A witness reading. A Vigslist translation.
A bilingual ritual for a water ordeal (?) — a complete small tablet from Uruk, Sumerian in the left column and its Akkadian rendering in the right, collated sign by sign against its hand copy and its record.
A witness reading. Tier W — witness reading. The text is already edited and Englished; no first-English posture arises for this piece, and none is claimed. The transliteration and the English printed below are the eBL record’s (Wagensonner, 2025, revised by Jiménez), credited as such; the hand copy is YOS 11, 95, in van Dijk, Goetze & Hussey, Early Mesopotamian Incantations and Rituals (Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts 11; Yale University Press, 1985), where the piece also stands with a text treatment on p. 52 (the p. 52 page itself was not eyeballed, and that limit is stated rather than glossed). What this piece adds is the collation: the Yale photograph, the 1985 hand copy, and the eBL text were checked against each other sign by sign, and all six obverse lines stand whole on the clay under all three. The content is identified on the eBL record as a bilingual ritual for a water ordeal (?) — the question mark is the record’s.
One complete small tablet: YBC 03537 (Yale Peabody Museum YPM BC 017602), Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven — from Uruk, 60 × 40 × 20 mm; Neo-Babylonian on CDLI, Late Babylonian on eBL. CDLI number: P304968. The museum ink “3537” on both side edges, and the photograph’s own caption, confirm the object’s identity on the clay itself. The tablet is laid out in two columns ruled by a vertical divider: Sumerian in the left column, its Akkadian rendering in the right, one bilingual line per ruled row. The reverse is uninscribed — the YOS 11 copy prints “reverse uninscribed” under its obverse copy, and the photograph’s reverse face is an eroded, pitted blank with no ruled register and no sign row.
Water let flow into water, and mixed with water; the water then declared free of taboo; a flood encircling a place called Udanam; and a closing prohibition — you neither eat it nor give it to someone to eat. Six lines, and the rite is complete on the face.
In the transliteration, ‖ separates the Sumerian half (left column) from the Akkadian half (right column). Counts: 6 line-units — 6 whole, 0 part, 0 fragments, 0 invented. The reverse carries no counted line. Dragon scan: negative on the certified text — no ušum, ušumgal, muš, mušmaḫ, or mušḫuššu occurs in any line, and bašmu occurs in no sense; the text’s vocabulary is water, breach, flood, taboo, and eating, and no creature of any kind is named.
In the transliteration, ‖ separates the Sumerian half (left column) from the Akkadian half (right column). {+…} reproduces the record's notation for the scribe's corrected or overwritten writings; / reproduces its mark where a line's text runs on within its cell.
1. Sumerian: a e₃-a-ta ‖ Akkadian: ana bu-tuq-tu₄
“To the breach” (Whole. The record's translation line for line 1 renders the Akkadian half only and stops there; it is printed exactly as the record carries it, not completed here. The photograph's first row is the most crowded on the face — the Sumerian signs are written over an earlier, partially erased attempt, as the copy also shows; the certified values are the final writings, as the record reads them.)
2. Sumerian: a a-še₃ ab-tag-tag-en{+ab-ta-at-ke-en} ‖ Akkadian: A-MEŠ ana A-MEŠ tu-šar-da
“You let water flow into water,” (Whole. The crowded corrected group at the end of the Sumerian cell sits exactly where the photograph and the copy both show overwriting.)
3. Sumerian: a a-še₃ ab-di-di-de₃-en ‖ Akkadian: A-MEŠ ana A-MEŠ ta-ha-aq
“You mix water with water,” (Whole. The record's translation line prints "Tou mix water with water,"; "Tou" is a typographical slip in their line and is corrected here with the slip recorded, not silently.)
4. Sumerian: a niĝ₂-gig-ga nu-tuku-a ‖ Akkadian: A-MEŠ ik-ki-ba ul i-šu₂-u
“(Then) the water does not have a taboo.” (Whole.)
5. Sumerian: a zi-ga udanₓ(|EZEN×KASKAL|){+u₂-da-an}{ki}-ta / im-ma-ni-in-nigin₂{+gi-in} ‖ Akkadian: mi-lu₄ u-da-nam-ma / iṣ-ṣu₂-da
“The flood has encircled Udanam.” (Whole. The tallest row on the face in all three witnesses — the line runs onto a second sub-row inside its cell in both columns. The record's note stands: the location of Udanam is discussed in the work it cites as RN1255, p. 289 — a bibliographic key as given by the record, unresolved here.)
6. Sumerian: nu-gu₇-e lu₂ gu₇-e / nu-un-šum₂ ‖ Akkadian: ul ta-ak-kal ana a-ki-li / ul ta-nam-din
“You neither eat it nor give it to someone to eat.” (Whole. Last ruled row on the face; below it the copy and the photograph both show the end of the side.)
Witness reading, YBC 03537. The text stands edited and Englished on the eBL record, as credited above; no first-English claim is made for this piece. Published 2026-10-23. A Vigslist translation.
Built 2026-10-23 from the Second Collection of the Vigslist translations program (October 23, 2026).
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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