A reading, published with its checks still open. A Vigslist translation.
Twenty-six line-ends and a trembling head. Line-ends only, and a trembling head among them.
Published as a reading. No first-translation claim is made for this piece. The checks that would settle such a claim are named in the notes below and are still open; the wording on this page claims nothing they have not settled.
Publication number: PRAK B 233 — copy no. B 233 in de Genouillac, Premières recherches archéologiques à Kich (PRAK, 1924–25: hand copies, no translations in the volumes). From Kish. Old Babylonian. The tablet carries text on its left edge as well as its faces — the edge columns are part of the count. Corpus ID: CDLI P344049; served to OBEL (Old Babylonian Emesal Liturgies), genre "Uncertain." Composition: Unidentified. Twenty-six served line-units, almost all traces. The readable residue: a mother (ama) in one line, grass and the sun on the reverse, the balaĝ instrument (ba-la-aŋ₂) named on the left edge — the lament's own drum-lyre, named in the margin of the lament — and one complete small clause on the edge: the head trembled. Source: OBEL's served interlinear text, fetched and saved by Wave C (). OBEL serves no translation. the witness, doors on the face below. Counting rule used here: a line counts part if a complete verb form or a glossed phrase survives; fragment if only isolated words or traces survive; whole only if a complete clause survives intact. No line counts whole.
Publication check (C3, Oct 22): no edition, translation, or discussion of PRAK B 233 found in the program's tree or in open search under its PRAK number or CDLI P344049. Doors left on the face: (1) The PRAK volume itself (copy of record). (2) Delnero, SANER 26 (Kish coverage; print-check wave). (3) CDLI's record (P344049) — unread; CDLI is still down.
Dragon/serpent flag: none. Nothing of the kind is preserved.
o 1′: [... ] ⸢x⸣ [... ] [...] (a trace) [...]
o 2′: [... ] ma-⸢x⸣ [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
o 3′: [... ] x na-ša ⸢x⸣ [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
o 4′: [... ]-⸢ta?⸣ su-ni? ⸢x⸣ [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
o 5′: [... ]-⸢ni⸣ ku-di ⸢ni?⸣-[... ] [...] (traces) [...]
o 6′: [... ]-⸢aŋ₂⸣-ri ⸢LU⸣ [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
o 7′: (line erased?) (a line the scribe erased — the corpus's note, kept as it stands)
o 8′: na-aŋ₂-ŋa₂-⸢gin₇?⸣ [... ] like my fate(?) [...] (from the form alone)
o 9′: ša-si-šu₂-ri ⸢ama?⸣ [... ] [...] the mother(?) [...]
o 10′: a₂ / DA e₂ / ke₄ ⸢ri? x⸣ [... ] [...] the house [...] (traces)
o 11′: KU-⸢bi?⸣ [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
o 12′: ⸢x x⸣ [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
r 1′: [... ] ⸢x⸣ [... ] [...] (a trace) [...]
r 2′: ⸢na?⸣-TU-⸢a?⸣ [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
r 3′: na-ga eš-[... ] [...] (unglossed in the corpus) [...]
r 4′: na-ga eš-[... ] [...] (unglossed in the corpus — the line repeats) [...]
r 5′: ur / ib sila₃ še [... ] [...] a sila of grain [...] (še "grain" from the form alone)
r 6′: u₂ ⸢x x⸣ [... ] [...] grass [...]
r 7′: u₄-⸢da?⸣ [... ] [...] the sun [...]
r 8′: a ⸢x da⸣ [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
r 9′: ⸢x⸣ NE [... ] [...] (traces) [...]
r 10′: ⸢x x MU⸣ [... ] / ⸢bi?⸣ [... ] [...] (traces — the sign MU alone is not the serpent word MUŠ, and is not read as one)
l.e. i 1: x ba-la-aŋ₂ nu-mu-⸢da?⸣-x the balaĝ instrument [...] did not [...]
l.e. i 2: ⸢saŋ?⸣ tu-be₂ [... ] <x> the head trembled [...]
l.e. ii 1: ⸢a₂?⸣ [... ] [...] (a trace) [...]
l.e. ii 2: x [... ] [...] (a trace) [...]
26 served line-units: 0 whole · 1 part · 25 fragment · 0 invented. The part-line is the edge line l.e. i 2 — subject and verb, "the head trembled," the smallest complete gesture in tonight's eighteen.
Mostly a tablet-shaped silence — and honest about it: one line was already erased by its own scribe. What survives around the silence is the apparatus of lament itself: the balaĝ instrument named on the edge, a mother, a head that trembled. The count (one part in twenty-six) is the truest sentence in this build, and it is printed where counts belong, on the face.
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.
— Richard Vigslist, Founder, Nuvira Technologies
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