Discovery and publication

These artifacts were discovered during the Nippur excavations in modern-day Iraq between 1899-1900. Several excavations took place jointly between the University of Pennsylvania and the Ottoman Museum in Turkey. ^[1] The artifacts sat in boxes at the Pennsylvania Museum until Edward Chiera (1885-1933)^[2], a Sumerian scholar who did lots of work on artifacts related to "Inanna's Descent," started publishing pictures of the fragments.

Before passing away in 1933, Chiera was working on publishing his artifact discoveries at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. His work was posthumously published in 1934 in Sumerian Epics and Myths^[3] In this publication were the first images of CBS 12638, CBS 12684, CBS 12702, and CBS 12572 (as plate number 50). Because Chiera only published sketches of the artifacts, it would take several years before other scholars would translate what they meant.

Importance for "Inanna's Descent"

CBS 12638, CBS 12684, CBS 12702, and CBS 12752 were especially important for the decipherment of "Inanna's Descent to the Netherworld." The cuneiform tablets provide a robust snapshot of the first fifty lines, which is almost fifteen percent of the entire 412 line myth. For that reason, these artifacts have been used in almost every major translated publication of Inanna's Descent. In 1942, Samuel Kramer published another translation (and collation) of "Inanna's Descent," where the line numbers were carefully mapped out for these artifacts.^[4] This publication is referred to as PAPS 85 in citations, short for the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society; however, the journal seems to have gone defunct in 2015.^[5]

Kramer also published a revised translation of these artifacts in 1951 (in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies) as part of his many revisions to the myth's decipherment.^[6] This 1951 version of "Inanna's Descent" would remain as the main version of the myth until William R. Sladek published a revised translation in 1974. Even through 2019, these artifacts are used in the current and most reliable versions of the afterlife myth. Additionally, more CBS 12XXX series artifacts have been added to UCLA's ongoing version of "Inanna's Descent."