CDLI NEWS: Editions of the law codes of Ur-Namma and Lipit-Ishtar

CDLI editions of the law codes of Ur-Namma and Lipit-Ishtar 

From Daniel Foxvog @comcast.net> 

On behalf of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), I am pleased to announce completion of an initial digital capture and annotation of the so-called law codes of Ur-Namma, the first king of the Third Dynasty of Ur (ca. 2112-2095 BC), and of Lipit-Ištar, the fifth king of the First Dynasty of Isin (ca. 1932-1924 BC). Both are in Sumerian, and like their more famous cousin from two centuries later, the Old Babylonian code of Hammurapi, both feature an introductory laudatory prologue, an epilogue containing curses upon anyone who dares to alter or destroy the inscription, and the laws themselves in differing states of preservation. The texts of the Codes of Ur-Namma and Lipit-Ištar are presented not just in composite versions with translation, but also in score (Partitur) editions, showing the composite version with translation followed by the witnesses for each individual line. As with other cuneiform royal inscriptions, the designation of these texts follows that of the RIME series, though in the case of Lipit-Ištar with an artificially generated designation RIME 4.01.05.add10, otherwise chosen by CDLI and by the Oracc initiative ETCSRI to enter texts or witnesses not found in RIME. CDLI further identifies royal texts with alphanumeric designations following the “Qcat” system maintained by Oracc. For the Ur-Namma composite click:http://cdli.ucla.edu/P432130 To see the composite plus all witnesses click there on the composite ID number Q000947 or enter it to the "Composite ID" field of the CDLI search pagehttp://cdli.ucla.edu/search/ For the Lipit-Ištar composite click:http://cdli.ucla.edu/P464355