The most abundant royal inscription of Gudea (E3/1.1.7.37)
Introduction
This post presents my translation of a royal inscription of Gudea wherein he documents the achievement of his construction and restoration of Ning̃irsu’s É-ninnu-ánzu-bábbar temple. 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, into which the Gudea cones, cylinders, bricks, and statues provide insight. This text was mass produced and is “the Gudea inscription of highest frequency” (Edzard, p. 135) with some 1500 exemplars preserved. The medium for this inscription include bricks, blocks, tablets, door sockets, and especially clay cones. They originate from Girsu, Adab, Sippar, Umma, and elsewhere. The É-ninnu-ánzu-bábbar temple, meaning “House-Fifty, White Anzu” (also known as just the É-ninnu) was the most important sacred building in all of the state of Lagaš (Volk, p. 116).
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 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
Transliteration
dnin-g̃ir2-su | ur-sag̃ kala-ga | den-lil2-la2-ra | gu3-de2-a | ensi2 [1] | lagaški-ke4 [2] | nig̃2-ul-e pa mu-na-è [3] | e2-ninnu-anzu2mušen-babbar2-ra-ni [4] | mu-na-du3 | ki-bi-mu-na-gi4
[1] wr. PA.TE.SI = énsi ‘ruler’
[2] wr. ŠIR.BUR.LAki (or NU11.BUR.LAki) = lagaški
[3] wr. UD.DU = è ‘to go out’
[4] wr. AN.IM.MI = ánzu ‘Anzu-bird’; wr. UD.UD = bábbar ‘white’
Morphological Analysis
ning̃írsu ur.sag̃ kala(g).a enlíl.ak.ra gùdéa énsi lagaš.ak.e níg̃.ul.e pa(.∅) mu.na.(n.)è(.∅) é.ninnu.ánzu.bábbar.ani(.∅) mu.na.(n.)dù(.∅) ki.bi(.∅) mu.na.(n.)gi4(.∅)
Translation
Commentary
- We translate /níg̃.ul.e pa(.∅) mu.na.(n.)è(.∅)/ as ‘he made suitable things appear’. The loc.-term. marker on /níg̃.ul/ marks the second object of the compound verb /pa–è/ ‘to make appear’. The idea of /níg̃.ul/ is likely that which is fit for cult (translated here “suitable things”), which comports with the idea of Gudea boasting of restoring the E-ninnu-anzu-babbar temple. Another interpretation is related to the meaning of /ul/ as “distant” in time, either past or future, and thus /níg̃.ul/ would be “eternal things”.
- All three verbs are ḫamṭu transitive 3rd sg. animate.
Bibliography
Edzard, Dietz Otto. Gudea and His Dynasty. Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, vol. 3/1. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997.
Šašková, Kateřina. “Three Cuneiform Texts from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen,” in Climb the Wall of Uruk…: Essays in Honor of Petr Charvát. Plzeň: Západočeská univerzita v Plzni, 2020.
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)