From the desk of Nuvira Technologies

Bilingual Unidentified Fragment (text in honour of Ištar?)

A reading, published with its checks still open. A Vigslist translation.

October 22, 2026 · MMA 86.11.444

Bilingual Unidentified Fragment (text in honour of Ištar?). Two lines stand Englished in the edition; this file inventories both faces from Spar's copy and records the two divine names Lambert read on the obverse. Two lines (reverse 4′–5′) already stand translated in English in CTMMA II (2005) and are credited there.

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.

FROM-VOLUME PROVISIONAL witness file — Wave D3, 2026-10-22

Label (standing): FROM-VOLUME PROVISIONAL. CTMMA II (Text No. 95, Plate 115) transliterates and translates exactly two lines of this fragment (rev. 4′–5′) and prints everything else as "(too fragmentary for transliteration)." Those two lines are reproduced here in repaired form from this desk's OCR extraction, with the editor's translation credited to the edition — not a first translation, and no first-translation claim attaches to this piece. What this file adds: the inventory of both faces from Spar's Plate 115 copy, and the record of the two divine names Lambert read on the obverse in his remarks without transliterating the lines.

The object. 40 × 38 × 24 mm, later 1st millennium. Lambert's remarks: the side provisionally taken as the reverse "is written in couplets, and one is clearly bilingual… this is some kind of text in honor of Ištar" — argued from two goddess names he read on the obverse: dKu-še-e-a (Gušeya) in obv. 4 and dA-nu-nu (Anuna) in obv. 6, both of them forms of Ištar. Those name-readings are Lambert's, reported in his remarks; the lines themselves were never transliterated in print, and this file does not pretend to verify the readings from the copy.

Surfaces examined (this session). The Met photograph is very low resolution (312 × 337 px) and carries nothing readable — noted, not used. Spar's Plate 115 copy is the workable surface: obverse, ten lines of small dense signs in a central preserved patch; reverse, ten lines, a dense patch at the upper right and scattered signs elsewhere over heavy damage.


The two printed lines — editor's transliteration (CTMMA II No. 95), repaired

Reverse
4'.  dA-nun-na dingir-gal-g[al(!)-e-ne …
5'.  dMIN ilānu(MEŠ) rabûtu(MEŠ) […

The edition's translation (CTMMA II, quoted, NOT this program's):

4′–5'.  The Anunna, the great gods […

The couplet is the bilingual pair Lambert cites: rev. 4′ is the Sumerian line (ᵈa-nun-na dingir-gal-gal-e-ne, "the Anunna, the great gods"), rev. 5′ its Akkadian rendering, opened by the MIN ditto-sign repeating the divine name and continuing ilānu rabûtu, "the great gods."

Inventory of the untransliterated remainder (from the Plate 115 copy, this session)

Face Lines What the copy shows
Obverse 1′–10′ Ten lines ruled across a central preserved patch; ~8–14 sign tokens per line where preserved (~70–90 tokens drawn in total); top lines partly lost; couplet structure visible in the ruling. Lambert's remark-level readings stand at obv. 4 (Gušeya) and obv. 6 (Anuna) — reported above as his.
Reverse 1′–3′ Scattered signs (~15–20 tokens), densest at upper right; nothing connected
Reverse 6′–10′ Scattered signs (~25–35 tokens) amid heavy damage stipple; nothing connected

No sign values are offered for any untransliterated line. FROM-COPY PROVISIONAL — inventory only.

Counts (house witness format)

Dragon/serpent flag

None. Divine names attached to this piece: the Anunna (collective), Gušeya and Anuna — both forms of Ištar (Lambert's remark-level readings). No ušumgal, muš, mušḫuššu, bašmu, or serpent-god name appears in the printed lines, the remarks, or anything legible in the copy. The untransliterated lines are unread, so for them the flag is not raised, not cleared.

Publication status (re-checked 2026-10-22, Wave D3)

CTMMA II No. 95 is the only edition. Rev. 4′–5′ stand transliterated and translated in print since 2005 — excluded from any first-translation claim. The remaining eighteen lines have never been transliterated in print; their candidacy as never-transliterated material stands, but from this desk they yield inventory only — the unlock is collation against the original. Post-2005 web re-check this session: no later treatment surfaced. CDLI unreachable (503) — caveat stands. Full statement in OVERNIGHT-D3-REPORT.md.

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


More antiquities research: Antiquities Research

← Back to Nuvira Technologies