Position in chronology
RIME 3/1.01.07.041, ex. add368
About this tablet
This is a dedicatory building inscription of Gudea, ruler (ensi) of the city-state of Lagash in southern Mesopotamia, around 2100 BCE. It commemorates his construction and restoration of the Eninnu, the great temple of the warrior god Ninĝirsu, named for the mythical White Thunderbird (Anzu). Such short dedicatory texts were stamped or inscribed on bricks, door sockets, or statues placed in the temple itself, proclaiming the ruler's piety and building achievements to the god and to posterity — this exact formula recurs on numerous Gudea monuments and is one of the best-known royal inscription types from the Akkadian-period south.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This inscription honors Ninĝirsu, Enlil's mighty warrior and Gudea's divine lord. It records that Gudea, ruler of Lagash, carried out everything owed to the god properly and, in his honor, built (and restored) the temple called Eninnu — 'the White Thunderbird' — as a dedicated act of religious duty and kingship.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineFor Ninĝirsu, mighty warrior of Enlil, his master: Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, made (what is) fitting resplendent for him (i.e., properly carried out the due ordinances). His Eninnu, the White Thunderbird (temple), he built for him, (and) restored it for him.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
nin-gir2-su ur-sag kal-ga en-lil2-la2 lugal-a-ni gu3-de2-a ensi2 lagasz-ke4 nig2-du7-e pa mu-na-e3 e2-ninnu anzu2-babbar2-ra-ni mu-na-du3 ki-be2 mu-na-gi4
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Lagash II (ca. 2200-2100 BC)) — RIME 3/1.01.07.041, ex. add368. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: WCMA 20.1.01 (Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P424368). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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.