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Nail of Gudea
(Ancient Near East )
The deeply impressed cuneiform characters on this well-preserved votive nail record in Sumerian the restoration of the Eninnu temple in Girsu (modern Tell Telloh) for Ningirsu, the chief deity of Girsu, by Gudea, the ensi of Lagash. Girsu was an important religious and civic center in the 3rd millennium BCE. Hundreds of examples of this text are known, mostly written on nails but also appearing on bricks.
Clay cones and nails were inscribed in the name of a ruler of a Mesopotamian city-state to commemorate an act of building or rebuilding, often of a temple for a specific deity. Deposited in the walls or under the foundations of these structures, the words of the texts were directed at the gods but would also be found by later restorers.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Edgar J. Banks, Alpine, New Jersey, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1929 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Geographies
Iraq (Girsu) (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 4 9/16 x W: 2 5/16 in. (11.6 x 5.9 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1929
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
48.1456