Position in chronology
Letter from Aradngu to Shulgi about the fortress Igi-hursaja
Translation · reference
High confidenceSay to my lord: This is what Aradju, your servant, says: My lord, your word is the word of An, it ....... Your decreed destiny has been bestowed on you as on a god. As to the fortification which my lord sent me back to, the work on it has been put into effect. The approach of the enemy is kept at a distance from the Land. My lord continues to maintain his sublime reputation in the south and the uplands, from the rising to the setting sun, as far as the borders of the entire Land. The rebellious (?) Martu have turned back ...... (An Akkadian gloss has instead: The totality ......). Kurgamabi (An Akkadian gloss has instead: Kunci-matum) ...... to Culgi. The fortress Igi-hursaja ....... And who will rival him ......? unknown no. of lines missing
Source: ETCSL c.3.1.06: Letter from Aradngu to Shulgi about the fortress Igi-hursaja. 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.3.1.06
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Composition c.3.1.06 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.3.1.06: Letter from Aradngu to Shulgi about the fortress Igi-hursaja. 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.3.1.06.
Related tablets
Related sources
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.