Artifact overview
Ni 9685 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 Istanbul Archaeology Museums in Istanbul, Turkey, catalogued as record number Ni 9685. 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 | Istanbul Archaeology Museums Istanbul Archaeology Museums · Istanbul, Turkey |
| Digital access | CDLI No. P356898 Partially digitized |
Provenience
| Discovery | Nippur, Sumer Present-day Al-Qādisiyyah, Iraq |
Museum record data
Istanbul Archaeology Museums
Istanbul Archaeology Museums · Istanbul, Turkey
Item specifications
| Museum No. | Ni 9685 |
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. | P356898 |
| Composite No. | Q000343 |
| Period | Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC) |
| Provenience (origin) | Nippur, Iraq |
| Primary publication | CDLI Literary 000343, ex. 053 |
| Author/date | CDLI/2014ff. |
Ni 9685 (clay tablet) is a clay cuneiform tablet that contains lines 107-22 (obverse) and 129-50 (reverse) of a Sumerian afterlife myth titled "Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld." This artifact was first published by Samuel N. Kramer in 1950 where he provided sketches and a revised translation of the myth.
Discovery and publication
The Ni 9685 clay tablet was discovered in Nippur (modern-day central Iraq) during expeditions in the 1890s. The Ottoman empire (country of Turkey) took ownership of the artifact and for that reason it is likely still at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. Samuel N. Kramer, a well-known Sumerian scholar, travelled to Istanbul on a fellowship in the 1940s and copied the artifact's contents. He published his findings in a 1950 translation of "Inanna's Descent."[1] This publication also contained the first translation of a tablet named YBC 4621 (also called the "Yale tablet," and later renamed to YPM BC 018686), which was a critical artifact towards the decipherment of "Inanna's Descent." This latter tablet contained almost ninety lines of the myth and helped resolve many ambiguities about the meaning of key passages.
Notes
Extended artifact data for Ni 9685
See detailed information about this artifact from the entity that has access to it.
Location description
- Istanbul Archaeology Museums Istanbul, Turkey
Full address: Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Cankurtaran Mh., Istanbul, Faith, 34122, Turkey
Welcome to the Muze Istanbul, which has a complete guide to museums and archeological treasures in Istanbul. Istanbul is full of history and culture so it is no wonder some of the best museums in the world are located in Turkey. We dedicated to provide complete and up-to-date information about Istanbul's historical places and museums. We are gaining ground steadily along the way to take ownership of museums and archaeological sites, which we consider as the most important social responsibility project in Turkey, and to make and develop museums that live as far as we can. Preserving Istanbul's historical heritage and showcasing the historic legacy of Turkey are the guiding principles of our directorate. Whether you're looki...
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Record numbers
| No. | Unknown |
| Digitized record | CDLI No. P356898 |
| Artifact access | Unknown |
Full artifact data
| Museum No. | Ist Ni 09685 |
| Period | Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC) |
| Material | Clay |
| Genre | Literary |
| Usable Lines | ca. 31 |
| Language | Sumerian Cuneiform |
| Provenience (Origin) | Nippur, Iraq |
| Notes | Original publication: Kramer, Samuel N. “’Inanna’s Descent to the Nether World’ Continued and Revised.” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 4, no. 4 (1950): 199-214. [A sketch is available on page 214] |
Record notes
About these data
| Retrieval date | Aug. 11, 2022 |
| Copyright | Istanbul Archaeology Museums |
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.
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 P356898
The artifact named Ni 9685 is listed in the CDLI database as record number P356898. 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. 11, 2022 |
| Copyright | CDLI @ UCLA |
Artifact condition
The artifact named 'Ni 9685' 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. "Ni 9685 / Inanna's Descent." OMNIKA – World Mythology Index, OMNIKA Foundation, 19 Jun. 2019, omnika.org/stable/189. Accessed 1 Jan. 2026.
OMNIKA (2019, June 19). Ni 9685 / Inanna's Descent. Retrieved from https://omnika.org/stable/189
OMNIKA Foundation Contributors. "Ni 9685 / Inanna's Descent." Las Vegas, NV: OMNIKA Foundation. Created June 19, 2019. Accessed January 1, 2026. https://omnika.org/stable/189.
