This week at Catawiki, we have an incredible 4000-year-old “document” from a Sumerian king, who ruled the city-state of Lagash. The Sumerian cone with Cuneiform inscription stems from ca. 2090 B.C. Let’s take a closer look into this amazing piece of history.
By Keith R. Amery - expert Archaeological Finds & Remains
The piece was found in Mesopotamia, which takes its name from the Greek, literally meaning ‘between the two rivers’, referring to its location at the confluence of the great rivers of the Near East, the Tigris and Euphrates.
Its location was certainly an ideal environment for the transition from a nomadic to a sedentary pastoral existence. The legends of Dilmun as a description of an earthly paradise is both based on the Mesopotamian geography, and also a forerunner of the Biblical Garden of Eden.
Recent scholarship has also shown that ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’, probably the earliest surviving epic tale of gods and heroes, was a precursor of Noah’s Biblical flood. These texts were, unbelievably, written on clay tablets with a triangular wedged stylus, leading to the distinctive text produced being called by scholars ‘cuneiform’ or ‘wedge-shaped’. Like other early language development, it is fair to assume cuneiform was first developed as an administrative tool for mundane record keeping and day to day accountancy for kings and great estates to keep track of their property (including people for tax purposes, not surprisingly).
Whereas today we may ask a dignatory to unveil a wall plaque to commemorate the foundation of a new building, in the ancient Near East only a King could lay the foundation of a temple dedicated to a god, and what we have here is a clay nail or foundation cone that would have been buried in the foundations of the temple to formalise the dedication.
In this cuneiform inscription, dating to ca. 2090 B.C. King Gudea of the city-state of Lagash dedicates a temple to the Hero Ningirsu in honour of the god Enlil. King Gudea is said to have brought exotic trade goods from the Mediterranean, establishing building projects and restoring the waterways.
Dedicatory statues of Gudea can today be seen in the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Gudea Of Lagash (Louvre)
The text on this cone tells how the king was directed to restore the god’s temple in a dream, and ends with the procession of the god’s cult statue to his new house. Like the mythical hero Gilgamesh, the king’s quest for immortality is in its own way a material one.
The Cuneiform foundation cone presented here on Catawiki, represents a chance to appreciate the wishes of a king more than 4000 years later, to secure his place in history.
If you are interested in archeology and historic objects, keep an eye on our weekly Archeological Finds & Remains auction. You can place a bid on the Sumerian cone until the 29th of March.