Fun with Clay
The "fun with clay" section contains
those clay creation's of the co-builder of this site, Sheshki.
Our site co-builder is a very hands on learner who through a love
of visual stimuli and antiquity, taught himself to write cuneiform
signs from several different systems (see here the "signlist"
section). Recently Sheshki has been reviewing hundreds of CDLI
entries while looking for royal inscriptions for the "notes
on kings" section - and fortunately, about that time he also
happened upon a portion of clay recently dug out of a well - needlessly
to say, the stage was set for the first readable cuneiform tablets
produced outside the Academia or the e-dub-a of old (that I've
ever seen!). Thanks for your engaging contributions Sheshki! And
here hoping many fun things to follow: |
click at the pictures for larger
images |
Inscription |
Informations |
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lu2 ush4-he2- gal2 |
Dedicated to my friend Bill (ush4-he2-gal2) |
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lu2 le-e2 ni-ak |
Dedicated to my friend Lee, from Nyack |
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d inanna za3-mi2 |
Dedicated to Inanna Inanna be praised! |
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d inanna za3-mi2 |
Selfdesigned cylinderseal Inanna be praised! |
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clayball with several signs |
A clayball with many different signs.Here you see d nin-gish... shesh-ki ...not every sign makes sense on this piece |
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lu2 shesh-ki lugal kish lugal uri5 ki lugal adab ki lugal kal-ga dumu e3-bi |
After looking through many hundreds of royal inscriptions i decided to create my own royal inscription. It says Sheshki, Lugal of Kish, Lugal of Ur, Lugal of Adab, strong Lugal, Son of Ebi (nickname of my daddy) (there are surely errors in it, i wrote for example kalam-ga instead of kal-ga, but i was able to fix it...see next page) |
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en2-e2-nu-ru |
A first try of a clay cylinder seal en2-e2-nu-ru |
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1. d nin-hur-sag 2. nin-a-ni 3. szul-gi 4. nita kal-ga 5. lugal uri5{ki}-ma 6. lugal ki-en-gi ki-uri-ke4 7. gesz kesz2-ra2 8. ki ag2-ni 9. mu-na-du3 |
here i tried to create a replica of an inscription of Shulgi |
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1.d nun-gal-e-ne 2.dirig-ba ki-sikil dinana 3.za3-mi2-zu mah-am3 4.kug dereš-ki-gal-la-ke4 5. za3-mi2-zu dug3-ga-am3 |
i wrote two lines i found at ETCSL: Because you are unmatched among the Great Princes, maiden Inana, praising you is magnificent! (Link) Holy Ereshkigal, sweet is your praise! (Link) |
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1-4 kur gul-gul an-da me ba- 5-6 dinana nam-ur-saj ga-am3-dug4 za3-mi2-zu dug3-ga-am3 7 den-ki za3-mi2 |
Praise be to the destroyer of foreign lands, endowed with divine powers by An, to my lady enveloped in beauty, to Inana! Inana, I will speak of your heroism. It is pleasant to praise you! Enki be praised! |
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dinana-ke4 cag4
gig-ga-ju10 i3 he2-eb-de2 |
May Inanna pure oil on my heart that aches. |
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The 110 signs from D.C.Snells book "workbook
of cuneiform signs" ...plus some more |
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Inspired by an inscription of Entemena http://www.cdli.ucla.edu/dl/lineart/P222515_l.jpg Size is 220 mm x 155 mm |
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Inscription by Amar-Suen |
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Gudea, Ensi of Lagash |
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An odd coloured inscription of Shu-Suen |
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Holy Ereshkigala - sweet is your praise. from Inana´s descent to the nether world |
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Incantation against snake bites |
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Inscription by Urukagina |
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bottomside of a claybowl |
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test tablets with different kinds of clay
i found, white and yellow clay was way too soft for tabletmaking |
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clay art |
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