Translated Babylonian Clay Cuneiform Barrel Cylinder

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Exceptional Day 1: Antiquities & Asian Art

By Artemis Gallery

Sep 26, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-09-26 10:00:00 2019-09-26 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Day 1: Antiquities & Asian Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-day-1-antiquities-asian-art-4437
Day 1 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional, museum-worthy examples of Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Viking, Russian, Near Eastern, as well as Asian Art from China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and India. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Ancient Near East, Old Babylon, reign of King Sin-Iddinam of Larsa, ca. 1849 to 1843 BCE. A beautiful clay barrel cylinder of a biconical form with a planar base and a hollow interior. The cylinder displays roughly 70 to 80 lines of inscribed cuneiform text, formed by impressing a sharpened reed or stick into the still-wet clay prior to being placed in a kiln. Cuneiform was a generally pictographic style of writing in its infancy, though it became a more abstract style of letter-based script around the 3rd millennium BCE. Ancient barrel cylinders were typically created to be buried with complex inscriptions meant to be read by the gods. Kings would inter these beneath structures they had commissioned in their kingdom as a sign of good luck and expressed faith towards the gods they worshipped. They were also a spiritual and historical guide for future kings who, upon digging them up, could honor the name of their predecessor when erecting new buildings. Size: 4.1" W x 5" H (10.4 cm x 12.7 cm)
  
  This barrel cylinder commemorates King Sin-Iddinam's dredging of the Tigris River. The inscription is known from a number of examples and the standard reference is to Douglas Frayne, The Old Babylonian Period, 1990, pp. 158 - 160, E4.2.9.2.. Four examples in the Schoven collection were published by A. George, 2011, pp. 99-105, numbers 46-49, whose translation is largely followed here.
  
  Despite some missing characters, when translated, the full cylinder reads, "I, Sin-Iddinam, mighty man, provider of Ur, king of Larsa, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, king who built the Ebabbar, temple of the god Utu, who restored the rites of the temples of the gods, when An, Enlil, Nanna and Utu granted to me a good reign of justice whose days are long, by means of my broad wisdom, supremely established, which excels, in order to establish good water for my city (and) land (and) to make magnificent my ways, praise (and) valor for the future, I prayed ardently to the gods An and Enlil. They having agreed to my firm entreaty commissioned (me), by their unalterable word to dig the Tigris, to restore (its banks, and) to establish my name for a long life-span. At that time, by the decree of the gods An and Inanna, by the supreme might of the gods Nanna and (Utu), by means of my triumph I grandly dug there the Tigris, the river of abundance of the god Utu. I connected its intake to the border, the boundary of my choice, and directed its great (course) straight into a swamp (thereby) providing perpetual water, unceasing abundance for Larsa, my land. When I dug the Tigris, the great river, the wages of each worker were: 1 gur of barley, 2 sila of bread, 4 sila of beer, 2 shekels of oil, in one day so they received this. I let nobody take less or more. By the decree (and) decision of the great gods, I restored (the banks) of the Tigris, the broad river, (and) set up my name for the distant future."
  
  For a strikingly similar example, please see "Beloved by Time: Four Millennia of Ancient Art." Fortuna Fine Arts, Ltd., New York, 2000, p. 19, fig. 27.
  
  Another strikingly similar example, of a slightly larger size, hammered for $14,340 at Christie's, New York "Antiquities" auction (sale 1163, December 12, 2002, lot 285).
  
  Provenance: private Los Angeles, California, USA collection owned for almost two decades.
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
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  #149938

  Condition

  Repaired from a few large pieces, with light restoration and resurfacing along exterior break lines, and light adhesive residue along interior break lines. Minor nicks to ends and body, with softening and chipping to some cuneiform characters, and light encrustations. Great earthen deposits throughout. Remaining cuneiform characters are still legible.
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