Meluhha and Sumerian texts

[Guest guest]

There are eleven occurrences of the term: meluhha in Sumerian texts.

Some samples:

 

"May the land of Tukric hand over to you gold from Harali, lapis

lazuli and ....... May the land of Meluha load precious desirable

cornelian, mec wood of Magan and the best abba wood into large ships

for you. May the land of Marhaci yield you precious stones, topazes.

May the land of Magan offer you strong, powerful copper, dolerite, u

stone and cumin stone. May the Sea-land offer you its own ebony wood,

....... of a king..." Enki and Ninhursaja

http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?

text=t.1.1.1&display=Crit&charenc\

=j&lineid=t111.p11#t111.p11

 

gul-lum me-luh-haki: The donkey of Ancan, the bear (?) of Marhaci,

the cat of Meluha, the elephant of the eastern mountains, bite off

Euphrates poplars as if they were leeks. Proverbs: from Nibru

http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?

text=t.6.2.1&display=Crit&charenc\

=j&lineid=t621.p20

 

gul-lum 'cat' is not unlike kol 'tiger' (Santali).

 

jicma2-gi4-lum me-luh-haki-a-ke4: "I will admire its green cedars.

Let the lands of Meluha, Magan and Dilmun look upon me, upon Enki. Let

the Dilmun boats be loaded (?) with timber. Let the Magan boats be

loaded sky-high. Let the magilum boats of Meluha transport gold and

silver and bring them to Nibru for Enlil, king of all the lands." Enki

and the world order

http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?

text=t.1.1.3&display=Crit&charenc\

=j&lineid=t113.p13#t113.p13

 

 

Source: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/

 

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL) is based at

the University of Oxford. So far it has made accessible, via the World

Wide Web, more than 350 literary works composed in the Sumerian

language in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the late third

and early second millennia BCE.

 

The corpus comprises Sumerian texts in transliteration, English prose

translations and bibliographical information for each composition. The

transliterations and the translations can be searched, browsed and

read online using the tools of the website.

 

One thought, echoing the views of Srinivas (on IC list).

 

A recipient region (Sumer/Mesopotamia) had seen the need for keeping

meticulous accounting tablets.

 

Surely, a despatching region (Meluhha) across the Straits of Hormuz

should also have felt the need for, say, at least creating

professional calling cards?

 

What would Jamshedji Tata have done if he was asked to give a

mangalasutram seal to his bride? I am sure he would have said in his

calling card: owner of blast furnace of Ib (name of a station on

Nagpur-Howrah rail route). Ib = iron (Mundari).

 

Dhanyavaadah.

 

K.

[Guest guest]

old to some, not me

 

 

-

Michael Witzel

INDOLOGY

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 7:26 AM

Re: [Y-Indology] Meluhha and Sumerian texts

 

 

 

Old news.

See e.g. Shereen Ratnagar 1981.

Or G. Possehl 1996

MW.