"šá naqba imuru" in cuneiform

[potozky]

Hi everyone. 

I'm trying to find the cuneiform of "šá naqba imuru", of the Epic of Gilgamesh (standard version) by Sîn-lēqi-unninni, for a tattoo. 

But I just start to learn akkadian/cuneiform, so this task that I tought would be easy, well... Its not. haha

I found this: cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P273203 

The line 47 of column III (reverse) has this sentence ( [sza2 nag-ba i-mu-ru] ). But I can't read cuneiform yet, so I tought: Well, I just need to search for the "sza2", "nag", "ba", "i", "mu", "ru" signs, compare with the line art in this website, and voilà! But I spend hours searching in various websites and old books, but I couldn't find this signs. 

I mean, I found this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0a But I didn't found the same sign on the line-art. Then I found this as being the "ša" sign as well: d2rhekw5qr4gcj.cloudfront.net/uploads/things/images/18996700_130912_1932_43.png 
I look for "sza2" on Google, and I did not found a cuneiform sign. 

Then I found this tattoo: c1.staticflickr.com/8/7029/6437772639_5cd96ab71e_b.jpg with completely different signs.   

Finally, I posted on Reddit, and get this answer: i.imgur.com/CJbJVQ8.jpg
But, again, I did not found this sign sequence on the line-art.

I look for the individual signs, and found that "naq" is apparently correct ( d2rhekw5qr4gcj.cloudfront.net/uploads/things/images/18749919_130901_2351_30.png ), as well as "ru" ( d2rhekw5qr4gcj.cloudfront.net/uploads/things/images/18750262_130902_0402_04.png ) but "ba", for exemple, it's a little different ( d2rhekw5qr4gcj.cloudfront.net/uploads/things/images/18738004_130901_1541_34.png ).

Either way, I couldn't find any similar "sequence of signs" on the tablet that I linked above, that apparently must have "šá naqba imuru" on the last line of the column III (reverse). 

Since I want to find this for a tattoo, I want to be sure that it's correct. 

Can someone please help me with the cuneiform of "šá naqba imuru", and show me where it its on this line-art? cdli.ucla.edu/dl/lineart/P273203_l.jpg (or in the line-art of any other tablet. This one was the only one I found with this sentence. Since the Epic starts with this line, I guess it is on the tablet I as well, but I didn't found the tablet photograph, neither their line-art). 

(And if someone could tell me how can I learn how to read those transliterated texts (for exemple, why there are brackets and parentheses - why there are numbers, like in sza2, du3, etc...), and where can I search for the signs of the transliterated texts (I mean, how can I found what is the sign that has been transliterated as "sza2", for example), etc, I would be eternally grateful!)

Thank you very much!

[sheshki]

Hi potozky,

let me go through your question step by step

"I mean, I found this:..."
problem here is that you are looking for ša₂, but found ša_{(1) the "1" is normally not written}, that is why they don´t look the same.

"Then I found this tattoo..."
the reason why there are different signs is that the signs of the tattoo spell the name of Gilgamesh, not the line you want.

"Finally, I posted on Reddit, and..."
Problem here is that whoever wrote the line mixed up BA with MA

"(And if someone could tell me how can I learn..."

Let me think, i once made a table with these explanations...
---------------------

character	meaning	example
#	sign partly broken off but recognizable	ama#
#?	sign partly broken off but not 100% recognizable	ama#?
[x]	sign broken off, author is sure there has to be one	ama-[x]-na
x	sign damaged and not readable	ama-gesztin-x
{sign}	determinative	{d}
sign@	the "@" is a way to note variations on a sign.	BU@g
sign:sign	the use of the colon ( means that the signs are written out of order	AMAR:UD
sign%sign	the % means that you have two signs that are crossed at angles.	BU%BU
signx	x means that it's a sign with a value "sign" that hasn't been assigned an index number	menx
SIGNxSIGN	the second sign is written inside the first sign	GA2xEN
sign!	indicate that there are problems	{d}tu!-dim2
<sign>	The use of pointy brackets indicates that a sign ISN'T there, but it almost certainly SHOULD be there.	{d}<nin>-iri-a-mu-DU
sign1(|sign2.sign3|)	means sign1 is made out of sign2 and sign3	{d}ebih(|EN.TI|)

The thing with the numbers next to the signs is that there can be different signs to be read as for example ša, and to distinguish them they got the numbers.
See for example some of the possible signs to be read as ŠA (i´m using Sumerian cuneiform)
ša
ša₂
ša₃
ša₄
ša₅
and so on, i think there are more than 20 signs with the value ša (don´t quote me).

And to make it more complicated many signs have more than one value...
GAR for example has the following values: ĝar, ni₃, niĝ₂, ninda, nindan, ša₂
Another thing to keep in mind is that cuneiform was written from the late 4th millennium to the second century AD.
So over time the look of the signs changed from pictographic to very abstract, also more and more new signs were developed.
The writing system was also used for several different languages,
among them for example Akkadian (Semitic language) and Hittite (indoeuropean language, but you probably know this).
This all contributes to the fact that many signs have many values and different looks.
Btw, some signs didn´t change at all, A for example.
How to read signs depends on the context of the word, and to know that context you go to univerity and study...or study at home
I don´t have the Neo-Assyrian signs at hand right now, but here are the Sumerian ones for your line

ša₂ nag-ba i-mu-ru

Sheshki

[us4-he2-gal2]

Excellent answer here Sheshki - perfect. So if the original poster has an further requests or questions let us know and we will elaborate further.

[Santiago]

I've been looking for the very same thing for a while.

"šá nag-ba i-mu-ru i]š-di ma-a-ti" appears in only one of the four known tablets of Nineveh with the line on it, the other three, "šá naqba imuru" is not there, they begin with "i]š-di ma-a-ti" (I might be wrong). This info I got from overviewing "The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic" Vol.1 and Vol.2 by A.R. George.

"šá naqba imuru" has to be in Babylonian cuneiform somewhere in a tablet, but I still couldn't find an image of it.

The sumerian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh stars with "šūtur eli šarrī" (apparently meaning "He who surpasses all Kings").

Do anyone know how to write in Babylonian cuneiform "šá nag-ba i-mu-ru i]š-di ma-a-ti" or where to find the specific tablet which has that inscription? I don't want it for a tattoo, but I wanted to paint the whole prologue in my wall.

Thanks in advance

[sheshki]

I will look into it, just give me a couple of days.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Sheshki - we began answering this at the same time apparently. If I had seen you were answering it, I may not have started.


Santiago:

The line in question is, of course, the first line in tablet 1 of the Standard Epic of Gilgamesh, translated "he who saw the deep, the foundations of the country." In order to really understand what is going on at the tablet level, one needs to consult Andrew George's 2003 masterwork, his two volume critical edition "The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic." Consulting the relevant line in volume 1, one can see that George uses 3 surviving tablet fragments to render the following:

[ša naq-ba i-mu-ru iš]-di ma-a-ti

When text is placed in [square brackets], the scholar is indicating that the tablet is broken for this portion of text - in this case, all three tablets are broken on the first line...unfortunately. This is not terribly surprising actually, the most vulnerable parts of a cuneiform tablet are its edges, it's not uncommon for the first lines to be broken or missing. How then does George reconstruct the missing words? Volume 2 of his 2003 work, in the notes for the reconstruction for the relevant line, explains that recourse is made to colophons - in the Mesopotamian scribal tradition, in tablets series like the Gilgamesh Epic, scribes would include a colophon at the end of a tablet - this is a space at the end of the tablet which would be reserved to record (among other things) the first line of the tablet that was to sequentially follow in the series (in this way, the colophon gave the reader a clue about which tablet to pick up next to keep the story going). So, although there are no copies of tablet one which preserve the first line, the text for line one can still be found in the colophon section of other tablets in the series.

Unfortunately, the colophon entries do not include the entire line, only ša naq-ba i-mu-ru "he who saw the deep..." ; the rest of the reconstruction for line one is from the fragments of tablet one which do contain the final words: iš]-di ma-a-ti... "foundation of the country" ... even then, the iš sign is not attested at all, and is probably surmised by George.

So just to re-cap, contrary to all expectations (given that the line exists in English translation) it does not exist in its entirety on any tablet anywhere (that we have unearthed to date). No one should suppose Assyriology is easy. Even the first line of the most famous literary work in the field inspires a good amount of frustration and irksome toil. In the below attachment, I have pieced together the signs (in so far as they exist on the tablets). I have labeled them 'plate 113' and 'plate 47' these are the plates (meaning, pages containing drawings of tablets) from George's volume 2.

[saga]

Thanks a lot for the insight!