This is the antiquities side of Nuvira Technologies: research articles and first English translations of ancient texts that were never translated before. The current work is Sumerian. The shelf stays open to wherever the research goes next, and each new article is posted here as it is finished. Everything here is free to read.
A Sumerian flood text on a clay cylinder from Adab: a mighty flood and a serpent batter a city while the gods sit in assembly. This is its first published English translation.
Cylinder dated ~2450 BC · Published October 19, 2026
Read the article·Zenodo record — DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23480487
An Old Babylonian Eme-sal lament from Nippur. The singer grieves the offices he has lost; on the reverse, Ninsubur and Inanna stand in a mourning ritual. First published English translation.
Published October 19, 2026
A bilingual Eme-sal balaḥ fragment from Nineveh. What survives is the turn of the lament, where the singer’s city begins to rejoice. First published English translation.
Published October 19, 2026
A Sumerian catalogue of birds from Nippur — beaks, eyes, teeth, bird by bird, from a composition no one has placed. A witness reading, read in English from Jeremiah Peterson’s unpublished transliteration.
Published October 19, 2026
Two joined Nippur tablets: Enlil gives the Dukug, the Holy Hill, to the Enki-and-Ninki forefather gods and decrees fates there. A witness reading, read in English from Jeremiah Peterson’s unpublished transliteration.
Published October 19, 2026
Five Nippur fragments — a litany of divine names, an animal scrap, a devotional piece, a litany refrain, and a Dumuzi fragment. First published English translations.
Published October 19, 2026
A bilingual hymn to Nergal from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh, translated complete into English for the first time. In its middle the god is named a dragon — a word the 1934 partial rendering Englished as “giant.”
Published October 20, 2026
The ritual for making a priest of Enlil, from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh — the examination, the barber’s razor, the confession, and the entry into the Ekur. Translated complete into English for the first time.
Published October 21, 2026
The dragon balaĝ to Marduk — “like a dragon, laden with fearsomeness”. Balaĝ 22 to Marduk: the first line names the ušum, the dragon, and the tablet's own ancient Akkadian gloss names the bašmu-serpent again; the colophon names the piece, its performance day, and its singer.
BM 41249 · Published October 22, 2026
A King's Prayer to Gula, the Great Physician. A sick king begs Gula, whose share of creation is healing itself; the prayer's only edition (Jakob, KAL 9, 2018) is German. First English translation.
VAT 9898 + VAT 10964 · Published October 22, 2026
The Sack of Ur (LKU 43). A city-fall fragment: the gods smite Ur, maidens are slaughtered in their chambers, and one man walks through the ruin with his name on — Enki-ušumgal, the Urukean; the dragon sits inside his name, and the build says exactly that.
VAT 14514 · Published October 22, 2026
Shuila 6 — the šuila to Nanna/Suen: “Lord, prince among the gods”. The moon god's prayer nearly whole: the name-litany, the young bull with the lapis beard, and the plea “Look upon your city! Look upon Ur!”
K.2861 · Published October 22, 2026
The Exorcists' Library Catalogue (Assur, Kiṣir-Aššur's house). The ancient catalogue of the Aššur exorcists' house library — Maqlû in eight tablets, the consecration series, the works listed one by one.
VAT 13723+ · Published October 22, 2026
The Lament That Lets No One Rest — an Eme-sal lament to Enlil. Its refrain cancels every posture of a settled world: a man does not stand, a man does not sit, he does not lie down; a maiden stands at the Ekur with no joy raised for her.
Ni 4121 · Published October 22, 2026
The Examination — a schoolboy interrogated on the scribal art. Examination text D, as one Old Babylonian witness carries it. Never translated in any language before.
BM.38703 · Published October 22, 2026
Tree and Reed — one Old Babylonian witness. Composition lines 121–134 and 156–166 of the Debate between Tree and Reed (ETCSL 5.3.4) — witness-level only.
BM.16893 · Published October 22, 2026
Born in Fury — an Old Babylonian hymn to Nergal (“Nergal D”). A hymn to the lord of the Netherworld, beloved of Ekur.
BM.79988 · Published October 22, 2026
Who Eats the Bull and the Reed — a balaĝ to Ninurta. A balaĝ for the warrior god, from a single served witness.
BM.109168 · Published October 22, 2026
Your Heart, Damu — a lament for the dying child-god. A lament for Damu, the dying child-god.
BM.96112 · Published October 22, 2026
Four Prayers on One Tablet — the šuila collection. Šuila prayers to Ea, Damkina, Ninurta, and Gula on one collection tablet.
K.8105 + K.11929 + 82-3-23,127 · Published October 22, 2026
Like a Boat Tied at the Quay — a diĝir-šà-dab-ba prayer (manuscript G). “Like water, I do not know where I go… My god, I have fallen — take hold of my hand.”
K.5104 · Published October 22, 2026
Where Is He Laid? — an Emesal lament to Inanna. An Emesal lament worked on the da-nu₂ refrain.
BM.57502 · Published October 22, 2026
A Heart Calmed Like Heaven — an Emesal litany fragment. A heart-calming litany in the lament register.
BM.75991 · Published October 22, 2026
Until When Is It Not Calmed? — an Emesal goddess roll-call. A roll-call of goddesses; the cleanest record of its wave — copy only.
BM.87520 · Published October 22, 2026
The Firstborn of Enlil Goes Down — a Nanna text. A hymn to the moon god: “the moon goes down.”
BM.79985 · Published October 22, 2026
The Water My Brother Did Not Drink — Dumuzi traces. Traces of a Dumuzi lament.
BM.82972 · Published October 22, 2026
The Lady in the Ekur — a hymn with its obverse gone. A hymn whose colophon stands intact though its obverse is lost. Never translated in any language before.
BM.108866 · Published October 22, 2026
Like the Heart of a Mother Who Bore Me — Eršahunga 103. “May your heart, like the heart of a mother who has borne children, return to its place for me.” Colophon: copied by Nabû-kabit-aḫḫēšu, son of the palace scribe, in the reign of Sargon. First English translation.
BM.121055 · Published October 22, 2026
Seated on the Pure Dais — Eršahunga 77. Its refrain — “seated on the pure dais” — stands nine times. First English translation.
BM.99091 · Published October 22, 2026
Two Scraps from CT 34, Plate 17. Two small Kuyunjik fragments never edited since their copy: verb-endings and one place-name, built as what they are. Never translated in any language before.
K.14611 and K.15525 · Published October 22, 2026
“A Man Must Not Be Sick for a Whole Year” — Muššuʾu Tablet I. The New Year rite: two doves to Šamaš at sunrise and sunset, under an Ashurbanipal colophon.
K.2438+ (AMT pl. 59, text 3) · Published October 22, 2026
A roll of heroes for the lord of the Netherworld. “Great wild bull, lord of the Netherworld” — a hero-roll for Nergal, never edited. Never translated in any language before.
BM.114005 (+BM.114096) · Published October 22, 2026
The mugib sings the lady of heaven — an Inanna hymn. From Sippar; copy only (CT 58 no. 36). “You are the one who destroys the mountain; you are the princess of Zabalam.”
BM.54323 (+BM.59692) · Published October 22, 2026
“My true house” — and a wife's lament on the back. A temple litany on the obverse; a wife's lament on the reverse.
BM.113934 · Published October 22, 2026
A šuila to Enki — the god who cannot be gainsaid. The tablet's own gloss defines UŠUM as ediššīšu, “in his uniqueness” — flagged on the build, not claimed as a dragon.
BM.113995 (+BM.114172) · Published October 22, 2026
“My house was built — the mountain was built too”. An ašerĝita witness fragment.
BM.114079 · Published October 22, 2026
“Receive it, Marduk, great lord” — a morning prayer. A morning prayer to Marduk.
BM.121103 · Published October 22, 2026
Iškur roars — a storm-god scrap. Scraps of the storm god. Never translated in any language before.
BM.114115 · Published October 22, 2026
“I — to my god, to my lady Ištar”. A diĝir-šà-dab-ba prayer to Ištar.
K.5235 · Published October 22, 2026
“When the temple is finished and the god is brought to his seat”. A temple ritual: the god brought in procession and seated. Never translated in any language before.
1881-02-04,295 · Published October 22, 2026
“You know” — a royal hymn litany. An Old Babylonian royal hymn from Babylon whose every line ends mu-e-zu — “you know.” Copy only (VS 24, 1987). Never translated in any language before.
VAT.17136 · Published October 22, 2026
“Authority — he is exalted” — a bilingual hymn to Utu (LKU 25). Son of Ningal, lord of the Ebabbar, lord of Babylon; its transliteration rests on Gabbay's unpublished folio, credited on the face.
VAT.14499 · Published October 22, 2026
The small man and the big man — an unidentified proverb scrap. A Nippur proverb tablet whose collection the record itself calls unidentified.
N.5225 · Published October 22, 2026
“My god is angry, my goddess is angry” — an Old Babylonian incantation collection. From Kish: drug plants, fine beer, a sufferer whose dreams are terrified, washed and sprinkled before Šamaš. Copy only (OECT 11 no. 67). The reverse tail is identified on the tablet's record as the known šuila Šamaš 64 in Mayer's list.
Ashm-1924.1669 · Published October 22, 2026
“The weapon of Šamaš is my ally” — a historical-omen fragment. An “I will slay” refrain, Adad striking above and below, the market rate rising. Copy only (OECT 11 no. 82).
Ashm-1924.1804 · Published October 22, 2026
“Let him lie down on the green meadow” — closing prayer of a royal inscription. Von Soden identified it in German in 1989 and knew no parallel for the meadow line. Copy only (OECT 11 no. 55).
Ashm-1924.1791 · Published October 22, 2026
“What is not brought, so the city is pure” — an incantation fragment. Seven lines of an incantation of withheld offerings and a purified city.
Ni 13240 · Published October 22, 2026
Seven line-tails — “… abundance and joy …”. The tails of a text in a favourable register: a shrine, abundance, joy — and nothing else the clay kept.
Ni 09453 · Published October 22, 2026
Eme-sal tails — Nudimmud, sweet Nippur, a holy Lady. A rite in purity with water, a rejoicing heart, Enki under his creator-name, and sweet Nippur, in the gala's dialect. Never translated in any language before.
Ni 09615 · Published October 22, 2026
The close of a širgida to Nergal. The song's own closing lines stand whole: “Lugal-erra — the pestle of the Land, made perfect; Huški, son of Enlil”… “Meslamtaea, lord Lugal-erra — their praise is sublime,” sealed by the rubric “It is a širgida of Nergal.”
N 1491 · Published October 22, 2026
The Installation of the Nu-eš₃ Priest — a bilingual consecration ritual. Akkadian lines give the actions, Sumerian lines the spoken words; Asalluhi casts the incantation, the candidate is brought out, made pure, made bright, and the evil tongue is ordered to stand aside. The Nippur ancestor of the consecration the program published from K.2437+.
Ni 2293 · Published October 22, 2026
An incantation against the thing on the bed. Out of Geller's drawer — his copy, his transliteration, not Englished before, on present evidence. It opens with the Eridu formula, names the attacker as the son of Ereškigal, and ends with its rubric. The serpent-list word muš₅ sits inside the rubric's unresolved name — flagged on the build, nothing claimed from it.
Ni 2924 · Published October 22, 2026
The Balaĝ of Utu from Geneva. A balaĝ to the sun god: an aromatics-trade inquiry, a bedchamber prepared by Utu's vizier, a dialogue of Utu and Inana fixing days and months, and a god-litany of 110 lines by its own count. First English translation.
MAH 16066 · Published October 22, 2026
A Nippur liturgy to Nintur, the birth mother. A birth liturgy to Nintur: “the lyre sounds.” The strongest of its wave's fragments.
N 1322+ · Published October 22, 2026
The “Why?” fragment. A lament that asks a-na-aš — “why?” — four times.
AUWE 23, 128 (Uruk) · Published October 22, 2026
A supplication fragment. A fragment of supplication from Uruk.
AUWE 23, 138 (Uruk) · Published October 22, 2026
A Nippur lament fragment. Every line broken at both ends. A trace of the sign UŠUM stands at obv. 10′ — flagged on the build's face, no claim made from it.
CBS 08772 · Published October 22, 2026
An Inana scrap that asks “why?”. The night's second “why?” text.
HS 2729 (Nippur) · Published October 22, 2026
A lord-and-lady litany scrap. A litany naming lord and lady in turn.
N 2684 (Nippur) · Published October 22, 2026
A broken Nippur lament in two pieces. Two fragments of one lament.
N 3338 + N 3380 · Published October 22, 2026
The “what in the night?” fragment. “What […] in the night?”
NFT p. 206 (Ĝirsu) · Published October 22, 2026
Authority and release. A fragment of authority and release.
NFT p. 211 — AO 4345 (Ĝirsu) · Published October 22, 2026
Twenty-six line-ends and a trembling head. Line-ends only, and a trembling head among them.
PRAK B 233 (Kish) · Published October 22, 2026
“In the mountain,” three times. A mountain refrain, three times over.
PRAK B 244 (Kish) · Published October 22, 2026
Seven line-ends from Kish. Seven line-ends, nothing more.
PRAK B 352 · Published October 22, 2026
Storm, and a small one who does not drink. A storm fragment.
PRAK B 362 (Kish) · Published October 22, 2026
A hymn scrap that opens “lord Dumuzi”. It opens: “lord Dumuzi, the son.”
PRAK B 415 (Kish) · Published October 22, 2026
A consent, a cry, a shepherd. Three small things on one scrap.
PRAK C 005 (Kish) · Published October 22, 2026
The “son of Enki” litany scrap. A litany scrap naming the son of Enki.
PRAK C 065 (Kish) · Published October 22, 2026
White, pure, perfect: eleven traces. Eleven traces in the first person of purity.
VS 10, 119 (Sippar) · Published October 22, 2026
Lord, lady: six traces. Six traces naming lord and lady.
VS 10, 142 (Sippar) · Published October 22, 2026
The “my going” fragment. A first-person fragment of going.
VS 10, 143 (Sippar) · Published October 22, 2026
A fate scrap in the first person. A scrap about fate, spoken in the first person.
VS 10, 157 (Sippar) · Published October 22, 2026
Trembling and rising. Trembling, and rising.
VS 10, 164 (Sippar) · Published October 22, 2026
“I am the mugib priestess”. A first-person Emesal liturgy: “I am the mugib priestess” stands three times on the reverse.
VS 10, 167 (Sippar) · Published October 22, 2026
Balaĝ 41 — “The Princess in Wailing” (four witnesses combined). Built from four witnesses; K.10195 names the mugib-priestess, and two lines stand whole: “The Etur was destroyed. The Ekur was destroyed.” One qualifier stands on the record: Langdon (1913) printed a four-line English gloss on one witness — a gloss, not a translation.
Balaĝ 41 witnesses incl. K.10195 · Published October 22, 2026
The opening of “Oh Angry Sea” — Balaĝ 18, the Marduk version. Three units of the Marduk version's opening.
K.16961 · Published October 22, 2026
Shuila 23 — the šuila “of the Great Bull”: a prayer to Nanna copied at Uruk in the Seleucid age. Filed under “the great gods” for its opening litany, but the prayer is Nanna's; copied at Uruk on 21 Ulūlu in a year of Seleucus the king (the record's year numeral is disputed — the build prints the dispute). First English rendering located.
IM.65050 · Published October 22, 2026
Shuila 16 — the šuila to Ningal: “who decrees the fate, who decrees life”. Said to Innina, then to Ningal by name, bilingual throughout; its scribe names his trust “in Sîn and Ningal” — the moon god and the very goddess the tablet prays to.
K.4940 (+ K.5118 + K.6020 + K.6915) · Published October 22, 2026
Shuila 3 — the šuila to Enlil/Aššur: “August one, lord of heaven and earth”. Great Mountain Enlil, who decrees the destinies of the gods, the true shepherd who heaps the granary — in five scraps. First English rendering located.
K.10261 · Published October 22, 2026
Shuila 7 scraps — two unedited witnesses of the Marduk šuila. The composition stands in English (Cooper, Iraq) and is excluded; what the hunt found is two witnesses no editor has ever used, rendered as scraps so the material is on the desk.
K.5059 (+K.5092+K.9445) and BM.39873 · Published October 22, 2026
Barrel cylinder with unidentified hymn. “…may he stand […] at my right and at my left.” From Lambert's copy-transliteration, which he gave “with reserve” and never translated.
MMA 86.11.419 + 86.11.483 (+) 86.11.538 · Published October 22, 2026
Fragment of an Emesal Prayer. An Emesal prayer fragment; one word of it can be rendered honestly, and the file says which and why.
MMA 86.11.476 · Published October 22, 2026
Theological Text Fragment. The edition transliterates and translates two lines and prints the rest “too fragmentary”; this file inventories the nine never-transliterated lines from Spar's copy. Two of its lines (10′–11′) already stand translated in English in CTMMA II (2005) and are credited there; this page inventories the lines the edition left untransliterated.
MMA 86.11.414 · Published October 22, 2026
Bilingual Unidentified Fragment (text in honour of Ištar?). Two lines stand Englished in the edition; this file inventories both faces from Spar's copy and records the two divine names Lambert read on the obverse. Two lines (reverse 4′–5′) already stand translated in English in CTMMA II (2005) and are credited there.
MMA 86.11.444 · Published October 22, 2026
Unidentified fragment — the temple-gate text. “…gate of the ziggurat…” — the one Part Five piece for which Lambert printed a real partial transliteration, and no translation.
MMA 86.11.418 · Published October 22, 2026
Like a Bird in a Fowler's Cage — a prayer in the form of a lament psalm (KAR 312). A first-person Klagepsalm of the Esagil/Marduk circle; its monster line — bašmu and mušḫuššu heading Esagil's line, with ugallu, uridimmu, kusarikku, kulullû — stands in the text. Built from Fadhil's openly deposited 2012 dissertation transliteration.
VAT 10006 · Published October 22, 2026
A bilingual hymn to a goddess (LKA 22). A bilingual hymn to Gula.
VAT 9956 · Published October 22, 2026
A Middle Assyrian psalm of similes (KAR 138). A psalm built of similes.
VAT 9959 · Published October 22, 2026
A hymn in the Ešarra (KAR 345). Its colophon counts the composition at 39 lines; this tablet preserves parts of 36.
VAT 9986 · Published October 22, 2026
An Emesal hymn to Enlil and Aššur (KAR 359). Wrath, raging — then the turn the genre exists for: “appeasing the heart.” Sung at Assur to Enlil and the city's own god together. Never translated in any language before.
VAT 10507 · Published October 22, 2026
A fragment with the mercy-cry (KAR 339). A fragment carrying the aḫulap mercy-cry. Never translated in any language before.
VAT 10302 · Published October 22, 2026
A Šuila-Prayer to Marduk (“Šuila Marduk 8”). Built from the Nineveh witness of the KAR 290 pair: Marduk 9 stands in English (CMAwR 2 §8.27) and was not built; Marduk 8 stands edited in German (Ebeling 1956); no English translation of it was located, and it was built on its own.
K.2793 · Published October 22, 2026
A Hand-Raising Prayer to Madānu, the Judge — the Assur score. The Berlin group's preserved score of the šuila to Madānu, from composition line 4 onward — its tablet's top edge, and the opening, are gone. First English translation.
VAT 13684 group (KAL 4 Text Nr. 59) · Published October 22, 2026
The Opening of the Hand-Raising Prayer to Madānu. This fragment alone among the Berlin witnesses keeps the prayer's head — composition lines 1–5, the opening the big group lost. Companion to the Assur score above, not a rival. Five of the six lines the German edition counts are rendered here; the sixth stands broken in the record and is not rendered. First English translation.
VAT 14074 (KAL 4 Text Nr. 58) · Published October 22, 2026
The seven-headed dragon in the Book of Revelation did not begin in the Bible. It was already old — carved in stone and shell — more than two thousand years before the first biblical book that names it, and the trail it left behind can be followed object by object, tablet by tablet. Here is the trail, with the receipts.
Feature article · Published October 22, 2026