A 4000+ year old Sumerian terracotta Cuneiform Commemorative Foundation Cone ('Nail') from my own collection:
This skilfully inscribed ancient cuneiform cone is an important piece of ancient Sumerian history. Decorating the walls of temples with a pattern of small clay nails was a feature of the Sumerian early dynastic period. This example is a major segment from a clay Foundation Cone, over four thousand years old and inscribed with 11 vertical columns of Sumerian Cuneiform text. [Cunieform : One of the earliest forms of writing consisting of a series of impressed wedge shapes, impressed into soft clay with the end of a reed]. Although recently excavated and as yet formally unread, this Cone is very likely to date to the Third Kingdom of Ur, and time of Gudea, ruler of Lagash, who reigned during the period 2141-2121 B.C. Of all the rulers of ancient Mesopotamia, Gudea, ensi (governor) of Lagash, emerges the most clearly across the millennia due to the survival of many of his religious texts and statues. He ruled his city-state in southeast Iraq for twenty years, bringing peace and prosperity at a time when the Guti, tribesmen from the northeastern mountains, occupied the land. His inscriptions describe vast building programs of temples for his gods. These cones were embedded into Temple foundations and usually gave the names of the Ruler and to what gods the temple in question was dedicated to, so that if it fell into disrepair, it may be later rebuilt and re-dedicated accordingly. Tip missing and rim from butt end otherwise intact and good with clear Cuneiform. Dimensions 80mm long x 45mm diameter.
Terracotta Nail - as collected by Freud 10 lines of cuneiform disposed in two vertical columns, recording the reconstruction of the temple called Eninnu by Gudea, ruler of Lagash
The Tower of Babel and Babylon, Gilgamesh, Ningizzida, Gudea From The Alpha and the Omega - Chapter Three by Jim A. Cornwell
Gudea of Lagash 2141-2122 B.C
Seated Gudea
Seated statue of Gudea, prince of Lagash Tello, ancient Girsu Neo-Sumerian period (c. 2125-2110 BC) In the Louvre - slightly different dates
Dragon of Marduk 604-562 B.C.
The Monuments of Ancient Sumer
Statues of Gudea
mesopotamia.co.uk
Sumer for Beginners (Amazon List part 1)
and (Part 2)
Cuneiform, by CBF Walker, at Amazon UK for £5.59
or Amazon USA
Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History, at Amazon UK for £17.64
or Amazon USA
Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning and the Gods, at Amazon USA for $20.00
Assyrian Language: Easy Lessons in the Cuneiform Inscriptions, at Amazon USA for $32.50
History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine 'Firsts' in Recorded History, at Amazon USA for $20.95
Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C., at Amazon USA for $11.96
Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary, at Amazon USA
Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth; Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer, at Amazon USA
Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart: Poems of the Sumerian High, at Amazon USA
Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion, at Amazon USA
Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, at Amazon USA
The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, at Amazon USA
The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, at Amazon USA
Sumer and the Sumerians, at Amazon USA
Sumer: Cities of Eden (Lost Civilizations), at Amazon USA
Life in the Ancient Near East: 3100-332 B.C., at Amazon USA
The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East, at Amazon USA
Babylonians (Peoples of the Past), at Amazon USA
Babylon (Ancient Peoples and Places), at Amazon USA
Ancient Assyrians, at Amazon USA
The Hittites: And Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor (Ancient Peoples and Places), at Amazon USA
Ancient Iraq (Penguin History), at Amazon USA
The Kingdom of the Hittites, at Amazon USA
The Ancient Mesopotamian City, at Amazon USA
Phoenicians (Peoples of the Past), at Amazon USA
The End of the Bronze Age, at Amazon USA
Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia, at Amazon USA
Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, at Amazon USA
The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian, at Amazon USA
The Epic of Gilgamesh: An English Version With an Introduction, at Amazon USA
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Norton Critical Editions), at Amazon USA
The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh: A Modern Ancient Hero, at Amazon USA
The Epic of Gilgamesh, trans. Maureen Gallery Kovacs, at Amazon USA
Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians
A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 - 323 BC
Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia
The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character
The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East
Ancient Iraq, Penguin, (3rd Ed)
The Early History of the Ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C.
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