A Net Cylinder of Entemena

Owing to the war now raging, a remarkable object of Babylonian antiquity which, in normal times, would have gone to Europe, was brought to the United States and now forms part of the Nies, collection in Brooklyn, N. Y. According to the dealer from whom it was bought, it was found by an Arab belonging to a tribe located between Jokha and Tello. The same man in 1895 is said to have found the famous cone of Entemena published by ThureauL-Dangin in 1898.1 If the word of the dealer is to be accepted, neither the cone nor the net cylinder was found at Tello, but between that site and Jokha. The ancient names for those places were Lagash and Umma. The inscription tells us that a canal named Lummagirnunta, probably the modern Shatt el Hai, formed a boundary between their territories, separating the fields of the god Ningirsu of Lagash from those of the god Shara of Umma, and that on the banks of this canal were set up inscriptions, presumably in the nature of boundary stones, whose purpose it was not only to clearly delimit the territories and to state the conditions upon which peace existed, but also to call down curses of the gods on the invader. In the absence of more definite knowledge, we may, therefore, say that it is not only possible, but probable, that the two inscriptions of Entemena were found on, or near, one of the banks of this canal, where 5000 years ago they surmounted pillars of brick or stone and constituted the NARUA frequently mentioned in the text.2 The American cone or cylinder is light terra-cotta in color, egg-shaped, and hollow, with an opening at one end forming a lip or short neck, and a rounded surface at the other, covered by a design of a net in relief. Its dimensions are: height 20 cm., circumference at widest part 48.5 cm., at narrowest part, round

Cylinder · Geometry · Net (polyhedron) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Near East History · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Mathematics