Hello to the forum,

I have a question to the phrase

KA-al-ka (uri3 ba-mul),

occuring often in Gudea inscriptions.

Steible in FAOS 9 reads zu2-al-ka ... "auf der Zinke der Hacke".
Others, i.g. Averbeck, state a Word ka-al "Lehmgrube" (so after the Zettelkasten).

I personally (and beinag a Steible pupil) would read:
ka-al-ka < *ka-al-ak-a "on the ka of the al",
and taking ka = akk. puu "mouth", which can mean the blade of a dagger, so it would mean the "Schneide" of the hoe (al).
I imagine the whole as describing a ritual, where the hoe is especially polished or so, shinig clearly like the sun or the stars.

But I also remember akk. kalakku "excavation", also as geometrical term in mathematical Texts.

Maybe per extensionem was the ritual, being performed with the hoe, at the location of the clay pit where the clay for brick-making was taken, later be meant to describe the location for the ritual, but the ritual itself no longer perforemed with the hoe.

I´d be very happy about suggestions on how to read.

Andrea

Perhaps this would help: Heimpel, JNES 46 (1987), 207f. (reads KA as ka, in a somewhat similar sense to your understanding)