Position in chronology
RIME 3/1.01.07.041, ex. add369
About this tablet
This is a fragment of a standard royal dedicatory inscription of Gudea, ruler (ensi2) of the city-state of Lagash around 2100 BCE, most likely inscribed on a statue, brick, or cone found at Girsu (modern Tello). It commemorates Gudea's rebuilding of the Eninnu, the great temple of the war-god Ningirsu 'of the White Anzu-bird' (a mythical lion-headed eagle), one of the most celebrated construction projects of the ancient Near East and the subject of Gudea's famous cylinder inscriptions. Such texts served both as historical record and as an act of piety, placing the ruler's building achievement under divine sanction.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This inscription is dedicated to the god Ningirsu, Enlil's mighty warrior and Gudea's divine lord. Gudea, ruler of Lagash, did what was proper and fitting in the god's honor, making it shine. He rebuilt Ningirsu's temple, the Eninnu, known by its epithet 'of the White Anzu-bird,' restoring it on its original site.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineFor Ningirsu, mighty warrior of Enlil, his master, Gudea, ruler of Lagash, made the fitting thing resplendent for him. His Eninnu of the White Anzu(-bird) 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.
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Transliteration
[]nin#-gir2-su [ur]-sag# kal-ga []en-lil2-la2-[ra] 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. add369. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: WCMA 20.1.02 (Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA) — from Girsu (mod. Tello) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P424369). 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.