Apr 26, 2025
Check out my Assyriological Projects!
-> https://history299.floraenfrances.com/ (sumerian death culture via mythic literature)
-> https://floraenfrances.com/Sumerology/#
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Check out my Assyriological Projects!
-> https://history299.floraenfrances.com/ (sumerian death culture via mythic literature)
-> https://floraenfrances.com/Sumerology/#
I'm low-key losing it, do you have any idea what the abbreviation RIMI, by Christopher B.F. Walker 1981, might refer to? CDLI lists it as having the publications of a bunch of Middle Elamite stuff (such as this lovely iron ring) but all I can find is Walker 1981, Cuneiform Brick Inscriptions in the British Museum. I figured it might be some long-lost Iranian RIME spin-off but no hits for that. I've checked the AfO register and there's nothing. Any clue?
Hello! Sometimes an ask leads me on a deeper hunt than I ever expected.
I also couldn't find a reference for RIMI - but based on the pattern of other Royal Inscription of Mesopotamia projects (a series of publications from the University of Toronto), my best guess is that the I does stand for Iranian. Here's an Oracc article on the history and significance of royal inscriptions, with citations to several of the publications.
I ended up reaching out to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where the ring you linked is housed. After a couple calls referring me to different departments, I learned that RIMI is almost certainly a translation project in the RIM series that C.B.F. Walker never finished or published. I'm not sure why it's listed as 1981, since the MFA's records have "no date (of publication)". 1981 is also before the MFA acquired the ring in 1985, and they have no known translation work done on it since then - so it's possible the only person who's every translated the text on the ring is Walker himself.
They did refer me to one other reference about this ring, though, also from 1981 - Muscarella's article on Surkh Dum excavations in the Journal of Field Archaeology (JStor link, the ring section is p. 344). I can't tell exactly what ring in that article is referring to this particular one, but one is mentioned as having the inscription dingir-mesh (Sumerian for "they are gods" or "... are the gods"), which Muscarella says is "part of a prayer invoking the gods." On the rings, Muscarella cites Porada 1964 ("Nomads and Luristan Bronzes", which I can't find a link for, but you can find a description of her work in this 1989 Encyclopaedia Iranica article).
Circling back to Walker, he was a curator of Western Asiatic antiquities at the British Museum, so I reached out to them next. I learned that they don't keep contact info for retired staff members, and I don't know of another way to contact him (or even where he is now). Unfortunately this is a frequent issue I've encountered in Mesopotamian research - somebody works on things, doesn't end up publishing, and then retires or changes field, taking everything with them.
If there's an Elamite expert who might have any other leads, please let me know! (And special thanks to Paul at the MFA Boston library for your help in this search!)
Most fuckable sumerian hero
Gilgamesh, king of Uruk
Enkidu, wild man
Shamhat, sacred prostitute
Umbaba, forest demon
Utnapishtim, inmortal old man
One of the most annoying things about translating new cuneiform texts has got to be finding all the parallels, like I know I've seen this line before but where in the thousands upon thousands of texts out there was it??
Me: a certified sumerologist, been reading and writing sumerian for 6 years
Also me: takes an hour to analyse only two lines of text 😭
Enheduanna drinking game where you take a sip every time she mentions lions or bulls..not a shot cause you would fucking die
Hace mucho tiempo que mi amigo @ozgurulker_art nos ha tomado esa foto que es una joya para mi,un momento que vale más que las palabras. Mujer que tu eres y serás un orgullo,un ejemplo para seguir. Que Dios te guarde,como te admiro. #muazzezilmiyeçığ #sümerolog #sumerológia #sumerology #historia #asurologie #mesopotamia #civilization #urukagina #gilgamesh #akad #babilon #babil #escritura #saggiga #love (Estambul, Turquía) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkxuC0crGqp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Sumero: Ergativo Absolutivo