CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUR. 253 



combination and served to express but one idea or object, were regularly contracted 

 at this early time and became compound ideograms, e. g., kalami " country," gijJuNn 1 

 " wine," etc. (3) Lines of linear signs which run parallel to a separating line are 

 often omitted, even if the sign is not directly connected with this latter. Cf. JSTo. 



1 The peculiar way in which it is written in the oldest inscriptions of Tello, leaves no doubt as to its composition 

 (gish -j- din). The analysis of this ideogram by Pinches (Sign List, No. 76 a = hash -)- din), accepted by Delitzsch 

 (Assyrisches Handworterbuch, p. 354), Jensen (in Schrader's K. B. Ill, part 1, p. 27, note 6), Houimel (Sumerische 

 Leseslucke, No 180) and others, must therefore be abandoned. For examples cf. Edingiranagin's inscription un- 

 earthed in London (Proe. Soc. Bibl. Arch., Nov. 1893), col. IV, 3, 7, col. V, 3 : gishdin zu-zu-a; or Gudea D (DeSarzec, 

 I.e., PI. 9): 6. Mii-ganM, 7. Me-lug-gaki, 8. Ou-bi ki , 9. kurNitugkl, 10. gu gish mu na gal la-a-an, 11. m,ani- sh ru-a 

 gishdin (sic !), 12. Shir-pur-la^-shu, 13. mu-ni-ium — "Magan, Meluha. Gubi, Dilmua, each (an) of which possesses 

 every kind of tree, brought a ship (laden) with timber and wine to Shirpurla." Jensen's question (in Schrader's iT. 

 B. Ill, part 1, p. 13, note 12), as to what Aniiaud may have read in Ur-Nina's inscription (De Sarzec, I. c, PI. 2, No. 

 1, col. IV, 1-3, which Jensen left untranslated) is answered by jeferring him to the Gudea passage just translated, 

 and to Revue d' Assyriologie II, p. 117, col. V, 3-6, together with De Sarzec, I c, PI. 2Ms, No. 1 (lower section, charac- 

 ters standing immediately before the king). Amiaud, however (in Records of the Past- I, p. 65), as well as Oppert (in 

 Revue d' Assyriologie I[, p. 147) and Heuzey (in Revue d' Assyriologie III, p. 16, and Decouvertes en Ohaldee, p. 170) 

 wrongly read gish din (notwithstanding the passage from Gudea just quoted, lines 6 and 10, where the two respective 

 characters are very different from each other !) as gat (kan) finding the name of Magan in the first line. The passage 

 reads rather : 1. ma gishdin, 2. kura-ia, 3. gu gish gal, 4. mu-tum (?)— "a ship (laden) with wine he brought from the 

 country which possesses every kind of tree." We are now enabled to understand the full significance of Ur-Nina's 

 perforated bas relief (De Sarzec, I. c, PI. 2 bis ) which remained obscure to Heuzey in his treatise mentioned below. 

 These bas-reliefs and incised slabs (cf. the present work, PI. XVI, Nos. 37 f.) did not serve "a maintenir dresses, sur 

 des autels ou sur des massifs de hriques, divers eugins consacie* aux dieux et partieuliereinent des masses d'armes 

 votives" (Heuzey, Les Armoiries Ghaldeennes de Sirpourla, pp. 11 f., cf. pp. 6 f.). For they would have been too small 

 and weak for such a purpose. The true facts are rather these : (1) They accompanied donations of any kind made to 

 the temple. But while such donations were consumed in the interest of the temple service (cf. Hilprecht, Z. A. VIII, 

 p. 191 f.) or decayed in time (buildings) or died (slaves), etc., these tablets were preserved in the temple as lasting 

 memorials to their munificent donors and served at the same time to induce other worshipers to similar acts of piety. 

 (2) The hole in the middle of the tablets served to fasten it, by the aid of a nail, in the wall or floor of the temple, 

 possibly on the altar itself. (3) The scenes, objects and inscriptions on these tablets generally illustrate and describe 

 the person and work of the donor in relation to his deity. Ur-Nina's more elaborate votive tablets (of which the 

 smaller is only an excerpt, cf. De Sarzec, I. c, PI. 2 bi s, pp. 168-173), accordingly represent two sides of the king's 

 work undertaken in the service of his god. In the upper section he has the dupshig (= dupshikhu), the symbol of 

 masons, upon his head (exactly as Nabopolasser describes himself in the present work, PI. 33, col. II, 57 ff.), and is 

 surrounded by his children and page (Da-ni ta "at his side " = " page," not "in his hand," — Oppert in Revue d' Assyr- 

 iologie Hi, p. 16, note 1). This picture illustrates the accompanying statement : " Ur-Nina, king of Shirpurla, son of 

 Nigalnigin, built the temple of Ningirsu, built the abzubanda (cf. Jensen in K. B. Ill, part 1, p. 13, note ff), buiitthe 

 temple of Nina." In the lower section the same king, seated and surrounded by his children and his chief butler 

 (Sagantug "he is the chief"), offers a libation of wine. This picture illustrates the words standing below the cup, "a 

 ship of wine he brought from the country which possesses every kind of tree." The inscription of the bas-relief published 

 by Heuzey in Les Armoiries Chaldeennesde Sirpourla reads : 1. Lag (D\J -T)U = abalu "to bring," nazazu "to set up ") 

 2. sanga (Briin now, List 5980) mag, 3. dingir Mn gir su-ka, 4. dingir Nin-gir-sii, 5. E-ninnura, 6. lag, 7. sanga (cf. 



the present work, No. 87, col.T, 30, and No. 113 ,3) dingir Nin gir-su-ka ge, 8 K ta, 9. mu-na-ta-uddu, 10. GAG 



+ GISH (not gisal, Hommel, Sum. Lesest., No. 205) ura-sh'i, 11. mu-na gim— "Gift of the high-priest of Ningirsu to 

 Ningirsu of the temple Eninnu. The gift of the priest of Ningirsu he brought from .... and worked it into a . . . ." 



A. P. S.— VOL. XVIIL 2 G. 



