ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the translation from Sumerian into Akkadian of Sumerian texts that function as both sacred and literary texts, the interaction between these translations and theology, and textual transmission and canonization in Ancient Mesopotamia. Although many languages were spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, the official languages were only Sumerian and Akkadian. Starting from the Old-Babylonian period, the Mesopotamian scribes began to translate the Sumerian literary heritage into Akkadian. On the one hand, the practice of translation gave rise to a sort of canonization around the middle of the second millennium BCE. On the other hand, due to a certain amount of freedom in translating, the source (Sumerian) texts were partially manipulated. The manipulations in translating were never accidental: they were rather aimed at adjusting the source text to the target culture, theology and context, as it is particularly evident in the Sumerian poem called Lugal-e, where lines between translation and interpretation are blurred.
