He is attested chiefly in sources from the state of Lagash, including Early Dynastic offering lists and the cylinders of Gudea.
[3] However, Gebhard J. Selz [de] argues that based on the pairing of this god with the deity dnin-ùr in offering lists from Lagash suggests that his name initially might have been depended on another meaning of the sign dub, "to smooth", which was an antonym of ùr, "to pile up".
[4] Based on Nindub's role in the literary text inscribed on the cylinders of Gudea it is presumed that he functioned as a divine exorcist.
[2] However, only two references to him are known from the Old Babylonian period, and both of them are entries in god lists presumed to reflect more archaic compositions belonging to this genre.
[12] In the case of the Mari god list, the reading dnin-dub suggested by Grégoire Nicolet (as opposed to dnin-UM originally proposed by Wilfred G. Lambert) depends on the proximity of Ninmada, who like Nindub appears in the text known from the cylinders of Gudea.