Lament for Nippur

The Lament for Nippur, or the Lament for Nibru, is a Sumerian lament, also known by its incipit tur3 me nun-e ("After the cattle pen...").

[2] It is dated to the Old Babylonian Empire (c. 1900–1600 BCE).

[3] It is preserved in Penn Museum on tablet CBS13856.

[5] The Lament is composed of 9 kirugu (sections, songs) and 8 gišgigal (antiphons) followed by 3 more kirugu.

Numbered by kirugu, the lament is structured as follows: It includes passages in the emesal, a sociolect used by high-status women, showing the importance of women's voices in city laments; emesal is also found in the Lament for Ur.

Remains of the Ekur (mountain temple) in Nippur: the Lament reads, The brickwork of E-kur gave you only tears and lamentation -- it sings a bitter song of the proper cleansing-rites that are forgotten! It weeps bitter tears over the splendid rites and most precious plans which are desecrated -- its most sacred food rations neglected and ...... into funeral offerings, it cries "Alas!". The temple despairs of its divine powers, utterly cleansed, pure, hallowed, which are now defiled! [ 1 ]
Statuette of the storm god Enlil from Nippur, c. 1800–1600 BCE .
Map of Mesopotamia around the time of the writing of the Lament for Nippur