The Macehead of Mesilim
Artifact: Macehead, stone
Provenience: Girsu, modern Tello
Period: ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)
Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris
Text genre, language: Royal inscription; Sumerian
CDLI page
Description: This limestone ceremonial macehead was excavated near the end of the of the 19th century by Ernest de Sarzec at Tello (ancient Girsu). The inscription evidences a multi-tiered political system among the city-states of the Early Dynastic periods. In the short inscription, Me-Selim, referred to as lugal (king) of Kish, built a temple of Ningirsu (patron god of Lagash). Lugal-shag-engur is also recorded as the ensi of Lagash. (See also Me-Selim’s role in the Umma-Lagash border conflict text above).
Lineart:
Edition(s): Sarzec Édouard de, Découvertes en Chaldée, Paris, Leroux, 1884-1912, pp. 223-6.; Frayne, Douglas R. Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: Early Periods. 2007. RIME 1.08.01.01, ex. 01
