What beautiful seals! It looks like you've come across Morgan Seal 747 and Morgan Seal 609. (Click through for more discussion.) A full write-up of the seals, including their inscriptions, is in CANES 1 by Edith Porada, which unfortunately I don't have access to. Aruz et al also talk about the first seal in Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age.

The inscriptions appear to be identifying the owners of the seal. The first seal is inscribed (according to Aruz et al) with "[belonging] to Nabu-nadin-shumi son of Ashur … may [the god] Nabu grant [him] life!" The second seal mentions a man named Ashur-iddin.

I hope you'll forgive me leaving things there. It's the start of my first semester as a professor, I don't have CANES to reference, and my cuneiform-reading skills are rusty. Anyone else want to jump in?

Mostly this post is an excuse to show off my new check mark, because of COURSE I had to get it.

But I suppose I should announce that my sporadic posts are about to get even more sporadic, for a very good reason: I will be starting next month as a tenure-track professor of Hebrew Bible!

I still would not recommend going into ancient languages as a career; there are far far fewer jobs than there are brilliant people who want them. But somehow, miraculously, I managed to win one of the few ones out there. I feel absurdly lucky.

(And of course I also feel grateful to everyone who has interacted with my posts here; this blog made a huge difference in helping me to feel part of a community of ancient nerds! Love you all.)

"TCL" stands for "Textes cunéiformes du Louvre," "6" means that it's from the 6th volume of publications of those texts, and "49" means that it's the 49th text in that volume.

You can learn more about the text on its CDLI page here or its Louvre page here. Let me know if you need any further information!

(For reference, my translation is here.)

Here's what I've got.

The tricky thing here is that the "original cuneiform" is dense and written in 3D, which makes it difficult to duplicate in a tattoo if you're just operating off a photo. But you can find photos of this text on the CDLI here, if you scroll down, to give you a sense of the problem.

A simpler route is to "cuneify" the values of the cuneiform symbols, i.e. to convert them into standardized Unicode symbols. Those will be much easier to copy. This is, I think, the line you want, in syllabic cuneiform:

𒌨 𒊒 𒌨 𒌌 𒇻 𒌌 𒍣 𒄑 𒍣 𒄖 𒊒 𒄭 𒀭 𒋫 𒋛 𒋛 𒋼 𒀭 𒈹 𒍝 𒀀 𒄰

(You'll need to install a cuneiform font for it to display right.)

All that said, for something to be tattooed permanently on your body, you want to be certain it's correct—and at the end of the day, I only have expertise in Akkadian, not Sumerian. (They're completely different languages that share a cuneiform writing system.) I would highly advise checking with @sumerianlanguage or another Sumerologist before you get anything inked.

Hello! This tablet (whose image is here) does have an online translation here on Archibab. An alternate translation is in Leeman's book.

More copper shenanigans...

Several months ago, I got a message asking for the cuneiform for Ea-nāṣir’s name, which I provided. I was utterly delighted to receive these in the mail!

Get your own fabulous keychain at this link.

Hi there! I have unfortunate news for you: as far as I can tell, there is no English translation of the full text, and it is not available on hittitetexts.com or CDLI. For the full translated text, you can look at Hippologia Hethitica (Kammenhuber, German) or L'Art de soigner et d'entraîner les chevaux (Masson, French)—neither of which is online either.

As you probably already know, Dent (The Horse Through Fifty Centuries of Civilization) made an English translation of part of the text, but only part, available here.

So I'm afraid that your next step is to ask your library for ILL copies of Kammenhuber and/or Masson, then use Google Translate or a multilingual friend. Good luck!

Sorry, Egyptology is not my specialty! But this paper contains two hymns to Isis, in both transliteration and translation, so hopefully it'll help: Two Hymns to Isis from Philae Revisited.

“You shit bucket of a farter!” (SAA 3 30)

This ancient Neo-Assyrian "diss track," framed as a magical incantation, offers a series of slurs (some misogynistic and homophobic) against a Mr. Bel-eţir.  It seems to conclude with an aggressive invitation: “fight me!”

There are multiple Bel-eṭirs in the historical record, but this is probably the same son of Ibâ who had a satire of a birth-legend written about him.

Although the tablet is well-preserved, many of the phrases are obscure; I have used italics to indicate where I am less certain of my translation.

...

Incantation:

Mr. Bel-eṭir, you twofold prison fucktoy, twofold soggy, twofold staring, son of Ibâ, absent epoch, shit bucket of a farter, second-rate clan, slave of a dead god, house whose star has vanished from the sky, maidservant, woman, slave of Lady Balihitu, beard among fucked-out women, "Mr. Baby-boy," much-maligned man.

Mr. Ammanappu provided your whitewash, saying: "First of all, his house is in shadow, starting at the top."  He swore by the Lord, "I will not let go until I have fucked him!"

Let go of what Mr. Ammanappu has!  Don't chase after what Mr. Tamru has!  Stay away from Mr. Ammanipite!  Keep your crotch away from Mr. Haimbi!

Now I have spoken to you.  On account of this, rise up against me!

Hi there, and welcome to the world of Akkadian.

Huehnergard's Grammar is a very solid place to start, but some folks find it too comprehensive, since it's trying to be both a teaching guide and a full grammar. If you're enjoying it, great; if you're struggling, you can try Caplice's Introduction to Akkadian, which is a little more bite-sized.

As for question 2.G.8 in Huehnergard, I stared at the question for a long time, double checked the most recent versions of his answer key, and finally asked a friend who's a professional Assyriologist (I'm more of a dabbler). We agree that it's an error in the answer key; "wool" should definitely be nominative.

Good luck on your Akkadian adventure!

Hi! Generally, everything I post in this blog is my own translation. (I'll say explicitly if it's not.)

As for the original text, that varies wildly. Sometimes they're available on the CDLI (which is the best source for actual high-res photos of the tablets). If I'm lucky, it's in one of ORACC's projects, such as the State Archives of Assyria Online; they're individually great (searchable and tagged), but you have to search within each project separately. ARCHIBAB is another fantastic resource for transcriptions and translations, though the interface is in French and annoyingly complicated.

Otherwise, I have to find it in a book (physical or scanned). The CDLI has a useful list of abbreviations for finding what the numerous book abbreviations mean; from there, I'll see if the book is available in electronic format somewhere. If it's not, I'm mostly out of luck these days, as my current institution's library doesn't exactly have much in the way of Assyriology. But between the above options, I can usually find most things. It just takes a little searching. If there are specific texts you'd like to look at, let me know!

An Incantation Against Depression (VAT 13697)

This is an excerpt from a lengthy Akkadian ritual that we know from multiple tablets, all of them unfortunately broken.  The ritual starts by describing the patient: he is constantly depressed and has other physical symptoms, from pain to nausea.  Such symptoms are clearly a sign that he has been attacked by witchcraft.  To combat the witchcraft, the ritual practitioner relies on a combination of magical actions (such as burning figurines of the magicians who caused the illness) and prayers to Shamash, the Sun-god, who represents an all-seeing force of justice.

This is the first of the incantations recited by the practitioner.  Below the cut, I've included the transliteration of the incantation (in case anyone wants to try it) and a short comment on the untranslated word "Namraṣit."

“You Whose Cities Are Ruined Mounds” (CT 23 16 i 13-16)

While doing some research on the Mesopotamian goddess Belet-Ṣeri, I came across this well-preserved Akkadian incantation for someone who "constantly sees dead people."  Ereškigal is queen of the Netherworld, and Ningeštinanna/Belet-Ṣeri is her (female) scribe.  I am not familiar with "Abatu the Queen," but her name literally means "to destroy," so presumably she was another goddess associated with death.

...

Incantation:

Dead people, why do you encounter me—you whose cities are ruined mounds, you who are bones? I do not go to Kutha, the assembly of ghosts.  Why do you constantly chase me? You are adjured by Abatu the Queen, by Ereškigal the Queen, by Ningeštinanna the Scribe of the Gods, whose stylus is lapis and carnelian.

Recitation (to be used when) one continually sees dead persons.

(The description of the ritual follows, but is somewhat broken.  It involves pouring a ritual liquid into a western-facing pit while reciting the incantation.)

like a sated child (Psalm 131)

This is my rendition of Psalm 131, which is probably my favorite psalm.  Often, I cleave closely to the Hebrew text; other times, especially in the final couplet, I interpret it more loosely.  A more "literal" translation is at the end of my post, after the cut.

I love this psalm because it embodies an almost Buddhist sense of peace through renunciation of desire.  Envisioning our personal energy as something we cradle like a child, a child who no longer needs us but still seeks comfort in our touch, is a powerful metaphor.  The final couplet returns to a pious theology in the original psalm (some have called it a later addition), but my translation renders it more universally.

---

(a David song / upward-reaching)

God-Who-Is, my heart has not been haughty,        nor my eyes too lofty for their place. I have chosen not to chase mirages,        dreams that towered taller than my reach. No — I have soothed and hushed my restless spirit,        like a sated child on its mother — like a sated child,        so my spirit rests on me.

(yet the hope that animates my people        swells in me, a song that will not die)

---

Notes below the cut: