IB 1939, a clay cone, a fragmentary new inscription of Lipit-Eštar, king of Isin, was published by Walter Sommerfeld (1992: 155, 159). The second column of this cone was damaged, and Sommerfeld could only tentatively restore it. With the web publication of another manuscript of this inscription, Kress 164, which comes from a private German collection, it has now become possible to reconstruct the whole inscription. The transliteration given below is the composite text of the two manuscripts:
Lipit-Eštar 11
Col. I (1) dli-pi2-it-eš18-dar (2) sipa sun5-na (3) nibruki (4) engar zi (5) uri5ki-ma (6) muš3 nu-tum2-mu (7) eriduki-ga (8) en me-te (9) unuki-ga (10) lugal i3-si-inki-na (11) lugal ki-en-gi ki-uri
Col. II (1) ša3-ge de6-a (2) dinanna-me-en (3) ḫi-ri-tum (4) i3-si-inki-na (5) iriki nam-lugal-ga2-ka (6) u4 nig2-si-sa2 (7) ki-en-gi ki-uri-a (8) i-ni-in-gar-ra-a (9) mu-ba-al
When I, Lipit-Eštar, the humble shepherd of Nippur, the true farmer of Ur, ceaseless provider of Eridu, the en priest suitable for Uruk, king of Isin, king of Sumer and Akkad, the favorite of Inanna, established justice in Sumer and Akkad, then I dug the moat of Isin, my royal city.
Note that RIME 4 lists nine inscriptions of Lipit-Eštar. Since its publication, two new inscriptions have become known: a cone inscription dedicated to Nanaya (Lipit-Eštar 10), published by G. Pettinato (1998), and our text. According to a preliminary arrangement between the project Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Royal Inscriptions (ETCSRI) and CDLI, the Toronto series RIME forms the cataloguing basis for all early Babylonian royal inscriptions, including text witnesses or even full inscriptions uncovered subsequent to the publication of specific RIME volumes; thus, these two royal compositions are listed in CDLI as RIME 4.01.05.add10 and RIME 4.01.05.add11, respectively.
Pettinato, Giovanni | ||
1998 | “Lipit-Eshtar a la dea Nanaja.” In M. Dietrich and O. Loretz, eds., Dubsar anta-men: Studien zu Altorientalistik. Festschrift für Willem H. Ph. Römer zur Vollendung seines 70. Lebensjahres mit Beiträgen von Freunden, Schülern und Kollegen. AOAT 253. München: Ugarit-Verlag, pp. 267-279. | |
Sommerfeld, Walther | ||
1992 | “Die Textfunde der 10. und 11. Kampagnen (1988 und 1989).” In B. Hrouda, ed., Isin - Išān Baḥrīyāt, IV: Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen 1986-1989. München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, pp. 144-164. |