene of the siege of the city was positioned directly opposite the entrance of the room in which it was housed. The artist depicts deportees in groups, likely family groups, carrying their possessions. The scene is set in a forested, mountainous area as shown by the scaled patterns covering the background of the relief. The mountains are depicted with a horizon line, which was a new technique in Assyrian reliefs.

CDLI entry: P466678

credit: Williams, Jeremy I.

The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin is a stele that dates to approximately 2254-2218 BC, in the time of the Akkadian Empire. The relief measures six feet in height and was carved in pink limestone. It depicts the King Naram-Sin of Akkad leading the Akkadian army to victory over the mountain people, the Lullubi.

credit: Wheeler, Gregory Michael

The artifact was found in one of the largest royal tombs in Ur, tomb PG 779, associated with Ur-Pabilsag, a king who died around 2550 BC. Sir Leonard Woolley's excavations in Mesopotamia in 1927-28 uncovered the artifact in the corner of a chamber, lying close to the shoulder of a man who may have held it on a pole. For this reason, Woolley interpreted it as a standard, giving the object its popular name. The two mosaics have been dubbed "War" and "Peace" for their subject matter, respectively a representation of a military campaign and scenes from a banquet. The panels at each end originally showed fantastical animals but they suffered significant damage while buried, though they have since been restored.

credit: Wheeler, Gregory Michael

The statues were to represent the ruler in temples, to offer a constant prayer in his stead; offerings were made to these. Most of the statues bear an inscribed dedication explaining to which god it was dedicated. Gudea is either sitting or standing. He normally wears a close fitting kaunakes, maybe made of sheep-skin, and a long tasseled dress.

credit: Wheeler, Gregory Michael

The two boards date from the First Dynasty of Ur, before 2600 BC, thus making the Royal Game of Ur one of the oldest examples of board gaming equipment found. Discovery of a tablet partially describing the gameplay has allowed the game to be played again after over 2000 years, although reconstructions of the detailed rules have differed widely. The Royal Game of Ur was played with two sets, one black and one white, of seven markers and three tetrahedral dice.

credit: Wheeler, Gregory Michael

Cylinder seals were invented around 3500 BC in the Near East, at the contemporary sites of Susa in south-western Iran and Uruk in southern Mesopotamia.They were used as an administrative tool, a form of signature, as well as jewelry and as magical amulets; later versions would employ notations with Mesopotamian cuneiform. In later periods, they were used to notarize or attest to multiple impressions of clay documents.

credit: Wheeler, Gregory Michael

The front of the tablet shows an image of two men. On the left with his hand raised is the priest who is standing in front of his king to the right. On top of them is the shrine, which has various objects laid upon it. The objects on the shrine from the left are placed in the following order: (1) spearhead, (2) ram-headed crook, (3) two rods joined in the center, (4) two horned headdresses, (5) an eagle-headed mace, and (6) a lion-headed mace. There are a variety symbols inscribed on the top and the side of the tablet as well. The inscription tells us that King Nabu-apla-iddina restored the lands of the priest. The priest claimed that the land was property of his father Adnaya and therefore claimed it to be his own. The event is recorded to have taken place on the twentieth of Nisan, in the twentieth year of the rule of King Nabu-apla-iddina. The document goes on to claim that it received the royal seal of Babylon in front of five high Babylonian officials whose names were inscribed on the tablet as well.

Reference: BM 90922

credit: Kim, Kirk

The National Museums Scotland contains an interesting group of Old Babylonian administrative texts, which date to the reign of Manana and probably originate from Kish. Many of these documents deal with the property of a certain Shumshunu-watar.

In this receipt Shumshunu-watar lends one kor of barley to a certain Ishme-Sîn, whose seal is also impressed on the surfaces of the tablet. A very similar document is the unpublished text BM 103194 (to be published by J. N. Reid and K. Wagensonner), which dates to the same month and year.

CDLI entry: P453221

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

In the Neo-Babylonian period (ca. 626-539 BC) the dowry was handed over to the groom at the time of marriage. This property rests with the husband, who was responsible for maintaining its value. If he died, it would secure the widow's future.

The well-preserved text in the National Museums Scotland the heir of the deceased husband acts in the interest of two dowries, that of his father's widow and that of his own wife. The former is the claimant of the dowry. She claims that the son and heir of her husband did not give her the dowry, which entered the property when she married his father. The heir Bel-apla-iddina states before the judge that his father never received the full amount of dowry and that he is unable to repay both dowries. As a husband he has usufruct on his wife's dowry.

The possessions of the heir's father are being re-evaluated and the court decides that both the heir's mother-in-law as well as his wife shall be fully paid for their dowries. The document contains an interesting clause, which prevents any creditors to lay claim onto the amount of money given to the two women.

CDLI entry: P453149

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The Neo-Babylonian period (ca. 626-539 BC) is characterised by a dense documentation, which equals in terms of concentration and amount the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 BC). Most of our documentation derives from institutional archives like the temple archive of the Ebabbar temple in Sippar (with approx. 35,000 texts) or the Eanna temple (with approx. 8,000 texts) in Uruk (for overviews see M. Jursa, Neo-Babylonian Legal and Administrative Documents. Typology, Contents and Archives, 2005 and Aspects of the Economic History of Babylonia in the First Millennium BC, 2010).

The largest private archive from the Neo-Babylonian and subsequent Achaemenid period (547-331 BC) is the Egibi family archive. So far approx. 1,700 texts can be assigned to this family of entrepreneurs spanning over five generations. This archive has been thoroughly studied by C. Wunsch (Das Egibi-Archiv, 2000).

This legal document in the collection of the National Museums Scotland witnesses the purchase of a plot of land. This perfectly preserved tablet is a duplicate to a tablet now in the British Museum (BM 32180+33125; published in Wunsch, op.cit., no. 199A). Since the latter has some damaged areas, the Edinburgh tablet, though with minor variations, helps to better understand the whole transaction.

This plot of land was in the possession of a certain Bēl-ēṭir of the family of Nūr-Sîn and was bought by Marduk-nāṣir-apli of the Egibi-family. The latter belongs to the fourth generation in the archive. This individual is also known as Širku in the respective texts.

As a general characteristic of such sale contracts (which is already attested in the Old Babylonian period) such documents start with a description of the plot of land. In this case we are dealing with a certain area of plantation outside of the city. The plot of land is not just a barren land, but is cultivated with date palms. It is situated opposite of the Ishtar gate in Babylon at the river arm of the old Kutha-canal. This general description of the characteristics of the plot is followed by a geographical location (lines 4-10). The sequence is always the same: (1) upper long side in the north, (2) lower long side in the south, (3) upper short side in the west, and (4) lower short side in the east.

The document was issued in Babylon on the 12th day of the first month Nisannu in the third year of Dareios (i.e., 3 March 519 BC): TIN.TIR{ki} ITI.BARA₂ / UD.12.KAM MU.3.KAM {m}da-ri-ia-muš / LUGAL TIN.TIR{ki} LUGAL KUR.KUR. The date formula is followed, among others, by the remark ṣupur Bēl-ēṭir nādin eqli, "fingernail (mark) of Bēl-ēṭir, the one who gives the field." The fingernail marks are visible on the top and bottom edges of the tablet. Left and right edges bear the impression of the cylinder seal, whose label assigns this seal to the scribe Arad-Marduk. The seal shows a standing figure standing before two pedestals with divine symbols.

CDLI entry: P453151

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

By the far the greatest amount of royal or monumental inscriptions from the Neo-Babylonian period (ca. 626-539 BC) can be assigned to the ruler Nabuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) (see R. Da Riva, The Neo-Babylonian Royal Inscriptions. An Introduction, 2008).

This clay barrel-cylinder in the National Museums Scotland contains a royal inscription that is known from several similar examples, so, for instance, another barrel in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, which is presented on the right-hand side. Both inscriptions are, except for minor variations in orthography, identical (see the edition for the latter F.N.H. Al-Rawi, Iraq 62 [2000], No. 77; for a full translation see ibid., No. 74). The text is inscribed in two columns and commemorates the rebuilding of the Ebabbar-temple in Sippar (lines 1-10):

I, Nebuchadnezzar, (...) built anew the Ebabbar, the temple of Šamaš, in the midst of Sippar, for Šamaš, the lord who prolongs my days.

In what follows the king invokes the sun-god:

O Šamaš, my great lord, look gladly on my works with favour and grant me as a gift life unto faraway days, ripe old age, security of throne and a long reign!

The king not just prays for his own sake, but also for the sake of his children and his dynasty:

May my descendants keep multiplying in kingship, may they be secure in the land.

The inscription ends with the wish:

Just as the bricks of Ebabbar are secure for ever, let my years lengthen unto everlasting days.

The same commemorative text has also been inscribed on bricks. Such an example is in the John Rylands Library as well (JRL 1092; see the edition in Al-Rawi, op.cit., No. 74).

CDLI entry: P453135

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This tablet consisting of two joined pieces in the National Museums Scotland contains a large, fourteen-column administrative text from the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000). The upper half of the obverse and the lower half of the reverse are missing. The account, like others from the same period, deals with work performed for the house of the king, Amar-Suen (e₂ ^damar-^dsuen). This third king of the Ur III dynasty succeeded his father Šulgi, ruling for nine years. Unlike the founder of the dynasty Ur-Namma who was deified following his death, or the second dynast Šulgi, deified after an important event during his reign, Amar-Suen is the first king to have the divine determinative placed before his name at the time of his ascension to the throne. After Amar-Suen, deification was apparently an accepted part of monarchic succession. Despite the bold claim of divine kingship, Amar-Suen was known in later literary compositions as a weak king. Whether he was in fact powerless, or the victim of contrasts being made to highlight the strength of Šulgi, is unknown (see P. Michalowski, “Amar-Su’ena and the Historical Tradition,” in M. de Jong Ellis, ed., Fs. Finkelstein [1977] 155-157).

This tablet, to be published by J. N. Reid, deals with a variety of workers. Like other texts, the account records workers present, missing (nu) and dead (uš₂). Some of the workers have been dedicated to temple households (a-ru-a). The preserved part of the final column contains the following sub-total:

together: 14 male laborers (Sumerian guruš) at 1 barig (ca. 60 liters of grain) each;
together: 2 male laborers at 5 ban₂ (ca. 50 liters of grain) each,
together: 24 male laborers at 4 ban₂ (ca. 40 liters of grain) each,
together: 2 female laborers at 3 ban₂ (ca. 30 liters of grain) each,
together: 1 child laborer at 2 ban₂ (ca. 20 liters of grain),
together: 1 child laborer at 1 ban₂ (ca. 10 liters of grain),
are the nudaba laborers;
together: 2 male laborers at 1 barig (ca. 60 liters of grain) each,
together: 1 male laborer at 5 ban₂ (ca. 50 liters of grain),
are the dead laborers;

(they are of) the household of Amar-Suen.

A similar but larger total of a different household can be found in the second column of the reverse (e₂ ^dnin-mar^ki, demonstrating that the text originated in Girsu). The administrators divided the workers according to the designations nu-dab₅-ba-me (ones who have not been seized) and the ba-uš₂-me (in most cases to be translated as deceased workers). The best parallel to this large account found in the published Ur III corpus appears to be another joined UK artifact recently presented in cdli tablet by Oxford postdoctoral associate K. Wagensonner, the British Museum & Rylands Library account CST 881+ (app entry: 2013-06-26). Unfortunately, the date of our text would have been located in the missing half of the final column of the reverse, but it would most likely have derived from the reign of Amar-Suen. How these royal households were constituted in Girsu during the reign of individual monarchs—no small task given the conservative nature of provincial politics economies under rule from southern Ur—is a topic for future research.

CDLI entry: P453060

credit: Reid, J. Nicholas

This well-preserved legal text in the National Museums Scotland dates to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) probably into the reign of Sabium (the date is broken, but prosopographical data allows to narrow down a date; see S. Dalley, A catalogue of the Akkadian cuneiform tablets in the collections of the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, with copies of the texts, 1979). It contains a record of the division of inheritance by three sons after the death of their mother.

The document itself is not sealed. It was originally enclosed within a clay envelope containing probably an abbreviated version of its content. Not much is left of this envelope, except for three small fragments. On their "inner" side they still have the positive impression of the clay tablet preserved. Thanks to this impression it is possible to re-join the fragments and locate their original place (outlined on the image next to a horizontally mirrored and sharpened image of the inner sides of the fragments).

A more complete example is a legal document in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, from the Old Babylonian archive of Mannum-mešu-liṣṣur, which attests to the guardianship of a statue. The envelope, which is in this case much better preserved, contains a copy of the text inside. If there were any suspicion of fraud or manipulation, the keeper of the tablet could break open the envelope and check the tablet inside. As a further security measurement the envelope was sealed. Different to the tablet in Edinburgh, which presents another legal case, also the enclosed tablet bears a seal impressions. It is certain that the envelope of the Edinburgh tablet was sealed as well. The fragments, however, are too small to attest to traces of a seal.

CDLI entry: P453133

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Thousands of letters dating to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) are known so far. A great percentage of these letters, except for those originating from the site of Mari on the Middle Euphrates, were edited in the series Altbabylonische Briefe (AbB) initiated by F. R. Kraus.

Old Babylonian letters comprise an amazing repository of daily communications between individuals. Unfortunately, the texts just in rare cases identify the individuals involved by giving occupations or titles. This may pose great problems for a proper identification of individuals carrying rather common names as, for instance, Marduk-naṣir. In many of such cases a prosopography of further individuals attested in the respective text as well as place names may limit the possibilities. Often, individuals can be identified by studying contemporary legal and administrative documents, which frequently provide more information.

This Old Babylonian letter (edited by F. R. Kraus as AbB 10, no. 148) deals with the rights to a field. A decision was to be made and the sender of the text states that “when I went from Nippur to Babylon, I didn’t give you my definite decision, (since I thought) I would return to Nippur in the seventh month.” He urges the addressee not to become negligent regarding the irrigation of the fields, a common topic in Old Babylonian letters. He insists that there may be no waste land. The topographical designations given in this area may situate this letter in the area of Sippar.

Noteworthy is the last sentence of the letter, in which the sender where the letter should be kept. He orders: “(His) being the trustee of my (i.e., the sender’s) word and testimony of my cause, you will store this tablet with Lu-Enlila!”

CDLI entry: P453066

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Many tablets survived from the communications of the Old Assyrian merchants doing business in the commercial settlement of kārum Kanesh in Central Anatolia. Their letters, sent and received to or from places within Anatolia or the capital Assur, are the first substantial Akkadian epistolary corpus in the 2nd millennium BC. The texts make use of a simplified syllabary with approximately 100 signs—much easier for a trader class to master than the 600-1000 signs required in more scholarly texts.

Letters were normally wrapped in an outer clay covering before they were sent off. These envelopes were sealed. Frequently, besides information about sender and addressee, they contain a review of the content expressed in their enclosed tablets. In contrast to other periods, Old Assyrian scribes occasionally placed two tablets in one envelope: a main tablet bearing the greater part of the text, and, where the space on the main tablet was not sufficient, a second, smaller tablet, as here in concave form with the main tablet resting against its reverse, uninscribed surface. These two artifacts may conveniently be called “mother and child.”

We unfortunately do not have the envelope of this particular text, nor is it entirely clear from the visible traces on the reverse whether the “child” tablet is really a continuation of the text of this “mother” tablet. A similar, but complete, example is CTMMA 1, 78, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In contrast to that example, the smaller tablet RSM A.1963.244 is addressed to a different individual, thus is in fact a separate document.

CDLI entries: P361615-6

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Approximately 23,000 tablets and fragments are known from the Old Assyrian merchants' colony at the Central Anatolian site of Kanesh. Despite the distance between Kanesh and the central power in Assur, a five-weeks journey, the latter was always the authority. Letters sent from Assur indicate that something needs to be done "in accordance with the orders of the City Assembly."

Letters make up a high percentage of the available documentation. Next in line are legal documents, a group of texts that itself can be subdivided into various types of documents. In yesterday's post a verdict from the City Assembly was presented. This document in the National Museums Scotland is a debt-note. Debt-notes belong to contracts. Other types of these are service contracts with personnel, transport contracts, contracts on settling accounts, and quittances.

Nowadays we know hundreds of such debt-notes. Some of them record true loans. Nevertheless, most of them involve financial liabilities resulting from credit sale or commission. These documents are formulated from the point of view of the creditor. Therefore, they frequently use the phrase iṣṣēr PN īšû, the creditor "has a claim on the debtor (PN)." The claim of this debt-note are fifteen minas of tin (see K. R. Veenhof & J. Eidem, Mesopotamia. The Old Assyrian Period. Annäherungen 5 [2008], 51). Such debt-notes are normally dated after phases of the agricultural year or by festivals. This suggests that by that time a calendar with month-names has not been established in Anatolia yet. The festivals and moments of the agricultural year mentioned figure as due dates for the payments (see Veenhof & Eidem, op.cit., 234). Once the debt was paid, the note was either destroyed or returned to the debtor.

Legal documents were put into clay envelopes. Many complete examples survived. The content of the tablet was repeated on the surface of the envelope. Additionally the participating parties rolled their seal over the surface in order to authenticate the legal document. Our document contains the impressions and labels of three cylinder seals.

CDLI entry: P361609

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The houses of the merchants at the Central Anatolian site of Kanesh yielded a great number of cuneiform tablets. This phase in the early centuries of the 2nd millennium BC is called Old Assyrian period (ca. 1950-1850 BC). The traders’ houses are located in the commercial district of the lower town, which is called kârum Kanesh. The private archives of the merchants ended with the destruction of the settlement around 1835 BC. This important commercial center is now known as the administrative capital of a colonial network that consisted of some thirty settlements (see Veenhof, “The Archives of Old Assyrian Traiders: their Nature, Functions and Use,” in: Faraguna, ed., Archives and Archival Documents in Ancient Societies, Triest [2013], 27ff.). The archives in Kanesh alone yielded more than 23,000 documents, most of which were unearthed by the local villagers and sold, before official excavations had been conducted.

The available documentation can be classified in letters, legal documents and lists, such as memoranda and notes. This tablet with its envelope in the National Museums Scotland belong to the second group, which itself contains many subtypes of documents. It starts with the well-attested expression âlum dînam idînma, “the City (i.e., Assur) rendered a verdict.” Verdicts must not be issued by the central power, in this case Assur’s city assembly, which is referred to as the “City.” We have also plenty of cases, where the kârum itself rendered the verdict. In such cases the envelope carries the seal of the respective commercial settlement.

Our text continues with the statement that a certain Kukulanum is entitled to engage an attorney (râbisam ehhaz) in order to clear an individual named Aguza, who is the trading agent of his father, from claims. The kârum will be the executive arm of the attorney (emûq râbisi).
The verdict was enclosed in a clay envelope. Luckily we still have the envelope completely preserved. As indicated in the first line, it bears the seal of the waklum, the Assyrian ruler (see Eppihimer, JNES 72 [2013]). Such texts give clues about the ruler’s involvement in Anatolian matters. A common and rather convenient feature of legal documents is the fact that their contents were repeated on the envelope. Had there been any suspicion of tampering with the contents of the document, the envelope could have been opened and its contents checked.

The text on the envelope does show variants. Noteworthy is the variant in the first sentence of the verdict. Instead of the above-mentioned statement that Kukulanum is entitled to engage an attorney, the envelope states that he is entitled to “send” (išappar) him.

The seal used was the seal of the Old Assyrian ruler Sargon, not to be confused with the first ruler of the Old Akkadian period (see Eppihimer, op.cit., 37, fig. 3 and 38, fig. 5). The Old Assyrian ruler’s seal shows an introduction scene and bears a legend. This legend includes the ruler’s name, his title (iššiak Aššur) and a patronym, which links the respective ruler to his predecessor. As has been shown recently, the introduction scene and the way the inscription is presented reflect earlier models of the end of the 3rd millennium BC.

CDLI entry: P390710

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This composition is so far the only known text containing a song of praise for the god Šulpa’e, the spouse of the mother goddess Ninḫursag. This god is one of several deities who generally are portrayed as young heroes in Sumerian literature. The fragment in the National Museums Scotland was first published by Stephen Langdon in his Babylonian Liturgies (1913) as no. VI (“Hymn to Tammuz and Innina”). Adam Falkenstein edited the text in 1963 (“Sumerische religiöse Texte 4,” ZA 55, 11-67). Falkenstein assigns four manuscripts to this composition (A = VAT 6110; B = BM 87594; C = AO 3925; D = NMS A.1909.405.27). All known texts date to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC). Manuscripts C and D are written in syllabic Sumerian, thus differ significantly in their orthography from the other two manuscripts. The divine name ^dšul-pa-e₃, for instance, is written su-pa₃-e on the Edinburgh tablet. But the syllabic versions otherwise show many variants compared to the contents of the other sources.

K. Wagensonner (Oxford) suspects that the pieces C and D belong to the same tablet. While the physical joining of the two fragments presents logistical problems—some 1300 km separate the two museum collections—, it could be verified employing images of both tablets, in particular those produced with flat-bed scans that ensure the same scale for all surfaces (see K. Wagensonner, CDLN 2014:010).

The composition has about 85 lines. In the first section, the god is addressed as “hero, who shines forth like moonlight over the upper city.” He is the “lord of the great divine powers,” the elusive me (a word that in Sumerian means something like “essence”). But Šulpa’e is not just represented as a benevolent figure. The text emphasizes his power by referring to him as storm approaching mankind. He is the “lord of orchards and gardens, plantations and green reedbeds, of the quadrupeds of the wide desert, of the animals, the living creatures of the plains” (for a full translation see ETCSL 4.31.1).

CDLI entry: P414093

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Stephen Langdon published this tablet in the National Museums Scotland in his Babylonian Liturgies (1913) as no. VIII. The colophon identifies the text as tenth tablet of a well-known balag-composition, whose first line reads uru₂-am₃-ma-ir-ra-bi, "this city that has been pillaged." The Sumerian word balag designate a certain kind of musical instrument as a drum or harp. This series belongs to the lamentation literature and therefore is written in the so-called Emesal dialect, which mainly differs phonetically from the Sumerian main dialect. Already in the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) we find textual reference to this series. After the famous "Mari ritual" the composition is to be recited at the beginning of each month.

In its late "canonical" version, this composition is bilingual. The Akkadian translation follows directly after the Sumerian version. Such interlinear translations represent a common format for late bilingual texts. This series is already known in the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC), but then in the Sumerian version only (see, for instance, K. Volk, FAOS 18 [1989], 26ff.).

The physical parameters such as scribal hand and line spacing help dating this tablet in Edinburgh to the second half of the first millennium BC. This tablet in Edinburgh very much resembles MMUM 35412, a text now in the Manchester University Museum, which was posted on here earlier. That text is a bilingual Emesal-composition as well, belonging, however, to another text genre.

CDLI entry: P414095

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The textual sources for incantations, which are specifically destined to protect against the Evil Eye are quite rare in Mesopotamia. M. J. Geller recently collected the available sources (Fs. Wilcke [2003] pp. 115ff.; 116). This well-preserved tablet in the collection of the National Museums Scotland was discussed in its wider context by Geller. Geller interprets incantations like this one to be descriptions of patients suffering from paranoia (ibid., p. 128).

The first passage describes the symptoms and implications of the affected person. Thus the text mentions, for instance, that “the ‛dragon’-face of a man causing evil approached heaven (so that) the clouds bring no rain. He approached the earth, and the plants do not grow. He approached the ox, and its yoke does not open (...).”

The description of the symptoms has its only parallel in AO 8895 in the Louvre Museum (see the score in Geller, op.cit., 129ff. and Thomsen, JNES 51, 1992, 31ff.). Whereas the text in Edinburgh follows the usual structure of incantations by describing the "problem" and Enki's son seeking advice and finally the cure, the text in the Louvre goes on with the description of symptoms and concludes with a spell against the Evil Eye.

On the tablet in Edinburgh Enki’s son Asalluhi, who generally occurs in incantations, takes notice of the problem. As it is attested in many incantations Asalluhi approaches his father and addresses him in order to get a solution. This passage is omitted in this text; traces of which are found in Enki's last sentence: "What do I know that you do not already know?." We have seen the complete formulary of this dialogue in another Sumerian incantation in Edinburgh (P355876).

The text directly goes on with describing a cure for the disease, which includes preparing a substance and binding it on the patient’s neck. The text closes with the prayer, “May Nintinuga purify her (surgical)-reed, may Damu strike with his axe, and may Gunura erect her boat-mast.”

CDLI entry: P355875

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Sumerian letters, as their Akkadian counterparts, employ a consistent, conventionalized structure. The most obvious criterion is the Sumerian verbal form u₃-na-a-du₁₁, a so-called prospective verbal form that is, in Akkadian, rendered by the imperative qibi-ma, "speak." The Sumerian form follows the addressee marked by the dative postposition. The sender of the letter is followed by the verbal formulary na-ab-be₂-a, "what ... says.".

Although the corpus of Sumerian letters is relatively small compared to that of Akkadian, we have a respectable number of literary letters that may have originated in actual correspondence. Most notable among these is the so-called royal correspondence of the kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2100-2000) (see Piotr Michalowski, The Correspondence of the Kings of Ur, 2011). These letters formed an important part of the Old Babylonian school curriculum.

Besides these letters there is a small group of letter-prayers addressed to deities. This example in the National Museums Scotland contains such a letter, which is known from several sources (see ETCSL 3.3.01 for a translation). Manuscripts are known to come from several sites, namely Nippur, Ur, Isin, and Uruk. Although this manuscript in Edinburgh has no known provenience, it is one of the best preserved. The text is complete with just minor surface damages.

The sender of the letter is a certain Ur-saga. The letter, that uses sophisticated epithets, is addressed to a king. In contrast to the address, the actual body of the letter is rather short:

My lord has not taken care of me; I am a citizen of Urim. If my lord agrees, let no one waste my father's household, let no one take away the home of my father's estate! May my lord know this!

CDLI entry: P414092

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) is the major period for the compilation of Sumerian literature. Its transmission is owed to a great extent to the school education, where literary extracts were copied by apprentice scribes.

This nice example in the collection of the National Museums Scotland is a square tablet containing a short song of praise. The text was published by Stephen Langdon in his Babylonian Liturgies (1913) as text no. VIII^ter. However, Langdon’s hand copy suggests that the beginnings of the lines are completely destroyed and that there are signs missing. In fact, most of the tablet is well preserved. The lines on the tablet are quite slanted. This is, in particular, apparent on the reverse, which contains text only in its upper third. In the blank space in the lower part of the reverse are quite a few erased signs. These two aspects suggest that the tablet’s origin can indeed be traced in the school milieu.

The text ends in the doxology “Nisaba be praised.” Langdon published this text in his Babylonian Liturgies as a hymn to the goddess Nisaba. A similar song of praise is HS 1526 in the Hilprecht collection in Jena. The goddess Nisaba frequently occurs in doxologies of Sumerian literary compositions. It appears that the text is addressed to the goddess Baba (mentioned in line 8). She is described as ga-ša-an-gu₁₀, “my lady,” in the Emesal-dialect.

This is also substantiated by the first line, which mentions e₂-gi₄-a-eri[du^?ki-ga], “daughter-in-law of Eridu” (the end of the line is too fragmentary to read). This epithet of the goddess Baba is already attested in the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2500-2350 BC) in an inscription of Urukagina. The second line mentions a covering (Akk. kutummu): KID-ma₂-šu₂-a. The first sentence with a finite verb occurs in line 4, which states: “What is made?” (a-na-am₃ ib₂-ak).

The remaining text contains the sequence ze₂-eg₃ several times, which is the Emesal-form for the Sumerian verb šum₂, “to give.” The last line of the obverse and the first line of the reverse seem to be identical. All in all, this text appears to be an ad hoc compilation.


CDLI entry: P414096

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Among the literary texts in the collection of the National Museums Scotland is this well-preserved tablet, which dates to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC). It has recently been understood as incantation against love pain (see a new edition and discussion in Mark Geller, “Mesopotamian Love Magic,” CRAI 47/1, 129ff.). Sumerian and Akkadian compositions provide good examples of love incantations. Incantations frequently explain a condition and present a problem.

The text draws much from Inanna-Dumuzi love songs. Half of the composition describes a girl and how she arouses a man: “She strikes the lad in the chest like (with) a reed” (line 17). Then Asalluhi, having no solution, addresses his father Enki, who willingly gives him the following advice:

Butter of a pure cow, milk of a domestic cow,
butter of a cow, butter of a white cow -
when you pour it in a yellow stone-vessel,
when you apply it to the girl's breasts,
the girl must not lock him out of the open door,
nor must she comfort her crying child.
Let (the lad) speak out: “May she run after me!”
Incantation spell.

The tablet in Edinburgh has a duplicate in the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts (published by Albrecht Goetze, JCS 8 [1954] 146). Since the state of preservation of the Edinburgh text is better, it adds valuable information to the understanding of this composition.


CDLI entry: P355876

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

In recent decades, the genres and style of Sumerian literature have been much discussed in the scholarly literature. One crucial topic are “divine journeys.” Texts dealing with this peculiar Sumerian topic are quite frequent (see Klaus Wagensonner, Wenn Götter reisen ... [2005; unpublished MA thesis, University of Vienna]). Nonetheless, there are major differences of the relevant compositions compared to, for instance, city laments or debate poems, whose textual witnesses exhibit a much greater consistency in vocabulary and structure.

Divine journeys may be the topic of a single composition, as this specimen from the collection of the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh demonstrates. Frequently, the divine journey is just an episode within the greater framework of a text. The level of detail varies from composition to composition. Some, as our example in Edinburgh, provide us with information like the means of transport or stops en route from A to B, guests of a banquet and so forth. Others just mention the journey itself and occasionally give clues about the exact whereabouts.

This well-preserved tablet is but one of quite a few manuscripts belonging to a composition known nowadays as “Nanna-Suen’s Journey to Nippur” (for an edition see Ferrara, Nanna-Suen's Journey to Nippur, Rome 1973). Sumerian literary compositions frequently need to be pieced together using many - mostly fragmentary - manuscripts. This fine manuscript is one of the best preserved we have for this composition. The University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia has a cast of the Edinburgh tablet in its holdings (whose reverse replaces the image of the original on the right-hand side).

There are several independent compositions dealing with the moon-god traveling from his home-town Ur to Nippur, the city of his parents, Enlil and Ninlil. This composition of 350 lines is not just the longest of them, but can be considered a leading example for Sumerian divine journeys altogether, due to its complexity and high level of information. Thus, we learn of the preparation and construction of a processional boat for the moon-god, of rituals along his journey to Nippur, and of much more. The ultimate goal of his journey was to be granted an abundance of fauna and flora, and a long rule in the palace, as becomes clear from the following passage:

He gave to him, Enlil gave to him—and he set off for Ur. In the river he gave him the carp-flood—and he set off for Ur. In the field he gave him speckled barley—and he set off for Ur. In the pond he gave him kuda carp and suḫur carp—and he set off for Ur. In the reedbeds he gave him old reed and fresh reed—and he set off for Ur. In the forests he gave him the ibex and wild ram—and he set off for Ur. In the high plain he gave him the mašgurum tree—and he set off for Ur. In the orchards he gave him date syrup and wine—and he set off for Ur. In the palace he gave him long life—and he set off for Ur.

CDLI entry: P414091

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The hero depicted in the monument is suspected by many—and hinted at by Louvre curators—to be Gilgamesh. Lion-taming spirits are often associated with the hero given his conflicts with such beasts in his namesake epic. Furthermore, the monument stands 5.52 meters in height, which various versions of the epic refer to as the height at which Gilgamesh would stand. For further information, see the following reference. Beyond the identity of the depicted hero, lion-taming spirits in general are thought to be signs of divinity and power; this gives new significance to its location at the heart of power in the Akkadian palace.

Reference: AO 19862

credit: Abdusamad, Rania M.

While the exact context of this relief is unknown, it is most likely a depiction of the conflict between Enkidu, Humbaba, and Gilgamesh described in the Epic of Gilgamesh. This is made most obvious by the illustration of the two allied warriors handling the beast’s horns in a manner similar to that described in the execution of Humbaba in the fifth tablet of the Epic. Carved on basalt, the relief was found ornamenting the wall of the palace of the Neo-Hittite king of Guzana, Kapara. The relief measures to be 62.6 centimeters in height, 42 centimeters in width, and 16 centimeters in thickness. It is tentatively dated to the 10th-9th century BC, which puts it between Neo-Hittite and Hurritic periods.

Reference: 21.18

credit: Abdusamad, Rania M.

Tablet VI is dated to Neo-Assyrian period (700 BC). The Nineveh witness displayed here measures 13 centimeters high by 14 centimeters wide, and 2.54 centimeters thick. It was excavated by Sir Austen Henry Layard in the previously mentioned site of Nineveh. Literarily, it recalls the goddess Ishtar’s marital desires for Gilgamesh, and her subsequent anger at being rebuffed. It furthermore details the series of disastrous events that follow. The most significant result of this fragment of the narrative is the heaven-determined fate of Enkidu pushed forth by these events. A complete translation of the tablet can be found at panel.

CDLI reference: P273202

credit: Abdusamad, Rania M.,

There is conflict in the dating of Tablet V of the Standard Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic. The Sulaymaniyah Museum dates it to 2000-1500 BC, but dissenting scholars put it closer to the neo-Babylonian period. Its most significant contribution is in its depiction of the events experienced by Gilgamesh and Enkidu in the Cedar Forest. These descriptions include previously unknown characterizations of Humbaba as more man than monster. Furthermore, the tablet offers a more advanced emotional depiction of all the characters involved in the conflict. It also presents a deeper moral conflict within Enkidu and Gilgamesh in their decision to execute Humbaba. A complete translation of the tablet can be found here.

Reference: T.1447

credit: Abdusamad, Rania M.,

The Flood Tablet, like the majority of tablets unearthed in the neo-Assyrian royal library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh, was inscribed on clay and furthermore fired, indicating a desire for preservation by the library’s archivists. It depicts the ordeal of Utnapishtim in constructing a boat to survive a great flood being induced by the gods of the time. The creation of this vessel was advised by a dissenting god, Ea, who later on intervenes once more to save Utnapishtim against the ire of the gods who had sought complete destruction. Within the tablet, the entire tale is told to Gilgamesh by Utnapishtim. A complete translation of the tablet can be found here.

CDLI Reference: P273210

credit: Abdusamad, Rania M.

Mesopotamian rulers were assumed to be chosen by the gods to rule on earth; because of this, they actively played a part in the daily life of ancient Mesopotamia. Their main roles were to manage the state in times of war and in times of peace, writing laws, being military leaders, and being heads of the justice system. A ruler would decide when to go on campaigns of war for plunder for new resources. Shulgi’s year names often have to do with military campaigns of plunder. For example, ”24th year: Karhar was destroyed," "25th year: Simurrum was destroyed.” It was also up to the rulers to decide when and what official buildings would be constructed. For example, Ur-Namma built the Ur ziggurat, which was a huge architectural project demonstrating great wealth in the kingdom. One of the most important jobs of the ruler was to provide for social order and justice. One example of this is Hammurapi’s law code written on a monumental stele. This law code was one of the earliest known. It spelled out all of the laws of the states with punishments for those who did not follow them.

CDLI entry: Q006387

credit: Nickelson, Samantha

Art flourished in ancient Mesopotamia, but monumental pieces were clearly the domain of the elites—and imperishable, expensive stone their medium of choice. Through trade and plunder, they brought to the resource-poor alluvium the precious materials their artisans requested. The image to the left is known as Naramsin's “Victory Stele.” This limestone slab depicts a godlike figure standing above his own, and defeated enemy soldiers. The king is depicted much larger than the foot-soldiers, together with the divine horned cap demonstrating his superhuman nature. This work also conveys a hierarchy in which the most important figure is atop the mountain, the soldiers and the enemy below him.

CDLI entry: P215544

credit: Nickelson, Samantha

Religion for the ancient Babylonians was a part of daily life. They worshipped multiple gods and each god had a specific job to do. Each city had a god who was connected to the city in a special way. To prove their devotion to the gods, huge monumental buildings called ziggurats were constructed. The ziggurats were temples that were places of worship for the people. The temples perched atop the ziggurats held art and cultural goods used to impress the gods. When bad things happened in Mesopotamia, like famine, disease or bad crop yields, the people believed that they were being punished by the gods. To rectify this, they would go to the temples and present offerings in hopes of appeasing the gods. In the image I have provided, there is an example of one of these great edifices. Building a ziggurat shows economic prosperity as well as devotion, as it was a big job to complete. But once done, it was a place for the people to show their love for their gods.

Reference: web resource

credit: Nickelson, Samantha

Once a people have settled in one area, paralleling animal domestication is farming. In ancient Mesopotamia farming was a critical part of daily life. Situated between two rivers, ancient Mesopotamians relied on the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates to cultivate their crops. Water was always an important resource that at times had to be tamed by ditches and canals in order for farmers to water their crops. At times the rivers were unstable. They would flood which could be a blessing or a curse depending on the season. With the flooding they brought up silt that blacked canals and filled ditches. These canals and ditches had to be maintained so water could travel through them and get to the crops. The main crop for large scale Mesopotamians was grain. Wheat and barley were the most important crops due to their ability to make beer out of them, which was a staple in the Mesopotamians lives. Technological advances paralleled the beginning of farming. Mesopotamians used a seed plow with a funnel to drop seeds in. In addition to large scale crops Mesopotamians also farmed a variety of small scale crops probably used as gardens to support a single family. In the provided image there is a statue of a man using an ox or a cow to pull his plow. This shows the combination of animal domestication and the development of widespread farming. Farming was a very important part of life as the ancient Mesopotamians had a diet based heavily on grains.

Reference: web resource

credit: Nickelson, Samantha

Animal domestication meant that humans no longer needed to live a nomadic,hunter-gatherer life. People could settle in one place and grow what they needed to survive. Plant and animal domestication paved the way for civilizations to emerge, and empires to form. No longer are inhabitants constantly on the move. People are creating groups and staying in one place. Animal domestication goes back to around 8,000 BC. By this time goat and sheep had been domesticated—pigs earlier, and dogs probably much earlier. Each animal gives much needed resources to the ancient Mesopotamians. Ancient people got wool from sheep, milk and hair from goats, and meat and lard from pigs. Somewhat later, bovines were domesticated, then donkeys. All animals served multiple purposes, for instance pulling loads, providing wool or hides, dairy products or meat. Because they were used in religious or royalty sacrifice, many pictures of animals, when they are available, are used in representations of offering or gesture. Domestication of animals shows sophistication in human organization. In the iconography, there are many people using different animals in different ways. Some are using the wool from the sheep to make textiles, others are leading their animals who are carrying loads for community members. Without the domestication of animals, the Babylonians would not have had many resources to supplement their diet.

Reference: wiki entry

credit: Nickelson, Samantha

This carved stone slab in the form of a brick attests to the restoration of Ekur, the temple of Enlil in Nippur, the Holy See of ancinet Sumer. Enlil was the chief god of the Sumerian pantheon, and the main deity referenced on clay and stone tablets. Donations to the refurbishment of Ekur were very important to Mesopotamian rulers, insofar as they professed that Enlil could bring great rewards, or great hardships to a kingdom. The donor named on this tablet is a certain Hašmar-galšu. Although he is not a well known Kassite figure, this individual wrote his name with the divine determinative, a marker usually used by deities and seldom embraced by even the most elite of rulers of this period. The inscription reads: “Present of Hašmar-galšu. A stone brick for the Ekur, for Enlil, his lord.” Having been carved into black marble, the message was meant to last for eternity.

CDLI entry: P373779

credit: Deline, Julian

The cylinder commemorates the vast building program carried out by king Nebuchadnezzar II, ruler of Babylon from 605 to 562 B.C. Written in cuneiform, the text reads: “I built a strong wall that cannot be shaken, with bitumen and baked bricks… I laid its foundation on the great floor of the netherworld, and built its top as high as a mountain.” Through his building program, Nebuchadnezzar II transformed Babylon into an elite imperial capital. Like time capsules of the modern day, baked clay cylinders were buried within the foundations of ancient buildings as they were being built. The cylinders often record the restoration of an already ancient structure, as well as the architectural plans of a newly constructed building. This particular cylinder documents Nebuchadnezzar’s building of a new outer city wall, which he claims “no previous king had done.” Inserting cylinders into building foundations was an attempt of the current king to be honored by future kings going about the further restoration of the structure.

CDLI entry: P498321

credit: Deline, Julian

The mortgage documents an agreement by two men, Abda and Banunu, to another man, Bel-nadin-shumu, about purchasing an orchard and an uncultivated area of land for a large number of date trees. Included are the names of the scribe, Ninib-abu-user, and eleven witnesses, four of whom signed the upper, lower, and right sides with seal impressions. Also included are the thumbnail markings of the two debtors. The tablet was found along with 729 others in a room in the ruins of Nippur during an excavation carried out by the University of Pennsylvania in 1893. The room is located 20 feet below the surface of the northeastern ridge of Nippur, and was used as a business archive for wealthy firms, bankers, and brokers.

CDLI entry: P498088

credit: Deline, Julian

Without the discernable use of involved syntax in early texts, it is difficult to interpret tablets with any certainty. This small tablet likely reports on the grain (barley) distribution of a large temple. A cylinder seal has been rolled over the tablet, illustrating a man walking two dogs on leashes while they hunt boar. Consistent with the southern Mesopotamia region, the man appears to be active in wetlands. The Jemdet Nasr period is particularly known as one of the formative stages in the development of cuneiform. While the Uruk IV period claims the oldest clay tablets, the Jemdet Nasr period made great advancements away from a pictographic style of text.

CDLI entry: P005393

credit: Deline, Julian

This Assyrian relief dates between 883-859 BC of the neo-Assyrian period. The slab depicts the king Assurnasirpal II holding a bow (symbolizing his authority), and a ceremonial drinking bowl. Assurnasirpal II is facing a eunuch (identified by the lack of a beard), who is holding a fly whisk and a ladle used to refill the ceremonial bowl. The king wears the royal crown, a conical cap with a small top and a long diadem, and stands with the eunuch in an almost religious manner. The palace rooms at Nimrud were guarded at the doorway by large sculptures, and it’s walls were decorated with brightly painted walls and huge stone slabs containing carved reliefs. The noted Near Eastern archaeologist Klaudia Englund maintains a detailed online description of the palace rooms within the CDLI domain.

CDLI entry: P426821

credit: Deline, Julian

From the Ishtar Temple of Mari, this stone sculpture of a couple seated on a bench, wearing similar dress, dates from the Early Dynastic period of Sumer (ca. 2500 BC). One way female statues were differentiated from male statues in Sumerian sculpture was in how their hands were clasped: as shown in other images, women generally held one wrist with the opposite hand rather than clasping their hands in front of them with the fingers laced or with both hands folded. Here, the man’s hand grasps the woman’s wrist, demonstrating his dominance over her, while her hand lies limp across their laps. The man can also be differentiated from the woman in that he wears a fringed skirt rather than a dress. The two figures are turned toward each other, the woman overlapping the man, something that would not have been common in reliefs from this period. From an art historical perspective, this image reminds us of the tomb objects of the Etruscans, particularly the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, that shed light on the intimacy of the lives of couples of that early Italian civilization.

Image Credit: Jean M. Evans, The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture: An Archaeology of the Early Dynastic Temple, p. 200, fig. 71.

credit: Burton, Elizabeth M.

This sculpture from the Inanna temple in ancient Mari dates to the Early Dynastic period of Sumer (ca. 2500 BC), and is currently housed in the Louvre Museum (image credit). Unlike many other Sumerian sculptures of this period, this particular statue of the ruler Ebiḫ-Il is extraordinarily realistic, with more texture variation than is generally expected. The statue is bald; the figure's face is well-proportioned, with a beard carved and incised, drilled into to appear realistic and intricate. His eyebrows are bold and laid above lined and certainly originally inlaid eyes that convey expression or feeling, something previously uncommon in Sumerian sculpture. His ears are also quite realistically carved. The skirt worn by the figure features fringe along the bottom. This sculpture, though exceptionally detailed, is still idealized.

CDLI entry: P225850

credit: Burton, Elizabeth M.

This statue of a female figure found in the Inanna Temple of Nippur demonstrates the artistic style of the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2800-2350 BC). The woman’s hair is kinked, her eyes are large and inlaid with a different type of stone than that from which her body was carved, and her body is a large mass with angular arms and clasped hands. The robe or dress she wears is given dimension, and her gender is displayed, through the wrap portion that is incised down the center of the body. Her gender is also betrayed by the remnants of blue beading in her hair and on her shoulders, that may have come from a necklace or headdress she once wore. Many female figures of this time, especially within temples devoted to goddesses like Inanna, were given jewelry (earrings, bracelets, and necklaces), especially if the figures represented a queen or her court.

Image credit: Jean M. Evans, The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture: An Archaeology of the Early Dynastic Temple, p. 142, fig. 46

credit: Burton, Elizabeth M.

This statue was part of the Tell Asmar hoard and echoes other figures from the Early Dynastic period in Sumer (ca. 2800-2350 BC). This image is unique, however, in that it depicts a nude hero rather than a pious ruler or other worshipper. Similar to ruler and worshipper votive statues, however, this statue has clasped hands and is in a position one might interpret as pious. The statue here is interesting because of its function: it does not merely stand as a representation of another man who wished to ensure a presence in the temple ‘solid as stone,’ but it has a utilitarian function too. The kneeling figure wears nothing but a belt and a headdress, the latter of which functions as a vessel for ritual libations. This figure, since it functions as an intermediary between man and the gods (as shown through its headdress intended for ritual use), is not human but a divine hero, a hybrid of man and god. This particular piece has been described to represent one hero in particular: he who masters and domesticates animals.

Image credit: Jean M. Evans, The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture: An Archaeology of the Early Dynastic Temple, p. 162, fig. 54

credit: Burton, Elizabeth M.

This sculpture, taken from Ur and dated to the Early Dynastic IIIb period (ca. 2500-2350 BC), was made on behalf of the ruler Enmetena, of Lagash province. Now housed in the Iraq Museum, the sculpture demonstrates contemporary dress, piety, and the tradition of image-making of this period. This particular statue represented the ruler in his absence. It is inscribed with the phrase “Enmetena whom Enlil loves” to demonstrate the ruler’s special connection as well as his dedication to the gods. Early Dynastic statues placed in temples can be dated and identified as such because of the traditional clasped hands seen in this statue, and the royal inscriptions many of them carried; because temple construction was considered an important job of rulers, ED officials placed representations of themselves within the temples to remind the gods and citizens who was responsible for the temples’ construction.

Image credit: Jean M. Evans, The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture: An Archaeology of the Early Dynastic Temple, p. 113, fig. 41

credit: Burton, Elizabeth M.

Drehem, ancient Puzrish-Dagan, was the revenue accounting, and Nippur cult servicing center of the Ur III kings of the 21st century BC. This unassuming Drehem document from the collection of the Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem, records the receipt by Šulgi-irimu, a relatively high-ranking official under the third and fourth kings of the dynasty, of a cow and a lamb, slaughtered for an unnamed repast. The text, like many thousands of others, is dated exactingly, in this case to 2/18/2039 BC (middle chronology); it reads (following the text from top to bottom in the lines, and from right to left on the tablet, as did the ancient scribes)

   1 cow, seed of wild bull, 3rd year;
   1 lamb;
   slaughtered, 18th day;
   from Zubaga
   did Šulgi-irimu
   receive;
   month: “Piglet-feast,”
   year: “The lord of (the moon-god) Nanna
      installed in Karzida;”
   (total:) 1 ox, 1 sheep.

Scientific editions: Dhorme, Edouard, Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archéologie Orientale 9 (1912) p. 51 SE 7; Ozaki, Tohru & Sigrist, Marcel, Tablets in Jerusalem: Sainte-Anne and Saint-Étienne (2010) no. 270.

CDLI entry: P127544

credit: Englund, Robert K.

Cylinder seals were the hallmark of Babylonian contract and administrative practice. Dating back to the mid-fourth millennium BC, such seals were rolled by their owners across clay stoppers on jars of expensive butter oil, on bullae attached to cords fastening baskets, vessels, and even doors of storage rooms—and most importantly on receipts, on royal letters, on sales contracts. Identifying and interpreting the legends of these seals as part of the written record is not always a simple task for even the best trained of specialists. They were often rolled over—or, as a kind of letterhead, under—the ravaging effects of a man and his stylus. In many cases in the Ur III period, a space was left free, on the reverse surface of a receipt, specifically for a more legible seal rolling. This impression generally focussed on the seal legend, often to the near exclusion of such iconic material as presentation scenes that flanked the legend identifying the seal owner. The legend usually included his profession and the name of his father. Incidentally, the orientation of these scenes in relationship to the cuneiform legends is one of the pieces of evidence Ur III specialists have mustered to demonstrate that texts at this time were written, and read, in lines from top to bottom and in columns from right to left.

This text is a common Ur III document from Umma recording the receipt, by one Lanimu, of 2640 bird feathers. To better read the seal legend of this text, we often follow a technique, developed by UCLA graduate student Michael Heinle, of performing a color inversion and highlighting the result. In this example from the Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem, the highlighted legend underscores another of the problems a hapless seal cutter might encounter in his young apprentice: the initial sign 'la' was cut in a mirrored version, that is, in a form that was positive rather than the negative cut that would be required to result in a positive impression on a clay surface. This particular seal is currently recorded on ten texts including this one. CDLI is working closely with imaging teams at the Universities of Oxford and Leuven to implement technologies focussing on the capture of the subtle surface impressions of seals, thus reducing our dependence on such short-cuts, or on the capabilities of early editors of administrative and legal text corpora and their occasionally less than exacting readings.

CDLI entry: P332188

credit: Englund, Robert K.

Fragments of texts broken in antiquity or during their excavation can be separated by inventory keepers at archaeological digs, by museum curators receiving and putting to storage such pieces, or can be separated early on and be taken to separate collections altogether. Later research by experts has led to many thousands of post-accession joins, even to a sub-discipline playfully, or occasionally ironically, called “joinology” (small “j”!) by admirers and detractors of those who dedicate much of their careers to this painstaking, vitally necessary work; the vaunted Kuyunjik scholar Rykle Borger springs most to mind in identifying the dozen or so researchers who contributed so much to solving the puzzles of ancient cuneiform. Pieces of formulaic cuneiform texts such as literary or lexical compositions, often found in multiple copies and reduced to composite form by specialists, are more susceptible than unique records to this work, that can occasionally cross international borders, as in this fine example of a lexical text from the Old Babylonian period recording lists of gods. Originally from Babylon, the larger piece is in the collection of the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, while the smaller one—the middle peak—, is housed in the Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem. Following a join made by the UC Berkeley Sumerologist Niek Veldhuis, CDLI staff at UCLA were able to digitally rejoin the fragments from Jerusalem and the German capital as part of scanning work completed in 2012 in Jerusalem by, coincidentally, Berlin/CDLI postdoctoral researcher Luděk Vacín.

CDLI entry: P347139

credit: Englund, Robert K.

This fine example of a royal text from the Early Old Babylonian reign of the Uruk monarch Anam, currently in the Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem, is one of only three such texts known, all done with expensive stone and all presumably from Uruk itself. Incidentally, this stone tablet was, like our two previous Jerusalem pieces, worked on during its stint in the hands of antiquities dealers to give the appearance of a complete text. One of six such composite texts known from the reign of this particular king, the full inscription reads, following the translation of Daniel Foxvog, “Anam, the elder of the army of Uruk, son of Ilān-šeme’a, restored the wall of Uruk, the ancient construction of Gilgameš; so that water can thunder roundabout, he built it of baked bricks.” Scientific edition: Frayne, Douglas R., RIME 4.4.6.4, ex. 2.

CDLI entry: P427658

credit: Englund, Robert K.

In another example from the Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem, of post-excavation “improvements” on the appearance of ancient artifacts moving through antiquities markets, this originally large account of seed grain and seeding cost calculations from Ur III Umma (ca. 2050 BC) displays not only the handicraft of clay artisans, but also an attempt to frame the inscription on obverse and poorly preserved reverse. The fragment would appear to represent the bottom right sixth of the original 8-column account. Scientific edition: Ozaki, Tohru & Sigrist, Marcel, Tablets in Jerusalem: Sainte-Anne and Saint-Étienne (2010) no. 270.

CDLI entry: P332182

credit: Englund, Robert K.

The graphic clarity of inscriptions of the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 BC) is, to many specialist eyes, surpassed only by that of the Old Akkadian period (2340-2200). This administrative account from ancient Umma, now in the collection of the Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem, documents the stock records of state-run herds of large cattle and equids, including all the strengths and foibles of Ur III accountants. Next to the erasure of a full line of glyphs to the upper right (so much easier, and so much more dangerous nowadays with electronic media), we may note the common practice of including different forms of numerical signs in the text, contrasting cuneiform wedges, for instance at the beginnig of the third to the last line of the second column, with what are known as curviliear impressions at the right of the same column, thus indicating quantities of animals that would be kept separate in succeeding totals. These curvilinear numerical signs are vestiges of earlier forms done with the rounded butt-end of a stylus, that, with its opposite sharp edge used to create wedge impressions and lines, was known as a gi-gur, "turning reed."

But there is something else going on with this text. Its tongue-like form is entirely artificial, and the creation of no ancient scribe, but of robbers and their touch-up artists who work to make a text fragment appear whole again by chipping and sanding down jagged edges to garner the favor, and the cash of unsuspecting customers. An account found in the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago demonstrates what this text might have looked like in its original state. Scientific edition: Ozaki, Tohru & Sigrist, Marcel, Tablets in Jerusalem: Sainte-Anne and Saint-Étienne (2010) no. 269.

CDLI entry: P332181

credit: Englund, Robert K.

Often described by casual observers as “stones,” the cuneiform tablets from Near Eastern excavations are in the vast majority made of clay, mostly unfired and therefore subject to the decay of all things, as taught by Genesis 3:19 (“Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return” [King James]). This example in the collection of the Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem, serves as fair warning to the sundry curators and excavators who reserve, for future conservation and some imagined specialist treatment, the cuneiform artifacts in their collections, often withholding from digital preservation these fragile and historically unique witnesses of early human history. Once the surfaces of such clay pieces decay, the text—perhaps the transfer of a goat from one household to the next, perhaps the musing of an ancient mathematician on the circumference of a circle—is lost for all time.

CDLI entry: P431416

credit: Englund, Robert K.

The Ur III kings reigning in the southern capital city of Ur (“of the Chaldees,” fancifully depicted in the Bible as the birthplace of Abraham) perpetuated and built out a Babylonian bureaucracy that documented the goings-on of a far-flung empire. The nearly 100,000 known text artifacts from the 50 years of recorded history of that empire (ca. 2050-2000 BC) constitute the largest preserved historical archive prior to the Middle Ages. The text depicted here derives from the reign of the third neo-Sumerian king, Amar-Suen (“Calf-of-[the moon-god]-Sîn”), one of just seven royal text witnesses that describe the construction of a cult center dedicated to the moon god Sîn in the city of Karzida. Such tablets done in valuable stone were often placed, together with cones and statues of rulers taking part in the construction work, as foundation deposits below corners and significant entryways to monumental buildings, much like our time capsules, though in the Mesopotamian case retrieved by succeeding dynasts, and modern excavators after centuries and millennia, and not fifty years. Scientific edition: Frayne, Douglas R., RIME 3/2.1.3.17, ex. 04.

CDLI entry: P227475

credit: Englund, Robert K.

The Lagash II governor Gudea left a notable record of Sumerian royal inscriptions from his reign in the middle of the 22nd century BC. Best known are the monumental inscriptions on diorite statues excavated in Iraq and found today in many national museums, most notably the Louvre, and two remarkable clay cylinders that contain, in the longest Sumerian text known, an account of the rebuilding of the temple complex of Ningirsu at Girsu called é-ninnu-anzu-babbar, “House of fifty: White thunderbird.” Beyond these substantial artifacts, the corpus of royal Gudea texts include numerous examples of smaller inscriptions on clay bricks and cones, and no small number of stone tablets. The cone depicted here from the Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem, is one of currently 1503 copies (and counting) of a short text commemorating the construction work on the Eninnu. The ultimate use of these cones is unclear; some were added to foundation deposits memorializing, like time capsules with their copies of Life magazine, Kennedy 50¢ coins and photos of long-dead mayors, the construction work itself, but one might imagine that they could have been passed out as commemorative mementos to important members of the governor’s court, and to temple administrators, who supported the cult of Ningirsu and, through it, the governor himself. The form of the cone was itself reminiscent of the cuneiform sign gag, pictographically a cone or nail used in construction, and as we might expect denoting the verb “to build” or “to erect”. Daniel A. Foxvog is leading an initiative through the CDLI to edit all Mesopotamian royal inscriptions, eventually to include literary score versions of texts found or suspected in multiple copies. We depict the cone here in the orientation of the ancients, upright, with lines of cuneiform read from top to bottom, and on the cone surface from right to left.

CDLI entry: P431332

credit: Englund, Robert K.

Another proto-Elamite artifact in the Couvent Saint-Étienne collection records the distribution, to a number of female workers and other named individuals, of amounts of grain that probably represented their monthly rations. The proto-Elamite corpus of some 1700 text artifacts is the focus of a research effort led by Jacob Dahl of the University of Oxford, who contributed an earlier series of pages to this app, that describes many of the questions posed, some solved, by his research.

CDLI entry: P009438

credit: Englund, Robert K.

The Couvent Saint-Étienne, Jerusalem, houses a collection of some 170 cuneiform text artifacts. Under the aegis of the Dominican Order, the monastery enjoys a long history of engagement in Jerusalem and the Near East generally, with research offices associated with the École biblique et archéologique française. One of the early pieces of the Saint-Étienne collection is shown here. Most likely donated to the Order by the Dominican Father Jean-Vincent Scheil who himself served as epigrapher at the Jacques de Morgan-led campaigns in Susa, and who published many of the ancient Iranian clay tablets unearthed there, this proto-Elamite document dates to the end of the 4th millennium BC and appears to record sixteen workmen affiliated with six different institutions.

CDLI entry: P009442

credit: Englund, Robert K.

This tablet contains two accounts for offerings to various deities and shrines. The first set of offerings is presented in tabular format and described as offerings of Sippar. Both offerings took place in the 19th year of the Neo-Babylonian king Nabopolassar.

Interesting is the last column, which gives the location where the offerings are being made. We find here various deities and temples or shrines.

The second offering, which was destined for the king himself, is less detailed and only states that seven sheep are offered.

CDLI entry: P469478

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Wisdom texts comprise an important part not just of Sumerian but also Akkadian literature. The Mesopotamian textual heritage attests to a plentitude of proverbs (see B. Alster, Proverbs of Ancient Sumer, 1997). This fragment in the Chester Beatty Library written in a rather minuscule script contains a collection of Sumerian proverbs which deal with a human being.

Translating proverbs and transposing their idiomatic peculiarities into a modern language poses many difficulties.

CDLI entry: P469476

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Letters dating to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) comprise a dense corpus of official and private communication. The Chester Beatty Library houses three such letters. The document at hand is a letter written the Babylonian king Ammi-saduqa. It is noteworthy, because it is one of the rare instances of a dated later; the date formula containing the year name for the 15th year of king Ammi-saduqa is written on its reverse. There is comparatively good evidence for royal letters in the Old Babylonian period. The most famous case are letters in the Šamaš-hazir archive from Larsa, among which many communications from Hammurabi of Babylon can be found.

The letter deals with a rumor of a certain Etel-pî-Marduk, who mediates a story that troops venture towards Sippar-Jahrurum. Ammi-saduqa himself orders the addressees to enforce the guards on the city wall and:

The city gate must not be opened as long as the sun has not risen. When the sun “stands”, it shall be closed!

But the king is also concerned with the well-being of the people and animals outside the city walls.

CDLI entry: P469474

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This completely preserved four-column tablet kept in the Chester Beatty Library contains a long list of various kinds of furniture. The first section deals with stools (Sumerian: ^gešgu-za) fashioned of wood and occasionally clad with bronze. This list is followed by footrests, beds, tables and other kinds of furniture.

The tablet’s subscript describes this administrative text as the (inventory of) possessions (Sumerian nig₂-gur₁₁) of a certain Dudu. The tablet is not dated.

CDLI entry: P105800

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The CDLI-database currently records 815 letters dating to the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 BC). The letter depicted here from the Chester Beatty Library probably originated in ancient Girsu, one of the administrative centers in the core of the Ur III state. It is addressed to a certain Dugamu. The majority of the letters known from the end of the third millennium BC are letter-orders and therefore fulfil an administrative function. In this short letter-order, the addressee is ordered to give 3,000 liters of bitumen to a certain Lugal-nirgal. On the reverse the text indicates that this bitumen will be exchanged for an ox: “Lu-dingira said to me, ‘Let me put Ea’s ox in its place for you’.”

CDLI entry: P105793

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The level of bookkeeping represented by TCL 2, 5499, MVN 15, 108, SET 130, UET 3, 1215, and other accounts reflects professional relationships among the various actors in the provinces of the Ur III empire ruled from Ur. The cattle recorded in these texts are essentially to be considered property of the state represented in Umma, for instance, by the “governor” (Sumerian ensi₂); although tended by individual herders, the “large cattle manager” (šuš₃) was responsible for overseeing the books of the herds registered in the debits section of the accounts, and for collecting and transferring the dairy products or their silver or other equivalents to the household of the governor. Should the cattle manager have remitted silver or dairy products to such higher officials as Lukalla or Ur-Šulpa’e in Umma province, these transactions are nonetheless to be understood as having gone through the office of the governor, since they are then dealt with in the books of these latter officials as property of his household, of course not of the cattle manager himself. Ultimately, the possession of all such goods was ceded to the king in Ur and formed the basis for taxes imposed on the individual provinces by the royal bookkeepers.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

MVN 15, 108, is a large consolidated account concerning the activities of an official named Atu, supervisor (Sumerian šuš₃) of cattle herders in Umma. The milk cows themselves are never mentioned in the text, but all products and the names of all persons make its identification as a major document of Umma dairy herding certain. The products called i₃-nun (“butter oil”) and ga-UDgunû (“kašk cheese”) are listed in pairs, always divisible by 5 and 7.5, respectively, thus indicating the number of adult cows in the herds supervised by known cattle herders (Sumerian unu₃). The text mirrors the structure known generally of Ur III accounts:

1) DEBITS = sag-nig₂-gur₁₁-ra(k)
a) si-i₃-tum = la₂-ia₃ of the preceding accounting period, expressed in standardized values
b) (ugu₂) state property given over to supervisors as “investment” converted into standardized values
2) CREDITS = ša₃-bi-ta ... zi-ga-am₃, delivered real products and real work and allowances converted into standardized values
3) BALANCE: debits minus credits
If debits are greater than credits, a deficit la₂-ia₃ will appear as si-i₃-tum in the debits section of the following account, or be otherwise dispensed of
If credits are greater than debits, a surplus diri will appear as diri (nig₂-ka₉ aka) in the credits section of the following account, or otherwise be dispensed of
4) COLOPHON: “Account (nig₂-ka₉ aka) concerning ... ,” Date

The account was edited in R. Englund, “Regulating Dairy Productivity in the Ur III Period,” Orientalia 64 (1995) 403-425.

CDLI entry: P118388.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

As in the case of dairy cows, the nanny goats in Ur III accounts formed the basis for calculations of deliveries of butter oil and kašk cheese that were processed from their milk. Where adult cows in the books were equivalent to 5 and 7.5 liters of the two products per year, respectively, nannies should result in the delivery by herders to their owners of 0.5 and 0.75 liters per year, preserving the relationship of 2:3 between oil and cheese. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum account RC 930 records herds of goats that contained from 6 to 73 nannies and thus herds of upwards of 100-150 animals that accompanied the much larger sheep herds as they were driven from winter (lowland) to summer (highland) pasture. See R. Englund Orientalia 64 (1995) 377-429, for a description of general dairies accounting terminology in the Ur III period (to this text, pp. 398-403):

   i₃-nun = butter oil,
   ga-UDgunû = dry cheese,
   si-i₃-tum = remaining [deficit of the previous accounting year],
   unu₃ = large cattle herder,
   ga-gazi = sumac^? cheese,
   ga še_(x)-a = "yellowed milk,"
   ugu₂ = “debits”,
   la₂-ia₃ = deficit.

CDLI entry: P129539.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

This 13-column tablet, recording the activities of the Umma cattle manager Ur-e’e during the years Amar-Suen 2-4, was published by the eminent University of Minnesota Sumerologist Tom Jones in 1961 (Sumerian Economic Texts no. 130) and was the subject of collations and re-editions by M. Cooper and J. Snyder (ASJ 8 [1986] 318), J. Carnahan and K. Hillard (ASJ 15 [1993] 207-210), and R. Englund (Orientalia 64 [1995] 398-403). The tablet, part of the substantial cuneiform collection of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California, describes Ur-e’e’s supervision of imposing numbers of sheep and goats and the deliveries of their products, dairy oil and dry cheese on the one hand, and wool and goat hair on the other.

CDLI entry: P129539.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

This illustration offers a glimpse into the developments within a hypothetical Drehem dairy cattle herd over a period of ten years, as recorded in the six-column account AO 5499 in the collection of the Louvre Museum. To the upper left of the full illustration are the four adult cows around which the herd was built. The herd owner requires the addition each year of one calf for each two adult cows, thus giving a total of six animals in year one. The author of this theoretical account followed the unlikely presumption that the first birth was of a bull calf, the second a heifer calf, the third a bull calf and so on throughout the text. In the succeeding year, the calves are weaned and move on to yearlings, in the 3rd year to two-year-olds and so on until, on the left, they join their mothers as adult, bearing cows, or to the right age into full plowing-strength oxen if castrated, breeding bulls if not. Further, the excess milk—milk not fed to unweaned calves—is processed to dairy oil and dry cheese (kašk) and delivered, again according to this theoretical account, at a rate of 5 and 7.5 liters per cow-year, respectively. The ratio of what was called “yellowed milk” (Sumerian ga še_(x)-a) to butter oil was 20:1, so that we may assume that this “yellowed milk” had an oil content of 5% and thus was preprocessed in some way to enrich the oil from an expected average of ca. 3% for healthy cows in antiquity.

CDLI entry: P131589.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

At the conclusion of the ten-year period of this theoretical account, the ideal herd that began with four adult cows and two calves had, based on the Ur III norm of adding to the managed herd one calf for each two adult cows, grown to 32 head. Any additional calves would have been ceded to the herders of this enterprise. During the ten years, these herders were, in addition to the calves added to the herd, to have delivered to the herd owner a total of 275 liters of butter oil and 412.5 liters of kašk cheese. Following the implicit exchange rate of ten liters of butter oil and 150 liters of kašk cheese per shekel of silver, our accountant further registered a silver equivalent of 27.33 and 2.75 shekels of silver, respectively, for the two products. A shekel weighed ca. 8.5 grams.

CDLI entry: P131589.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

The theoretical herd consists in Šulgi’s 45^th regnal year of 20 animals, differentiated by gender and age. Delivery norms for dairy cows were based on a calculation of 5 sila₃ (ca. 5 liters) of butter oil and 7.5 sila₃ of kašk cheese per adult cow. The products listed at the bottom of this section were then the equivalents of 6 milk cows and not 7 as registered here; these products were therefore, naturally enough, calculated based on the count of the previous year that indeed showed 6 adult cows. Bull calves and oxen were eventually culled from dairy herds and put to the plows of the large households in which the dairy herds were situated.

CDLI entry: P131589.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

A full photographic representation of the artifact AO 5499 was created by Klaus Wagensonner using a Reflective Transformation Imaging workstation developed by the Universities of Oxford, and Southampton, UK. To the left is the obverse surface of the account surrounded by images of the tablet’s four edges, to the right the reverse surface with concluding subsections documenting the last three years of the herd’s growth, and in the left-most column totals of cattle and dairy products.

CDLI entry: P131589.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

This artifact with the designation AO 5499 is one of the most remarkable documents in the collection of Louvre’s Department of Near Eastern Antiquities. The six-column tablet from Drehem, the tribute and accounting center of the neo-Sumerian empire, contains a theoretical exercise documenting the potential growth and income, in dairy products, of a herd of cattle over a period of the last ten years of the Ur III king Šulgi (ca. 2050-2040 BC). The account was (re-)edited in R. Englund, “Regulating Dairy Productivity in the Ur III Period,” Orientalia 64 (1995) 377-429.

CDLI entry: P131589.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

Raw milk in ancient Mesopotamia, with very limited availability of refrigeration, was processed into water-free butter oil and a fat-free cheese generally known today as “kašk” in Syria and Lebanon, “baql” in Iraq, and “ekt” on the Arabian peninsula. Both products could be stored, without fear of rancidity or mold, for much longer than modern butter or fatty cheeses. In the following days, we will be presenting a number of accounts of the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 BC) that helped to clarify the technology and accounting procedures employed to manage the dairy production of cows and nanny goats, but apparently not of ewes.

credit: Englund, Robert K.

Fables are a prominent part of Sumerian and Akkadian literature, and are often included in copies of the many proverb collections available to the scribal student in the 2nd millennium BC. The fables not only imparted practical advice, they also provided a type of rhetorical training for the students copying them. The fables known to us are “The Wren and the Elephant,” the “Series of the Fox,” and “The Heron and the Turtle.” Certain other fables are embedded in literary tales, and many more are probably lost. Still, the search for the origins of the genre of fable must be extended back to Mesopotamia.

This particular fable, featuring a conversation between a goose caught in a net and a raven, for whom the net was meant, is not entirely understood since its ending is not preserved. However, the two birds seem to be arguing over who is superior, while in the background a fowler’s wife plots to ensnare them, likely for the local market. The final outcome is unknown, but other examples from this genre often applaud cleverness, and the escape of one or both of the birds is probably intended. Though not always well understood, ancient fables demonstrate a variety of views on behavior—good and bad—held by the Mesopotamians. For more on Sumerian fables, see Edmund Gordon, “Sumerian Animal Provers and Fables,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 12 (1958) 1-21 & 43-75.

CDLI entry: P388363

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

Mesopotamian scribes kept detailed lists of what made up their world, both physical and spiritual. These so–called lexical lists, already attested in the proto-cuneiform record from the 34th century BC, were created and maintained by the scribal schools. Young scribes would copy sections of these lists to practice their signs, as well as to familiarize themselves with various areas of technical vocabulary. The lexical lists cover such areas as deities, anatomy, omens, flora, fauna, and others of more grammatical nature.

Lexical lists such as this tablet from UCLA Library Special Collections provide invaluable lexical material to the modern researcher. They offer information not only on whole words, but also on sign readings and pronunciations. Their internal ordering by signs, spellings, categories, and hierarchies also reveal the many ways that Mesopotamians brought order to their world. The large series, called here Ḫar-ra = ḫubullu (Sumerian and Akkadian for “debt,” "interest loan”; Ḫar-ra is now commonly called Ura by specialists), is named after the first entry of this lexical series containing over 10,000 entries.

CDLI entry: P388265

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

The student working on this tablet apparently became tired of practicing letter writing. Instead, he drew a fish and a goat on the reverse of his tablet. Examples of doodling from a time and place as remote as ancient Mesopotamia is a poignant reminder of the similarities in students’ attention spans throughout human history. The two animals were regularly eaten by the Mesopotamians, and reflect central parts of their economy. However, here the two animals are probably randomly chosen, and do not reflect a specific story or deities. Tablets depicting student doodles are rare, and provide a unique insight into Mesopotamian daily life.

On the obverse of the tablet the student has practiced his assignment two separate times. Each attempt was written with the tablet being oriented in an opposite manner as to top and bottom. Letter-writing was a common scribal exercise practiced in the schools of the Old Babylonian period.

CDLI entry: P273831

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

This composition records the experiences of a young scribe describing to his interested father the tribulations of his day at school. In Sumer, scribes were called dub-sar, “tablet writer,” and the school was known as e₂-dub-ba-a, literally “House where tablets are passed out.” The text begins with the student showing to his father his “homework,” a tablet with lines copied out, and asking to be woken early in order to avoid a caning by the headmaster for tardiness. The text then relates the failings of the young scribe, especially in scribal technique, for which he is caned several times (indeed, even this excerpt tablet appears to have found the disfavor of some stern instructor!). The scribe’s father then invites the headmaster to dinner and implores him not to give up on his son. The text ends with the young scribe rejoicing at the completion of scribal school, having become a learned man at this juncture; he thereupon praises Nidaba, the goddess of scribalism, for his success.

The composition is meant to be humorous, and clearly was created by scribes recalling the tedium and intensity of scribal training. It is of interest that Nidaba’s blessing concerns a proper stylus and “good” copying skills. This points to one of the central tasks of the scribal school, the copying and preservation of lexical lists and literary compositions. It was through this method, accompanied by oral instruction, that students learned to write both Akkadian and Sumerian texts.

This fragment contains the first twenty lines of the composition. The first six read

   ‘Schoolboy, (where did you go?)’
   ‘I went to school.’
   ‘What did you do at school?’
   ‘I read my tablet, ate my lunch.
   I made my tablet, wrote it and finished it.’

CDLI entry: P388251

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

The lexical series titled “ugu-mu” (“O, hy head!”) presents in descending order from head to toe the parts of the body, including bodily afflictions and associations, in Sumerian. The entries themselves are cast from the perspective of the speaker, thus the first few lines read, “my skull …my skull-cap, my head, my forehead,” etc. In this way a scribe would learn the parts of the body, sometimes also in conjunction with the medical maladies that afflicted them.

This particular exemplar is from the Old Babylonian period, and represents a major undertaking on the part of the scribe, evidenced by the size of the tablet (8 columns total). A tablet this size would probably have been kept among instructional materials of the school masters and assigned to less-advanced students to make copies of text subsections.

CDLI entry: P462192

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

This type of rounded tablet, known as a lentil, was used by the youngest scribes to practice, initially, individual wedges and sign shapes, then complex signs, and finally, short sentences. They are a hallmark of early scribal training. The student then moved on to larger, square tablets. On these the scribe practiced legal and economic writing. Often the scribe copied out sections from the large lexical lists produced by the Mesopotamian scribes to order and enumerate their world. Finally, moving to long, rectangular tablets, the scribes would practice literary compositions, eventually creating full copies of large literary texts and perhaps even composing new pieces. Tablet from UCLA Library Special Collections.

CDLI entry: P388295

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

This tablet contains a long list of personal names beginning with the Sumerian word UR, which means “dog” and, by extension, “servant, obedient one.” Most of the personal names are of the form, “servant of (divine) so-and-so.” This type of appellative was very common in Sumerian culture, and was employed in all levels of society, from kings to slaves. The founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Ur-Namma, is a popular example, whose name means, “Servant of Namma.”

Students practiced these types of lists during each stage of scribal school, as evidenced by the range of tablet-types upon which such exercises appear. The reason behind this type of lexical exercise, however, is subject to modern conjecture. The lists may simply have been practice in popular, conventional naming styles in order to provide extensive repetition of a commonplace activity of scribes, that is, recording names in bureaucratic, legal, and commercial contexts. However, it may also have represented an attempt at classification of name types current in society at that time, though for what purpose beyond taxonomic desire remains elusive. Still, it may simply represent a desire to record and retain Sumerian names in an almost exclusively Akkadian society. Regardless, the list provides an interesting glimpse into the variety of exercises that scribes practiced during their training.

CDLI entry: P388290

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

This exemplar from UCLA Library Special Collections represents a student’s copy of various entries from a bilingual list of human professions that was popular in the Old Babylonian scribal schools, ca. 1900-1600 BC. The list, known by its incipit as lu₂-azlag₂, meaning “fuller,” describes not only professions, but also lists mental qualities, often of opposite meanings (fearful and fearless, truthful and lying, etc.), bodily characteristics (states of hearing, strength, etc.), and human activities (mourning, anointing, etc.). Moreover, artisans and professionals are often described by the tools and implements used in their crafts, rather than by their profession’s name. This is an innovation in the lexical tradition of Mesopotamia, and shows an increased penchant for abstraction, notably by means of metonymy. Scholars have also noted the inclusion of elements from the scholastic literature, namely the school debates between young scribes concerning their prowess in understanding Sumerian, calligraphy, and spelling.

CDLI entry: P388342

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

The Mesopotamian scribes kept detailed lists of the components that made up their world, both physical and spiritual. These so-called lexical lists, which are already attested in the proto-cuneiform record, were created and maintained by the scribal schools. Young scribes would copy sections of these lists to practice their signs as well as to familiarize themselves with various areas of technical vocabulary. The lexical lists cover such areas as deities, anatomy, omens, flora, fauna, and others of more grammatical nature.

This tablet represents a sizeable collection of terms pertaining to wooden objects, be they trees or bushes, wooden tools such as plows and their constituent parts, or wooden objects such as wheels, rafters, and containers. The Sumerian word for wood is geš, and this term precedes each entry as an (unspoken) semantic indicator of the object type. This is a practice tablet recording various entries from the larger encyclopedia of wooden objects in the lexical list Ḫar-ra = ḫubullu commonly known by current specialists as “Ura”.

CDLI entry: P388265

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

This four-sided prism contains the Kesh Temple Hymn, a song that reaches back to the earliest exemplars of Sumerian literature, ca. 2500 BC. The hymn progresses in eight stanzas, each praising a different part of the temple. The first stanza depicts the god Enlil, head of the Sumerian pantheon, selecting and praising Kesh among all the other lands. The temple is then described as a representation of the cosmic order of the world itself, and is praised from top to bottom. The fourth stanza describes the interior of the sanctuary and its sacrifices. The fifth praises the divinities associated with Kesh: Ninḫursag, mother Earth, Nintu, the birth goddess, Šulpa’e, Ninḫursag’s consort and god of radiant youth, and Aššir, a young hero-divinity. The sixth and seventh stanzas describe the temple as a whole and its personnel, and finally the eighth stanza exhorts the people to approach and worship the temple. Each stanza ends with the refrain, “One as great as Kesh—has any man been (this) worthy? One as great as its hero, Aššir—has any mother ever borne him? One as great as its lady, Nintu—who has ever seen him?”

A video depicting the cuneiform texts in the UCLA Library Special Collections, created by Erin Flannery, is viewable on YouTube.

CDLI entry: P388262

credit: Wolfe, Jared N.

King Shulgi proclaimed himself a god and boasted that he was one of the few kings who went to school to become a scribe. At the schools that taught this difficult skill, students also learned how to debate in public and practiced the refined art of insulting opponents before refuting their arguments.

CDLI entry: Q000561

credit: Cartmel, Kathryn

King Sulgi of Ur was a wealthy ruler who augmented his fortune through such enactments as the taxing of temple households. Of course, the monarch did not solely focus his attention on gold jewelry; he expended the majority of the palace’s wealth on improving existing, and building new roads, on continuing his father’s policies of erecting monumental buildings, and on the maintenance of an internal policing, tax collecting, and military apparatus.

CDLI entry: P481718

credit: Cartmel, Kathryn

King Shulgi of Ur utilized any opportunity he could get to boast about his achievements. Many of these stories, most of which were certainly court propoganda, can be found on clay tablets similar to this one. Shulgi boasted about his ability to maintain high speeds while running long distances. He claimed in his 7th regal year to have run from Nippur to Ur, a distance of over 100 miles.

CDLI entry: P481723

credit: Cartmel, Kathryn

The mina is an Ancient Near-Eastern unit of weight. Shulgi’s name was was inscribed on the weight, and also inscribed on other artifacts like building walls and clay tablets. Kings often used this as a propaganda tool and a vehicle to spread their name and image across a vast territory. Translation: For (divine) Nanna, his king, by (divine) Shulgi, the strong leader, king of Ur, king of the four corners, (this) one-half mina was verified.

CDLI entry: Q001682.

credit: Cartmel, Kathryn

This object portrays a king carrying a basket of clay or other building material during his ritual participation in the construction of a royal building or temple, which is typical of copper and bronze “canephore” or “basket bearer” pegs. A late third millennium BC text (Cylinder A) of the ruler Gudea of Lagash provides a detailed description of his active role in the construction of the Ningirsu Temple at Girsu, during which he transported material in a sacred basket that he carried “on his head like a crown.”

Although it is not inscribed and its original context is unknown, stylistically this peg is nearly identical to others that are securely dated to the reigns of the Ur III kings Ur-Nammu (2112-2095 BC) and Shulgi (2094-2047 BC). Many of these pegs were found by archaeologists in boxes built into the mudbrick foundations of temples and palaces, often at the corners of buildings and flanking gateways. They were frequently accompanied by the remains of offerings or auspicious material such as beads, stone chips, and date pits, and some pegs were found with remnants of fabric clinging to them. Many boxes also contained remnants of what may have been wooden pegs as well as stone or metal tablets in the form of plano-convex bricks. The inscriptions on the tablets and on a number of pegs record the royal building of the relevant structure for the sake of a deity.

CDLI entry: P226509.

credit: Cartmel, Kathryn

The John Rylands Library, though Ur III accounts form the major part, also keeps a nice bunch of Sumerian literature. Among these texts is a song to the warrior god Ninurta (bal-bal-e ^dnin-urta-kam). The second manuscript belonging to this short composition is housed in the Arkeoloji Müzeleri in Istanbul (P345193).

The text was published by Farouk N. H. Al-Rawi and Jeremy Black (“A balbale of Ninurta, god of fertility,” ZA 90, 2000). The composition uses in its final section (lines 24-31) a stock strophe widely employed in Sumerian literature, interpreted by Ferrara as “topos of plenitude” (A. J. Ferrara, “Topoi and stock-strophes in Sumerian literary traditions: some observations, part I,” JNES 54 [1995] 81ff.). These lines read in translation:

Through him, carp floods are made plentiful in the river.
Through him, fine grains are made to grow in the fields.
Through him, carp are maid plentiful in the lagoons.
Through him, dead and fresh reed are made to grow in the reed thickets.
Through him, fallow deer and wild sheep are made plentiful in the forests.
Through him, mašgurum trees are made to grow in the high desert.
Through him, syrup and wine are made plentiful in the watered gardens.
Through him, long life is made to grow in the palace.

CDLI entry: P355689

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

The early Old Babylonian king commemorates on this clay nail the building of the stronghold of Isin (bad₃-gal i₃-si-in^ki-na). The text is inscribed twice: a two-column version is found on top of the nail, and it runs in one column around the nail’s shaft (see Farouk N. H. Al-Rawi, “Cuneiform Inscriptions in the Collections of the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester,” Iraq 62 [2000] 34 no. 76).

CDLI entry: P430893

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Not infrequently, two or more fragments join together that are kept in different collections. In this case, the upper half of a large account dating to the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 BC) is part of the collections of the British Museum. The lower half, on the other hand, is nowadays kept in Manchester. Both fragments were imaged separately and joined together in Photoshop.

CDLI entry: P108388

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

This large Ur III account is almost completely preserved. The tablet was written in the 3rd year of the Ur III ruler Amar-Suen. It deals with the planning of barley rations to the working personnel at a place called Babaz (probably near Puzrish-Dagan). The text gives important information on young castrated workers (Sumerian amar-KUD) who belonged to a lower social stratum of the Ur III state (ca. 2100-2000 BC). This account has been treated by K. Maekawa ("Animal and Human Castration in Sumer. Part II: Human Castration in the Ur III Period," Zinbun 16 [1980] 37ff.).

CDLI entry: P107777

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus

Due to the long reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC) we nowadays have quite a substantial amount of royal/building inscriptions at our disposal. These texts commemorate extensive building projects all over the neo-Babylonian empire, but in particular in the capital city Babylon (for general remarks on his inscriptions now R. Da Riva, The Neo-Babylonian Royal Inscriptions. An Introduction, GMTR 4 [2008] 110ff.).

The well-preserved clay barrel in the John Rylands Library contains three columns of text. The inscription deals with the restoration and rebuilding of the temple of Lugal-Marada (i.e., Ninurta) at the city of Marad. The text was recently published by Farouk N.H. al-Rawi (“Cuneiform Inscriptions in the Collections of the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester,” Iraq 62 [2000] 35-39 no. 78).

CDLI entry: P430895

credit: Wagensonner, Klaus