Lot 126
Near East, Sumeria, ca. 3rd - 2nd Millennium BCE. Sumeria, ca. 1953 - 1935 BCE. Conical clay tablet with cuneiform inscription around front of tablet. Inscription continues on top of cone, which is very rare for cone tablets.Report from Translator R. Kovaks: The cone inscribed with a building inscription in the name of Ishme-Dagan, king of Isin (1955-1937). It is identical to a cone in the Schoyen collection published by A.R. George in Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Schoyen collection, CDL Press, Bethesda, MD, 2011:89-91. The text is in the Akkadian language, unlike Ishme-Dagan's other building inscriptions, which employ Sumerian; the text continues from the head to the shaft, and the latter is divided into two columns whose lines are perpendicular to its long axis, instead of parallel. The building whose construction is recorded on this cone is a defensive wall comprising an earthen rampart and a ditch (ikum) beyond it. Ishme-Dagan is known to have constructed or restored two city walls: that of Isin, his capital, and that of Durum, a garrison town near Uruk. The former wall is the subject of a well-known cone inscription in Sumerian. Iisme-Dagan's work on Durum's wall is recorded in a Sumerian inscription written twice, once on the head and again on the shaft, on a single clay nail first published in 1937 (Frayne 1990: 42 E4.1.4.11). The present text exhibits a similarity of structure with the latter, especially, but, if I have understood l. 22 correctly as containing a toponym, it reports a different geographical location. The inscription is also important for its detailed metrology, in a passage which gives two measurements for the width of the wall's ditch, first in nindan "rod" (the twelve-cubit measure, ca 6 m) and again in another unit, previously unattested. The inscription ends in an unexplained repetition of nindan, from which it appears that the text is defective or unfinished. head 1 d ish-me-dda-g[an] 2 za-ni-in 3 nippuru(nibru)ki 4 tu-ku-ul-ti 5 /urim5/ ki 6 [a-she-er] 7 [eridu(NUN)ki] shaft col. i 8 na-tsi-i[r] 9 mi-i 10 [uruk(unug)]ki 11 [mu-ut esh4]-t?r 12 [e]-lum 13 /dshamash(utu) ?/-si-inki 14 shar shu-me-ri-im 15 ?-l? 16 ma-at 17 /wa/-[ri]-/im/ 18 [ta-li-im] 19 [den-l?l] 20 [dish-me-dda-gan] 21 [sha d?-ri-im] 22 [sha? na?-aZ-na-an-ni -im] 23 [e-p?-ri-sh]u? shaft col. ii24 ki-i!-ma!(AB) sha-d?-[im]25 ?-sha-ash-p?-ik 26 i-k?-am27 shi-na ? mi-ish-lam28 i-na / ni-in-da-an-ni-im29 ru-pu-ush-sh?30 esh-re-et31 /i -na/ [we-e]-/li-im/32 [ra-pa-ash]33 [mu-?sh-ra]34 [?-s?-ir-shu]35 [ni-in-da-an] Ishme-Dagan, provisioner of Nippur, mainstay of Ur, provider for Eridu, guardian of the rites of Uruk, sacred spouse of the goddess Ishtar, sun of Isin, king of Sumer, god of the land of Wari'um, brother of the god Enlil. (I), Ishme-Dagan: as for the wall [of] Naznannum(?), its [earthwork(?)] I had piled up as high as a mountain. With a ditch - two and a half its width in rods, ten wide in welum units - I enclosed it to the fore. Rod. 3"H x 2-3/8"W Provenance: Ex-F. Zollman Collection, MD. Authenticity Guaranteed The starting price is the price at which the piece can sell.
- Condition: Losses to back and top of cone missing, else excellent.
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