Position in chronology
ASJ 16, 043-046 Barton Cylinder
About this tablet
This is the Barton Cylinder, a clay cylinder from Nippur in southern Iraq dating to around 2400 BCE. It holds one of the oldest surviving Sumerian myths. It opens with a formula that later Sumerian poets kept using for centuries: 'in those days, in those nights, in those years.' A storm rages over Enlil's holy city of Nippur, and Heaven and Earth speak to one another. The line points to a primeval union of sky and land at the dawn of the world. The cylinder is badly broken and its language is archaic, so much of the rest of the story is still hard to follow. Even so, it is a key witness to Sumerian ideas about how the world began.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Long ago, in those days, in those nights, in those years, so it was. A storm roared and lightning flashed. Over the holy city of Nippur the storm roared and the lightning flashed. Heaven spoke with Earth, and Earth spoke with Heaven. The rest of this column is broken away. The next column begins by naming a goddess, [Igizigal-an]na, the elder sister of Enlil. Our excerpt stops at that point.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse (surface a) Col. i 1. In [th]ose [days], in those very days, 2. so it was; 3. in those nights, in those very nights, 4. so it was; 5. in those years, in those very years, 6. so it was. 7. The storm roared, 8. the lightning flashed. 9. In the sanctuary of Nippur 10. the storm roared, 11. the lightning flashed. 12. Heaven (An), with Earth 13. held converse; 14. Earth (Ki), with Heaven, held converse. (rest broken) Col. ii 1. [Igizigal-an]na, 2. the elder sister of Enlil,
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. 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
[CDLI ATF excerpt: first 16 of 268 numbered lines; remaining columns are not included. Damage and column markers are retained.]
@object cylinder
@surface a
@column 1
1. u4#-ri2#-a# u4-ri2-sze3
2. na-nam
3. ge6-ri2-a ge6-ri2-sze3
4. na-nam
5. mu-ri2-a mu-ri2-sze3
6. na-nam
7. u4 na-du7-du7
8. nim na-gir2-gir2
9. esz3 nibru{ki}
10. u4 na-du7-du7
11. nim na-gir2-gir2
12. an-ne2 ki-da
13. inim an-dab6-e
14. ki an-da inim an-dab6-e
$ rest broken
@column 2
1. [igi-zi-gal-an]-na#
2. nin-gal {d}en-lil2Scholarly note
Barton Cylinder (P222183, CBS 08383), dated by CDLI to ED IIIb (c. 2500–2340 BCE, uncertain). The source marks its administrative genre identification as uncertain. CDLI supplies a transliteration and an English rendering; this site stores the photograph and a 16-line transliteration excerpt, but no English translation. Published studies include Alster and Westenholz (1994); Lisman (2016–2017) discusses interpreting it as a lament for Kesh. It must not be described as previously untranslated. ATF source retrieved on 26 October 2026: https://cdli.earth/inscriptions/2346706/atf
Attribution
Image: CBS 08383 — University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA / Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (P222183). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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