Stone Bowl With a Dedication Inscription in Sumerian

Stone Bowl With a Dedication Inscription in Sumerian

Inscribed: (To) [a deity], Megirimta, child born to Lugal-kisalsi (and) wife of Muni-hursag, presented (this bowl).

Mesopotamia, Early Dynastic III period
ca. 25th century B.C.
Calcite or aragonite
Height: 10 cm; diameter: 16.4 cm
MLC no. 2630
Item description: 

It is not certain whether the Lugal-kisalsi mentioned in the inscription was the king of Uruk of that name because the inscription states only his name. Whatever his position, Lugal-kisalsi's daughter must have been highly placed because the stone vessel that she dedicated belongs to a type of object valued and preserved over many centuries. The stone was probably imported from the northern mountain chains of Iran, which are thought to have been the source of the materials for the stone vessels excavated at the site of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia, where this bowl was found before 1904.