Position in chronology
Lipit-Eštar 02
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSRI(1) When I, Lipit-Eštar, the humble shepherd of Nibru, the true farmer of Urim, ceaseless provider of Eridug, the en priest suitable for Unug, king of Isin, king of Sumer and Akkad, the favourite of Inana, established justice in Sumer and Akkad, then I built the E-mete-namlugala, my great residence.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions — scholar edition (Vienna).
Why it matters
Lipit-Eštar frames the building of his palace as an act of justice for Sumer and Akkad — linking royal construction ideology to the legal reforms that precede Hammurabi by roughly 150 years.
Scholarly note
Sumerian royal inscription, published in the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) by Gábor Zólyomi and collaborators. Translation reproduced from the ETCSRI edition. ORACC text Q001960.
Attribution
Image: FLP 2636 (Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) — from Isin (mod. Bahriyat) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P431458). source
Translation excerpted from Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI), University of Vienna, edited by Gábor Zólyomi et al. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/etcsri/Q001960/.
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