Wind, Dust and the Body · An Incantation of Ningirim · Elias Thorn
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Wind, Dust and the Body · An Incantation of Ningirim

O.1920 / P272783 · first incantation, obverse · 26 lines

obv i 1 Enuru — an opening formula; its translation is not established here.

obv i 2 In heaven, a wind arose.

obv i 3 On earth, dust arose.

obv i 4 The south wind arose.

obv i 5 The north wind arose.

obv i 6 The gale (?) —

obv ii 1 and the dust storm —

obv ii 2 arose.

obv ii 3 The body of a person arose.

obv ii 4 May Utu come (?) to the person.

obv ii 5 May Nanna come (?) to the person.

obv ii 6 The eloquent one, with shining speech,

obv ii 7 Enki,

obv iii 1 king, god of the Abzu,

obv iii 2 may he come (?) to the person.

obv iii 3 The south wind,

obv iii 4 the north wind,

obv iii 5 the gale (?),

obv iii 6 the dust storm,

obv iii 7 the body of the person —

obv iii 8 he (they?) saw.

obv iii 9 My god MA,

obv iii 10 the physician,

obv iv 1 came out.

obv iv 2 Incantation

obv iv 3 of Ningirim.

Sumerian transliteration · CDLI

obv i 1 enuru{+e2-nu-ru} obv i 2 an-na IM mu-zi obv i 3 ki sahar mu-zi obv i 4 im u5 mu-zi obv i 5 im mir mu-zi obv i 6 I-IGI-MASZ obv ii 1 dal-ha-mun obv ii 2 mu-zi obv ii 3 su-bar lu2 mu-zi obv ii 4 utu lu2 he2-DU obv ii 5 {d}nanna lu2 he2-DU obv ii 6 eme-gal2 inim mulx(|AN.AN|) obv ii 7 {d}en-ki obv iii 1 lugal dingir abzu obv iii 2 lu2 he2-DU obv iii 3 im u5 obv iii 4 im mir obv iii 5 I-IGI-MASZ obv iii 6 dal-ha-mun obv iii 7 su-bar lu2 obv iii 8 igi-na mu-bar obv iii 9 {d}MA-gu10 obv iii 10 a-zu5 obv iv 1 e-tax(TA@g)-e3 obv iv 2 UD-KA du11-ga obv iv 3 {d}nin-girimx(|BU.KU6.DU|)

Reading notes

The incantation places wind in heaven, dust on earth and the human body alongside one another. Appeals involving Utu, Nanna and Enki follow, ending with a formula naming Ningirim. The words about the body retain the chosen reading; they do not by themselves identify a disease or physical condition.

“Gale (?)” is a provisional rendering of I-IGI-MASZ: neither its precise reading nor the kind of wind is established. For DU, Veldhuis allows “come” or, with another reading of the sign, “assist”. Who sees in obv iii 8 is uncertain. MA is left without substituting a known divine name. For the following “came out”, the editor also allows a transitive sense: “extracted it”.

Rudik offers a different analysis, changing the direction of the appeal between the person and the gods and disputing the segmentation of “god MA” near the end. This is therefore one scholarly edition with unresolved difficulties, not a settled translation.

Obv means obverse; Roman numerals identify columns and Arabic numerals identify lines. A phrase may extend across several lines. The expandable text is a scholarly transliteration; follow the CDLI object link to inspect the cuneiform itself.

Tablet MRAH O.1920, CDLI P272783; Sumerian, Early Dynastic IIIa, approximately 2600–2500 BCE; findspot unknown. The first incantation is given in full; the reverse is outside this selection. Transliteration: CDLI. The working Russian and English versions follow Niek Veldhuis (2006), preserving uncertainties. Russian was translated through his scholarly English version. English here is aligned to the tablet’s lines, not quoted verbatim from the article; neither version is an independent decipherment. Nadezda Rudik’s substantially different reading (2015) is noted below. Veldhuis / CDLI article: CC BY 4.0; translations adapted. No museum photograph is reproduced.

Open source ↗ (https://cdli.earth/articles/cdlb/2006-2)

Niek Veldhuis · Another Early Dynastic Incantation, 2006 (https://cdli.earth/articles/cdlb/2006-2)

CDLI P272783 · object and transliteration (https://cdli.earth/P272783)

Nadezda Rudik, 2015 · alternative edition, pp. 154–160 (https://d-nb.info/1074139194/34#page=158)

Comparison of the two editions (https://dorsem.github.io/ancient-text-research-kit/study/corpus/Early_incantations/variants.html)

CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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