ANATOLIAN HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS IV (original) (raw)

Journal of Ancient Civilisations 33, II (2018), 141–163, 2018

In the inscriptions of E-ana-tum, ruler of Lagaš, listing his victories over various cities, there is a four-line long passage that describes E-ana-tum’s defeat over the city called Arawa. The translations of this grammatically difficult passage vary greatly; there seems to be no agreement either about its exact meaning or about its grammatical analysis. This paper first evaluates the translations and analyses proposed so far, then, in its second part, a new translation is offered. This translation is based on an analysis of the passage that takes into consideration not only verbal and nominal morphology and syntax, but also the information structure of the passage and the arrangement of the cuneiform signs. Eanatum, Lagash, Sumerian grammar, royal inscriptions