SIPA (shepherd)

The antediluvian section is not an original part of the Sumerian king list but was added later.

According to the Sumerian king list, there are only two kings called "shepherd" after the flood: Etana "shepherd" and ^dLugal-banda "shepherd."

Sumerian: sipa(d) = shepherd

Proto-cuneiform SI

Gebelein painted linen, Gebelein, ca. 3600 BC

Proto-cuneiform PAP~b

A man harpooning a hippopotamus in the muzzle on C-Ware bowl, Naqada IA-IIB period

Drawing of the rock inscription tableau near the mouth of the Wadi of the Horus Qa-a, late Naqada II period

HK6 (the elite cemetery) Tomb 54 at Hierakonpolis contained at least 6 large, castrated male sheep. One individual was polled, while four others were of the corkscrew-horn type, but their horns were not oriented in the natural, lateral direction. Instead, the horns had been intentionally manipulated to grow upwards and in three cases this resulted in upright, parallel horns.

Cylinder seal impression, Uruk, End of the 4th millennium BC

HK6 Tomb 58 at Hierakonpolis contained a sheep buried with the tasseled textiles and fragments of delicately woven leather.

Tasseled textiles and fragments of delicately woven leather

References:

https://cdli-gh.github.io/proto-cuneiform_signs/
https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/S_17138
https://ponda.org/object/C-0556
https://collezioni.museoegizio.it/en-GB/material/S_17138
https://egyptology.yale.edu/expeditions/past-and-joint-projects/theban-desert-road-survey-yale-toshka-desert-survey/alamat-tal/wadi-of-the-horus-qa-a
https://www.hierakonpolis-online.org/files/hk_nn/nn-24-2012.pdf
https://id.smb.museum/object/1744439

December 28, 2024 Takahiko Nakagawa