This hymn describes the great goddess Nisaba as patron deity of scribes and accountants. She carries a lapis lazuli tablet, the colour of the night sky, from which she reads the future through celestial omens. Without her, harvests could not be calculated nor bread and beer offerings apportioned. The first section (1—13) directly addresses Nisaba, describing her many attributes and functions, and relating her especially to the god Enlil. The following lines (14—35) narrate her appointment of an en priest as chief administrator to help her in the management of temple assets. She dwells in the city of Eres in the House of Stars (E-mulmul), also known as the Lapis Lazuli House (E-zagin). This last is also the name of a temple in the mythical eastern city ofAratta (see EnmerkarandEn-suhgir-ana, Group A). In the third part of the composition Enki, the god of wisdom, blesses and praises her (36—55).
Although this particular hymn is formally dedicated not to Nisaba but to her patron Enki, seven other compositions presented in this book are dedicated to her. Four belong to the curricular grouping now known as the Decad (Group J), while the other three were also found on dozens of tablets in the Nibru school House F:
Group A Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana
Group I A supervisor’s advice to a young scribe The instructions of Suruppag
Group J A praise poem of Sulgi The song of the hoe Inana and Ebih GilgameS and Huwawa
The hymn to Nisaba itself belongs to a further curricular grouping known as the Tetrad, which comprises four hymns in simple Sumerian which were occasionally used as a stepping stone between the elementary curriculum and the Decad. Eight ofthe first nine lines of the hymn are also attested on a stone tablet from late third-millennium Lagas, while several much older compositions from Suruppag and Abu l? alabikh are dedicated to Nisaba as well.
World History
