Five fragments, each in its first published English translation
These are first published English translations. Each of the five tablets below was checked against the live database records on the day of publication: no published English translation and no published edition exists for any of them, and no scholar's unpublished English stands on any of their records either. What survives of each is small, and the translations are sized to what the clay carries. Brackets and gaps are places where the tablet is broken; nothing has been filled in. Each fragment gets its own section, its own lines, and its own credits.
A small fragment, copied in 1969, whose copy note guesses "perhaps a hymn." Only line-ends survive. The reverse is a litany of identifications: the god being hymned is Niraḭ, is Saĝku, is Lugal-sisa — one unnamed deity equated with other gods, line by line. His own name stood in the lost left halves of the lines. The last litany line names Lugal-ennu with the word "is" itself broken away; the pattern makes it likely, and likelihood is not text, so the rendering does not supply it.
[…] — (fragment: traces only)
[…] — (fragment: a suffix only)
[…] is […]
[…] came forth(?), great in knowledge(?)
[…] — (fragment: no phrase construes)
[…] surpassing, great in knowledge(?)
[…] your […] is
[…] your exalted one
[…] — (fragment: a sign and the copula only)
[…] — (fragment: traces only)
[…] is Niraḭ
[…] your […] is Uringal
[…] your sweet […]
[…] the lord of the king
[…] — (fragment: words stand, no phrase construes)
[…] is Saĝku
[…] is Lugal-sisa
[…] Lugal-ennu
[…] — (fragment: sign-tail)
[…] — (fragment: sign-tail)
Twenty line-units: twelve render in part, eight are fragments, none is invented.
Tablet: Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Ni 04219. Copy: Kramer, Çığ & Kızılyay, ISET 1, 139 (pl. 81). Transliteration: Jeremiah Peterson (eBL project), unpublished. Translation made from that transliteration; not collated against the original.
Five line-openings, and nothing more: a torso of an animal text. A butting verb opens it, then the wild bull twice and the an-ti-ri₂-gu₇ bird twice, in the boast-and-answer world of the animal fables. The bird's name has no established modern equivalent and is left in Sumerian rather than given a species it may not be. Peterson's only note on the record compares the fragment with the fable of the Elephant and the Wren; no line of this fragment matches that fable's lines.
Butting and butting [ … ]
The wild bull [ … ]
The an-ti-ri₂-gu₇ bird [ … ]
The an-ti-ri₂-gu₇ bird [ … ]
The wild bull [ … ]
The first line's verb is the reduplicated du₇-du₇, "to butt, to gore"; the sign that follows it cannot be construed in the break and is left unrendered. In the last line the word ni₂ stands after "the wild bull" — "self," or "fear" — with no clause left to construe it; it is noted here, not rendered. Five lines, all rendered in their preserved openings; no complete clause survives.
Tablet: Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Ni 13159. Copy: Kramer, ISET 3, no. 166 (unpublished). Transliteration: Jeremiah Peterson (eBL project), unpublished. Translation made from that transliteration; not collated against the original.
Kramer copied this tablet in 1944. Unusually for this shelf, the fragment preserves line beginnings on both faces: a first-person voice, the Ekur named as a lapis-lazuli dwelling, then on the reverse "my lady," an offering, and Enki. The shape is devotional — a personal prayer or hymn — and the composition is unidentified. In the reverse's third line, "for her" renders a dative pronoun that carries no gender in Sumerian; "her" is supplied from the "my lady" of the line before it, and the dossier records it as supplied.
That man is obedient […]
My name(?) — its tablet […]
Ekur, the lapis-lazuli dwelling, […]
If […]
My name(?) — the tablet […]
Ekur, lapis […]
[fragment]
My lady […]
[…] for her […]
The offering(?) […]
Enki […]
Eleven line-units: ten render in part, one is a fragment, none is invented. The obverse's first line carries an alternative reading in Peterson's own line-note — the word may be "the brewer" rather than "that man"; the printed reading follows his main transliteration, and the alternative stands in the dossier.
Tablet: Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Ni 02284. Copy: Kramer, SLTNi no. 127 (1944). Transliteration: Jeremiah Peterson (eBL project), unpublished. Translation made from that transliteration; not collated against the original.
Edward Chiera copied this tablet in the Istanbul museum in 1923 and published the copy in 1924. His whole treatment of the text is one line: "Fragment of a hymn of litany." Six lines of a two-column litany survive. On the left, a holy place is filled — the wall, the dais, the dwelling; on the right, the same refrain answers every time. The refrain's subject is not preserved on any line; "she" is the one supplied element in the rendering, and it is flagged here as supplied.
[…] — […] she raised her neck in joy(?)
[…] the holy wall is filled […] — […] she raised her neck in joy(?)
[…] the holy dais is filled […] — […] she raised her neck in joy(?)
[…] the holy dwelling(?) is filled […] — […] she raised her neck in joy(?)
[…] the holy dais is filled with plants(?) […] — […] she raised her neck in joy(?)
[…] the holy dais is filled […] — […] she raised her neck in joy(?)
Six line-units, all rendered in part, none in whole, none invented. The refrain's verb phrase — gu₂ … e₃, "to raise the neck" — is the standard gesture of pride and joy; the word rendered "joy" carries its question mark in the dossier.
Tablet: Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Ni 02352. Copy: Chiera, SRT no. 48 (1924). Transliteration: Jeremiah Peterson (eBL project), unpublished. Translation made from that transliteration; not collated against the original.
The 1969 copy note guesses "probably a Dumuzi myth," and the fragment's own preserved words bear the guess out. Line middles survive: a repeated "why?", repeated self-propelled motion — "by himself" — a repeated casting-down, and then, on the reverse, entries into the Eanna, Inanna's temple, and into the giguna, and a line naming Dumuzi beside the ĝipar, Inanna's residence. Who asks "why?", and who enters, the clay does not say, and the reading does not guess. The verb "entered" is restored in all three lines where it appears — Peterson questioned the sign in two of them — and it is printed in brackets.
[…] he [entered] […]
[…] why […]?
[…] why […]?
[…] by himself […]
[…] by himself […]
[…] he cast down […]
[…] he cast down […]
[…] he [entered] the Eanna […]
[…] he [entered] the giguna […]
[…] to come out […]
[…] Dumuzi […] the ĝipar […]
[fragment]
[fragment]
[fragment]
[fragment]
Fifteen line-units: eleven render in part, four are fragments, none is invented. In lines 6′ and 7′ the verb šub, "to cast down," can also mean "to abandon"; the object it acted on is lost with the line-ends, and both senses stand in the dossier.
Tablet: Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Ni 04336. Copy: Kramer, Çığ & Kızılyay, ISET 1, 145 (pl. 87). Transliteration: Jeremiah Peterson (eBL project), unpublished. Translation made from that transliteration; not collated against the original.
Across the five tablets: 57 line-units, 44 rendered in part, 13 fragments, none rendered in whole, none invented. All five compositions are unidentified. If a duplicate ever identifies any of them as a known, translated composition, that piece's standing converts to a witness translation, and the record will say so.
Nuvira Technologies conducts this research with AI assistance, cross-verified against the primary sources to scholarly integrity standards. Uncertain readings are marked; broken lines are left broken.
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