THE EXALTATION OF INANNA in Sumerian

THE EXALTATION OF INANNA was written in Sumerian by the daughter of Sargon The Great, the High Priestess of Inanna in the city of Ur, a woman by the name of Enheduanna. What you hear in this video, are the first twelve lines of the EXALTATION, sung in Sumerian, and accompanied on a scale replica of the remarkable “Gold Lyre of Ur”, discovered in the 1920’s by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley. Enheduanna was born more than 4,000 years ago, and she is the first named author of a literary work that we know of. Her writings and her history are well documented on the internet, and if you are interested in learning more about her, I refer you to a wonderful website called “enheduana ‘dot’ net”. The “Gold Lyre of Ur”, which I play in the video, is a drone instrument whose lowest note is the same as the lowest note on a concert piano keyboard (A-0 or Hz). These large Sumerian lyres were not appropriate for playing melodies, and according to ancient Sumerian writers, the sound of them wa