Position in chronology
A praise poem of Ur-Namma (Ur-Namma H)
Written in modern English
Ur-Namma, king of the Land, is praised in terms that are almost entirely lost. A few phrases survive: something made of ebony, objects decorated with silver and lapis lazuli, a comparison to silver, a reference to the desert, and the images of a lion and a dragon. His name and title appear again near the end — 'Ur-Namma, king of the Land, far and distant' — but everything around those words is gone, with multiple lines missing above and below.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLUr-Namma, king of the Land ....... ...... far and distant (?) ....... ...... ebony ....... 1 line fragmentary unknown no. of lines missing 1 line fragmentary ...... with silver and lapis lazuli ....... ...... like silver ...... in the Land. ...... in (?) the desert. Lion (?) and dragon ....... Ur-Namma, king of the Land, far and distant (?) unknown no. of lines missing
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.4.1.8 in the ETCSL catalogue. Sumerian literary text reconstructed from multiple cuneiform manuscripts, the great majority Old Babylonian (c. 1900–1600 BCE). Translation reproduced from the ETCSL edition.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from ETCSL c.2.4.1.8: A praise poem of Ur-Namma (Ur-Namma H). Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E. & Zólyomi, G. (eds.), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.2.4.1.8.
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