I wanted to practice my cuneiform writing on smaller projects before attempting a larger tablet I want to make soon, so I made a couple smaller things over the weekend.
The first is a “magickal” amulet meant to keep people (by “people” I mean my husband) out of the room while I’m doing ritual work. Or if I just feel like being alone. It has many uses! The cuneiform says “kita ĝena,” 𒆠𒋫 𒁺𒈾, which means “go away” (lit. “leave from here!”). I found this translation on a Tumblr blog called Sumerian Language. I put a hole with a ribbon through it so it can be hanged on the door.
I didn’t actually do any type of magickal working on it. It’s really more of a “privacy please” sign. If you need magick to keep the people you live with out when you need alone time, you should probably find new people…
The second tablet says 𒁲𒄳, “Hello world!” I made it for my husband, who is a programmer. I just thought it was amusing to use the world’s first written language to make a representation of the first program everyone ever makes when learning a new programming language because I’m a dork. It is transliterated as “silim gulkin.” Silim, 𒁲, was used as a greeting, and literally means “to be healthy.” Gulkin, 𒄳, means “inhabited world.”
I found the “Hello World” translation on the same Tumblr blog as above. That blog seems really good for finding translations of things that are useful in the modern world. It appears that the author there frequently takes translation requests from other Tumblr users.
While making these tablets, I also figured out that this particular clay I am using requires about 3600 times more water than I think I should use while forming the tablets to prevent cracking (the air in my house is very dry). I’m still working on my technique, but I’m confident I can get them to actually look nice eventually. I’ll probably try a different brand of clay that someone recommended to me on FaceBook after I run out of my current supply, however.