Sumerian Clay Dedication Nail

King Entemena ca 2450-2375 BC.

Textual description after photos

 

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Entemena clay dedication cone,    ca. 2450-2375 BC.

 

The pyramids of Egypt were still being built as the scribe’s fingers molded and impressed this cone with the timeless marks of his cuneus. This clay cone would adorn the walls of Entemena’s temple to Emesh, the god of Summer and harvest.  It would be over 500 years before history would record the story of the tower of Babel, the emmigration of Abraham from the land of Sumeria, and the plagues of Moses against the Pharoah of Egypt.  It lay hidden and protected by a tomb of dirt until the French brought it to light before WWI. It is still possible to see the finger and thumb marks of that ancient scribe some 4500 years ago.

 

Entemena is one of a handful of great Sumerian kings based in Lagash, located in the southern plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.  It boasts of an ancient heritage that pre-dates the flood.  For about 100 years, Lagash and its rival city Umma disputed their bordering canals and water rights.  During the reign of Enannatum I, Entemena led his father’s armies to victory over Urlumma and Ili of Umma.  When Entemena became ruler of Lagash, he expanded his peaceful influence by negotiating a lasting brotherhood pact with Lugal-kinishe-dudu, king of Ur, Uruk, and Kish.  This important clay dedication cone commemorates this historic event, and constitutes the only clay nails known to celebrate any treaties of peace between kings.  Entemena provides the first written record of the concepts of freedom and equality.

 

Although this baked cone has been fragmented over time, the inscription in two vertical registers remains intact.  The cuneiform is dated from the early dynastic III period, and is a transitional semi-pictographic form of cuneiform.  Many of the pictograms are archaic in formation, and were obsolete by the time of Gudea, about 200 years later.  The impressions were partially filled with about 0.5 mm thick layer of primarily inorganic limestone concretion built up over the millennia, attesting to its age.

 

The cone is dedicated to three gods:  The first is Inanna, the goddess of Venus.  She is the daughter of the moon, and the sister of the sun gods.  Later she would be called Ishtar.  The second is Emesh, god of summer.  His brother is Enten, god of winter and animals.  There is a striking resemblance between their story, and those of Biblical Cain and Abel.  The Sumerians divided their year into these two seasons.  The last is the personal god of both Entemena and his uncle Eannatum, namely Shulutul.  It is possible that he refers of Utu, the sun god of the Sumerians.  Further, the characters that are seen on the cone read Shul + mush with symbols of “one” and “god”.  The Hebrew god of the sun is called Shamash, and this god is associated with the Sumerian legend of Noah and the flood.  Much of this is conjecture, and remains a mystery.

 

The cone is transliterated as follows:

{d} Inanna-ra / {d} Lugal-E2-mesh-ra / En-te-me-na / En-si2 / Lagas {ki ke4} /

E2-mesh ke4 ki ag2-ga2-ne-ne / mu-na-du3 / kib mu-na-gu3 / En-te-me-na /

Lu E2-mesh du3-a / {d} ra-ni / {d} Shul-utul12 / En-te-me-na / En-si2 / Lagas {ki ke4} /

Lugal-ki-ni-sze3-dudu / En-si2 / Uruk ki-bi / nam-shesh-e-ak /

 

And the translation is as follows:

For the goddess Inanna, for the god Lord Emesh.  Entemena, the ruler of Lagash.  The temple Emesh, beloved of the people, he built it.  He ordered these clay nails for it.  Entemena, the man who built the Emesh, his personal god is god Shulutul.  Entemena, the ruler of Lagash and Lugal-kinishe-dudu, the ruler of Uruk, made a brotherhood treaty.

 

William D. Jensen,  March 15, 2000.

 

 

Gregg Oelker’s Entemena cone: translation commentary

by William Jensen.

 

 

The proper way to view cones of this time period is the same way the scribe held them.  Hold the large end of the cone in your left hand, with your thumb on top.  Point the tip of the cone to the right, so the long axis of the cone is horizontal.  You may see indentations in the cone’s nail head, where the scribe’s thumb impressed it during the writing process.  Notice that the text is comprised of two column vertically, made up of about ten cells of boxed off areas each.  Some boxes will contain more than one row of characters within them, necessary for the completion of a sentence-phrase.  Rotate the cone so that the text immediately below the double line separator is in view.  The text begins with the left column, and proceeds from left to right in each box, and top to bottom in each column.  Read each line, rotating the cone, until you come to the double lines again.  Then proceed to the right column and continue reading the text around the cone in a similar fashion. 

 

This translation and commentary proceeds in boxes, each of which is numbered sequentially.  I have defined consecutive letters to further designate the individual characters within each box.  Therefore, the first box has three characters, 1a, 1b, and 1c.  The commentary on the text will follow this convention.

 

1a) The 8 pointed star is transliterated as {d} which is pronounced as ‘dinger’, with the g sounding as a hard ‘j.’ The most ancient cuneiform were written and drawn with the text rotated 90 degrees clockwise from how you are holding it.  From that orientation, you can get a better idea of how pictographic characters are made of abstract pictures, as opposed to meaningless marks.  This pictograph represents a star, the sign of heavenly beings, namely a god or goddess.  It occurs as a prefix in most cases where this is its meaning.  There are two main interpretations of each Sumerian character possible: a pictographic representation of a word, or the representation of a sound. As a far-fetched example we take the letter ‘I’, which looks like a man.  As a pictograph, it would be interpreted as such.  As a sound, it would make up a series of other sound-characters such as the word ‘Imagination’, and have a totally different meaning.

 

1b) This is the pictogram for the love and war goddess Inanna or the later Ishtar, planet Venus, or the Greek Aphrodite and Athena combined. As usual, you need to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise to see the pictogram, a bird which represents her.  She is the patron goddess of the city of Uruk, and her temples have been excavated there.  It is a fitting tribute to this treaty between Entemena and Lugal-kinishedudu, that he honor their patron, even though she does not figure so prominently in Entemena’s city of Lagash.

 

1c) This pictogram means ‘for’.  It may be a boxlike offering sitting on a throne-like character that can be seen as 4c). 

 

2c) Again we have the divine star.  This is a multiple dedication, with this god being subsidiary, but specific to the temple being dedicated.

 

2d) This is a pictogram meaning ‘great-king’.  Viewed as a pictogram orientation, we see a crown with a line joining it to the part below.  This part is a character all its own, pronounced ‘gal’, and meaning great.  The lower part consists of the head of a man with his belly shown.  It is possible that the lines across his belly represents a shroud of some sort.  It can also be seen in 10a), and is pronounced ‘lu’ which means man.  Lu-gal typically means king, or great-man.  It is prefixed to his name.  Note that box 16) mentions Lugal-kinishedudu.  This may mean that he is King-kinishedudu.  More on that later.

 

2c-d) We have the first case of a phonetic word on the cone, made up of two characters.  The first is a brick building pictogram which is pronounced as ‘E’.  Since there are a few different characters in the Sumerian language that are pronounced the same way, we have numbered them sequentially, so that this one is ‘E2’.  Note that 19c) is also an ‘E’ but it is ‘E1’.  The second sound is the same pictogram as 1b) or Inanna.  As a sound it can be Inanna or musz3.  See how difficult it can be?  ‘Moosh’ is the way we might pronounce musz3.  Note that there are at least 3 characters that are pronounced that way.  Together we get ‘Emoosh’ as the name of a great-man.  How do we know that this name is not to be considered as two pictograms for ‘temple Inanna’?  The reason is that it was prefixed by ‘great-man’ and not some female specific title.  As for ‘Emush’, we have no direct known Sumerian gods of that name.  But as typical for ancient Sumeria, driven by oral tradition, there are many near-pronounciations that exist for named entities.  The pronounciation as ‘Emesh’ does in fact lead us to a very well known Sumerian god of summer harvest.  His brother is Enten, god of animals and winter, and by Sumerian legend, these two brothers are in conflict.  Their story appears to be the parallel of the Biblical story of Cain and Abel.

 

2e) the pictogram is ‘for’, as in 1c) above.

 

3a) The next box contains the sounds for En-te-me-na.  Note that the ‘En’ character looks like a swan, but I have no evidence of that.  It also can mean ‘priest’.  Like modern names, ancient Sumerian names sometimes had a meaning to them.  This relation to the priesthood may have been a reference to a deeper meaning to his name.  Note that the rulers of Lagash at this time had ‘En’ in the beginning of their names.  They took their religion very seriously.  But above that, Entemena did not place ‘king’ in front of his name, as did Lugal-kinishedudu.  This may be because of the subordinate size of the city of Lagash, or that the rulers were a priesthood-monarchy.  But this is conjecture.

 

3b-c) The next two characters are frequently found ligated, or joined together.  This may mean that ‘te-me’ is some phonetic word that means something in Entemena’s name.  I have not been able to discover what that meaning is.

 

3d) The next sound is ‘na’, and is the pictogram for a mouth or meaning ‘he’.  The meaning is uncertain.

 

4a-b) This whole box represents the sound of a single word.  The first two sounds are ‘pa-te’.  The ‘pa’ part is the three marks that is the pictogram for branches.  These two are found together so much, that their combination is often called ‘En’.  The second is ‘te’ and can be found in 3b).  Of note is that this character will evolve over the next 300 years to have an extra vertical bar added to it by the time of Gudea.  Its form here is a testament to the relative antiquity of this Entemena cone.  There are numerous instances of these early pictographic variations in letter styles, and I will only point out a few of them as they occur to me.

 

4c) This forms the last part of the word ‘pa-te-si2’ or ‘En-si2’ which means ‘ruler’ as a combination.  Note that this character looks like a throne, is found embedded within 1c), and may comprise some deeper meaning to the word ‘patesi’.  It makes one wonder, which came first, the chicken or the egg.  What I mean is this: did the word for ruler begin as some verbose phrase such as ‘branch-born of-the throne’ which then was shortened to the sounds ‘pa-te-si’, or did the word begin as ‘pa-te-si’ and then later became sounded as ‘En-si2’?

 

5a-c) These three characters are the phonetic word for ‘Shir-la-pur’ or ‘Shir-la-bur’.  It is the representation of the Sumerian city of Lagash, near modern Tello / Telloh.  I can’t seem to find when the translation of Lagash actually occurred.  Maybe the city was renamed in Assyrian times, and was written in the purely phonetic cuneiform of the Assyrians.  What I do know is that the form of the city name on your Entemena cone is actually a very rare, and possibly extremely archaic form.  The more typical order of these three characters is 5a-5c-5b, or Shirpurla or Shirburla.  From my research, this peculiarly characteristic spelling of the city is only to be found on artifacts of Entemena: cones, tablets, the silver vase of Entemena in the Louvre, etc.  I suggest two possibilities.  The first is that there was some official royal decree by Entemena to change the ordering of the characters so that the city had a new name, which was not used before or after his reign.  The second, more plausible explaination, is that the ordering of the city name did not have much significance.  For example, suppose we have a city called ‘love-brotherly-city’ or alternatively ‘brotherly-love-city’.  The meaning would be the same, because it did not depend on a specific pronounciation such as ‘Mill-walky’ and “Walky-mill’. This brings up the intriguing possibility that the city name Means something.  It has been suggested that the meaning of the characters be interpreted as ‘Raven-town’ which is supported by the archaeological finds of bird-like emblems on artifacts from Lagash such as the silver vase and the patron bird of Gudea’s temples: Ningishzida.  It may be the Biblical city of Resen in Gen 10:12. It was further postulated that the name of the adjacent ancient temple mound, namely ‘Gir-su’, was derived from ‘sun-gir’, ‘shum-mir’, or named after the land of the Biblical ‘shinar’ in Genesis, or ‘Sumer’ as it is now known.  Purely conjecture, in my book. 

 

5d-e) meaning ‘city’ ‘of/place’

 

6a-b) Phonetic for the god ‘Emush’ as in 2c-d).

 

6c) Pictogram for ‘temple’

 

6d-e) Pronounced ‘ki-ag2’ meaning beloved

 

6f-h) meaning ‘of the people’.  Repeated signs were sometimes used for plurality, or to intensify the original meaning of the word.

 

7a-c) meaning ‘verily’ ‘he’ ‘built’ in that order, and referring to the temple of Emush.

 

8a) This is a pictograph means ‘object’, but mainly objects made of gold.  I have no idea what the original (golden) object was meant to be, but it would be exciting to unearth the first one ever discovered, from the sand of Iraq. On the offhand that the ‘original’ object was an actual golden nail, I examined the Entemena cone to see if it contained a golden nail embedded in the clay, since clay was used to contain other objects, much like an envelope is used today.  The metal detector did not pick up any such golden object, only the black magnetite grains in the clay.  Too bad, but I would not think of cracking the cone open to get to the nail, even if I did find it.

 

8b-d) meaning ‘verily’ ‘he’ ‘ordered’, in that order.  So apparently, Entemena himself ordered these representative clay nails to be made, and placed in the walls of his temple to Emush.  He no doubt saw or even touched your actual cone, some 4500 years ago.  My cone substitutes ‘na’ for ‘ne’ in your cone, but I do not know the significance of this substitution.

 

9a-d) Entemena’s name begins the next paragraph.

 

10a) meaning ‘the man’ Entemena.

 

10b-d) meaning ‘E-mush’ ‘temple’

 

10e-f) meaning ‘built’.

 

11a-c) meaning ‘god’ ‘personal’ his’

 

12a-c) meaning ‘god’ ‘shul-utul12’.  The ‘shul’ is the zig-zag character plus the following railroad track mark.  The next mark is ‘utul12’ meaning that there are a lot of variations of these composite characters.  The main part of the character is a symbol for a snake which is singly pronounced as ‘musz’ or ‘mush’. Its head is a diamond with hatched out eyes, a horizontal stem with vertical hatchmarks down it, and terminating with a forked tongue (?).  Even the sound of ‘musz’ can be conjur a modern day snake.  The other elements are a single vertical slash above, and a divine star below.  I have seen variations where the divine star is located after the snake.  I propose that these symbols are to be interpreted separately, and not as a composite.  I cite the argument made for Shir-la-pur above as supporting evidence.  If we consider the glyphs separately, we get Shul-mush and the symbols for ‘one’ and ‘god’.  Hmmmmmm ...

 

 

Who is this personal god of Entemena?  I could find no mention of this significant Sumerian god Shul-utul, except in two places.  One is an ancient tablet that stated that Shul-utul was the personal god of Eannatum, who was the brother of the father of Entemena, and the prior ruler of Lagash.  The other I will mention later.  Now comes some of my own ruminations on this fascinating group of characters...

 

Shamash, the One God of the Hebrews:  There is a Babylonian legend from the Epic of Gilgamesh, clay cylinders, and tablets, written after your Entemena cone, that speaks of a man named Ut-napishtim or Ziusudra.  He was commanded by the one God, to build a boat in order to save himself and animals from a destructive flood that was to sweep mankind from the face of the earth.  The name of the God is Shamash.  He is also called Utu, the sun god.  Both of these names are related to the signs we see on your Entemena cone: Shul-mush as Shamash and Utul as Utu.  In addition to this, we have the glyphs for ‘one’ and ‘god’ associated with the name as well.  I propose that the most logical interpretation of Entemena’s god is the very same that spoke to Noah, and reveal to Abraham, living in the Sumerian city of Ur, that He was the One God.  All over 500 years before it was to happen.  Your cone might be one of the earliest actual records of the mention of the God of the Hebrews and Christians. 

 

As promised, I will mention the other reference of Shul-utul, and that is in famous clay cylinder of Rulers of Lagash.  It was written at the time of Gudea, ca. 2100 BC.  It mentions the dynasties that ruled Lagash after the flood.  Lines 157-161 deal with Entemena’s uncle Eannetum.  It states that his personal god was Shul-utul as well, with the same strange combination of characters.  No other ruler before or after him has such a personal attribution, so we can only guess how this god came to be revealed to him.  In line 158, it is stated that ‘the gods stood in his place’ at Lagash.  Could he have had a divine visitation?  It appears that he had such a revelation, and that his nephew Entemena also believed in this God as well.  In any case, one fifth of the cone’s text is devoted to declaring Entemena’s dedication to Shamash.

 

13a-d) Entemena’s name begins the third paragraph, the text concerning the treaty of peace.

 

14a-c) the patesi, ensi, ruler.

 

15a-e) of Shir-la-pur.

 

16a-f) The phonetic name of the ruler ‘Lugal-kinishedudu’.  The first glyph might be read as ‘great-man’ or ‘King’.  This reading is further substantiated by his name being on the Sumerian King List for the kings of all Sumeria.  He was by far the more influential king of Entemena’s time, and a treaty of peace with him would be a most beneficial act of diplomacy.  In line 188, we find that he acted for 120 years.  Besides the additional significant historical reference to him on your cone, we might never know that he ever lived.  That’s what comes from not using clay sticky-notes to keep track of things!

 

17a-c) meaning the ‘patesi’ or ‘ensi’ or ‘ruler’.  Note the feeble title given to Lugal-kinishedudu.  It might have been an attempt on Entemena’s part to downplay the supremacy of his ally, or it might mean that we need to upgrade the translation of ‘ensi’ to mean ‘king’.

 

18a) the pictogram for Uruk.  The original meaning of the symbol has been lost in antiquity.  It is from the ancient city of Uruk, that we get the modern ‘Iraq’, land of Sumeria.  Uruk claims to be the kingdom of Gilgamesh, some 300-500 years before your Entemena cone.  Quite possibly before he was deified, and considered just an historical figure.  It also boasts to be one of the few cities that existed before the flood.  The Bible calls it Erech in Gen 10:10, but makes no mention of it existing before the flood. 

 

18b-c) meaning ‘place’ ‘this / here’.  One remotely possible interpretation of ‘here’, is that the treaty was made in Uruk, with Entemena traveling there to make it.

 

19a) meaning to make the following noun abstract. Some uses of this word are brother’-hood’, if used before brother, and king’-ship’, if used before king.  The shape of this character denotes an archaic form of the letter.

 

19b) meaning brother.

 

19c-d) meaning ‘between?’ ‘made’

 

I hope this treatise gives you a better understanding of the pictographic content and interpretive research used in translating your Entemena cone.

 

 

 

William D. Jensen

Austin, Texas,  Aug 2, 2000

 

 

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