__NOTOC__ The Instructions of

Shuruppak Shuruppak ( , SU.KUR.RUki, "the healing place"), modern Tell Fara, was an ancient Sumerian city situated about 55 kilometres (35 mi) south of Nippur and 30 kilometers north of ancient Uruk on the banks of the Euphrates in Iraq's Al-Qādisiy ...

(or, ''Instructions of Šuruppak son of Ubara-tutu'') are a significant example of

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

ian wisdom literature. Wisdom literature, intended to teach proper piety, inculcate

virtue A virtue () is a trait of excellence, including traits that may be morality, moral, social, or intellectual. The cultivation and refinement of virtue is held to be the "good of humanity" and thus is Value (ethics), valued as an Telos, end purpos ...

, and preserve community standards, was common throughout the

ancient Near East The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Nea ...

. Its

incipit The incipit ( ) of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of Musical note, notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin an ...

sets the text in great antiquity: "In those days, in those far remote times, in those nights, in those faraway nights, in those years, in those far remote years." The precepts are placed in the mouth of a king Šuruppak (SU.KUR.RU^ki), son of Ubara-Tutu. Ubara-Tutu is recorded in most extant copies of the ''

Sumerian King List The ''Sumerian King List'' (abbreviated ''SKL'') or ''Chronicle of the One Monarchy'' is an ancient Composition (language), literary composition written in Sumerian language, Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims ...

'' as being the final king of Sumer prior to the

deluge A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood. The Deluge refers to the flood narrative in the biblical book of Genesis. Deluge or Le Déluge may also refer to: History *Deluge (history), the Swedish and Russian invasion of the Polish-L ...

. Ubara-tutu is briefly mentioned in tablet XI of the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...

'', where he is identified as the father of Utnapishtim, a character who is instructed by the god Ea to build a boat in order to survive the coming flood. Grouped with the other

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

tablets from Abu Salabikh, the ''Instructions'' date to the early third millennium BCE, being among the oldest surviving literature. The text consists of admonitory sayings of Šuruppak addressed to his son and eventual flood hero

Ziusudra Ziusudra ( ��i₂-u₄-sud-ra₂ , ) of Shuruppak is listed in the WB-62 Sumerian King List recension as the last king of Sumer prior to the Great Flood. He is subsequently recorded as the hero of the Eridu Genesis and appears in the writin ...

( Akkadian: Utnapishtin). Otherwise named as one of the five antediluvian cities in the Sumerian tradition, the name "Šuruppak" appears in one manuscript of the ''

'' (WB-62, written SU.KUR.LAM) where it is interpolated as an additional generation between Ubara-Tutu and Ziusudra, who are in every other instance father and son. Lambert reports that it has been suggested the interpolation may have arisen through an epithet of the father ("man of Shuruppak") having been taken wrongly for a proper name. However, this epithet, found in the Gilgamesh XI tablet, is a designation applied to Utnapishtim, not his father. The Abu Salabikh tablet, dated to the midthird millennium BCE, is the oldest extant copy, and the numerous surviving copies attest to its continued popularity within the Sumerian/Akkadian literary canons. Counsels in the three conjoined lists are pithy, occupying one to three lines of cuneiform. Some counsel is purely practical: ''You should not locate a field on a road;... You should not make a well in your field: people will cause damage on it for you'' (lines 15–18). Moral precepts are followed by the negative practical results of transgression: ''You should not play around with a married young woman: the slander could be serious'' (lines 32–34). Community opinion and the possibility of slander (line 35) play a major role, whether the valued opinion of "the courtyard" (line 62) or the less valued opinion of the marketplace, where ''insults and stupid speaking receive the attention of the land'' (line 142). The ''Instructions'' contain precepts that reflect those later included in the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

,The Schoyen Collection website
notes, from a Neo-Sumerian tablet of ca. 1900–1700 BCE: line 50: ''Do not curse with powerful means'' (3rd Commandment); line 28: ''Do not kill'' (6th Commandment); lines 33–34: ''Do not laugh with or sit alone in a chamber with a girl that is married'' (7th Commandment); lines 28–31: ''Do not steal or commit robbery'' (8th Commandment); and line 36: ''Do not spit out lies'' (9th Commandment). and other sayings that are reflected in the

biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

Book of Proverbs The Book of Proverbs (, ; , ; , "Proverbs (of Solomon)") is a book in the third section (called Ketuvim) of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)/the Christian Old Testament. It is traditionally ascribed to King Solomon and his students. When translated into ...

References

External links

{{sisterlinks, d=Q3823132, n=no, b=no, v=no, voy=no, m=no, mw=no, wikt=no, s=no, c=Instructions of Shurrupak
(The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature): ''The Instructions of Shuruppag'' English translation of composite text
an

3rd-millennium BC books Ancient Near East wisdom literature Kish civilization Shuruppak Sumerian literature

See also

References

Further reading

External links