A reading, published with its checks still open. A Vigslist translation.
The Firstborn of Enlil Goes Down — a Nanna text. A hymn to the moon god: “the moon goes down.”
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.
record — copy only (CT 58, pl. 54 no. 43); Geller's review calls it a "Nanna Hymn." The record's own notes (Peterson's) place the text in a catalogue slot (ICSL 4.13.0) and read it as Nanna/Suen's mythical netherworld journey, fitted to the day of the moon's disappearance (u₄-nu₂-a, the 28th/29th/30th day). That reading is the record's, printed here as such — the witness reading below renders what the clay carries and claims no more.
One fragment: BM.79985, Sippar collection, British Museum, Old Babylonian script; "loose flakes from main fragment; partially repaired." CDLI number on the record: P274238. Sumerian with Emesal passages (S / E below, as the record marks them). No photograph on the record. The text as served begins at the tablet's bottom edge and runs up the reverse; the record notes "rest of obverse broken."
The moon god goes down, and the tablet goes with him. He is named first by his star-name — Dilimbabbar, "the shining one who walks alone" — and by his birth: firstborn son of Enlil, princely son of the Ekur, born of Ninlil, born of Gašan-ḫursaĝ, the Lady of the Mountain. Then the descent furniture appears: the great gate of the mountain, standing open; the great bolt of the mountain, standing open; the road to the place where fates are decided; the great Anunna standing in attendance. Heaven is beaten, earth is beaten, the winds of heaven and earth are beaten — and at the bottom of the surviving column the two rivers stand in one line: the Tigris, the Euphrates. A hymn that is also a map of the moon's monthly death.
Transliteration exactly as the record serves it. Counts: 34 line-units — 0 whole, 13 part, 21 fragments, 0 invented (bottom edge 4, reverse 30).
Dragon scan (standing order): no ušumgal, mušḫuššu or bašmu stands on this witness. The sign sequence muš₂ in reverse lines 1 and 3 is a different word (an appearance / radiance term, queried on the record) — it is not MUŠ, the serpent sign, and is not flagged as one.
1–4. x x x [...] · ga-ša-an-x-[...] · x x x [...] · x x [...] | er₂#-r[a ...]
Traces — "Lady [...]" and "weeping [...]" at the tablet's foot. (Fragments.)
1. {d}nanna muš₂?# u₃-na in-nu a ma-lu? x [(x)]
"Nanna — [...] is not, [...] is not [...]" (Fragment — the record marks the line as a possible incipit; its key signs are queried.)
2. u₃-mu-un dil-im₂-babbar dumu saĝ {d}+en-lil-l[a₂ ...]
"The lord Dilimbabbar, firstborn son of Enlil [...]" (Part.)
3. dumu nun e₂-kur-ra muš₂ u₃-mu-ne₂ nanna x
"Princely son of the Ekur [...] Nanna [...]" (Fragment.)
4. si-mu-un an-na-ka mu-nu#
"[...] in heaven [...]" (Fragment.)
5–6. ama-ni {d}nin-lil₂ ka mu-un-u₃-tu · ga-ša-an-hur-saĝ-ĝa₂ ka mu-un-u₃-tu
"His mother Ninlil bore him; Gašan-ḫursaĝ (Lady of the Mountain) bore him." (Parts — the doubled birth-line: the moon has two mothers in the liturgy, and the tablet names both.)
7–9. {d?}uraš?-ša munus zid mu?-nu · an-na ur₂-bi-a in-nu ki-a gaba-bi-a in-nu · kur-ra kur gal-le ĝal₂ u₃#-mu-un-na-du-du₂
Fragments — "the true woman"; "in heaven at its base — is not; on earth at its breast — is not"; "in the mountain, the great mountain, being — the lord wanders(?)". (Fragments, flagged.)
10. {ĝeš}ig gal mah kur-ra u₃-mu-un-bi-ra ĝal₂ mu-x-[...]
"The great door, the exalted one of the mountain — its lord being there — stands open [...]" (Part.)
11. {ĝeš}si-ĝar mah kur-ra u₃-mu-un-bi-ra ĝal₂ mu#-[...]
"The great bolt of the mountain — its lord being there — stands open [...]" (Part — the descent's door and bolt, both standing open for him.)
12. ki-mah ki nam-tar-tar-re-da ha-ma-da-an-[...]
"The exalted place, the place where the fates are decided [...]" (Part.)
13. {d}a-nun-na gal-gal-la mu-un-na-su₈-ge-eš AN# [...]
"The great Anunna stood in attendance before him [...]" (Part.)
14–15. a₂-ĝa₂? {d}a-nun-na-ke₄-ne en-na mu-zu? ba-hu[l₂? ...] ·
Fragments — the Anunna, a true design/plan. (Fragments.)
16–17. an mu-na-sag₃ ki mu-na-sag₃ an-ur₂ an-pa x [...] · kur-kur-ra an-pa-še₃ mu#-[...]
"Heaven is beaten for him, earth is beaten for him — heaven's base, heaven's zenith [...]; to the zenith over all the lands [...]" (Parts — sag₃, "to beat/strike," is the standing verb: the cosmos struck like a drum at the moon's going.)
18. kur-ra {i₇!}idigna daĝal?#-la {ĝeš}ig a-ri?#-a?# [...]
"In the mountain — the broad Tigris — a door [...] " (Fragment.)
19. im an-na a ki-a mu-na-sag₃ a-a-ba sig?#-ta? a-a-[ba igi-nim-ma-še₃? ...]
"The wind of heaven, the water of earth are beaten for him [...]" (Fragment — the record's own note compares Šulgi A 64.)
20. kur {ĝeš}tir ĝeš šim <<ĝeš>> eren-na [...]
"The mountain — a forest of aromatic wood, of cedar [...]" (Part.)
21. {i₇}idigna {i₇}buranun-na x x [...]
"The Tigris, the Euphrates [...]" (Part — the two rivers named together, the line the whole descent hangs on.)
22–28. mušen-e an-na ku₆# engur!?-ra NE-bi [...] · ub-ba ga-ša-an-hur-saĝ-ĝa₂-ka [...] · um+me-ga-la-zu! {d}nin-imma₃ x [...] · um+me-da-zu! {d}šu-zi-a[n-na ...] · ama {d}nin-lil₂ nam-ši-ga?# x [...] · KI.EN.DU gal-zu u₃-[...] · dumu nun diĝir nu-ra x [...]
Fragments — "the bird of heaven, the fish of the deep"; "in the corner of Gašan-ḫursaĝ"; two wet-nurse titles (umme-ga-la, umme-da) before Nin-imma and Šu-zi-anna; "mother Ninlil"; "princely son." (Fragments.)
29–30. a-a {d}nanna [...] · a₂# u₃-na [...]
"Father Nanna [...]" — the surviving column's last words. (Fragments.)
Doors on the face as stated in the header (the record's own ICSL catalogue slot and netherworld-journey reading are Peterson's, printed as his). Published 2026-10-22. A Vigslist translation.
Built 2026-10-22 from Wave A1's live eBL fetch.
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