REIGN OF KING SIN-KASHID OF URUK, CIRCA 1865-1833 B.C.

Details

AN OLD BABYLONIAN STEATITE CUNEIFORM TABLET
REIGN OF KING SIN-KASHID OF URUK, CIRCA 1865-1833 B.C.
Rectangular in form, one side flat and one convex, with twenty-three lines of Sumerian cuneiform, commemorating of the restoration of the Temple of Lugalbanda and Ninsun as well as the prices of commodities, reading: "For Lugalbanda, his god, and for Ninsun his mother, Sin-kashid, king of Uruk, king of Amnanum, and the provider of the Eanna temple, when he had built the Eanna Temple, he built for them the Ekankal, their dwelling house which makes the heart happy. For the period of his kingship, 1 shekel of silver could buy, at the market rate of his land: 3 kor of barley, 12 minas of wool, 10 minas of copper, or 3 ban of vegetable oil. May his years be years of abundance"
3 11/16 in. (9.3 cm.) long

Provenance

with Elias S. David (1891-1969), New York; thence by descent.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

King Sin-kashid became the ruler of the southern Babylonian city of Uruk, which he had taken away from the control of the city of Larsa. His inscriptions record the construction of many buildings, including a huge palace, and a number of temples for various gods. This black stone tablet records the building of a temple for his personal god Lugalbanda and the god's wife Ninsun and also announces that the economy was strong, with low prices for the basic commodities reflecting the favor of the gods during his reign. While there are some twenty-eight examples of this inscription, all others are on clay cones, with this as the only stone example. Interestingly, there is a much later Neo-Babylonian copy of the inscription on which the colophon states: "Copy of a royal inscription on diorite stone, property of Ezida. Nabu-balassu-iqbi, son of Misiraia, wrote it.” (British Museum no. 91081). It may well be that the present black stone tablet is the very one that the scribe Nabu-balassu-iqbi saw and copied in the Ezida Temple.

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