Position in chronology
En-metena 16
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) For Ninĝirsu, Enlil’s warrior, En-metena, ruler of Lagaš, child of En-ana-tum, ruler of Lagaš, built the sanctuary of Dugru. He built the Ahuš, the temple that is looked upon with favour, for him. (14) For Nanše, he built the E-engur in Zulum, and built her high temple for her. He built the E-šage-pada. (21) For Enlil, he built the E-adda in Imsaĝ. (25) He built the temple of Ĝatumdug. (27) He built the temple of Ninmah, the high temple of Tirkug. (31) For Lugal-Uruba, he built his great temple in Urub. (35) For Enki, king of Eridug, he built the Abzu-pasira. (38) For Ninĝirsu, he built the Antasura, the temple whose fearsome radiance covers all the lands. (42) The personal god of En-metena, the builder of the Antasura, is Šul-MUŠxPA.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
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 Q001098.
Attribution
Image: .
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/Q001098/.
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.