A History of Sumer and Akkad: An account of the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric times to the foundation of the Babylonian monarchyKing, L. W. (Leonard William)
History
A History of Sumer and Akkad: An account of the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric times to the foundation of the Babylonian monarchy
King, L. W. (Leonard William)
Akkadians; Babylonia -- History; Sumerians
The absence of military records from Gudea's texts is rendered the
more striking, when we read the names of the countries he laid under
contribution for the materials employed in the building of E-ninnû.
The fullest geographical list is that given on the statue of the
architect with the plan,[19] and, although unfortunately some of
the places mentioned have still to be identified, the text itself
furnishes sufficient information to demonstrate the wide area of his
operations. Gudea here tells us that from Mount Amanus, the mountain
of cedars, he fetched beams of cedar-wood measuring fifty and even
sixty cubits in length, and he also brought down from the mountain
logs of urkarinnu-wood five-and-twenty cubits long. From the town of
Ursu in the mountain of Ibla he brought zabalu-wood, great beams of
ashukhu-wood and plane-trees. From Umanu, a mountain of Menua, and
from Basalla, a mountain of Amurru, he obtained great blocks of stone
and made stelæ from them, which he set up in the court of E-ninnû.
From Tidanu, another mountain of Amurru, he brought pieces of marble,
and from Kagalad, a mountain of Kimash, he extracted copper, which he
tells us he used in making a great mace-head. From the mountains of
Melukhkha he brought ushû-wood, which he employed in the construction
of the temple, and he fetched gold-dust from the mountain of Khakhu and
with it he gilded a mace-head carved with the heads of three lions. In
Gubin, the mountain of khuluppu-wood, he felled khuluppu-trees; from
Madga he obtained asphalt, which he used in making the platform of
E-ninnû; and from the mountain of Barshib he brought down blocks of
nalua-stone, which he loaded into great boats and so carried them to
Lagash in order to strengthen the base of the temple.
The above list of places makes it clear that Gudea obtained his wood
and stone from mountains on the coast of Syria and in Arabia, and
his copper from mines in Elam. On the first of his cylinders he also
states that the Elamite came from Elam and the man of Susa from Susa,
presumably to take part as skilled craftsmen in the construction of the
temple. In this account he does not mention the names of so many places
as in the statue-inscription, but he adds some picturesque details with
regard to the difficulties of transport he encountered. Thus he records
that into the mountain of cedars, where no man before had penetrated,
he cut a road for bringing down the cedars and beams of other precious
woods. He also made roads into the mountains where he quarried stone,
and, in addition to gold and copper, he states that he obtained silver
also in the mountains. The stone he transported by water, and he adds
that the ships bringing bitumen and plaster from Madga were loaded as
though they were barges carrying grain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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