Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

Ur-Namma 47

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·Q001642

Translation · reference

High confidence
(1) To Gilgameš of Enegir, his master, Ur-Namma, the powerful man, king of Urim, king of Sumer and Akkad, when he built the temple of Nanna, dedicated this (vase) for his well-being. Whoever erases its inscription, may Gilgameš curse him!

Source: Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q001642/

Why it matters

Dedicatory vow on a vase from Nanna's temple at Ur links Ur-Namma's building piety to Gilgameš as divine protector — and preserves one of the earliest epigraphic curse formulae against inscription erasure.

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 Q001642.

Attribution

Image: CBS 14968 (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, P461630). 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/Q001642/.

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