[ { "slug": "inanna-descent", "title": "Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld", "area": "Sumerian foundations", "translation_status": "English translation available", "edition": "Oxford ETCSL, composition 1.4.1. The edition spells the name Inana.", "access": "Public English text and linked composite transliteration.", "review_scope": "Selected passages read, not the entire composition.", "passage": "1–5; 26–40; 129–143; 282–289.", "content_summary": "Inanna leaves heaven and earth for the underworld, gives her minister instructions, and loses regalia as she passes gates. Her ascent later requires a substitute. This is the Sumerian composition, not the separate Akkadian Descent of Ishtar.", "survival": "The edition displays manuscript additions and alternative readings. Its composite text should not be mistaken for a single intact tablet.", "next_action": "Read the remaining passage sequence and consult the linked witness bibliography before writing a complete synopsis.", "priority": "P1 · finish reading", "refs": [ [ "https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm", "Oxford · English translation" ], [ "https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/c141.htm", "Oxford · composite transliteration" ] ], "url": "/texts/inanna-descent/" }, { "slug": "enki-and-ninmah", "title": "Enki and Ninmah", "area": "Sumerian foundations", "translation_status": "English translation available", "edition": "Oxford ETCSL, composition 1.1.2.", "access": "Public English text and composite transliteration.", "review_scope": "Selected opening, creation and allocation passages read.", "passage": "1–37; 56–74.", "content_summary": "The opening describes gods performing heavy work. Namma approaches Enki; clay and birth-goddesses enter the account of human creation. Later, Ninmah fashions people with differing bodily conditions and Enki assigns roles or responses. These are statements within an ancient narrative, not established biological history.", "survival": "The translation marks gaps, uncertain words and manuscript alternatives. Its ancient descriptions are not present-day diagnoses.", "next_action": "Complete a line-by-line reading with the manuscript alternatives retained. No new whole-work English translation is needed merely to begin reading.", "priority": "P1 · finish reading", "refs": [ [ "https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr112.htm", "Oxford · English translation" ], [ "https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/c112.htm", "Oxford · composite transliteration" ] ], "url": "/texts/enki-and-ninmah/" }, { "slug": "instructions-of-shuruppak", "title": "Instructions of Shuruppak", "area": "Sumerian foundations", "translation_status": "English translation available", "edition": "Oxford ETCSL 5.6.1, titled The instructions of Shuruppag; Curuppag in its older transliteration.", "access": "Public English text and composite transliteration.", "review_scope": "Opening and selected instructions read.", "passage": "1–13; 19–38.", "content_summary": "Shuruppak addresses his son Ziusudra. Selected instructions discuss guaranteeing another person, quarrels, theft, slander and trusted speech. The father-to-son literary setting identifies the speaker and audience; its instructions are not a universal modern legal code.", "survival": "Damaged clauses, doubtful readings and additions from individual manuscripts are marked in the edition.", "next_action": "Read the full sequence, identify each instruction by line number, and compare witnesses before claiming an exact original wording.", "priority": "P1 · finish reading", "refs": [ [ "https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr561.htm", "Oxford · English translation" ], [ "https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/c561.htm", "Oxford · composite transliteration" ] ], "url": "/texts/instructions-of-shuruppak/" }, { "slug": "lament-for-ur", "title": "Lament for Ur", "area": "Sumerian foundations", "translation_status": "English translation available", "edition": "Oxford ETCSL 2.2.2, The lament for Urim.", "access": "Public English text and composite transliteration.", "review_scope": "Selected lament, appeal and return passages read.", "passage": "39–71; 136–160; 369–386.", "content_summary": "The poem mourns a devastated city. Ningal describes appealing for its people; later passages call for her return and the city’s restoration. It is a city lament, not simply a second copy of the Sumerian flood story.", "survival": "The edition marks manuscript variants, gaps and doubtful words. Literary descriptions of destruction require additional evidence for historical reconstruction.", "next_action": "Complete the poem’s sequence and its bibliography before assigning a precise historical event to every scene.", "priority": "P1 · finish reading", "refs": [ [ "https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr222.htm", "Oxford · English translation" ], [ "https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/c222.htm", "Oxford · composite transliteration" ] ], "url": "/texts/lament-for-ur/" }, { "slug": "dialogue-of-pessimism", "title": "Dialogue of Pessimism", "area": "Babylonian wisdom", "translation_status": "Published translations identified", "edition": "LMU electronic Babylonian Library, corpus L II.4; introduction lists editions and translations.", "access": "Indexed scholarly introduction was readable; the direct edition reader returned a JavaScript shell in this review.", "review_scope": "Scholarly introduction reviewed; full translated dialogue not read here.", "passage": "Introduction; no line-level quotation verified.", "content_summary": "The introduction describes a master repeatedly proposing an activity, receiving his servant’s agreement, then rejecting it and receiving agreement again. Its interpretation as serious or satirical remains debated. This is a summary of the editor’s introduction, not a fresh close reading of all dialogue lines.", "survival": "The editor identifies Assyrian and Babylonian witnesses and differences between them.", "next_action": "Obtain a readable complete edition, record its translator, and verify every exchange before publishing a full passage summary.", "priority": "P1 · obtain readable edition", "refs": [ [ "https://www.ebl.lmu.de/corpus/L/2/4", "eBL · introduction and edition route" ] ], "url": "/texts/dialogue-of-pessimism/" }, { "slug": "ludlul-bel-nemeqi", "title": "Ludlul bēl nēmeqi · Righteous Sufferer", "area": "Babylonian wisdom", "translation_status": "English translation available", "edition": "Alan Lenzi, Suffering in Babylon (Peeters, 2023), chapter 2, pp. 62–94; introduction pp. 1–2.", "access": "Publisher-hosted open-access PDF includes transcription and English translation.", "review_scope": "Introduction and selected Tablet III–IV translation passages read. The full 539-page volume has not been read.", "passage": "Introduction pp. 1–2; Tablet III 40–75 and 77–110; Tablet IV fragments.", "content_summary": "The poem recounts Šubši-mešrê-Šakkan’s suffering and restoration in relation to Marduk. The reviewed Tablet III passage describes relief from afflictions; Tablet IV remains visibly fragmentary. These narrative claims do not establish the cause of a present person’s illness.", "survival": "Lenzi reports no complete manuscript, a composite from more than five dozen incomplete witnesses, and about three-quarters of the proposed original text reconstructed. This is his estimate, not a count independently audited here.", "next_action": "Read the complete translated composite; list unresolved lines and compare the critical edition before proposing new translations.", "priority": "P1 · finish reading", "refs": [ [ "https://www.peeters-leuven.be/pdf/9789042950979.pdf", "Peeters · Lenzi, open-access full volume" ], [ "https://www.ebl.lmu.de/corpus/", "eBL · corpus catalogue" ] ], "url": "/texts/ludlul-bel-nemeqi/" }, { "slug": "babylonian-astronomical-diaries", "title": "Babylonian Astronomical Diaries", "area": "Ancient sky records", "translation_status": "Published English corpus editions identified", "edition": "Sachs and Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia; ORACC Astronomical Diaries Digital (ADsD).", "access": "ORACC project catalogue describes searchable editions. Museum documentation supplies one object-level example; the ADsD reader was not accessible in this check.", "review_scope": "Project descriptions and British Museum exhibition text reviewed; no complete diary transcribed or translated here.", "passage": "British Museum 1881,0706.403; catalogue descriptions of ADART volumes.", "content_summary": "The British Museum identifies a diary fragment reporting Alexander’s death. ORACC’s catalogue describes digital editions based on Sachs and Hunger with later corrections. These are records associated with particular tablets, not a single continuous intact book.", "survival": "Coverage, gaps and dating must be checked tablet by tablet. A corpus landing page does not establish that every fragment has an English translation.", "next_action": "Select a diary by museum number, obtain its exact ADART translation, and record observations separately from missing entries and reconstructed dates.", "priority": "P1 · verify one diary", "refs": [ [ "https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/projectlist.html", "ORACC · ADsD and volume descriptions" ], [ "https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/adsd/", "ADsD · corpus route" ], [ "https://www.britishmuseum.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/Luxury_and_power_large_print_guide.pdf", "British Museum · exhibition guide, p. 79" ] ], "url": "/texts/babylonian-astronomical-diaries/" }, { "slug": "mul-apin-edition", "title": "MUL.APIN · astronomical compendium", "area": "Ancient sky records", "translation_status": "English translation published; full edition not obtained", "edition": "Hermann Hunger and John Steele, The Babylonian Astronomical Compendium MUL.APIN (Routledge, 2019), ISBN 9781315168722.", "access": "Publisher record located. Access inquiry sent on 29 October 2026; response pending.", "review_scope": "Publication description reviewed. No line-by-line reading of the full edition completed.", "passage": "Publisher contents; no translated passage used for a close reading here.", "content_summary": "The publisher describes star lists, celestial phenomena, calendrical material and commentary. That description identifies the contents of an available edition; it is not enough to report precisely what an individual Akkadian line says.", "survival": "The compendium has multiple manuscripts. Each proposed reconstruction or calendar rule needs the edition’s witness notes.", "next_action": "Obtain the edition already requested, then read specific star-list and calendar passages. Do not commission a duplicate whole-work translation before checking the existing one.", "priority": "P1 · access request pending", "refs": [ [ "https://www.routledge.com/The-Babylonian-Astronomical-Compendium-MULAPIN/Hunger-Steele/p/book/9781315168722", "Routledge · Hunger and Steele edition" ], [ "/resources/translation-requests/", "Sent inquiries and access routes" ] ], "url": "/texts/mul-apin-edition/" }, { "slug": "sefer-yetzirah-text-records", "title": "Sefer Yetzirah · named versions and passages", "area": "Jewish textual foundations", "translation_status": "Hebrew and English text records available", "edition": "Sefaria Sefer Yetzirah 4:5; Sefer Yetzirah Gra Version 4:8. Gra Hebrew version record: Warsaw 1884; English: Aryeh Kaplan.", "access": "Direct reader sometimes loaded without text. Sefaria’s API returned the Gra 4:8 Hebrew and English unit.", "review_scope": "Selected units checked, not a complete collation of recensions or manuscripts.", "passage": "Sefer Yetzirah 4:5 and Gra Version 4:8.", "content_summary": "The first named record associates Bet with life and Saturn; the Gra unit associates Bet with wisdom and the Moon. Both name Sunday and the right eye. The references must remain attached to their records; these are not interchangeable verse numbers.", "survival": "Two digital titles are not automatically two independent manuscripts. A full recension history requires an edition and witness catalogue beyond this comparison.", "next_action": "Save exact version metadata, compare Hebrew units, and check permissions for extended reuse. Build a witness-level comparison before declaring one universal correspondence table.", "priority": "P1 · verify version metadata", "refs": [ [ "https://www.sefaria.org/Sefer_Yetzirah.4.5", "Sefaria · Sefer Yetzirah 4:5" ], [ "https://www.sefaria.org/Sefer_Yetzirah_Gra_Version.4.8", "Sefaria · Gra 4:8" ], [ "https://www.sefaria.org/api/texts/Sefer_Yetzirah_Gra_Version.4.8?context=0", "Sefaria · Gra unit and metadata" ] ], "url": "/texts/sefer-yetzirah-text-records/" }, { "slug": "genesis-creation-passages", "title": "Genesis 1 · creation passages", "area": "Jewish textual foundations", "translation_status": "English translation available", "edition": "New American Bible, Revised Edition, Genesis 1; hosted by USCCB.", "access": "Public chapter text and notes.", "review_scope": "Genesis 1 reviewed; no full biblical manuscript collation completed.", "passage": "1:1–5; 1:14–19; 1:26–31.", "content_summary": "The chapter describes divine speech, separation of light and darkness, lights marking seasons, days and years, and humankind made in God’s image. These are statements in the chapter. A comparison with Sefer Yetzirah needs separate textual references rather than assuming the same wording or a demonstrated transmission route.", "survival": "A modern translated chapter does not supply all Hebrew witnesses or date its own original composition.", "next_action": "Keep translation, Hebrew textual witnesses, proposed composition history and later interpretation in separate fields.", "priority": "P2 · witness comparison", "refs": [ [ "https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/1", "USCCB · Genesis 1" ] ], "url": "/texts/genesis-creation-passages/" } ]