Sumerian Literature

Grammar

An introduction to the grammar of Sumerian - CORE 

Foxvog, Daniel A. (2016) Introduction to Sumerian Grammar. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative https://cdli.ucla.edu/?q=cuneiform-digital-library-preprints

UD.GAL.NUN versus 'Normal' Sumerian: Two Literatures or One? (1992) by Joachim Krecher - academia.edu

Scripts

Cuneiform script and the Sumerian and Akkadian languages (2017) by Eleanor Robson - oracc.museum.upenn.edu - Brief introduction to how cuneiform was used throughout history. 

Cuneiform Revealed: an introduction to cuneiform script and the Akkadian language - oracc.museum.upenn.edu

Cuneiform Sign List Links - home.zcu.cz - Useful links page to a Cuneiform Sign List that correlates Ur III Sumerian to Neo-Assyrian cuneiform signs.

eAkkadian Appendix Signs - digitalpasts.github.io 

ProtoSnap: Prototype Alignment for Cuneiform Signs - tau-vailab.github.io 

Naming

Kingship in the Early Mesopotamian Onomasticon 2800–2200 BCE - uu.diva-portal.org

Theosis and Heaven

The Flood Story, Segment E - ETCSL 1.7.4 - An and Enlil "granted [Zi-ud-sura] life like a god, they brought down to him eternal life."

Lugalbanda in the mountain cave, 1.8.2.1 

123-127. "If our brother rises like Utu from bed, then the god who has smitten him will step aside and, when he eats this food, when he drinks (?) this, will make his feet stable. May he bring him over the high places of the mountains to brick-built Kulaba."

128-132. "But if Utu calls our brother to the holy place, the valued place [ki kug ki kal-kal-la-aš], the health of his limbs will leave (?) him. Then it will be up to us, when we come back from Aratta, to bring our brother's body to brick-built Kulaba."

Enki

Enki and the world order - ETCSL 1.1.3 - 

Enki analogized or symbolized as a tree: 

• • 4  king, meš tree planted in the Abzu, rising over all lands; 

5-6 great dragon who stands in Eridug, whose shadow covers heaven and earth, 

7  a grove of vines extending over the Land... 

- [Three phrases that visually and vocally parallels the tree concept ĝiš/ĝeš with a meš tree (ĝišmeš3 ), a great serpent (ušumgal) providing protection (ĝissu-bi) and grape vines (ĝišĝeštin-na) with the dominion of Enki]

• • Your branches …… green with their fruit ……, …… do honour to the gods.

  • The lord, the great ruler of the Abzu, issues instructions on board the 'Stag of the Abzu' -- the great emblem erected in the Abzu, providing protection, its shade extending over the whole land and refreshing the people, the pillar and pole planted in the …… marsh, rising high over all the foreign lands.

Maker of history - the one who decrees the fate of gods and men:

• 17 Counting the days and putting the months in their houses, so as to complete the years and to submit the completed years to the assembly for a decision, taking decisions to regularise the days: Father Enki, you are the king of the assembled people. You have only to open your mouth for everything to multiply and for plenty to be established.

• 41-46 Enki, lord of prosperity, lord of wisdom, lord, the beloved of An, the ornament of Eridug, who establish commands and decisions, who well understands the decreeing of fates: you close up the days ……, and make the months enter their houses.

Granted incredible power by An and Enlil:

• 62- "My father, the king of heaven and earth (ie. An), made me famous in heaven and earth. My elder brother, the king of all the lands (ie. Enlil), gathered up all the divine powers and placed them in my hand. I brought the arts and crafts from the E-kur, the house of Enlil, to my Abzu in Eridug. I am the good semen, begotten by a wild bull, I am the first born of An. I am a great storm (ud gal) rising over the great earth, I am the great lord of the Land. I am the principal among all rulers, the father of all the foreign lands. I am the big brother of the gods, I bring prosperity to perfection. I am the seal-keeper of heaven and earth. I am the wisdom and understanding of all the foreign lands. With An the king, on An's dais, I oversee justice. With Enlil, looking out over the lands, I decree good destinies. He has placed in my hands the decreeing of fates in the place where the sun rises. I am cherished by Nintur. I am named with a good name by Ninḫursaĝa. I am the leader of the Anuna gods. I was born as the firstborn son of holy An."

- [Notice the apparent contradiction: Enlil is the elder brother or elder kin (pap-ĝu10), but Enki is the firstborn of An. The implication is that Enlil preexists but is in contact with creation, whereas Enki is the firstborn of creation, which is the necessary precondition for creation.]

• 88 "I am the lord, I am one whose word is reliable, I am one who excels in everything." [me-en = "I am" used 3 times in the phrase]

A hymn to Ḫaia for Rīm-Sîn (Rīm-Sîn B) - ETCSL 2.6.9.2 - Ḫaia 𒀭𒄩𒉌 is a version of Enki/Ea, presumably brought in by the Amorites. This Old Babylonian hymn considers Ḫaia as a different god from Enki to reconcile the western focus on the minutiae of creation with the more personal and storied view of Enki, the creator in southern Mesopotamia. Therefore, Ḫaia is closer to the later depersonalized Greek Logos than the Sumerian Enki.

• 1-8. Lord, perfect in august wisdom and recognised for his mighty counsel, Ḫaia, who holds the great tablets, who enriches the deep wisdom! Accountant of Ḫal-an-kug, having the final overview of the arts of Nisaba's house of wisdom; palace archivist of heaven and earth, who keeps count of every single assignment, who holds a holy reed-stylus and covers the great tablets of destiny with writing! Wise one, who prompts holy An with words and attention at the appropriate times; seal-holder of Father Enlil! He who brings forth the holy objects from the treasure-house of E-kur; ornament of the abzu shrine, wearing his hair loose for Lord Nudimmud (ie. no formalities with the "Lord of creation", Enki)!

•  Ḫaia, you are the god of the Land who gives ear to the prayers of all the people.

• 43-48. When Father Enki comes forth from the abzu, he assigns (?) its greatness to you, Ḫaia. You cause the people who are in its midst to lift their necks towards heaven; you make its population pass their days in rejoicing.

Alternative translation in Kramer, Samuel Noah. 1977. "The Ur excavations and Sumerian literature." PDF In Expedition Fall. 41-47.

Enki and Ninḫursaĝa ETCSL 1.1.1 - 

Enki and Ninhursag : a Sumerian "Paradise" Myth (1945) by Kramer, Samuel Noah - archive.org

Ancient Near Eastern gods Enki and Ea: diachronical analysis of texts and images from the earliest sources to the Neo-Sumerian period (2006) by Peeter Espak - dspace.ut.ee (pdf) - Source page  researchgate.net - Technical but readable Master's dissertation widely cited in the field, 157 pages.

• (28) ki(g) in Enki could be understood as "favour," "benevolence" or "love". Several Enki and West Semitic El equivalences and parallels.

• (31- ) Ea etymology if Sumerian is literally "House of Water." Probably Semitic origin from the proto Semitic root *hyy "to live" used to describe spring fed or running water.

• (38) "Sumerian Enki and Semitic Ea can not be seen as denoting a divine concept from a certain exclusive area or linguistic group. Rather they are concepts in continuous development and change and the main core of their nature is represented in some way or another in every religion of wider Near East and bordering regions."

• (66) "A bilingual lexical list from Ebla mentions Enki after Enlil. Enki is translated as hayyu(m)."

• (73) Me is symbolically associated with trees. "trees, orchards; the me-s of Ea." In the greater context it appears the goddess of writing Nisaba has stacked written tablets upon each other so that they symbolically represent trees of written divine command - the me-s of Ea.

The God Enki in Sumerian Royal Ideology and Mythology ( )by Peeter Espak - dspace.ut.ee - Answers to 3 key questions:

• Is the Sumerian god Enki originally a water-god? 

• Is there any detectable power struggle between the theologies of Enki and Enlil?  Not really. In the vast majority of cases they are complementary and unified.

• Do the different mythological motives reflect different "schools" of mythology?

• (18) Abzu temples listed during ED suggest the "cult of Enki must have been spread over the whole region of Mesopotamia."

Myths of Enki, the Crafty God (1989) Kramer, Samuel Noah & Maier, John R - archive.org 

Archi, A. (2010). " THE GOD ḤAY(Y)A (EA / ENKI) AT EBLA". In Opening the Tablet Box - google.com/books 

Enlil

The Lament for Sumer and Urim - ETCSL 2.2.3 - Theological description of the fall of the 3rd and last dynasty of Ur - the end of Sumer. When everything goes to hell, only four gods really mattered - An, Enlil, Enki, and Ninḫursaĝa (ie. Ninmah). According to the story, the rest skipped town. While the creating triad and Ninmah - representing the land not covered by brackish waters - decide in union to destroy Sumer, the figurehead of destruction is Enlil as it is in other texts. The destruction is analogized to storms and floods, but in reality, it is drought, famine, salting of the plain (ie. eden), and conquering neighbors that caused the destruction.

1-2. To overturn the appointed times, to obliterate the divine plans, the storms gather to strike like a flood.

3-11. An, Enlil, Enki and {Ninḫursaĝa} {(2 mss. have instead:) Ninmaḫ} have decided its fate -- to overturn the divine powers of Sumer, to lock up the favourable reign in its home, to destroy the city, to destroy the house

Enlil the destroyer:

• 22-26. after An had frowned upon all the lands, after Enlil had looked favourably on an enemy land, after Nintur had scattered the creatures that she had created, after Enki had altered the course of the Tigris and Euphrates, after Utu had cast his curse on the roads and highways;

27-37. so as to obliterate the divine powers of Sumer, to change its preordained plans, to alienate the divine powers of the reign of kingship of Urim, to humiliate the princely son in his house E-kiš-nu-ĝal, to break up the unity of the people of Nanna, numerous as ewes; to change the food offerings of Urim, the shrine of magnificent food offerings; that its people should no longer dwell in their quarters, that they should be given over to live in an inimical place; that Šimaški and Elam, the enemy, should dwell in their place; that its shepherd, in his own palace, should be captured by the enemy, that Ibbi-Suen should be taken to the land Elam in fetters, that from Mount Zabu on the edge of the sea to the borders of Anšan, like a swallow that has flown from its house, he should never return to his city;

• 69-78. The people, in their fear, breathed only with difficulty. The storm immobilised them, the storm did not let them return. There was no return for them, the storm did not retreat. This is what Enlil, the shepherd of the black-headed people, did: Enlil, to destroy the loyal households, to decimate the loyal men, to put the evil eye on the sons of the loyal men, on the first-born, Enlil then sent down Gutium from the mountains. Their advance was as the flood of Enlil that cannot be withstood. The great wind of the countryside filled the countryside, it advanced before them. The extensive countryside was destroyed, no one moved about there. 

• 163-173. On that day the word of Enlil was an attacking storm. Who could fathom it? The word of Enlil was destruction on the right, was …… on the left. This is what Enlil, the one who determines destinies, did: Enlil brought down the Elamites, the enemy, from the highlands. 

• 260. This is what Enlil, who decides the fates, did: Again he sent down the Elamites, the enemy, from the mountains 

• 292-302. Enlil threw open the door of the grand gate to the wind. In Urim no one went to fetch food, no one went to fetch water. Its people rushed around like water being poured from a well. Their strength ebbed away, they could not even go on their way. Enlil afflicted the city with an evil famine. He afflicted the city with that which destroys cities, that which destroys houses. He afflicted the city with that which cannot be withstood with weapons. He afflicted the city with dissatisfaction and treachery. In Urim, which was like a solitary reed, there was not even fear. Its people, like fish being grabbed in a pond, sought to escape. Its young and old lay spread about, no one could rise. 

The moon god Nanna Suen asks his father why the destruction:

• 340-349. Suen wept to his father Enlil: "O father who begot me, why have you turned away from my city which was built (?) for you? O Enlil, why have you turned away from my Urim which was built (?) for you? The boat with first-fruit offerings no longer brings first-fruit offerings to the father who begot him. Your food offerings can no longer be brought to Enlil in Nibru. The en priests of the countryside and city have been carried off by phantoms. Urim, like a city raked by a hoe, is to be counted as a ruin-mound. The Du-ur, Enlil's resting-place, has become a haunted shrine. O Enlil, gaze upon your city, an empty wasteland. Gaze upon your city Nibru, an empty wasteland." 

• 350-356. "The dogs of Urim no longer sniff at the base of the city wall. The man who used to drill large wells scratches the ground in the market place. My father who begot me, enclose in your embrace my city which is all alone. Enlil, return to your embrace my Urim which is all alone. Enclose in your embrace my E-kiš-nu-ĝal which is all alone. May you bring forth offspring in Urim, may you multiply its people. May you restore the divine powers of Sumer that have been forgotten." 

• 360-370. Enlil then answered his son Suen: "There is lamentation in the haunted city, reeds of mourning grow there. In its midst the people pass their days in sighing. Oh Nanna, the noble son ……, why do you concern yourself with crying? The judgment uttered by the assembly cannot be reversed. The word of An and Enlil knows no overturning. Urim was indeed given kingship but it was not given an eternal reign. From time immemorial, since the Land was founded, until people multiplied, who has ever seen a reign of kingship that would take precedence for ever? The reign of its kingship had been long indeed but had to exhaust itself. O my Nanna, do not exert yourself in vain, abandon your city." 

• 449-459. In his grief Suen approached his father. He went down on his knee in front of Enlil, the father who begot him: "O father who begot me, how long will the enemy eye be cast upon my account, how long ……? The lordship and the kingship that you bestowed ……, Father Enlil, the one who advises with just words, the wise words of the Land ……, your inimical judgment ……, look into your darkened heart, terrifying like waves. O Father Enlil, the fate that you have decreed cannot be explained, as for my hairstyle (?) of lordship and the diadem with which I was crowned." …… he put on a garment of mourning.

• 460-474. Enlil then provided a favourable response to his son Suen: "My son, the city built for you in joy and prosperity was given to you as your reign. Destroying the city, overthrowing its great wall and battlements: all this too is part of that reign. …… the black, black days of the reign that has been your lot. As for dwelling in your home, the E-temen-ni-guru, that was properly built -- indeed Urim shall be rebuilt in splendour, the people shall bow down to you. There is to be bounty at its base, there is to be grain. There is to be splendour at its top, the sun shall rejoice there. Let an abundance of grain embrace its table. May Urim, the city whose fate was pronounced by An, be restored for you." Having pronounced his blessing, Enlil raised his head toward the heavens: "May the land, south and highland, be organised for Nanna. May the roads of the mountains be set in order for Suen. Like a cloud hugging the earth, they shall submit to him. By order of An and Enlil it shall be conferred."

• 475-477A. Father Nanna came into his city of Urim with head raised high. The youth Suen could enter again into the E-kiš-nu-ĝal. Ningal refreshed herself in her sacred living quarters.

Michalowski, P. (1989). The Lamentation Over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur. United States: Eisenbrauns.

Enlil and Nam-zid-tara - ETCSL 5.7.1 - Enlil is represented by a raven. Names of gods and men are significant in Sumerian thinking. Enlil blesses Nam-zid-tara (Well-blessed) - "Your fate shall be assigned according to your name"  

Serpents

Transtigridian Snake Gods (1997) by F A M Wiggerman - academia.edu  

Inana and Ebiḫ - ETCSL 1.3.2 

80-82. "You have placed me at the right hand of the king in order to destroy rebel lands: may he, with my aid, smash heads like a falcon in the foothills of the mountain, King An, and may I …… your name throughout the land like a thread."

83-88. "May he destroy the lands as a snake in a crevice. May he make them slither around like a saĝkal snake coming down from a mountain. May he establish control over the mountain, examine it and know its length. May he go out on the holy campaign of An and know its depth. I want to surpass the other deities, since the Anuna deities have ……."

89-95. "How can it be that the mountain did not fear me in heaven and on earth, that the mountain did not fear me, Inana, in heaven and on earth, that the mountain range of Ebiḫ, the mountain, did not fear me in heaven and on earth? Because it did not act appropriately on its own initiative, because it did not put its nose to the ground, because it did not rub its lips in the dust, may I fill my hand with the soaring mountain range and make it learn fear of me."

Lugalbanda in the mountain cave, 1.8.2.1 - Sickness causes Lugalbanda to be like snake.

71-86. Lugalbanda, the eighth of them, …… was washed in water. In awed silence he went forward, …… he marched with the troops. When they had covered half the way, covered half the way, a sickness befell him there, 'head sickness' befell him. He jerked like a snake dragged by its head with a reed; his mouth bit the dust, like a gazelle caught in a snare. No longer could his hands return the hand grip, no longer could he lift his feet high. Neither king nor contingents could help him. In the great mountains, crowded together like a dustcloud over the ground, they said: "Let them bring him to Unug." But they did not know how they could bring him. "Let them bring him to Kulaba." But they did not know how they could bring him. As his teeth chattered (?) in the cold places of the mountains, they brought him to a warm place there. 

Commentary

Sumerian Mythology (1961) by Samuel Noah Kramer - sacred-texts.com - pgs. 30-32

Polonsky, Janice, "The rise of the Sun God and the determination of destiny in ancient Mesopotamia" (2002). Dissertations available from ProQuest. AAI3073042. https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI3073042 

Robson, Eleanor (2016) 'Celestial & terrestrial divination', Knowledge and Power, Higher Education Academy

Veldhuis, N., 'The theory of knowledge and the practice of celestial divination', in A. Annus (ed.), Divination and interpretation of signs in the ancient world (Oriental Institute Publications, 6), Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2010, pp. 77–90. PDF - oi.uchicago.edu

Woods, C. (2009). At the Edge of the World: Cosmological Conceptions of the Eastern Horizon in Mesopotamia. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions, 9(2), 183–239. https://doi.org/10.1163/156921109X12520501747912 - academia.edu

Mathematics

Sexagesimal Calculations in Ancient Sumer (2022) by Kazuo Muroi - arxiv.org - An elegant consideration of Sumerian sexagesimal calculation.

The Origin of the Mystical Number Seven in Mesopotamian Culture: Division by Seven in the Sexagesimal Number System (2014) by Kazuo Muroi - arxiv.org 

Kazuo Muroi articles on arxiv.org

The Prehistoric Origins of Mathematics (2023) by Assad Ebrahim - mathscitech.org

The Mathematics of Uruk and Susa (c.3500-3000 BCE) (2019) by Assad Ebrahim - mathscitech.org 

Exploring cuneiform culture (8500-2800 BCE) (2020) by Assad Ebrahim - mathscitech.org 

Typology and Genre

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL) - etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk - Unabridged and composite texts of Sumerian literature. Highlights: Enlil and Sud, Nanna-Suen's journey to Nibru, The lament for Sumer and Urim, Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta 

The Literature of Ancient Sumer (2006) by J. Black, G. Cunningham, E. Robson & G. Zólyomi - books.google.com

"In the day" literature 

In the day literature starts with or has within its first few lines an "in the day" reference to an ancient time, often to creation before humans. The ancient review is often only tangentially related to the rest of the story - just like the "In the day" of Genesis 2:4b-7 is only tangentially related to the second vision of creation.

From the Nibru catalogue, 0.2.01 (N2):

• entries 7, 20, 21 - ud re-a match incipits to four known texts:

  • • Enki and Ninmaḫ, 1.1.2

    • Enki's journey to Nibru, 1.1.4 

    • Gilgameš, Enkidu and the nether world, 1.8.1.4 

    • The instructions of Šuruppag, 5.6.1 

  • entry 27 - ud ul re-ta = "In those ancient days..." - The debate between Bird and Fish, 5.3.5

  • entry 38 - ud ul an ki-ta incipit to Lugalbanda in the mountain cave, 1.8.2.1 

The Barton Cylinder - cdli.ucla.edu - epsd2 - ud ri₂-a ud ri₂-še₃ 

• "Those days were faraway days, indeed! Those nights were faraway nights, indeed! Those years were faraway years, indeed!"

• Several themes relate to both visions of creation. Column 4 is a difficult to translate section featuring "edin."

The building of Ninĝirsu's temple 2.1.7 - "On the day when in heaven and earth the fates had been decided" Given that fates were decided at dawn and the text is accouting "a nocturnal vision" of Gudea, the ruler of Lagash then maybe it should read, "At daylight (ie. dawn) the fates of heaven and earth were inscribed."

Crisostomo, Jay (2017) The Sumerian Discourse Markers u₄-ba and u₄-bi-a. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 69: 49–  66. doi: 10.5615/jcunestud.69.2017.0049 - journals.uchicago.edu  PDF

"Reddish day" and "Day Storm" literature

an-usan = contraction meaning "dusk" 59 or "evening"

From the Nibru catalogue, 0.2.01 (N2):

Emesal Dialect

https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33178/1/Gabbay_Mirelman_Reid_2020_ZA_A%20Literary%20Topos%20of%20Abundance_%20Two%20Emesal%20Prayers%20to%20Enki.pdf 

p, 30  Uruzeb = Eridu

Lexical Texts

Kings List

ETCSL King lists and other compositions (Unicode | Ascii)

AS 11. The Sumerian King List by Thorkild Jacobsen - oi.uchicago.edu - Chicago: University of Chricago Press, 1939. Pp. xvi + 216; 1 plate, 2 tables

Editorial Note on the Apkallu and the Roadmap Ahead by Estéban Trujillo de Gutiérrez - therealsamizdat.com - Sources on the Apkallu or "wise ones". Probable equivalents of the biblical Nephilem.

http://www.etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/20340.pdf

Adam 𒀉𒁮

Adam “habitation” or settlement from Lagash II on, used most during OB. 𒀉𒁮 a₂-dam 𒀉𒁮𒀉𒁮 a₂-dam-a₂-dam 𒈕 dim₃    Akk. namû  http://oracc.org/epsd2/o0023525

Eden 𒂔

𒋢𒂔𒆠 su-bir₄ki   EDIIIb on = šubartum /Subartu = upper Mesopotamia epsd2/sux/Subir[1] (upenn.edu) 

• OB Nippur Ura 05  dcclt (upenn.edu) 

306 a-ku-uzki  Akusum

307 a-ku-uz eden-naki  Akusum-of-the-Steppe

308 a-ku-uz su-bir₄ki  Akusum-of-Subartu

311 ma-da su-bir₄ki  the land of Subartu

• K 02035a + K 04337 dcclt (upenn.edu) 

o ii 6'  su-bir₄ki  su-bar-⸢tum⸣  Subartu

o ii 7'  su-piriŋki  su-bar-⸢tum⸣  "flesh of a piriŋ creature" = Subartu

o ii 8'  sa-piriŋki  su-bar-tum  "sinew of a piriŋ creature" = Subartu

o ii 9'  ḫu-bu-urki  su-bar-tum  Hubur = Subartu

Beasts of the Field 𒃻𒍣𒅅 𒂔

niŋ₂-zi-ŋal₂ eden-na - oracc.museum.upenn.edu - "animals of the steppe (or plain)" in the composite word list OB Nippur Ura 03  Found in 12 other word lists with variations. 

Living creature 𒃻𒍣𒅅 niŋ₂-zi-ŋal₂  Lag II Akk. nammaštu; nammaštûm; nammaššûm; šiknat napišti

• "thing, possession"   𒃻  niŋ₂  ED IIIa  Akk. bušu; mimma

• "life" or "breath" 𒍣 zi ED IIIa Akk. napištu

• to be (there, at hand, available); to put, to place, to lay down 𒅅  ŋal₂ PC Akk. bašû; šakānu

moving things, animals

Fauna (wild)

Kalam-ma 𒌧𒈠 

𒌧 = KALAM = “land, country, territory.”

𒈠 = -ma = enclitic particle (locative, genitival, or emphatic, depending on context). 

The suffix -ma is locative/terminative in this case, giving kalam-ma = “in the land” → “the land (par excellence, i.e., Sumer).”

• PSD (Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary), entry KALAM: defines 𒌧 as “land, country,” with occurrences in royal inscriptions, hymns, and lexical lists.

• Edzard (Sumerian Grammar, 2003): emphasizes kalam as “country, land,” with -ma as an emphatic form.

• Thorkild Jacobsen (The Sumerian King List, 1939): glosses kalam-ma as the Sumerians’ collective self-designation.

• Jeremy Black et al. (The Concise Dictionary of Akkadian / ETCSL notes): kalam-ma = “the land (of Sumer), the country.”

• CAD (Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, s.v. mātu): notes that Akk. mātu šumeri(m) corresponds directly to Sumerian kalam-ma.

Semantic Development

• Early Dynastic III (Fara, c. 2600 BCE): kalam-ma was used for the Sumerian homeland.

• Akkadian Empire (24th–22nd c. BCE): kalam-ma glossed as māt Šumerim = “Land of Sumer.”

• Ur III period (21st c. BCE): fixed as a political term meaning the united territory of Sumer.

• Later bilingual texts: kalam-ma generalized into “the world” or “civilized land,” especially in contrast with kur = mountain/foreign land.

Paleographic Composition of 𒌧

• In archaic (Uruk III, Jemdet Nasr) sign lists, 𒌧 is drawn as a composite.

• The upper part resembles KAL (𒆗), which itself is complex: KAL often represents ideas like “precious, valued, strong.”

• The lower/side components resemble NUN (𒉣), which carries values like “prince, great, noble, abundant.”

• Borger (MesZL 2003) lists 𒌧 as UN = KALAM, and notes its resemblance to KAL + NUN.

• The resulting ligature 𒌧 (KALAM) was conventionalized as a logogram for “land, country.”

Labat, R., & Malbran-Labat, F. (1976). Manuel d’épigraphie akkádienne: Signes, syllabaire, idéogrammes (5ᵉ éd.). Paris, France: P. Geuthner. Omnika

Borger, R. (2003). Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon (MesZL). Münster, Germany: Ugarit-Verlag. 

The lil2 symbol is 𒆤, as commonly used in the names of the gods Enlil and Ninlil, seems to be combined with KAL to produce the top of the symbol. The Uruk III Ninlil cuneiform symbols in Figure 1 of https://cdli.earth/articles/cdln/2011-6  seem a close match. Could the cuneiform for Kalam be a development of Ninlil?

Englund, Robert K. 2011. “Notes on KIDₐ.” Cuneiform Digital Library Notes 2011 (6). https://cdli.earth/articles/cdln/2011-6. 

Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta

Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. chapter 2 in Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta (2003) by Herman Vanstiphout - webhelper.brown.edu - 

Enmerkar, one of the early kings, after the great Mesopotamian Flood, claimed to take this innovation even as far as complex political speech in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, lines 500-514:

His [Enmerkar's] speech was substantial, and its contents extensive. 

The messenger, whose mouth was heavy, was not able to repeat it. 

Because the messenger, whose mouth was tired, was not able to repeat it, 

the lord of Kulaba patted some clay and wrote the message as if on a tablet. 

Formerly, the writing of messages on clay was not established. 

Now, under that sun and on that day, it was indeed so. 

The lord of Kulaba inscribed the message like a tablet. It was just like that. 

The messenger was like a bird, flapping its wings; 

he raged forth like a wolf following a kid. 

He traversed five mountains, six mountains, seven mountains. 

He lifted his eyes as he approached Aratta. 

He stepped joyfully into the courtyard of Aratta, 

he made known the authority of his king. 

Openly he spoke out the words in his heart. 

The messenger transmitted the message to the lord of Aratta.

"Your father, my master, has sent me to you; 

the lord of Unug, the lord of Kulaba, has sent me to you." 

[Lord of Aratta] "What is it to me what your master has spoken? What is it to me what he has said?"

518-535. "This is what my master has spoken, this is what he has said. 

My king is like a huge meš tree [ie. "Being Tree"], …… son of Enlil; 

this tree has grown high, uniting heaven and earth; 

its crown reaches heaven, its trunk is set upon the earth. 

He who is made to shine forth in lordship and kingship, Enmerkar, the son of Utu, has given me a clay tablet. 

O lord of Aratta, after you have examined the clay tablet, after you have learned the content of the message, say whatever you will say to me, and I shall announce that message in the shrine E-ana as glad tidings to the scion of him with the glistening beard, whom his stalwart cow gave birth to in the mountains of the shining me, who was reared on the soil of Aratta, who was given suck at the udder of the good cow, who is suited for office in Kulaba, the mountain of great me, to Enmerkar, the son of Utu; 

I shall repeat it in his ĝipar, fruitful as a flourishing meš tree, to my king, the lord of Kulaba."

536-556. After he had spoken thus to him, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from the messenger. 

The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. 

The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger. 

The lord of Aratta looked at his kiln-fired tablet.