A royal stone tablet inscription of Gudea (E3/1.1.7.4; P232332; IM 18647)
Introduction
The following text is a royal stone tablet inscription of Gudea, a ruler of the city-state of Lagaš in the second half of the 22nd cent. BCE. The inscription documents his achievement of the construction of Bau’s temple in Iriku(g) at G̃irsu. Deriving from G̃irsu (mod. Tell Tello), the stone tablet is housed in the Natinoal Museum of Iraq in Baghdad (museum number: IM 18647).
In what follows, we present the inscription’s line drawing followed by a transliteration of the cuneiform, a morphological analysis, translation, and brief philological commentary. N.b., I deviate in my morphological transcription from standard convention in minor 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
Transliteration
Morphological Analysis
baú sag.a dumu an.ak nin irikù(g).ak nin.ani(.ra) gùdéa énsi lagaš
lú é.ninnu ning̃írsu.ak.ak é.g̃idru é.ub.imin.ani mu.dù.a(.e) é.iri.kù(g).ak(.∅) mu.na.(n.)dù(.∅)
Translation
For Bau, the beautiful one, child of An, lady of the “Shining City,” [1] his lady, Gudea the ruler of Lagaš,
the one who built the E-ninnu temple of Ning̃irsu, his the E-g̃idru [2] temple, the “House of the Seven Corners,” [3] he built her “House of the Shining City” temple.
[1] The irikù(g), lit. ‘Shining City,’ was a quarter in G̃irsu where the temple of Bau was located (Volk, p. 112).
[2] meaning “House of the Scepter”
[3] The meaning of é-ub-imin is unclear but could mean “the House of the Seven Corners” as a description of the E-g̃idru. Edzard 1997 translates “his…, the ‘heptagon’ (?)” (RIME 3/1, p. 110).
Commentary
- Syntactically, the sentence is comprised of a left-dislocated indirect (dative) object followed by the normal SOV word order. The four parts are treated in order as follows:
- baú sag.a dumu an.ak nin irikù(g).ak nin.ani(.ra): Left-dislocated dative recipient of the verbal action
- baú: DN ‘Bau’ is the goddess of Iriku(g) in G̃irsu and the wife of Ning̃irsu
- sa6(g): adj. ‘good; beautiful; fruitful’. The /-a/ on /sag.a/ is a nominalizer, making Bau the “good/beautiful one.”
- gùdéa énsi lagaš lú é.ninnu ning̃írsu.ak.ak é.g̃idru é.ub.imin.ani mu.dù.a(.e): Agent of the verbal action
- The phrase /lú… mu.dù.a/ forms a relative clause meaning “the one who built…”
- é.iri.kù(g).ak(.∅): Object of the verbal action
- na.(n.)dù(.∅): Verb
- The verb is ḫamṭu transitive 3rd sg. animate comprised of a conjugation prefix /mu/, 3rd sg. 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 /n./ as well as implied zero-marked 3rd sg. obj. suffix.
Bibliography
Edzard, Dietz Otto. Gudea and His Dynasty. Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, vol. 3/1. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997.
Volk, Konrad. A Sumerian Chrestomathy. Subsidia et Instrumenta Linguarum Orientis 5. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012.
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)