LITERARY/RELIGIOUS SPEECH

MS 2624
MS Short Title LITERARY/RELIGIOUS SPEECH
Text THE SCHOLARS OF URUK: LIKE A CITY WITH SUPREME POWER MY CITY IS URUK, THE CITY OF THE KING. BUT YOU, WHO GREW UP IN MY CITY AND MY LAND, HAVE PLUNDERED THE TEMPLE OF MY LORD, HAVE DESPOILED THE PROPERTY OF MY LADY. - MAY THE FORMER DAYS OF CONFLICT PASS ON, AND MAY THE NOW DISTANT DAYS OF PEACE BE ESTABLISHED. - CONFER AND ANSWER THAT HE MAY BE SET FREE, BECAUSE TO ME YOU ARE A FOOL
Description MS in Neo Sumerian and Akkadian on clay, Uruk, probably Larsa Babylonia, 18th c. BC, 1 tablet, 20,0x6,4x2,2 cm, 63 double lines in a minute expert cuneiform script.
Binding Barking, Essex, 1998, blue quarter morocco gilt folding case by Aquarius.
Commentary The text is bilingual, first line in artificial Sumerian, quite unlike the real Sumerian of the 3rd millennium, immediately followed by a line with the Old Babylonian translation. The text is hitherto unknown.
Published Andrew George: Babylonian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology, vol. 10, Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Cuneiform texts IV. CDL Press, Bethesda, MD, 2009, text 14, pp. 78-112.
Place of origin probably Larsa Babylonia
Dates 1800 - 1700 BC