RIME 3/2.01.01.11, ex. add164

~2050 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P418023

About this tablet

A royal building inscription of Ur-Namma, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur (around 2100 BCE), stamped or inscribed on bricks by the thousands. It commemorates his construction of the E-temen-ni-guru, the great ziggurat complex of the moon-god Nanna at Ur — the massive stepped temple tower whose remains still dominate the site today. Duplicates of this short dedication survive in museums worldwide; this exemplar is held in Sydney. It is one of the most familiar texts of Mesopotamian kingship: a ruler advertising his piety to his city's patron god in a formula every literate person of the age would recognize.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

This brick announces: Ur-Namma, the mighty man, king of Ur, built this temple — the E-temen-ni-guru — for his lord Nanna, the moon-god, whom the text praises as the spirited young calf of the sky-god An and the first-born son of Enlil. In modern terms, it is a dedication plaque built right into the fabric of the ziggurat: the king's name, his titles, the god honored, and the deed done, all in one compact statement.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

High confidence

For Nanna, the impetuous calf of An, the first-born son of Enlil, his lord — Ur-Namma, the mighty man, king of Ur, built his E-temen-ni-guru.

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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Transliteration

nanna
amar banda3 an-na
dumu-sag
en-lil2-la2
lugal-a-ni
ur-namma
nita kal-ga
lugal uri5-ma-ke4
e2-temen-ni2-gur3#-ni
mu-na-du3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RIME 3/2.01.01.11, ex. add164. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: NM 35.0060 (Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P418023). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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