Cuneiform Tablet

Cones such as these were initially plain and put into temple walls for decoration. Cones with inscriptions were intended to be inserted into the corners of mud-brick walls of buildings to, e.g., commemorate who had the temple built, or record the construction (or reconstruction) of a major building. Gudea was a ruler (ensi) of the city of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled c. 2144 - 2124 BCE.

This tablet appears in an article, in Vol. 8 1990 Annual Review of the Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia “Cuneiform Texts at the University of British Columbia” (by C.A. Peters & D.R. Frayne, Toronto, p 49-50).

The inscription records the rebuilding of the major temple in the city of Lagash, in ancient Mesopotamia, by the ruler of the city - Gudea, Governor of Lagash. Translation: "For the god Ningirsu, mighty hero, of the god Enlil, his lord, Gudea, governor, of Lagash, made the appropriate order appear. The E-ninnu temple, his shining Anzu bird, he built [and], restored for him." Alternate translation: "For Ningirsu, Enlil's mighty warrior, Gudea, ruler of Lagash, made things function as they should [and] he built and restored for him Eninnu, the White Thunderbird." (Note: M4.19 and M4.24 have similar inscriptions.)

Cream-coloured clay cone with cuneiform inscription. One end tapers to a rounded point, the other has a flat, slightly domed base. The sides of the body have very worn, vertical linear inscriptions.