A reading, published with its checks still open. A Vigslist translation.
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.
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.
Label (standing): FROM-VOLUME PROVISIONAL. The transliteration below is W. G. Lambert's own (CTMMA II, Text No. 89, Plate 114) — the one Part Five piece for which he printed a real partial transliteration. He published no translation. It is reproduced here in repaired form from this desk's OCR extraction of the volume; where the local OCR is corrupt beyond repair, the spot is marked ⟦OCR⟧ rather than silently emended. No reading in this file is new, and none is claimed as verified against the original. The English rendering is this program's first, word-level only, covering only what Lambert's transliteration securely carries.
The object. Left-hand portion of a small tablet, 48 × 45 × 23 mm, later 1st millennium. Nine lines on the obverse, traces of two more on the lower edge, illegible traces on the reverse. Lambert: "It alludes to parts of buildings, including parts of temples, but it does not read like a regular topographical text." A long diagonal scratch crosses the inscribed face (visible in the Met photograph).
Copy cross-check (this session). Spar's Plate 114 copy, served among the Met's object images and examined here, agrees with the edition: nine obverse lines of large, widely spaced signs, line 10 beginning on the lower edge; the right-hand portion of the tablet is lost. The three closing obverse lines (7–9) each open with the same tall line-initial sign followed by KA — the sequence Lambert transliterated "2 ka …" and discussed in his remarks (below).
1. re1-me(?)-gan-na a a x [...
2. šá GIŠ-da-li-i-ti-meš(?) x x [... ⟦OCR run-together in the local scan;
sign values after GIŠ uncertain⟧
3. 2 É pa-pa-ḫ[i(?) ... ⟦tail OCR-corrupt⟧
4. 1 gu(?) [n]i(?) x [...
5. 2 x x x [...
6. […] x as e [… ⟦OCR debris; no reading offered⟧
7. 2 KA É-zig-g[ur-rat ...
8. 2 KA É-pa-!ar(?) [...
9. 2 KA É-D[U(?) ...
10. 3 x [...
11. (traces — edition prints no signs)
(traces only — edition prints no signs)
Lambert's remarks on the line-initial "2," verbatim in substance: the "2" in front of the word "gate" in ll. 7–9 cannot mean "two gates" unless there is an irregularity in the script; it could also be the sign indicating a repetition of something in earlier lines. The volume's glossary independently indexes obv. 7 as bab(ka) e-zig-gur-rat — "gate of the ziggurat."
7. … gate of the ziggurat …
8. … gate of the É-pa'ar(?) …
9. … gate of the É-D[U(?) …
Notes on the rendering: - 7 is the one fully secure scrap: KA = bābu, "gate"; É-zig-gurrat, "house of the ziggurat." The glossary entry confirms both readings. What stood before "gate" in the line (the "2" sign and whatever preceded) is not rendered — Lambert's own caveat governs it. - 8–9 render only the secure frame "gate of the É-…"; the house names that follow are Lambert's queried sign sequences and are left in transliteration. Translating them would be invention. - 3 carries a probable papāḫu ("cella, shrine-chamber") after É — Lambert's printed signs point that way — but the line's tail is OCR-corrupt in the local scan and the reading is queried, so no rendering is offered. It is recorded here as a pointer for collation, not a translation. - 1–2, 4–6, 10–11: traces and isolated signs in Lambert's own printing; nothing connected can be rendered honestly.
None. No ušumgal, muš, mušḫuššu, bašmu, or serpent-god name appears in Lambert's transliteration or is legible in the copy or photograph. The content is architectural: gates and temple buildings.
CTMMA II No. 89 is the only edition; Lambert printed a partial transliteration and no translation. The rendering above is therefore a genuine first for the three secure scraps — provisional, from-volume, and word-level only. Post-2005 web re-check this session: no later edition or translation surfaced (Met object record and the volume itself only). CDLI unreachable (503) — caveat stands. Full statement in OVERNIGHT-D3-REPORT.md.
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
More antiquities research: Antiquities Research