Šu-Suen Door Socket from Umma (RIME 3/2.1.4.17)
Introduction
The following text survives in at least eight copies on door sockets and stone blocks. The 30-line inscribed object included here is a door socket, deriving from Umma and dating to the Ur III period (21st cent. BCE). It records Šu-Suen’s construction of a temple of the god Šara in Umma. The object is currently housed in the collection of the Spurlock Museum of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA. Photos are courtesy of CDLI (P227483) and the line drawing that of Laurent Colonna d’Istria as found in volume two of Sallaberger and d’Istria, Sumerische (2023), p. 234-235. For a catalogue of copies and bibliography, see Frayne, RIME 3/2.1.4.17.
This post is part of a series of my translations of Sumerian texts which I translated in my Sumerian class at Hopkins this semester. In preparation for my upcoming Sumerian final on May 9th, I plan to review all the texts which we read this semester. In what follows, I present the inscription’s photos and line drawing followed by a transliteration of the cuneiform, translation, and brief philological commentary.
Image and Line Drawing
Transliteration
Column I:1-19
dšara2 | nir-g̃al2 an-na | dumu ki-ag̃2 | dinana[1] | ad-da-ni-ir | dšu-dsuen[2] | išib an-na | gudu4[3] šu-dadag[4] | den-lil2 | dnin-lil2-ka | u3 dig̃ir-gal-gal-e-ne | lugal den-lil2-le | ki-ag̃2 | ša3-ga-na | in-pa3 | sipa[5] kalam-ma-še3 | lugal kala-ga | lugal uri5ki-ma[6] | lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba-ke4 |
Column II:1-11
u4 bad3 mar-tu | mu-ri-iq | ti-id-ni-im | mu-du3-a | u3 gir3 mar-tu | ma-da-ne2-e | bi2-in-gi4-a | e2-ša3-gi-pa3-da | e2 ki-ag̃2-g̃a2-ni | nam-ti-la-ni-še3 | mu-na-du3
————
[1] wr. dMUŠ = Inana
[2] wr. dEN.ZU = Suen
[3] wr. AḪ.ME = gudu4
[4] wr. UD.UD = dadag
[5] wr. PA.LU = sipa
[6] wr. ŠEŠ.ABki = uri5ki
Translation
Column I:1-19
For Šara, the authoritative-one of An, beloved child of Inana, for his father, Šu-Suen, purification-priest of An, a priest of clean hands for (lit. ‘of’) Enlil, Ninlil, and the great gods, the king who Enlil lovingly chose in his heart for the sake of the shepherd(ing) of the land, the mighty king, king of Ur, king of the four corners,
Column II:1-11
when he built the Wall of the Amorites, (called) “It keeps Tidnim far away,” and he returned the foot/path of the Amorites to their land, he built the É-šagi-pada temple, his beloved temple, for the sake of his life.
Philological Commentary
- ln. 2: nir.g̃ál an.ak ‘authoritative-one of An’: Frayne’s ‘distinguished one of the god An’ is clearer but less literal.
- ln. 5: ad.ani.ra ‘for his father’ refers back to the god Šara.
- ln. 7: išib an.ak ‘purification priest of An’: The ePSD entry of išib: “išib [PRIEST] (146x: ED IIIa, ED IIIb, Old Akkadian, Ur III, Old Babylonian) wr. išib “sorcerer, magician; incantation priest, exorcist; (to be) pure; (to be) clear; a purification priest; incantation, spell” Akk. ellu; išippu; pašīšu; ramku; āšipu; šiptu”
- ln. 8: gudu4 (wr. AḪ.ME) is another term for a type of priest. The ePSD entry of gudu4: “gudug [PRIEST] (829x: ED IIIb, Old Akkadian, Lagash II, Ur III, Early Old Babylonian, Old Babylonian, Middle Babylonian, unknown) wr. gudug; gudux(|HI×NUN|) “a priest” Akk. pašīšu”
- ln. 16: sipa (wr. PA.LU) kalam.ak.šè ‘with regard to the shepherd(ing) of the land’: perhaps Frayne’s ‘shepherdship’ is better, but both relay the point of sipa.
- ln. 19: lugal anubda limmu2 ‘king of the four corners (of the world)’: The title was first used by Naram-Sin of the Old Akkadian Empire (23rd cent. BCE) and was appropriated by later kings, such as Šu-Suen in this text as well as Hammurapi here.
Bibliography
d’Istria, Laurent Colonna, and Walther Sallaberger. Sumerisch: Eine Einführung in Sprache, Schrift und Texte. Band 2: Sumerische Texte in Keilschrift. PeWe-Verlag, 2023.
Frayne, Douglas R. Ur III Period (2112-2004 BC). The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods 3/2. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997.
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)