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Post by sheshki on Dec 26, 2014 12:09:23 GMT -5
Inspired by Bill´s translation of a tablet i decided to try to translate one for myself. So i went to CDLI and picked one that looked nice. It seems to be a list of offerings for some festival as far as i can see, maybe the tablet will reveal more details later. The administrative tablet is filed on CDLI under P220693, Early Dynastic IIIb, from Girsu. linkFor my translation attempt i use the following sources. CDLI ePSDSumerischer Zettelkastenthe ETCSL signlistMZL by Borger other literatur ob.c1 
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1. 1(aš@c) maš |
1 goat
|  | 2. {geš}gigir2 | chariot (line 1 and 2 probably belong together, since the same line occurs later in column 6/line 3, but i don´t know the connection between the goat and the chariot. Maybe the chariot was a cultic object that got sacrifices, or it was a place named chariot or something like that.)
|  | 3. 1(aš@c) udu ba-gara2 | 1 sheep for the Bagara (temple of Ningirzu)
|  | 4. 1(aš@c) udu ša3-pa3 | 1 sheep for the Shapa (temple of Nanše)
|  | 5. 1(aš@c) udu {d}inanna | 1 sheep for Inanna
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| 6. 1(aš@c) udu {d}ga2-tum3-du10 | 1 sheep for Gatumdug
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| 7. 1(aš@c) maš abzu e | 1 goat for the Abzu of the canal (place/shrine in Lagaš, built by Ur-Nanše, desecrated by Lugalzaggesi)
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| 8. 1(aš@c) maš {d}en-ki sila dagal | 1 goat for Enki of the broad square (a public square)
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| 9. 1(aš@c) maš ki-a-nag | 1 goat for the Kianag (a place of libations to the dead )
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| 10. 1(aš@c) maš ki-su3-PA-EL | 1 goat for the ki-su3-PA-EL (cultic site in Lagaš, RIA6/420, reads: ki-pa-su3-sikil)
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| 11. lagaš{ki}-sa | of Lagaš.
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Post by sheshki on Dec 26, 2014 12:43:29 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 26, 2014 13:52:27 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 27, 2014 11:48:00 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 27, 2014 12:39:40 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 27, 2014 14:17:44 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 28, 2014 12:34:58 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 29, 2014 13:16:35 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 29, 2014 13:42:27 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 29, 2014 13:51:27 GMT -5
rev.c4 
| 1. u4 6(diš@t)-kam | on the 6th day
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Post by sheshki on Dec 29, 2014 15:30:45 GMT -5
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Post by sheshki on Dec 29, 2014 16:02:25 GMT -5
rev.c6 
| 1. nig2 geš tag-ga-a e-sar | items for sacrifices written down
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Post by enkur on Dec 30, 2014 0:31:09 GMT -5
Seems that the ePSD needs some updating: the word ĝeš-tag-ga (sacrifice) is attested there only once between 2000-1500 b.c.e., i.e. the OB period.
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Post by sheshki on Dec 31, 2014 7:20:38 GMT -5
Translating this tablet was alot of fun. I learned alot, about Lagashite temple names for example, verbs, structure etc. My translation sounds a bit "unpolished" so far but i think it is ok for a first try  There are of course things unclear to me, the role of the chariot ( {geš}gigir2) for example, also why the sum up, rev.col5, has 2 fat-tailed sheep, the text only has one, the sum up has 2 gazelles, the text has none, the text has groats, the sum up has none! And what is measured in barig, the groats? I want to thank Ush and Darkl for their help. I will definitly keep translating. |
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Post by enkur on Jan 3, 2015 19:23:31 GMT -5
Great work, Sheshki, anyway. Happy new year by the way  I will soon post an artwork of mine with an attempt to compose an inscription in Sumerian. |
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jan 4, 2015 7:11:46 GMT -5
Sheshki -
Thank you very much for making this excellent effort! With your long standing love of cuneiform signs, a text such as this is an good place for you to start with the business of interpreting Sumerian. I am quite curious with col. 6 line 5 : u4 mete-na-ka . I think your take on the line is pretty good, but as the language is curious to me, I will try and remember tomorrow morning to ask my professor about this, or I will ask the professor there on Tuesday (Krebernik). And of course, will post what I learn.
Enkur - please feel free to e-mail me directly with you idea to make a Sumerian inscription or to say something in Sumerian. I can attempt to help with some of the grammar problems with this.
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Post by sheshki on Jan 4, 2015 10:17:01 GMT -5
Thank you all for your words. I think the next step will be to make a copy of this tablet...still have some clay sitting around somewhere.
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Post by sheshki on Jan 4, 2015 14:30:48 GMT -5
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Post by enkur on Jan 6, 2015 10:17:20 GMT -5
Great! It took me the same time to prepare my inscription of 7 uneven lines only. But I lose a lot of time to make the clay fit for writing on it.
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Post by us4-he2-gal2 on Jan 11, 2015 4:51:09 GMT -5
Sheshki: So I have had the chance to ask about one of the problem lines in your text, that is col. 6 lines 5-6 which read: 5. u4 mete-na-ka
6. i3-kux(DU)
Now Sheshki and I had understood u4 as indicated here "when/on the day of" meta-na-ka "he himself" and i3-kux(DU) as a verb "he entered." This real difficulty has been the meta-na-ka part. If you go to ePSD and type mete, you get the entry for "one's own" with an equivalence to Akk. ramānu "self." Indeed. mete has been discussed by Bendt Alster who saw it as an early phonetic writing of the better known Sumerian term ni2-te "self." In other words, in the older texts they simply wrote mete when they meant ni2-te (either because the word sounded different back then, or because the writing me-te sounded "close enough" - bare in mind that writing was pretty new at the time this text was written!). For a summary of Alster's comment here, see my post Jan. 17 2011 one the Pre-Sargonic Literature thread. So I brought this problem to Laemmerhirt on Monday and Krebernik on Tuesday. I think both were quite impressed with the examples of CLAY above, and had some suggestions for the word problem at hand. Laemmerhirt felt that the word may actually refer to the self of the day, that is "on the same day" and suggested I bring this up with Krebernik as well. He also suggested the Alster article. On Tuesday this came to pass and Krebernik pointed out that the .ka on the end should be understood as a genitive marker ( .ak) meaning "of" and a locative marker ( .a) meaning at or on. Hence something like: on the self(=same) of day. However, it didn't end there. Krebernik was able to recall a dissertation of some student who had made note on this, and on checking that, it was a reference to G. Selz 1995 pg. 34 n. 115. Selz noted: u4-te-me-na wurde bereits von B. Landsberger, Kalender S. 54 Anm. 9 zu (á-)u4-te-na = liliātu(m), lilâtû „Abend“ gestellt (s. aHw 55 Anm. 2; CAD L 184). So note, in the ED period signs could be written in reverse and this does not present a problem. It could be me-te or te-me and they are attempting to spell the same word (it is up to the reader to figure it out). What Selz has done is pointed us to a note made earlier by B. Landsberger who seems to have found a lexical equation (a biingual lexical list where the Akkadian scribe has given a Semitic translation of the Sumerian word.) (á-)u4-te-na = liliātu(m), lilâtû "evening/night." However I am unsure why á appears in the Sumerian word and also why me (in me-te) does not. What inspired Selz to make a footnote on this issue in the first place is his look at the following line from DP 54 (CDLI P220704), which seems similar to the one we are working with (DP 43). The line Selz translated from DP 54 was: 6. 1 maš èš u4-te-me-na-ka 7. i3-DU "1 Ziegenbock wurde am Abend (zum) Heiligtum gebracht." In English this is: "1 male goat was brought to the shrine in the evening." We see here that Selz is translating the verb as "brought" instead of "entered" and this is possible because of the many different values of the DU sign, which basically a drawing of a foot, and can mean enter, bring, stand, carry and so forth. Earlier, we were led by the CDLI transliteration to see the DU sign as indicating the Sumerian verb ku x (or kur) "to enter" ; however, following Selz, we should perhaps read instead i3-de6 that is "was brought." Therefore: starting on Obverse column 3 line 4 and going until col.6 line 4 there is a long list of items; then for lines 5-7 same column "were brought on the evening of the third day." So this same structure and translation would apply throughout the tablet. A long list of thing were brought on the evening of X day. |
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Post by sheshki on Jan 13, 2015 13:19:53 GMT -5
Thank you Ush, with these new insights the content of the tablet makes more sense. I just fixed the translations and put together of summary translation.
1 goat, chariot?, 1 sheep for the Bagara, 1 sheep for the Shapa,
1 sheep for Inanna, 1 sheep for Gatumdug, 1 goat for the Abzu of the canal,
1 goat for Enki of the broad square, 1 goat for the Kianag, 1 goat for the ki-su3-PA-EL
of Lagaš were offered, 1 lamb for Nanše was brought to the gate of the House of the Sceptre
on the 1st day.
1 sheep, 1 lamb, 1 goat for Nanše, 1 sheep for Ningirzu, 1 goat for Hendursag
1 goat for Nanše were brought in the evening of the second day.
1 fat tailed sheep, 1 sheep with it´s fleece, 1 goat for Nanše, 1 sheep for the temple terrace of Enki,
1 sheep for Ningirzu, 1 sheep for Nindar, 1 goat for Ninmušbar, 1 goat for Ninmar,
1 sheep for Dumuzi-abzu, 1 sheep with it´s fleece for Hendursag, 1 goat for the Abzu-mah,
1 sheep for Gantur, 1 goat for Ninur, 1 sheep for Nindub, 1 sheep for Ninšubur,
1 sheep for Mesantum, 1 sheep for Ninazu, 1 sheep for Šul-MušxPa of the Emah, 1 sheep for Ašnan,
1 goat for the Eadda, 1 goat for Gatumdug, 1 sheep for Inanna, 1 goat for Lugalurub,1 sheep for the Kianag,
1 goat ?for the chariot?, 1 goat for Nanše were brought in the evening of the third day.
1 ox, 1 sheep with it´s fleece, 1 mountain sheep, 1 lamb, 1 goat with it´s fleece,
groats, 1 goat were brought to the shrine of Nanše in the evening.
1 sheep, 1 goat (and) chariot? were brought by Engilsa on the 4th day.
1 sheep, 1 lamb, 1 barig for Nanše, 1 goat for Urtur, 1 goat for the Bagara, groats,
1 goat for Nanše were brought on the evening of the 5th day.
1 goat for Nanše, 1 female kid for the Eadda,
1 goat for the Bagara, 1 sheep, 1 barig for Ninazu, 1 sheep for Ningirzu,
1 goat for Bau were brought at midnight of the 6th day.
Total: 1 ox, 3 sheep with their fleece, 2 fat-tailed sheep, 24 sheep, 4 lambs, 27 goats, 2 gazelles
sheep, tanned for the festival of malt eating of Nanše, year 3
items for sacrifices written down.
There still remains the mystery of a: the role of the chariot, and b: the two gazelles in the sum up.
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Post by sheshki on Feb 26, 2017 19:31:22 GMT -5
I just found the solution to "Obv, c1, l2: {geš}gigir2"
RlA3 says: Gigir, during UrIII times, sporadic in Old-Babylonian times there was a deified Chariot that was worshipped. So the correct translation would be: 1 goat for the (divine) chariot.
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Post by hukkana on Feb 27, 2017 4:02:48 GMT -5
I've never heard of this one either, I think. Interesting.
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I will soon post an artwork of mine with an attempt to compose an inscription in Sumerian.
