Neo-Sumerian Statuette of an Androcephalous Bull, C. 2350-2000 BC

Made of Chlorite with inlays (now mostly missing)

Images of human-headed bulls are found throughout Mesopotamian history. Several statuettes dating from the late third millennium BC show a bearded creature wearing the divine horned headdress, lying down with its head turned to the side. They have been found at various Sumerian sites, the majority from Telloh (ancient Girsu, see map).

There is a small group of these recumbent bulls dating from the Neo-Sumerian period (around 2150-2000 BC), one of which is inscribed with the name of Gudea, the Second Dynasty ruler of Lagash. In the Neo-Assyrian period (9th-6th centuries BC), the human-headed bull, now with a pair of wings, becomes the guardian of the royal palace, flanking the doors through which visitors entered. This creature was a lamassu, a benevolent protective spirit generally associated with the sun-god Shamash.

Sumerian Relief of Dudu, Priest of Ningirsu, In The Time of Entemena, Prince of Lagash, From Girsu, Early Dynastic, C. 2400 BC

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Sumerian Vocabulary: The Living Room

Stealing another vocabulary listing image from andreasdadler (who completed this in Latin).

1 & 5 banshur “table” // 2 aktum “rug” // 3 kikal “floor” // 4 guza “chair” // 6 bun “lamp” // 8 ab “window” // 10 nad “sofa, couch” // 11 kushanuum “pillow” // 12 sumur “ceiling, roof” // 13 ngishzi “wall” // 14 shubilla “cabinet”

15-18: There are no words in Sumerian for television, VCR, radio or speaker. You can probably come up with vocab words of your own for these items, though!

19 ngishnaashna “small couch” // 20 u “plant” // 21 & 26 nu “picture, painting” // 22 pisang “frame” // 24 ningtab “fire-box” or izi “fire” // 27 ngadub “tablet case”

7, 9, 23, 25: I don’t know of good words for “lampshade”, “curtain”, or the parts of a fireplace. If you do, let me know!

Check out this article on a collection of Sumerian cylinder seals which were looted in 2003 and have yet to be located.

The archaeological site of Uruk (Warka), 30km east of Samawa, Iraq. The city’s walls were built 4,700 years ago by the Sumerian King Gilgamesh, hero of the eponymous epic. Essam Al Sudani / AFP

#APNY Day 16

Again, I’ve skipped a few days, as questions about movies aren’t super relevant to Sumerian studies! Today’s APNY involves describing an image, which can be found here.

Day 16: Describe what you see in the picture.

Vocabulary in this passage:

These sentences illustrate several of Sumerian’s oblique cases:

1. The first sentence has three words, ulumda ngiringennada puda, all in the comitative case marked by -da, meaning “with”.

2. nua is in the locative case -a, meaning “in”.

3. kipuzurasham can be broken down into ki-puzur-a-sh-am, “place-mystery-of-to-is”. -sh- is the terminative case “at, to, towards”.

#APNY Day 10

Day 10: How do you make time to study your target language?

Vocabulary in this section:

A few grammar notes in this one:

1. Both ibdimenata and igi bilalenata are nominalized verbs. This means the verb, e.g. dim “make”, has been fully conjugated (ibdimen “I make it”), then had the nominalizer -a added to it. This allows it to be treated as a noun, in this case by adding the ablative case -ta, which carries the meaning “from, by, by means of” when attached to nominalized verbs.

2. The suffix -name is attached to general nouns to make an indefinite pronoun, for which in English we use “any”: kiname “anywhere”, luname “anyone”, ningname “anything”, uname “any day/time”.

3. bilalen is conjugated like that (rather than (i)blalen) because the flash card(s) are technically not the direct object of the phrase igi lal — they are in the directive case, as the verb phrase literally means “to raise the eyes (to something)”. The third singular directive dimensional prefix is bi-.

Stele of Ushumgal

Sumerian, probably from Umma (modern Jokha), H. 22.4 x W. 14.7 x D. 9.5 cm

Early Dynastic I, 2900–2700 B.C.

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Headdress

Sumerian, found at Ur (modern Tell al-Muqayyar)

Early Dynastic IIIa, ca. 2600–2500 B.C.

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

~Bearded Bull’s Head. Date: 2600–2450 BC Culture: Near Eastern, Mesopotamian, Sumerian Period: Early Dynastic III period (2600–2450 BC) Medium: copper with lapis lazuli and shell inlay Dimensions: 9 ¼ x 9 1/16 x 4 ¾ in. (23.5 x 23 x 12.1 cm) Place of origin: Southern Iraq

This powerful head cast of solid copper has a hollow in the back so that it could be attached to a larger object. The head is brought to life with inlaid eyes of lapis lazuli and shell. It was probably part of a copper relief or a three-dimensional figure that protected the façade or interior of an early temple. The bull’s massive head is emphasized by a stocky muzzle and shortened horns. The addition of a curled, wide beard looks curiously natural on an animal that symbolized the sky god An. As the embodiment of fertility and power, the bearded bull served as an ever-present symbol of divine protection and royal might through centuries of ancient Near Eastern art.

Details of scenes from the Standard of Ur from the Royal Cemetery at Ur. c. 2600-2550 BCE 

The Standard of Ur  is a small trapezoidal box whose two sides and end panels are covered with figurative and geometric mosaics made of pieces of shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone. It was believed upon discovery that is displayed in public as the royal emblem of the King, but modern scholars believe that it was a sound box for a musical instrument.

The two sides of The Standard, dubbed the “War Side” and the “Peace Side,” show the two most important roles of an early Mesopotamian ruler: the warrior who protected the people and secured access to water, and natural resources and the leader who served as an intermediary between the people and the gods.   

The “War Side” depicts a battle and the subsequent defeat of an unkonwn enemy. By the 3rd  millennium BCE, southern Mesopotamia was organized into 20-30 city-states, consisting of urban centers, towns, villages, and hamlets. Though sources provide evidence of peaceful cooperation among city-states, they equally record conflicts, both local disputes and more wide-ranging conquests. A long simmering dispute over the border between Lagash and Umma and involving access to water is the best documented interstate conflict. The “War Side” of the Standard of Ur provide graphic illustrations of these battles and their aftermaths.

The “Peace Side” has a completely different theme, depicting scenes of royal banqueting and men presenting religious offerings to the ruler. In addition to being a warrior, the city-state’s ruler was an intermediary between the gods and the people. One of his major responsibilities was to build and maintain the temples of the city’s gods and goddesses, a responsibility that included provisioning their cults. In doing so he guaranteed the fertility of the land, which the “Peace Side” so vividly illustrates.

The Standard of Ur is on display at the British Museum.

(image sources)

Sumerian Copper Bowl, Late Uruk-Jemdet Nasr Period, C. 3300-2900 BC

Decorated with leopards, ibexes, lions and bulls

I saw this exercise completed in Latin (found here) and decided to try it in Sumerian! Note that some items have multiple vocabulary words; I’ve tried to go with the most basic/most common.*

A — su “body”

1 mush(me) “face” // 2 ka(g) “mouth” // 3 sun “chin” // 4 gu “neck” // 5 murgu “shoulders” // 6-7 a “arm” // 8-9 ashkud “elbow, forearm” // 10 aur “armpit” // 11 shagsud “back (of torso)” // 12 gaba “chest” // 13 endur “navel, umbilical cord” // 14 shag “belly, gut” // 15 kibid “butt” // 16 ib “waist, hip” or sabad “loins, midsection” // 17-18 paphal “leg, thigh” // 19 dub “knee” // 20 ningus “shin”

B — shu “hand”

21 kishibla “wrist” // 23 umbin “nail” // 24-28 shusi “finger” // 29 tibir “palm”

C — sang “head”

30 dilib or siki “hair” // 31 kinamesira “temples” // 32 sangki “forehead” // 34 ngeshtug “ear” // 35 te “cheek” // 36 kiri “nose” // 37 paang “nostril(s)” // 38 meze “jaw” // 39-40 sun “beard” // 41 eme “tongue” // 42 zu “tooth” // 43 nundum “lip”

D — igi “eye”: 44 sigigi or ugurigi “eyebrow”

E — ngiri “foot”

49 zi-in-gi “ankle”** // 50 masila “heel” // 53-55 ngirisi “toe” // 56 umbin “toenail”

F — su “guts, entrails” or ngish “organs”

57 ugu “skull”* // 58 gumur “spine” // 59-61 ngeli or meli “throat, windpipe” // 62 sa “muscle” // 63 mur “lungs” // 64 sha(g) “heart” // 65 ur “liver” // 66 tun “stomach” // 67 shaningin “intestines” // 68-69 sa “vein, artery” // 70 ellang “kidney” // 72 ellamkush “bladder”

*I don’t know of a word for: back of hand; specific fingers, including the thumb; sideburns or mustache; eyelash, eyelid, iris or pupil; arch (ugurngiri?) or ball of foot; brain; pancreas. If you do, please let me know and I’ll update this post!

**I’ve kept the dashes in zi-in-gi to make clear that the “n” and “g” are pronounced separately, as /zin.gi/ rather than /zi.ŋi/. Elsewhere, parentheses indicate the word can be pronounced either way, e.g. ka or kag “mouth”.

Sumerian Dedication Nail

Lagash (present-day Telloh, Iraq), ca. 2100 BC (Neo-Sumerian)

Body H: (16 x 4.5 cm); Diam of Head: (6.9 cm)

(In the Walters Museum of Art)

Protoliterate Tabet

Sumerian, ca. 3100-2900 BC (late Uruk; Early Dynastic I-II) 

Red stone

From the Walters Art Museum

Sumerian Dog Statuette With An Inscription To Ninisinna, C. 1894-1866 BC

Found in Tello (ancient Girsu, map). Made of soapstone, consecrated by a physician in Lagash to the goddess Ninisinna, for the life of Sumu-El, King of Larsa. Sumu-El or Sumuel was an Amorite who ruled the ancient Near East city-state of Larsa from c. 1830 BC to 1801 BC.

The goddess Ninisinna was the daughter of An and Uraš.  She was married to the god Pabilsag, with whom she had a son Damu and a daughter Gunura. Her primary role was as a healing goddess. She is called “great physician of the black-headed ones.”

The name Ninisinna means ‘Lady of Isin.’ The é-gal-mah or É (the Sumerian word or symbol for house or temple) in Isin was the heart of Ninisinna’s cult. Probably within the complex was a “dog house”, built by Enlil-bani (1860-1837 BC).  Ninisinna, like the goddess Gula, with whom she had become syncretized, was associated with dogs, and 33 dog skeletons were excavated in the é-gal-mah. Many of the animals were sick or injured, and it is possible that they were cared for by the temple. Ninisinna was also worshipped at temples in Larsa, Babylon, Ur, Uruk, and Larak.

Babylonian cylinder with building dedication from the era of king Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (605-562 BCE). The cylinder commemorates the rebuilding of the temple of the god Lugal-Marada at the Sumerian city of Marad in Babylonia by king Nebuchadnezzar II. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.

Photo by Babylon Chronicle