Kudurru

Kudurru from the reign of Meli-Szipak (1188-1174 p.n.e.) Kudurru (ancient boundary stone, borderline) - in ancient Mesopotamia a stone stela decorated with a relief in the belt composition (figural scenes, symbolic representations) and sometimes containing inscriptions in a wedge letter up to 1 m high, Earth. Well-known since the 3rd millennium BC, common during the reign of Kasyt. Kudurru was usually kept in the temple, and the owner received a copy on a clay tablet. The permanent element of the plate was to place the name of the donor and the recipient, and also to appeal to the gods. Kudurru was the documentary evidence of the royal donations to the royal family and court officials during the reign of Babylonian dynasty in the second half of the second millennium BC. The text of the kudurru repeated the contents of the document of the earth, whose original was written on a sealed clay tablet. The name "boundary stone" comes from the fact that the text gives the exact dimensions and location of the earth. In the following, there are spells addressed to various gods to punish those who would like to destroy this document or change the boundaries of the donation. An essential element of every kudur is the rich set of symbolic representations of deities imagined in several registries of the belt composition. The deities also had to protect the donation, as well as the kudurru itself. In principle the deities presented on the stela were different from those mentioned in the text. Bibliography

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