Instructions of Shuruppak
E212541
The Instructions of Shuruppak is an early Sumerian wisdom text consisting of father-to-son advice on proper conduct, often regarded as one of the oldest known works of literature.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Instructions of Shuruppak canonical | 2 |
| Instructions of Ur-Ninurta | 1 |
| The Instructions of Shuruppak | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1900894 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Instructions of Shuruppak Context triple: [Sumer, producedWork, Instructions of Shuruppak]
-
A.
Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur is an ancient Sumerian artifact from around 2600–2400 BCE, a richly inlaid wooden box depicting scenes of war and peace that offers key insights into early Mesopotamian society.
-
B.
Lachish ewer inscription
The Lachish ewer inscription is an early Proto-Canaanite text engraved on a pottery vessel from ancient Lachish, often cited as one of the oldest known examples of alphabetic writing in the Levant.
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C.
Code of Ur-Nammu
The Code of Ur-Nammu is one of the oldest known law codes in history, originating from ancient Sumer under the rule of King Ur-Nammu and outlining early principles of justice and social order.
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D.
Mesha Stele
The Mesha Stele is an ancient Moabite stone inscription from the 9th century BCE that records King Mesha’s victories and is one of the most important early sources for the history and language of the Levant.
-
E.
annals of Tiglath-Pileser III
The annals of Tiglath-Pileser III are a series of Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions that record the military campaigns, political achievements, and imperial expansion of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BCE.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Instructions of Shuruppak Target entity description: The Instructions of Shuruppak is an early Sumerian wisdom text consisting of father-to-son advice on proper conduct, often regarded as one of the oldest known works of literature.
-
A.
Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur is an ancient Sumerian artifact from around 2600–2400 BCE, a richly inlaid wooden box depicting scenes of war and peace that offers key insights into early Mesopotamian society.
-
B.
Lachish ewer inscription
The Lachish ewer inscription is an early Proto-Canaanite text engraved on a pottery vessel from ancient Lachish, often cited as one of the oldest known examples of alphabetic writing in the Levant.
-
C.
Code of Ur-Nammu
The Code of Ur-Nammu is one of the oldest known law codes in history, originating from ancient Sumer under the rule of King Ur-Nammu and outlining early principles of justice and social order.
-
D.
Mesha Stele
The Mesha Stele is an ancient Moabite stone inscription from the 9th century BCE that records King Mesha’s victories and is one of the most important early sources for the history and language of the Levant.
-
E.
annals of Tiglath-Pileser III
The annals of Tiglath-Pileser III are a series of Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions that record the military campaigns, political achievements, and imperial expansion of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BCE.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Mesopotamian text
ⓘ
Sumerian wisdom text ⓘ ancient Near Eastern literature ⓘ didactic literature ⓘ |
| addressee | Ziusudra ⓘ |
| addresseeRole | son ⓘ |
| aim | to teach proper behavior to the next generation ⓘ |
| approximateDate |
Early Dynastic period
ⓘ
early 3rd millennium BCE ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Mesopotamian flood myth cycle
ⓘ
Ziusudra flood tradition ⓘ |
| attributedTo | Shuruppak ⓘ |
| characterRole | father ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Sumer ⓘ |
| culture | Sumerian ⓘ |
| describedAs |
father-to-son advice text
ⓘ
one of the oldest known works of literature ⓘ |
| ethicalOrientation | conservative social ethics ⓘ |
| genre | wisdom literature ⓘ |
| hasStructure | series of short maxims ⓘ |
| influenced |
Akkadian wisdom traditions
ⓘ
later Mesopotamian wisdom literature ⓘ |
| language | Sumerian ⓘ |
| literaryCategory | preceptive text ⓘ |
| literaryForm |
didactic instructions
ⓘ
proverbial sayings ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
ethical behavior
ⓘ
proper conduct ⓘ social norms ⓘ |
| material | clay ⓘ |
| narrativeFrame | advice from father to son ⓘ |
| periodOfComposition | Early Dynastic III period ⓘ |
| preservedOn | clay tablets ⓘ |
| region | ancient Mesopotamia ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Counsels of Wisdom
ⓘ
Instructions of Shuruppak self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
Instructions of Ur-Ninurta
|
| scholarlyField | Assyriology ⓘ |
| script | cuneiform ⓘ |
| studiedIn | Sumerology ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
family relations
ⓘ
honesty ⓘ justice ⓘ piety ⓘ proper speech ⓘ relations with neighbors ⓘ respect for property ⓘ |
| titleInEnglish | Instructions of Shuruppak self-link ⓘ |
| transmission | copied in scribal schools ⓘ |
| usedFor | scribal education ⓘ |
| writingSystem | Sumerian cuneiform ⓘ |
| writingTechnique | inscribed with a stylus ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Instructions of Shuruppak Description of subject: The Instructions of Shuruppak is an early Sumerian wisdom text consisting of father-to-son advice on proper conduct, often regarded as one of the oldest known works of literature.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
The Instructions of Shuruppak
this entity surface form:
Instructions of Ur-Ninurta