Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2003:6 <http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlb/2003/cdlb2003_006.

html> Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative ISSN 1540-8760 Version: 2 September 2003

Entering the Netherworld

Niek Veldhuis
University of California, Berkeley 1. The subject of the present paper is a new interpretation of RBC 2000 (originally published by Hallo 1985), which suggests that it may be a prayer for a dead person pleading to be admitted to the netherworld. 2. RBC 2000 is written in a beautiful hand that points to the latter part of the third millennium. Paleography and orthography (in particular the use of the verbal inx i- rather than -e3-) may date the tablet to around the time of Gudea. It should be noted, however, that the lack of comparable texts makes any more precise dating rather hazardous, so that an Ur III date is 3. Edition and Translation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 e2-gal tir gu2-ur5
muen

certainly not excluded. As Hallo has pointed out, there is reason to believe that the text comes from the Laga area, in particular because of the appearance of the goddess Nane in the nal line. The lenticular format of the tablet is rather unusual and puzzling by itself, and we will come back to this issue later. The following edition is based upon a reading of McCormicks copy as published in Hallos original edition. Collation from photographs, generously provided by Ulla Kasten, Babylonian Collection, Yale Universtity Library, revealed the great reliability of that drawing.

May the palace se12-a a sig a-mu-i-ib2-gar provide clear water to me in the forest where gur birds live. Inside, where a great oven is lighted, may it sprinkle clear water for me. <si>-sa2-a-ga2 May its door, which is a courier, stand open when I nish my journey. May its bolt, which is a messenger, turn around for me. May its crossbar be the Lama at my favorable side that shines brightly on my right shoulder. May its gate be proud because of me. May Inanna be my vanguard. May my god be my helper, may he go behind me. May my gatekeeper bow down, so that I might raise my neck on high! In the shrine of Enki, Asari in his Abzu will not be able to loose (this spell), since Nane is at my side.

a3-bi gir4 ma izi ba-ra-a a sig a-ma-ab-su3 ig-bi ra-gaba a-gub ze2-i-bi lu2-kin-gi4-a-kam u a-mu-i-nigin gi-bala-bi lam a2 sa6-ga-mu a-am3 za3 zi-da-ga2 a-kar2-kar2-ka gi-ka2-ba gu2-bi a-mu-da-zi
d

aarran(KASKAL)

inanna igi-du-mu e2-am3

dingir-mu a2-da-mu a-am3 egir-ga2 a-gen lu2-i3!-du-ga2 e3 gu2-e ki a-la2 abzu-na ga2 gu2-mu an-e3 a-zi
den-ki dasar-re

nam-mu-da-bur2-e da-mu
dnane

al-me-a

Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2003:6

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Commentary Passages discussed by Hallo are not repeated here. 4. to line 2: The word gu2-ur5muen is unorthographic for buru4(NU11.BUR)muen. The reading buru4 is attested only in rst millennium lexical texts; an Ur III text from Umma (MVN 21, 80)1 and an Old Babylonian lexical text2 indicate that the reading was /gur(u)/.3 The identity of this bird is a matter of debate. For Ur III and later the meaning crow seems reasonably assured. It has been argued, however, that in Ebla buru4muen means raptor or vulture,4 and there are indications that this meaning was known in Babylonia, too. In the late lexical tradition, buru4-gimuen corresponds to niru (roaring bird Ur5-ra 18; MSL 8/2. 151: 339), suggesting a bird of prey (this same translation is used for te8muen-gu-lamuen in Ur5-ra 18; MSL 8/2, 129: 193). The most telling third millennium reference is UruKAgina 4 v 15-21 = 5 v 12-18 (see FAOS 5/1, 294-295) which refers to wings of a buru4-gi-bird to be delivered as tax by temple administrators (sanga). Here the translation crow is indeed very unlikely. Finally, in the Old Babylonian commentary text CBS 11319+ rev. i 12' (Sjberg 1993) the word /numma/ is written with two BURU4 signs on top of each other: nuum-ma = NU11.BUR/NU11.BURmuen = zbu (vulture). This entry on the one hand reects the well-known equivalence nu-um-mamuen = zbu, while on the other hand preserving the memory of an older meaning of buru4muen. Since the exact date of RBC 2000 remains uncertain, both possibilities (crow, or raptor) remain open.5
N guru u4 1-e3 // gu-ur2muen dal-la (N men for one day, to chase away the gur birds). Compare SAT 3, 1630: 1 guru buru4muen; Touzalin, Aleppo 241: 1 guru ud 30-e3 // buru4muen dal-e3. Sjberg 1993, 3 rev. i 11': gu-ru = NU11.BURmuen = e-re-ba-am. For the g/b alternation, see Civil 1973, 60. See Fronzaroli 1996, 53 with note 6 and Sjberg 1999, 540 with references to earlier literature. For a fuller discussion of buru4muen, see the catalogue of Sumerian bird names (Chapter 9) in my forthcoming Religion, Literature, and Scholarship. The Sumerian Composition Nane and the Birds.

The expression a sig means clear water, in opposition to a lu3-a muddy water; see PSD A/1, 164. The verbal form a-mu-i-ib2-gar implies an inanimate agent, presumably the palace. The prex i- is understood here to have a rst person referent (to me; see also line 7). The interpretation of the a-/e2- forms in this text follows Civil forthcoming, who denes this prex as a subjunctive-optative with deontic and epistemic functions. 5. to line 5: The reading of the signs basically follows Hallo, who discusses the singular writing aarran(KASKAL). The expression ig gub (to set a door open) is constructed here with a locative just as in ETCSL: Gilgame and Akka 87: giig-abul-la-ka sila-ba bi2-in-gub he put the door of the main gate in its street. to lines 6-8: The technical terminology for parts of the door (ze2-i-bi = saab2 and gi-bala) is rather confusing here. In ETCSL: Hymn to Nungal 23, saab2 is compared to a snake that slithers into a hole, which argues for the meaning bolt. The expression u nigin (to circle, to make a round trip)6 implies a movement that comes back to its beginning. In this sense it is understandable for a messenger who comes back to his place of origin, but how this image applies to the bolt remains unclear to me. to line 10: May the neck of its gate rise with me. In my translation above, because of me renders the prex da-. to line 14: The text has lu2-KAK-du. I assume that the intention is lu2-i3-du, for lu2-i3-du8, gatekeeper. to lines 16-17: For this formula see Schramm 2001, 13-18.

6.

7.

8.

9.

3 4

Discussion 10. In his edition Hallo suggested that this prayer was meant for someones release from the big house, which, according to Hallo, may be a colloquial word
6

See the discussion in Karahashi 2000, 164. Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2003:6

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for prison. I would like to consider another option: the palace in this text may be palace Ganzer, the entrance to the netherworld. In that case, the request to open the doors is a request to be let in, rather than to be released. Several details of the text argue for such an interpretation. 11. In ETCSL: Inannas Descent, her arrival at the netherworld is described as follows (73-75):7
dinanna giig

e2-gal ganzer-e3 um-ma-te kur-ra-ka u ul ba-an-us2 abul kur-ra-ka gu3 ul ba-an-de2 When Inanna arrived at the palace Ganzer, she pushed the door of the netherworld in anger, she shouted at the great gate of the netherworld in anger.

are kept apart in spelling,11 they are clearly identical in origin, reecting the notion that the dead have to cross a re in order to reach the netherworld. As far as I know this idea is nowhere explicitly formulated, except in the present text which speaks about a great oven in which a re is lighted. It should be emphasized that the evidence does not allow an image of the netherworld as hell. The re (or the oven) is something that one has to cross or go through, it is one more way to express the difculty of accessing the realm of the dead, similar to a long journey, to crossing a river or to passing through seven gates. The oven and the forest (line 1) are images for the inhospitable terrain that the dead person has to cross. The scorching heat relates to the supplicants desire for water and to his or her request for being admitted to the palace. The journey itself is mentioned in line 5: may the door, which is a rider, stand open when I nish my journey. 14. The gu2-ur5muen in line 2 of our text may call to attention the association between birds and spirits of the dead. All texts where this theme occurs, however, are rst millennium in date;12 no such association is known from earlier sources. If gu2-ur5muen means crow the image invoked may be that of a body being picked at by a crow. If the meaning raptor, or vulture is applicable here, the image becomes more poignant. 15. The expression a sig or a si-ga (OB), clear water, is often used for libation water. At several places it indicates the water for the dead in the netherworld, as in the nal lines of ETCSL: Nintinuggas Dog: 13
u4 ti-la-ga2 igi u-mu-un-du8 u4 ba-ug7-en kur-ra a si-ga u-mu-un-na8-na8 May (Nintinugga) look after me while I live and when I die may she provide clear water in the netherworld.

12. In the same composition Erekigal instructs the doorkeeper how to let Inanna in (119-120):8
abul kur-ra imin-bi gisi-gar-bi e2-ib-us2 e2-gal ganzer dili-bi giig-bi u a-ba-an-us2 At each of the seven main gates of the netherworld the bolt should be applied, the doors of the palace Ganzer should be pushed open one by one.

13. Palace Ganzer is the entry to the netherworld and therefore closely associated with gates and doors as in our text.9 The same association is found in ETCSL: Gilgame, Enkidu and the Netherworld 166, where we nd Gilgame crying at the gate of Ganzer, in front of the netherworld (abul ganzer igi kur-ra-ka). The name of the palace is identical to a word for ame (ga-an-ze(2)-er = nablum).10 Although the two words
7 8

Repeated in 98-100. Repeated in 125-126. For both passages, see most recently Katz 2003, 87-88. For discussions of ganzer see Katz 2003, 85-91 and Horowitz 1998, 287-288, where further examples are quoted. MSL 13, 36 A12 and B1; MSL 16, 20 24. In context the word appears in ETCSL: The Exploits of Ninurta 569; ETCSL: Nuska A D7; and ETCSL: Lament for Uruk E19 The word for ame is spelled NE.SI.A (ganzer2; lexical only) or ga-an-ze(2)-er, whereas the entrance to the netherworld is written IGI.KUR.ZA (ganzer) or IGI.KUR (ganzer3).The only exception may be ETCSL: Inanna

16. In lines 8-13 the deceased, while entering the netherworld, asks for protection from all sides: the crossbar (?) on the side, Inanna in front, and his family god to the rear. This is followed by a pair of expressions that uses the opposition down up: May my
and Enki I116, but the context is unclear.
12 13

10

See Maul 1995 and Katz 2003, 227-228. Identical lines are found at the conclusion of ETCSL: The Dedication of an Axe to Nergal. See further PSD A/1 under a-si-ga and a-sig, and the discussion in Alster 1991, 88 commentary to line 167. page 3 of 4

11

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gatekeeper bow down, so that I might raise my neck on high!14 The implication seems to be that there is a doorkeeper who is less than welcoming again a reference to the difculty of being admitted. In this context, Inannas position at the vanguard is more than appropriate: she had experience in forcing her way into the netherworld. The appearance of Inanna in this context strongly suggests a conscious reference to the theme of Inannas visit to the realm of the dead.

17. Finally, one may speculate about the signicance of the physical format of RBC 2000. Lenticular tablets were used for specic administrative purposes in the Ur III period and for school exercises in OB, but neither of these uses is relevant here. The round format was called im-u15 hand tablet, since it is easily held in the hand. It may be, then, that this tablet was given to the deceased person in the grave to be held by hand, to be consulted and recited on his or her journey to the netherworld.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alster, B. 1991 Civil, M. 1973 nd ETCSL Incantation to Utu, ASJ 13, pp. 27-96. From Enkis Headaches to Phonology, JNES 32, pp. 57-61. Modal Prexes, ASJ 22. The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literatur <http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk> Fronzaroli, P. 1996 propos de quelques mots blates dorfvrerie, in . Tunca and D. Deheselle, eds., Tablettes et images aux pays de Sumer et dAkkad. Mlanges offerts Monsieur H. Limet, pp. 51-68, Lige: Universit de Lige. Hallo, W. W. 1985 Back to the Big House: Colloquial Sumerian Continued, OrNS 54, pp. 56-64. Horowitz, W. 1998 Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, MC. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. Karahashi, F. 2000 Sumerian Compound Verbs with Body-Part Terms, Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Chicago. Katz, D. 2003 The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources, Bethesda, Maryland: CDL. Maul, S. M. 1995 Totengeist und Vgel. Eine Vogelliste aus dem neubabylonischen Grab 433 in Uruk, in R. M. Boehmer, F. Pedde and B. Salje, eds., Uruk: Die Grber (=AUWE 10), pp. 218-20, Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern. Robson, E. 1999 Mesopotamian Mathematics, 2100-1600 BC. Technical Constants in Bureaucracy and Education (=OECT 14), Oxford: Clarendon Press. Schramm, W. 2001 Bann, Bann! Eine sumerisch-akkadische Beschwrungserie (=GAAL 2), Gttingen: Seminar fr Keilschriftforschung der Universitt Gttingen. Sjberg, . W. 1993 CBS 11319+. An Old-Babylonian Schooltext from Nippur, ZA 83, pp. 1-21. 1999 Notes on Selected Entries from the Ebla Vocabulary e3-bar-kin5 (II), in B. Bck, E. Cancik-Kirschbaum and T. Richter, eds., Munuscula Mesopotamica. Festschrift fr Johannes Renger (=AOAT 267), pp. 513-52, Mnster: Ugarit Verlag. Tinney, S. 1996 The Nippur Lament. Royal Rhetoric and Divine Legitimation in the Reign of Ime-Dagan of Isin (1953-1935 B.C.) (=OPSNKF 16), Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Museum.

15 14

For this passage see Tinney 1996, 175.

See most recently Robson 1999, 176 with earlier literature. Cuneiform Digital Library Bulletin 2003:6

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