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Collection #: UM 15
Publ. #: SET 340
RIME 4.1.5.4
Acquired from: Unknown
Measurements (mm): length=114, base diameter=47
Condition: Intact; baked?
Description: Building inscription of Lipit-Eštar
Period: Isin-Larsa (Early Old Babylonian) Period, ca. 20th cen. BCE
Provenience: Isin


Transliteration:
 
Column I
 
1.  
dLi-pí-it-eš4-tár
2.  
sipa sun5-na
3.  
Nibruki
4.  
engar zi
5.  
Uri5ki-ma
6.  
mùš nu-túm-mu
7.  
Eriduki-ga
8.  
en me-te
9.  
Unuki - ga
10.  
lugal Ì-si-inki-
               na
11.  
lugal Ki-en-gi Ki-
               uri
 
 
Column II
 
12.  
šà-ge túm-a
13.  
dInnin-me-en
14.  
u4 nì-si-sá
15.  
Ki-en-gi Ki-uri-a
16.  
i-ni-in-gar-ra-a
17.  
Nam-ga-ru-um
18.  
ki-rib-ba
19.  
dingir-re-e-ne-ka
20.  
É-nì-si-sá-a
21.  
mu - dù
Translation
 
Column I:       1-3.  
Lipit-Eštar, humble shepherd of Nippur,
4-5.  
true farmer of Ur,
6-7.  
ceaseless provider of Eridu,
8-9.  
en-priest fit for Uruk,
10.  
king of Isin,
11.  
king of Sumer and Akkad,
Column II:   12-13.  
the favorite of Inanna am I.
14-16.  
When I established justice in Sumer and Akkad,
17-21.  
I built the House of Justice at Namgarum, the eminent place of the gods.


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Notes:

This cone is one of at least 94 known exemplars of Lipit-Eštar's building inscription commemorating his construction of a “House of Justice,” perhaps on the occasion of promulgating his laws. It is registered by D. Frayne as exemplar no. 64 of this inscription, RIME 4.1.5.4; to Frayne's list add an exemplar in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CTMMA I, no. 114), and another belonging to the archives of Colorado State University (see E. von Dassow, “An Ur III Document and an Old Babylonian Cone at Colorado State University,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 52 [2000], pp. 127-8). The provenience of those exemplars recovered during archaeological excavations is the site of Isin (Frayne, op. cit., p. 53).

Rulings and a column divider demarcate the lines and columns of the cone's text; about one quarter of the space on the cone remains blank.

The translation given here mainly follows that of Frayne, with some modifications in accord with the translation given for CTMMA I, no. 114.
LUMINA
Send comments to: Eva von Dassow
Special Collections/Rare Books, 111 Elmer L. Andersen Library
222 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Tim Johnson, curator.

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