Assyriological Notes

Extract

The Gudea cylinder A, col. iii, 12, contains a crux interpretationis which editors have failed to overcome. Thureau-Dangin's new copy, Les Cylindres de Gudéa, TC. viii, has NE-gi-BAR a-gal-la dū-a-me. That this is the true division of the signs is proved by iv Raw. 29**, 9 = my SBP. 268; á-ma-al dū-a-bi-e-ne = li'at kalama “wise (goddess) in all things”, and by v Raw. 44, B 14, N.Pr. ^d.Nannar-á-gal-dūa-bi = Sin-li'i-kullati. The passage occurs in an address of Gudea to Gatumdug. The passage was left untranslated by Thureau-Dangin, SAK. p. 93, but P. Maurus Witzel, Keilschriftliche Studien, Heft 3, p. 2, rendered the line, “Thou art she who causes wheat to thrive by the overflow of waters,” without any note on the text. It is obvious that agalla dū-a me means “thou art wise in all things”. For gal var. of gaĺ, see VAT. 10216 in Meissner's Beiträge zum Assyrischen Wörterbuch, p. 81, 40, note 56, and a for á in a-ma-al = le'u, Ebeling, KAR. 44, Rev. 18. á-gal = rabiš, CT. 21, 48, 6 = VS. i, 33; ii, 4; ug-e a-gal, powerful panther, Genouillac, La Trouvaille de Dréhem, No. 1, 3. NE-gi-BAR cannot possibly be a word for wheat, fruit, or some grain in this passage.