Istanbul 2461, the Sumerian tablet billed as the oldest love poem, on display in Istanbul with a label naming Nippur as its findspot.
A small clay tablet in Istanbul carries a Sumerian song in a woman’s voice that Guinness World Records lists as the oldest love poem. Museum records call it Istanbul 2461, Assyriologists call the composition Shu-Suen B, and its ancient subscript labels it a balbale of the goddess Inanna. The poem was composed under King Shu-Sin of Ur, about 2037 to 2029 BC, while the surviving tablet is a later Old Babylonian copy from Nippur. Samuel Noah Kramer, Hatice Kızılyay and Muazzez Çığ published it in 1952, and scholars still disagree on whether it is a love song or a text for a sacred marriage rite.
Ancient Content, November 5, 2026
