Position in chronology
Išme-Dagan 07
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) When Enlil appointed Ninurta, his powerful warrior, as commissioner to Išme-Dagan, king of Sumer and Akkad, then (Išme-Dagan) fashioned the šita weapon, the fifty-headed mace for (Ninurta), and displayed his beloved weapon on (a platform of) fired bricks for him.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
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Why it matters
Records Išme-Dagan of Isin legitimising his reign through Enlil's divine appointment of Ninurta as his patron — a ritual weapon dedication that translates theological sanction into political authority.
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 Q001951.
Attribution
Image: ROM 910x209.472 (Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P417230). 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/Q001951/.
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