Position in chronology
Ur-Namma 17
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) For Nanna, the firstborn child of Enlil, his master, Ur-Namma, the powerful man, king of Urim, king of Sumer and Akkad, the builder of Nanna’s temple, restored the ancient state of affairs: he let the sea merchants reach the quay walls on the seashore, and returned the Magan boats under (Nanna’s) authority.
Source: Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q000945/
Why it matters
Records Ur-Namma restoring Magan boat traffic and sea-merchant access to quay walls — direct evidence that Ur III kings actively managed long-distance Gulf trade as an act of royal piety toward the moon-god Nanna.
Transliteration
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 Q000945.
Attribution
Image: CBS 16231 (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) — from Ur (mod. Tell Muqayyar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P227100). 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/Q000945/.
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