A reading, published with its checks still open. A Vigslist translation.
A bilingual hymn to a goddess (LKA 22). A bilingual hymn to Gula.
Published as a reading. No first-translation claim is made for this piece. The checks that would settle such a claim are named in the notes below and are still open; the wording on this page claims nothing they have not settled.
A Vigslist translation — witness reading. Status: published reading, claim withheld. Built 2026-10-22 from the live eBL record; the checks named on this page are still open.
WITHHELD. The live eBL record serves a transliteration and lists exactly one reference — the 1953 hand copy (LKA no. 22). It carries zero EDITION references and zero #tr.en translation lines. The program print check for this witness, run from this desk on 2026-10-22 (eBL curated and uncurated references — none beyond the copy; Borger's Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur; the program's own corpus and wave reports — no prior verdict on this tablet anywhere in the tree), located no edition and no translation of this text in any language.
The method limit is printed here because it is part of the claim: this desk's check cannot open print. One formal eyeball remains owed to the print-check wave — a contents check of the Assur edition series (KAL) for LKA 22 — before any public claim is made. Until Richard reads this and gives the word, the reading below is a witness reading, not a first-English claim.
A bilingual hymn. Each Sumerian line is followed by its Akkadian rendering written beneath it, and the pairs are separated by rulings — the format of the Emesal liturgical tradition, where the Akkadian gloss serves the singer. What survives of the obverse is a festival scene addressed to a goddess: her festival and her joy, her food offerings, slaughtered sheep in abundance, and the gala and gala-maḫ — the lamentation singers — making music for her, the singer (nar) raising her praise. The goddess Gula is named outright in line 9′. The obverse's second half is largely lost; the reverse does not survive in the served text.
The transliteration is the eBL record's, reproduced as served. %sux marks the Sumerian line, %sb the Akkadian gloss line, exactly as the record tags them. Brackets [ ] are breaks in the clay; (x) a sign the record could not read; # a damaged sign. The English renders what is actually on the clay — nothing is restored from parallel texts, and nothing is invented. Lines too broken to carry sense are given as traces and say so.
Counts: 19 line-units — 0 whole, 9 part, 10 fragments, 0 invented.
1. %sux [… …] na […] x na-šum₂ (fragments — traces only; the line's sense is lost)
2. [… …] du […] x (fragments — traces only)
3. %sux [… …] x šu lugal [… …] (fragments — "…hand… king…" and the sense is gone)
4. [… …] i-ta[r-ri-šu₂ …] x (fragments — traces of the gloss line only)
5. %sux [giškim-gi]-gal₂-bi : %sb mi-ḫi-ir-šu (fragments — "…its counterpart…" — the gloss word miḫiršu, "its equivalent," survives; the line's subject does not)
6. %sux [gašan ez]en-zu ḫul₂-la-na ḫi-li-zu hug-ge₂₆ ni₂-dub₂-bu 7. %sb [be]-el-tu i-si-na-ki ḫu-di-i ri-i-ši nu-ḫi u šu-up-ši-ḫi "…[La]dy, at your festival rejoice, exult — be glad, rest and be at ease!" (part — the Sumerian is largely restored in the record; the Akkadian gloss carries the line: bēltu, "lady"; isinnaki, "at your festival"; ḫudî, "rejoice"; rīši, "exult"; nuḫḫi, "be glad"; šupšiḫi, "rest")
8. %sux […] x-na ezen-zu ḫul₂-la-na ḫi-li-zu hug-ge₂₆ ni₂-dub₂-bu "…at your festival, in joy, let […] be heaped up…" (fragments — the festival phrase repeats from line 6; the line's own verb and subject are broken away)
9. %sux [… …] {d}gu-la i-si-in-ki ḫu-di-i [r]i-i-ši nu-ḫi u šup-ši-ḫi "…Gula — at your festival rejoice, [e]xult, be glad and rest!" (part — the goddess is named: Gula, the healing goddess; the Akkadian gloss line from the pair above it is lost, and this line's own preserved wording is the gloss's twin)
10. %sux [… …] la-la-zu nidba-be₂ šu te-ge₂₆ nig₂-peš₄-be₂ šu tab (fragments — "…your…, its food offering…, its abundance…" — nouns without their sentence)
11. [… …] x-ar la-le-ki mu-uh-ri nin-da-ba-šu₂ li-qi₂-i (fragments — the gloss line: "…receive his food offering, take…" — muḫri, "receive!"; liqî, "take!"; the imperatives survive, their objects partly do not)
12. %sux [… … šum ud]u šar₂-šar₂ ḫe₂-gal₂ DUB!?-ta ḫe₂-en-du₈-du₈ 13. %sb [… ṭu-ub-bu]-ḫu UDU.NITA-MEŠ du-šu-u ḫe₂-gal₂-tu₄ ṭup-pu-uš nu-uḫ-šu₂ "…slaughtered rams in abundance… plenty… abundance…" (part — the pair agrees: UDU.NITA, rams; ṭubbuku, slaughtered; ḫegallu, abundance. The festival's offerings, counted by the flock)
14. %sux [geš-gu₂-d]e₃ tag-tag gala da-«še₃»-da-ra-aḫ nar ḫe₂-ni-ib₂-si-sa₂-e[š?] 15. %sb [i-nu] lap-tu ka-lu-u ki-iṣ-ṣu-ru na-a-ru šu-te-šu-ru "When the harp is touched, the kalû-priests are assembled, the singer is set in order…" (part — the music of the rite: lapātu, to touch (the strings); kalû, the lamentation singer; kiṣṣuru, assembled; nāru, the singer; šūtešuru, set straight. The gala of the Sumerian line is the kalû of the gloss — the same office, both tongues)
16. %sux [g]ala-maḫ nam-maḫ-zu nar-e nam-ar₂-zu du₁₂-du₁₂-ne 17. %sb gala-maḫ-ḫu nar-b[i-k]i na-a-ru ḫu-lul ta-na-ta-ki i-za-am-mu-ru "The chief lamentation singer (gala-maḫ) — your greatness; the singer — your praise: they sing." (part — galamaḫḫu in both lines; izammurū, "they sing"; tanattaki, "your praise")
18. %sux […] za₃-mi₂-zu […] sur₉-ra za₃-mi₂-zu (fragments — "…your praise… your praise…" — zamīzu, "your praise," twice; the lines around it are gone)
19. %sb [… u₂-na-ʾ-du]-ki i-na sur-re-e u₂-na-ʾ-d[u-ki] (fragments — "…they praise you… they praise you" — unnaʾduki, "they praise you," at the line's end and again; the rest is broken)
The served text ends here. The tablet's reverse, if inscribed, does not survive in the record.
None. No ušumgal, no muš, no mušḫuššu, no bašmu, no ṣerru appears anywhere in the served text. Cleared on the record: MUŠEN would be "bird"; it does not occur here either.
Copy: Erich Ebeling, Literarische Keilschrifttexte aus Assur (Berlin, 1953), no. 22. Transliteration: the eBL Fragmentarium record for VAT 9956 (CC BY-SA 4.0), pulled live 2026-10-22; no editor is named on the record. Catalogue: Pedersén, Archives and Libraries in the City of Assur (1986) — Ass. 14709 c, archive N 4: 260. This reading: the program's, built from the served transliteration only.
Vigslist translations — AI-assisted, cross-checked against the record. Working reading; not yet published.
Nuvira Technologies conducts this research with AI assistance, cross-verified against the primary sources to scholarly integrity standards. Uncertain readings are marked; broken lines are left broken.
— Richard Vigslist, Founder, Nuvira Technologies
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