A royal clay votive cone inscription of Gudea (E3/1.1.7.8; P232347)
Introduction
This post presents my translation of a royal inscription of Gudea inscribed on a clay cone wherein he documents the achievement of his construction of the temple of Dumuzi-abzu at Girsu. Gudea was the ruler of the city-state of Lagaš in the second half of the 22nd cent. BCE. He is known especially for his administrative achievements, which the Gudea cones, cylinders, and statues give insight into. Clay votive cones such as the one presented here are an important form of documentation of Gudea’s religious activities. The inscription dates to the Lagaš II period and is now kept in Baghdad at the National Museum of Iraq.
In what follows, I present a line drawing of the cone’s inscription followed by a transliteration of the cuneiform text, a morphological analysis, translation, and brief philological commentary.
N.b., I deviate in my morphological transcription from standard convention in a few ways. For example, I supply implied morphological structures that are not identifiable in the cuneiform writing through parenthesis, e.g. (.ra) for an implied dative, as well as the auslauts of words.
Line Drawing
An image of the cone is not available, but see here for a similar one, also dating to Gudea’s reign in the Lagaš II period, which is housed at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD.
Transliteration
Morphological Analysis
dumuzi-abzu nin.ani(.ra) gùdéa énsi lagaš.ak.e é-g̃írsu.ak.ani(.∅) mu.na.(n.)dù(.∅)
Translation
For Dumuzi-Abzu his lady, Gudea the ruler of Lagaš built her E-girsu-temple.
Commentary
- The implied dative recipient of the verbal action is /dumuzi-abzu nin.ani/ ‘Dumuzi-Abzu his lady’, marked as such with the implied dative marker for animate nouns (.ra).
- Dumuzi-Abzu, meaning “Noble Child of the Abyss,” was the tutelary goddess of Kinunirša near Lagaš.
- The agent of the verbal action is Gudea who is marked with the ergative marker /e/. The sign -ke4 after Lagaš conceals both the genitive /.ak/ and ergative case ending /e/.
- The direct object of the verb is the /é-g̃írsu.ak.ani/ ‘her E-girsu-temple’ (or more idiomatically: ‘her temple at Girsu’) marked in the morphological transcription with the implied absolutive case ending (.∅).
- The verb is ḫamṭu transitive 3rd sg. animate comprised of a conjugation prefix /mu/, dative verbal prefix /na/, and verbal base /dù/ ‘to build, construct’. Additionally, it is marked in the morphological analysis with an implied 3rd sg. anim. pronominal prefix before the verbal base (n.) as well as implied zero-marked 3rd sg. obj. suffix (.∅).
- Syntactically, the inscription comprises a front dislocated indirect (dative) object followed by the typical subject-object-verb word order (lit.: “Gudea, the temple, he built”).
Select Bibliography
YOS 9, 14: Ferris J. Stephens, Votive and Historical Texts from Babylonia and Assyria. Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts 9. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1937.
FAOS 9/1 (p. 263): Horst Steible, Die Neusumerischen Bau- Und Weihinschriften. Freiburger Altorientalische Studien 9/1.
RIME 3/1, 1.7.8 (p. 113): Dietz Otto Edzard, Gudea and His Dynasty. Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, vol. 3/1. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997.
CDLI: “RIME 3/1.01.07.008, Ex. 10 Artifact Entry” (2003). Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI). Accessed Dec. 7, 2023. https://cdli.ucla.edu/P232347 / https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/232347
About The Author
Gilgameš and Agga (Lines 1-17) 
Law Code of Lipit-Ištar (Laws 8-18; CBS8284) 
Gudea Cylinder A xviii 1-28 (E3/1.1.7.CylA) 
Gudea Cylinder A iii 1-29 (E3/1.1.7.CylA) 
Gudea Cylinder A ii 1-29 (E3/1.1.7.CylA) 
Gudea Cylinder A i 1-29 (RIME E3/1.1.7.CylA)