Artifact overview
BM 17427 is an artifact (Clay Tablet) related to the mythological story named 'Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld.' The artifact's condition is Poor and it is currently located at The British Museum in London, United Kingdom, catalogued as record number BM 17427. The language of the text contained is Sumerian (Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform writing system). Its estimated date is 1900—1600 BCE, which is a range based on available data and scholarship. The mythology associated with this artifact includes the Sumerian belief system and related deities: Inanna.
About this artifact
Basic details
| Type | Tablet Clay material |
| Condition | Poor |
| Date created | 1900—1600 BCE |
| Language | Sumerian |
| Writing system | Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform (script) |
| Location | The British Museum The British Museum · London, United Kingdom |
| BM/Big No. | 17427 |
| Digital access | CDLI No. P283756 Partially digitized |
Provenience
| Discovery | Unknown |
Museum record data
The British Museum
The British Museum · London, United Kingdom
Item specifications
| Museum No. | BM 17427 |
Mythological contents
Sumerian Religion
The contents of this artifact may depict or reference the following myths and deities associated with this belief system.
Associated myths and deities
| Myths | Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld |
| Deities | Inanna |
Cuneiform Digitial Library Initiative data help_outline
Core CDLI data
| CDLI record No. | P283756 |
| Composite No. | Q000343 |
| Period | Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC) |
| Provenience (origin) | Unknown |
| Primary publication | CDLI Literary 000343, ex. 008 |
| Author/date | CDLI/2014ff. |
BM 17427 (clay tablet) is a clay cuneiform tablet that contains lines 224-230 (obverse) and 253-257 (reverse) of "Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld," a Sumerian afterlife myth. This artifact was first published by H. H. Figulla in 1959 (usually cited as CT 42) and was later collated by Samuel Noah Kramer in 1970. The artifact is currently located at the British Museum and was first published on behalf of the British Museum in 1959 by H. H. Figulla. [1]
Notes
Extended artifact data for BM 17427
See detailed information about this artifact from the entity that has access to it.
Location description
- The British Museum London, United Kingdom
Full address: The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom
The first national public museum of the world. The British Museum is unique in bringing together under one roof the cultures of the world, spanning continents and oceans. No other museum is responsible for collections of the same depth and breadth, beauty and significance. Its eight million objects allow us to explore the extraordinary diversity of human cultures, from small communities to vast empires, to discover the many forms and expressions human beings have given to every aspect of life, and to realise how closely they are interconnected.
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Record numbers
| BM/Big No. | 17427 |
| Digitized record | CDLI No. P283756 |
| Artifact access | By request |
Full artifact data
| Museum No. | BM 017427 |
| Period | Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC) |
| Registration No. | 1894,0115.141 |
| Material | Clay |
| Genre | Literary |
| Usable Lines | ca. 10 |
| Measurements (in) | 2 x 2.5 |
| Acquisition Date | 1894 |
| Language | Sumerian Cuneiform |
| Accession No. | 1894-01-15, 0141 |
| Department | Middle East |
| Notes | More details
|
Record notes
About these data
| Retrieval date | Aug. 8, 2022 |
| Copyright | The British Museum |
Render
See a rendering of the artifact in images, text, and other form factors. Where available, a translation is included.
Digital scan
OMNIKA Reader
Good news. This original artifact is digitized and available in the OMNIKA Library.
Text: "ETCSL 1.4.1: Inana's Descent to the Nether World"
Sumerian ⟶ English a
| Line # | Translation |
|---|---|
| Source a Black et al., "ETCSL 1.4.1: Inana Netherworld." More info launch | |
All texts
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Mythological contents
This artifact contains mythological contents associated with Sumerian Religion. The main narrative mentioned may be Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld, a Afterlife myth. The deities depicted or mentioned in the artifact may be: Inanna.
Parent belief system
- Sumerian Religion · PolytheisticHeads up. This Religion belongs to the Mesopotamian collection on the basis of shared myths and deities.
Sumerian religion refers to spiritual beliefs practiced from ca. 4500-1900 BCE in Mesopotamia, or modern-day southern Iraq. Many deities were diffused into other Mesopotamian cultures.
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Associated myth
Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld Afterlife mythNuthsell
Inanna descends from the great above to the great below. She abandons several temples and heads for open country. She gives precise instructions to her companion—Ninsubur: Inanna says "if I don't return in three days, go to the temples and plead on my behalf." At the netherworld she enters and goes through seven gates before she is turned into a corpse. Ninsubur follows the instructions and tells Inanna's father Enkil what happened. He helps her by sending two a-sexual creatures to sneak in and bring her back to life. Once Inanna is alive she ascends while being escorted by demons from the netherworld. The demons allow her to trade her husband Dumuzi in her place.
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Deities depicted
CDLI data for P283756
The artifact named BM 17427 is listed in the CDLI database as record number P283756. It belongs to composite number Q000343 .
About the CDLI
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative Est. 1998The Cuneiform Digitial Library Initiative (CDLI) is a collaborative project among the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Oxford, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin, Germany). The project is funded by various universities and donors in the hopes of cataloging, translating, and digitizing artifacts with text in cuneiform script.
Record numbers
Record notes
About these data
| Retrieval date | Aug. 8, 2022 |
| Copyright | CDLI @ UCLA |
Artifact condition
The artifact named 'BM 17427' is appraised as being in Poor condition based on how much reliance is placed on other resources to make it complete and readable.
| Condition | Excellent | Just OK | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  | |
| Completeness | More than 80% | 50 - 80% | Less than 50% |
| Fragmentation | Minor | Moderate | Significant |
| Damage | Minor | Moderate | Significant |
| Legibility | Highly readable | Somewhat readable | Unintelligible |
What's a 'joined' artifact?
A joined artifact is one that was originally part of the other and was broken or fragmented at some point in time. Joins are common among clay tablets because they may get broken during discovery and transportation. The join is notated with the + sign. For example, if tablets A000 and Z999 are joined, we would express this relationship by grouping them as A000 + Z999 to indicate they are related.
If the fragments are owned, maintained, and cataloged by separate museums then classifying the join relationship is critical for accurate translations.
Cite this page
OMNIKA Foundation Contributors. "BM 17427 / Inanna's Descent." OMNIKA – World Mythology Index, OMNIKA Foundation, 28 Apr. 2019, omnika.org/stable/123. Accessed 1 Jan. 2026.
OMNIKA (2019, April 28). BM 17427 / Inanna's Descent. Retrieved from https://omnika.org/stable/123
OMNIKA Foundation Contributors. "BM 17427 / Inanna's Descent." Las Vegas, NV: OMNIKA Foundation. Created April 28, 2019. Accessed January 1, 2026. https://omnika.org/stable/123.
