Sealing

UE III: pictographic inscription of thirteen cases in two registers. the signs have a clear connexion with the systems adopted by the scribes of the Fara and of the Jamdat Nasr tablets, but their forms have preserved more exactly some original details, and are probably more remote in time, owing to the conservative nature of the epigraphy on stone.

Another connexion may be established with the Pre-Elamite system of writing and the more distant Indian script of Mohenjo-daro. Close analogies between several signs of their sign lists suggest a possible cultural if not racial link at an early date.

An exact translation is still out of the question. Even the order of the signs and whether they begin on the right or the left is still uncertain. We will start our short description with the larger sign in the lower right-hand corner, which is apparently a large reed hut with a frontal decoration of horns and volutes, like the one described in No. 389, and to which we give the same meaning, "the great house". The next sign, the curved club (cf. No. 398), could be translated "the ruler". The third group is perhaps to be read dur-dur du: "of all the abodes", which would introduce a list of the cities and lands subject to the ruler in the rest of the inscription.

Lower fourth. Three signs. The reed hut with door and two poles, tur: the byre. The square or doulbe X on a mast, iner: the wind. The great post with cross-bars, nun: Eridu.

Lower fifth. A variant of AB or UNU, the great house on a platform.

Lower sixth. The oriented terrace, ub or temen (?) in composition with a bird sign, musen.

Lower seventh. The house, a panelled construction, with a roof terrace, e mir sita.

Upper first. The great jar, hubur. The orchard, sar. The tell or hut, ki or dul. The post with cross-bars, nun.

Upper second. The hand (?) su. A jar, duk. The perfect square, dug. The tell or hut, ki, dul.

Upper third. The orchard, sar.

Upper fourth. A double plumet or feather crown, gal gal. A lozenge, the rising sun (?), utu. The reed hut, dul.

Upper fifth. The beads, nunuz. The boring tool, nagar.

Upper sixth. The built enclosure, the grave, bad ug. There is a six-petalled rosette with central point on the butt-end of the lugged cylinder, d. 22 mm. Clay sealing. Baked and shellacked post-excavation. Fragment stamped with linear design, possibly including script elements.