Position in chronology
Gudea 043
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) For Ninĝirsu, the powerful warrior of Enlil, his master, Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, made an eternal thing appear: he built his E-ninnu-anzud-babbar.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Why it matters
Gudea's dedication of the E-ninnu temple to the warrior-god Ninĝirsu at Lagaš, attesting the ideological programme through which a post-Akkadian ruler legitimised his authority via monumental sacred construction.
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q000913.
Attribution
Image: OIM A01404 (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P391166). source
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q000913/.
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
An early witness to systematic administrative notation at Kish. Its signs and numerals can be catalogued, but that does not establish a full translation or prove that it is the world's first writing.
An early surviving historical monument that joins named rulers, a territorial dispute and religious oaths. It shows how a city-state turned victory into a lasting public claim, without establishing that this was the first recorded conflict.