Details

LOT 0246

Old Babylonian Terracotta Cuneiform Tablet of a Poem

EARLY 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.

3 1/4 in. (163 grams, 83 mm).

Pillow-shaped tablet with a Sumerian hymn to Sin-idinam, king of Larsa (1849-1843 BC), reading:
'5-6 (the gods) granted him to exercise, in a sublime manner, kingship and the priestly office.
7-8 They made him sit upon a seat whose foundation is firm, a radiant throne ...
9-10 Once he had firmly secured the crown and the sublime radiance upon his head.
11 Sin, the firstborn son of Enlil,
12 bestowed upon him a sublime name.
13 Utu, the great judge of the universe,
14 caused law and justice to be established for him].
15 The praise Sumer [...] ...
16 The vast and shining wisdom ...'

Provenance

Specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992.
Thence by descent to family members.
Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
This small collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well-preserved examples.

Accompanied by a translation by M. Guichard.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13269-253330.

Literature

Cf. similar tablets in Goetze, A., Old Babylonian omen texts,Yale, 1966, pls.1ff.

Footnotes

Old Babylonian tablets were found in regular excavations from Khafaje and Kish, although, even today, the main body came from dealers. A definite date can be assigned to them only based on internal evidence. The scripts of the tablets vary a good deal: some tablets are written in archaic cursive, others in younger cursive, still others mix archaic and younger sign forms.