Sumerian king list

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Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates · Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Uruk · Ur · Eridu
Kish · Lagash · Nippur
Akkadian Empire: Akkad
Babylon · Isin · Susa
Assyria: Assur · Nineveh
Dur-Sharrukin · Nimrud
Babylonia · Chaldea
Elam · Amorites
Hurrians · Mitanni
Kassites · Urartu
Chronology
Kings of Sumer
Kings of Assyria
Kings of Babylon
Language
Aramaic
Sumerian · Akkadian
Elamite · Hurrian
Mythology
Enûma Elish
Gilgamesh · Marduk

The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language listing kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties. The later Babylonian king list and Assyrian king list were similar.

Contents

The list records the location of the "official" kingship and the rulers, with the lengths of their rule. The kingship was believed to be handed down by the gods, and could be passed from one city to another by military conquest. The list mentions only one female ruler: Kug-Baba, the tavern-keeper, who alone accounts for the third dynasty of Kish.

The list peculiarly blends antediluvian or mythological kings with exceptionally long reigns, into more plausibly historical dynasties. It cannot be ruled out that most of the earliest names in the list correspond to historical rulers who later became legendary figures.

The first name on the list whose existence has been authenticated through recent archaeological discoveries, is that of Enmebaragesi of Kish, whose name is also mentioned in the Gilgamesh epics. This has led some to suggest that Gilgamesh himself was a historical king of Uruk, who ruled sometime around 2600 BC in the First Dynasty of Uruk. Additionally, Dumuzi is one of the spellings of the name of the god of nature, Tammuz, whose usual epithet was the fisherman or the shepherd.

Conspicuously absent from this list are the priest-rulers of Lagash, who are known directly from inscriptions from ca. the 25th century BC. Another early ruler in the list who is clearly historical is Lugal-Zage-Si of Uruk of the 23rd century BC, who conquered Lagash, and who was in turn conquered by Sargon of Akkad.

The list is central, for lack of a more accurate source, to the chronology of the 3rd millennium BC. However, the presence in the list of dynasties which plausibly reigned simultaneously, but in different cities, makes it impossible to trust the addition of the figures to produce a strict chronology. Taking this into account, many regnal dates have been revised in recent years, and are generally placed much later nowadays than the regnal dates given in older publications, sometimes by an entire millennium. Some have proposed re-reading the units given in more realistic numbers, such as taking the figures, given in sars (units of 3600) for the antediluvians, as instead being either decades or simply years. Uncertainty, especially as to the duration of the Gutian period, also makes dates for events predating the Third dynasty of Ur (ca. 21st century BC) with any accuracy practically impossible (see also Shulgi, Ur-Nammu).

Some of the earliest known inscriptions containing the list date from the early 3rd millennium BC; for example, the Weld-Blundell Prism is dated to 2170 BC. The later Babylonian and Assyrian king lists that were based on it still preserved the earliest portions of the list well into the 3rd century BC, when Berossus popularised the list in the Hellenic world. Over the large period of time involved, the names inevitably became corrupted, and Berossus' Greek version of the list, ironically one of the earliest to be known to modern academics, exhibits particularly odd transcriptions of the names.

Ante-diluvian kings, legendary, or earlier than ca. the 26th century BC. Their rules are measured in sars - periods of 3600 years - the next unit up after 60 in Sumerian counting (3600 = 60x60), and in ners - units of 600.

"After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu(g). In Eridu(g), Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years."

1:These two names are present on slightly over half of the versions of the sumerian king lists, but not on others.

2:In the place of En-Men-Ana in some versions of the list is the name Kichu-Ana

ca. 26th century BC. Many rulers known from contemporary inscriptions are not found in the King Lists.

"After the flood had swept over, and the kingship had descended from heaven, the kingship was in Kish."

Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to E-ana.

Mesh-ki-ang-gasher went into the Sea and disappeared.

Then Uruk was defeated and the kingship was taken to Urim.

ca. 25th century BC

Then Urim was defeated and the kingship was taken to Awan.

[The 1st Dynasty of Lagash is not mentioned in the King List, though it is well known from inscriptions.]

  • Three kings of Awan, ruling for a total of 356 years.

Then Awan was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish.

Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to Hamazi.

Then Hamazi was defeated and the kingship was taken to Unug.

Then Unug was defeated and the kingship was taken to Urim.

Then Urim was defeated and the kingship was taken to Adab.

Then Adab was defeated and the kingship was taken to Mari.

  • Anbu of Mari: 30 years
  • Anba of Mari: 17 years
  • Bazi of Mari: 30 years
  • Zizi of Mari: 20 years
  • Limer of Mari, the gudu priest: 30 years
  • Sharrum-Iter of Mari: 9 years

Then Mari was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish.

  • Kug-Baba of Kish, the woman tavern-keeper, who made firm the foundations of Kish: 100 years
(the only woman in the King Lists)

Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to Akshak.

Then Akshak was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish.

Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to Unug.

(2259 BC–2235 BC short chronology) defeated Lagash.

  • Sargon, whose father was a gardener, the cupbearer of Ur-Zababa, the king (first emperor) of Agade, who built Agade: 40 years
(ca. 2235 BC short chronology)

Then who was king? Who was the king?

Then Agade was defeated and the kingship was taken to Unug.

(Possibly rulers of lower Mesopotamia contemporary with the dynasty of Akkad)

Unug was defeated and the kingship was taken to the army of Gutium.

In the army of Gutium, at first no king was famous; they were their own kings and ruled thus for 3 years

  • Utu-hegal of Unug: conflicting dates (427 years / 26 years / 7 years)
drives out the Gutians

"Sumerian Renaissance"

ruled ca. 2065 BC–2047 BC short chronology.
ruled ca. 2047 BC–1999 BC short chronology.

Then Urim was defeated. The very foundation of Sumer was torn out (?). The kingship was taken to Isin.

Independent Amorite states in lower Mesopotamia. The dynasty ends at ca. 1730 BC short chronology.

There are 11 cities in which the kingship was exercised. A total of 134 kings, who altogether ruled for 28876 + X years.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_king_list"
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