Artifact overview
HS 1480, 1580, & 2505 is an artifact (Clay Tablet) related to the mythological story named 'Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld.' The artifact's condition is Just OK and it is currently located at University of Jena Museum, Hilprecht Collection in Jena, Germany, catalogued as record number HS 1480. 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 | Just OK |
| Date created | 1900—1600 BCE |
| Language | Sumerian |
| Writing system | Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform (script) |
| Location | University of Jena Museum University of Jena Museum, Hilprecht Collection · Jena, Germany |
| Myth portion | Various lines |
Provenience
| Discovery | Nippur, Sumer Present-day Al-Qādisiyyah, Iraq |
Museum record data
University of Jena Museum
University of Jena Museum, Hilprecht Collection · Jena, Germany
Item specifications
| Museum No. | HS 1480 |
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. | P345597 |
| Composite No. | Q000343 |
| Period | Old Babylonian (ca. 1900-1600 BC) |
| Provenience (origin) | Nippur (mod. Nuffar) |
| Primary publication | CDLI Literary 000343, ex. 031 |
| Author/date | CDLI/2014ff |
HS 1480, 1580, and 2505 are clay cuneiform tablets containing lines 3-57 (column I), 55-95 (column II), 124-173 (column III), and 185-236 (column IV) of the Sumerian afterlife myth titled "Inanna's Descent to the Nether World." The significant line count makes it a very important artifact for the afterlife myth. The tablet is located at the University of Jena in Germany and was first translated by Samuel N. Kramer and Inez Bernhardt in 1961.
Publications
Samuel N. Kramer and Inez Bernhard published a translation of tablets HS 1480, 1580, and 2505 in 1961 as part of a two-series volume on Sumerian literature.[1] Kramer subsequently published a photograph of the tablets in 1961.[2] These tablets provide four columns of text and almost 200 lines of "Inanna's Descent," making them one of the most important ones for the translation of the entire myth.
Notes
Extended artifact data for HS 1480
See detailed information about this artifact from the entity that has access to it.
Location description
- University of Jena Museum Jena, Germany
Full address: University of Jena Museum, Universitätshauptgebäude: Fürstengraben 1, Jena, 07743, Germany
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Record numbers
| No. | Unknown |
| Artifact access | Other |
Full artifact data
| Collection | Hilprecht Collection |
Record notes
About these data
| Retrieval date | Aug. 11, 2022 |
| Copyright | University of Jena 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 P345597
The artifact named HS 1480, 1580, & 2505 is listed in the CDLI database as record number P345597. 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 'HS 1480' is appraised as being in Just OK 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. "HS 1480, 1580, & 2505 (Clay Tablets)." OMNIKA – World Mythology Index, OMNIKA Foundation, 01 May. 2019, omnika.org/stable/115. Accessed 12 May. 2024.
OMNIKA (2019, May 01). HS 1480, 1580, & 2505 (Clay Tablets). Retrieved from https://omnika.org/stable/115
OMNIKA Foundation Contributors. "HS 1480, 1580, & 2505 (Clay Tablets)." Las Vegas, NV: OMNIKA Foundation. Created May 01, 2019. Accessed May 12, 2024. https://omnika.org/stable/115.
