CM 48 (Kings of Ur)
CM 48 (Chroniques Mésopotamiennes 48): chronicle of the reign of king Šulgi of Ur.
The following text, written in Uruk in the year 251 BCE, is part of a Babylonian chronicle, and deals with reign of the godless Sumerian king Šulgi of Ur, whose reign can be dated to 2095-2047.
For a very brief introduction to the literary genre of chronicles, go here. More information can be found in Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (Atlanta, 2004), in which this is text CM 48.
Translation obverse
[Obv] At the command of [the gods] Anu and Antu, I hope I may succeed in everything that I undertake and enjoy it fully.
[...] Ur-Nammu reigned eighteen years.note
The divine Šulgi, son of a daughter of king Utu-hegal of Uruk, with the blind Lu-Nanna, the scholar [...] - there was spitefulness in their hearts! - improperly tampered with the rites of the cult of Anu, Uruk's regulations, the secret knowledge of the wise, and put down in writing the forced labor exacted by Sin, lord of Ur.
During his reign, he composed untruthful stelae, insolent writings, concerning the rites of purification for the gods, and left them to posterity.
But Anu, the king, whose decisions are venerable, regared him with anger and [...] his grave faults [...] he covered his body with [...].
(...)
Translation reverse
[Rev] [...] predictions of Aku-batila [...] have not [...] the divine Šulgi reigned forty-eight years.note
Amar-Sin reigned nine years.note
Written according to its original, checked, revised, and edited.
Copy of a wooden tablet, property of Anu and Antu.
Tablet of Anu-aha-ušabši, son of Kidin-Ani, descendant of Ekur, zakir, the exorcist of Anu and Antu, the šešgallu-priest of the Bit-reši temple at Uruk.
Hand of Anu-balassu-iqbi, his son.
He wrote it to fulfill his education, the long duration of his days, his life, the perpetuity of his office and placed it in the Bit-reši, the temple of his lord in Uruk.
Uruk, month Abu, twenty-first day, sixty-first year, Antiochus II, king of all lands.note