Sumerian King List

The Sumerian King List is an ancient text in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of the kingship. This text is preserved in several recensions. The list of kings is sequential, although modern research indicates many were contemporaries, reflecting the belief that kingship was handed down by the gods and could be transferred from one city to another, asserting to a hegemony in the region.[1]

The Weld-Blundell Prism, inscribed with the Sumerian King List

The final attested version of the King List, dating to the Middle Bronze Age, aimed to legitimize Isin's claims to hegemony when Isin competed for dominance with Larsa and other neighboring city-states in southern Mesopotamia.[1][2]

Composition

The list blends prehistorical, presumably mythical predynastic rulers enjoying implausibly lengthy reigns with later, more plausibly historical dynasties. Although the primal kings are historically unattested, that does not preclude their possible correspondence with historical rulers who were later mythicized. Some Assyriologists view the predynastic kings as a later fictional addition.[1][3] Only one ruler listed is known to be female: Kug-Bau "the (female) tavern-keeper", who alone accounts for the Third Dynasty of Kish. The earliest listed ruler whose historicity has been archaeologically verified is Enmebaragesi of Kish, c. 2600 BC. Reference to him and his successor, Aga of Kish, in the Epic of Gilgamesh has led to speculation that Gilgamesh himself may have been a historical king of Uruk. Three dynasties are absent from the list: the Larsa dynasty, which vied for power with the (included) Isin dynasty during the Isin-Larsa period; and the two dynasties of Lagash, which respectively preceded and ensued the Akkadian Empire, when Lagash exercised considerable influence in the region. Lagash, in particular, is known directly from archaeological artifacts dating from c. 2500 BC. The list is important to the chronology of the 3rd millennium BC. However, the fact that many of the dynasties listed reigned simultaneously from varying localities makes it difficult to reproduce a strict linear chronology.[1]

Sources

The following extant ancient sources contain the Sumerian King List or portions of it:

The Weld-Blundell Prism, inscribed with the Sumerian King List

Apkullu-list (W.20030,7)
Babyloniaca of Berossus
Dynastic Chronicle (ABC 18)[4] including copies, K 11261+ and K 12054
Kish Tablet
UCBC 9-1819 ("California Tablet")
WB 62
WB 444 (Weld-Blundell Prism)[5][6]
Nippur fragment (Ni. 3195)

The two sources marked WB are a part of the "Weld-Blundell collection", donated by Herbert Weld Blundell to the Ashmolean Museum. WB 62 is a small clay tablet, inscribed only on one side, unearthed from Larsa. It is the oldest dated source, at c. 2000 BC, that contains the list.[7] WB 444, in contrast, is a unique inscribed vertical prism,[1][8][9][10] dated c. 1817 BC, although some scholars prefer c. 1827 BC.[11] The Kish Tablet or Scheil dynastic tablet is an early 2nd millennium BC tablet which came into possession of Jean-Vincent Scheil, but only contains list entries for four Sumerian cities.[12] UCBC 9-1819 is a clay tablet housed in the collection of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California.[13] The tablet was inscribed during the reign of the Babylonian King Samsu-iluna, or slightly earlier, with the earliest date of 1712 BC.[14] The Dynastic Chronicle (ABC 18) is a Babylonian king list written on six columns, beginning with entries for the antediluvian (prior to the flood) Sumerian rulers. K 11261+[15] is one of the copies of this chronicle, consisting of three joined Neo-Assyrian fragments discovered at the Library of Ashurbanipal.[16] K 12054 is another of the Neo-Assyrian fragments from Uruk (c. 640 BC) but contains a variant form of the antediluvians on the list. The later Babylonian king lists and Assyrian king lists repeated the earliest portions of the list, thus preserving them well into the 3rd century BC. At this time, Berossus wrote Babyloniaca, which popularized fragments of the list in the Hellenic world. In 1960, the Apkullu-list (Tablet No. W.20030, 7) or "Uruk List of Kings and Sages" (ULKS) was discovered by German archaeologists at an ancient temple at Uruk. The list, dating to c. 165 BC, contains a series of kings, equivalent to the Sumerian antediluvians, called "Apkullu".[17]

List

Early dates are approximate, and are based on available archaeological data. For most of the pre-Akkadian rulers listed, the king list is itself the lone source of information. Beginning with Lugal-zage-si and the Third Dynasty of Uruk (which was defeated by Sargon of Akkad), a better understanding of how subsequent rulers fit into the chronology of the ancient Near East can be deduced. The short chronology is used here.

Antediluvian rulers

None of the following predynastic antediluvian rulers have been verified as historical by archaeological excavations, epigraphical inscriptions or otherwise. While there is no evidence they ever reigned as such, the Sumerians purported them to have lived in the mythical era before the great deluge. Some modern scholars believe the Sumerian deluge story corresponds to localized river flooding at Shuruppak (modern Tell Fara, Iraq) and various other cities as far north as Kish, as revealed by a layer of riverine sediments, radiocarbon dated to c. 2900 BC, which interrupt the continuity of settlement. Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3000–2900 BC) was discovered immediately below this Shuruppak flood stratum.[18] Alan Dickin has criticized this theory in favor of a larger riverine flood c. 5700 BC. He believes this time frame to be much more consistent with the cataclysmic descriptions of the ANE flood myths:

It is concluded that the Flood most likely occurred around 5700 BC, before the settlement of Oueili, corresponding to the radiocarbon age of the upper part of the sapropel layer dated by Aqwari. This early date makes the extreme effects described in the Flood narratives much more credible. At this time, lower Mesopotamia had only recently been colonized by people migrating southward from the villages of northern Mesopotamia where the agricultural revolution began. These people would have been living in small settlements on the immediate banks of the Euphrates, and their nascent civilization would have been completely overwhelmed by the greatest flooding event that Mesopotamia has ever seen.[19]

The antediluvian reigns were measured in Sumerian numerical units known as sars (units of 3,600), ners (units of 600), and sosses (units of 60).[20] Attempts have been made to map these numbers into more reasonable regnal lengths.[21]

First dynasty of Kish

First rulers of Uruk

First dynasty of Ur

Gold helmet of Meskalamdug, possible founder of the First Dynasty of Ur.

Dynasty of Awan

This was a dynasty from Elam.

Second dynasty of Kish

The First dynasty of Lagash (c. 2500 – c. 2271 BC) is not mentioned in the King List, though it is well known from inscriptions

Dynasty of Hamazi

Second dynasty of Uruk

Second dynasty of Ur

Dynasty of Adab

Dynasty of Mari

Third dynasty of Kish

Dynasty of Akshak

Fourth dynasty of Kish

Third dynasty of Uruk

Dynasty of Akkad

Bronze head of an Akkadian, probably an image of Manishtusu or Naram-Sin; descendants of Sargon of Akkad (National Museum of Iraq).

Fourth dynasty of Uruk

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

The Second dynasty of Lagash (before c. 2093–2046 BC (short)) is not mentioned in the King List, though it is well known from inscriptions.

Gutian rule

Mention of the Gutian dynasty of Sumer in the tablet of Lugalanatum (𒄖𒋾𒌝𒆠, gu-ti-um^KI)

Fifth dynasty of Uruk

Third dynasty of Ur

Independent Amorite states in lower Mesopotamia. The Dynasty of Larsa (c. 1961–1674 BC (short)) from this period is not mentioned in the King List.

Dynasty of Isin

* These epithets or names are not included in all versions of the king list.

References

Van De Mieroop, Marc (2004). A History of the Ancient Near East. Blackwell. p. 41. ISBN 0-631-22552-8.
The spelling of royal names follows the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature Archived 2013-10-22 at the Wayback Machine
von Soden, Wolfram (1994). The Ancient Orient. Donald G. Schley (trans.). Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 47. ISBN 0-8028-0142-0.
"ABC 18 (Dynastic Chronicle) - Livius". www.livius.org. Archived from the original on 2006-02-28.
"The Sumerian King List - Livius". www.livius.org. Archived from the original on 2016-07-30.
Langdon, S. (1923). The Weld-Blundell Collection, vol. II. Historical Inscriptions, Containing Principally the Chronological Prism, W-B. 444. [PDF] Oxford University Press. Available at: http://etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/20340.pdf [Accessed 22 Sep. 2018].
Langdon, OECT2 (1923), pl. 6.
"Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-07. Retrieved 2011-02-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Stephen Langdon, Historical inscriptions, containing principally the chronological prism, W-B 444, Oxford University Press, 1923
"WB-444 High Resolution Image from CDLI". Archived from the original on 2015-05-13.
"WB-444 Line Art from CDLI". Archived from the original on 2015-09-15.
Ancient Iraq: (Assyria and Babylonia), Peter Roger Stuart Moorey, Ashmolean Museum, 1976; The Sumerian King List, T. Jacobsen, University of Chicago Press, 1939, p. 77.
"The Early Chronology of Sumer and Egypt and the Similarities in Their Culture", S. Langdon, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 7, No. 3/4, Oct., 1921, p. 133.
"The Antediluvian Kings: A University of California Tablet", J. J. Finkelstein, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1963, p. 39.
Finkelstein, 1963, pp.39-40.
Lambert and Millard, Cuneiform Texts 46 Nr. 5
Bilingual Chronicle Fragments, Irving L. Finkel, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2, Apr., 1980, pp. 65–80.
A copy of the tablet appears in Jan van Dijk and Werner R. Mayer, Texte aus dem Rès-Heiligtum in Uruk-Warka, Bagdader Mitteilungen Beiheft 2 (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1980), text no. 89 (= BaMB 2 89). For an edition of the text, see J. van Dijk, Die Inschriftenfunde, Vorläufiger Bericht über die... Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka 18 (1962), 44-52 and plate 27. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-09. Retrieved 2011-09-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Harriet Crawford (2004), Sumer and the Sumerians, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-53338-6
Dickin, Alan (September 2018). New Historical and Geological Constraints on the Date of Noah’s Flood (PDF). ASA. pp. 187–188.
"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2011-03-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Christine Proust, "Numerical and Metrological Graphemes: From Cuneiform to Transliteration," Cuneiform Digital Library Journal, 2009, ISSN 1540-8779
R.K. Harrison, “Reinvestigating the Antediluvian Sumerian King List,” JETS, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 3-8, (Mar 1993)
"The Sumerian king list: translation". etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-05-08.
Archived 2016-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Gilgameš and Aga Translation at ETCSL
THE BROCKMON COLLECTION DUPLICATE OF THE SUMERIAN KINGLIST (BT 14) by Jacob Klein (Bar-Ilan University)

External links

Full text of the Sumerian King List, with variations

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[Mieroop-1] Van De Mieroop, Marc (2004). A History of the Ancient Near East. Blackwell. p. 41. ISBN 0-631-22552-8.

[2] The spelling of royal names follows the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature Archived 2013-10-22 at the Wayback Machine

[3] von Soden, Wolfram (1994). The Ancient Orient. Donald G. Schley (trans.). Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 47. ISBN 0-8028-0142-0.

[4] "ABC 18 (Dynastic Chronicle) - Livius". www.livius.org. Archived from the original on 2006-02-28.

[5] "The Sumerian King List - Livius". www.livius.org. Archived from the original on 2016-07-30.

[6] Langdon, S. (1923). The Weld-Blundell Collection, vol. II. Historical Inscriptions, Containing Principally the Chronological Prism, W-B. 444. [PDF] Oxford University Press. Available at: http://etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/20340.pdf [Accessed 22 Sep. 2018].

[7] Langdon, OECT2 (1923), pl. 6.

[8] "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-07. Retrieved 2011-02-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Stephen Langdon, Historical inscriptions, containing principally the chronological prism, W-B 444, Oxford University Press, 1923

[9] "WB-444 High Resolution Image from CDLI". Archived from the original on 2015-05-13.

[10] "WB-444 Line Art from CDLI". Archived from the original on 2015-09-15.

[11] Ancient Iraq: (Assyria and Babylonia), Peter Roger Stuart Moorey, Ashmolean Museum, 1976; The Sumerian King List, T. Jacobsen, University of Chicago Press, 1939, p. 77.

[12] "The Early Chronology of Sumer and Egypt and the Similarities in Their Culture", S. Langdon, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 7, No. 3/4, Oct., 1921, p. 133.

[13] "The Antediluvian Kings: A University of California Tablet", J. J. Finkelstein, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1963, p. 39.

[14] Finkelstein, 1963, pp.39-40.

[15] Lambert and Millard, Cuneiform Texts 46 Nr. 5

[16] Bilingual Chronicle Fragments, Irving L. Finkel, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2, Apr., 1980, pp. 65–80.

[17] A copy of the tablet appears in Jan van Dijk and Werner R. Mayer, Texte aus dem Rès-Heiligtum in Uruk-Warka, Bagdader Mitteilungen Beiheft 2 (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1980), text no. 89 (= BaMB 2 89). For an edition of the text, see J. van Dijk, Die Inschriftenfunde, Vorläufiger Bericht über die... Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka 18 (1962), 44-52 and plate 27. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-09. Retrieved 2011-09-15.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[18] Harriet Crawford (2004), Sumer and the Sumerians, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-53338-6

[19] Dickin, Alan (September 2018). New Historical and Geological Constraints on the Date of Noah’s Flood (PDF). ASA. pp. 187–188.

[20] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2011-03-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Christine Proust, "Numerical and Metrological Graphemes: From Cuneiform to Transliteration," Cuneiform Digital Library Journal, 2009, ISSN 1540-8779

[21] R.K. Harrison, “Reinvestigating the Antediluvian Sumerian King List,” JETS, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 3-8, (Mar 1993)

[22] "The Sumerian king list: translation". etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-05-08.

[Ox.ac.uk-23] Archived 2016-10-09 at the Wayback Machine Gilgameš and Aga Translation at ETCSL

[24] THE BROCKMON COLLECTION DUPLICATE OF THE SUMERIAN KINGLIST (BT 14) by Jacob Klein (Bar-Ilan University)

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Comments
"After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years."
Alulim		8 sars (28,800 years)
Alalngar		10 sars (36,000 years)
"Then Eridug fell and the kingship was taken to Bad-tibira."
En-men-lu-ana		12 sars (43,200 years)
En-men-gal-ana		8 sars (28,800 years)
Dumuzid, the Shepherd	"the shepherd"	10 sars (36,000 years)
"Then Bad-tibira fell and the kingship was taken to Larag."
En-sipad-zid-ana		8 sars (28,800 years)
"Then Larag fell and the kingship was taken to Zimbir."
En-men-dur-ana		5 sars and 5 ners (21,000 years)
"Then Zimbir fell and the kingship was taken to Shuruppag."
Ubara-Tutu		5 sars and 1 ner (18,600 years)	father of Utnapishtim in Epic of Gilgamesh
"Then the flood swept over."[22]

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
"After the flood had swept over, and the kingship had descended from heaven, the kingship was in Kish."
Jushur		1,200 years	historicity uncertain	names before Etana do not appear in any other known source, and their existence is archaeologically unverified
Kullassina-bel		960 years
Nangishlishma		670 years
En-tarah-ana		420 years
Babum		300 years
Puannum		840 years
Kalibum		960 years
Kalumum		840 years
Zuqaqip		900 years
Atab (or A-ba)		600 years
Mashda	"the son of Atab"	840 years
Arwium	"the son of Mashda"	720 years
Etana	"the shepherd, who ascended to heaven and consolidated all the foreign countries"	1,500 years		Myth of Etana exists
Balih	"the son of Etana"	400 years
En-me-nuna		660 years
Melem-Kish	"the son of En-me-nuna"	900 years
Barsal-nuna	("the son of En-me-nuna")*	1,200 years
Zamug	"the son of Barsal-nuna"	140 years
Tizqar	"the son of Zamug"	305 years
Ilku		900 years
Iltasadum		1,200 years
En-me-barage-si	"who made the land of Elam submit"	900 years	EDI	the earliest ruler on the List confirmed independently from epigraphical evidence
Aga of Kish	"the son of En-me-barage-si"	625 years	EDI	contemporary with Gilgamesh of Uruk, according to the Sumerian tale of Gilgamesh and Aga [23]
"Then Kish was defeated and the kingship was taken to E-ana."

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Mesh-ki-ang-gasher of E-ana	"the son of Utu"	324 years	Late Uruk Period
"Mesh-ki-ang-gasher entered the sea and disappeared."
Enmerkar	"the son of Mesh-ki-ang-gasher, the king of Unug, who built Unug (Uruk)"	420 years	Late Uruk Period
Lugalbanda	"the shepherd"	1,200 years	Late Uruk Period
Dumuzid (Dumuzi)	"the fisherman whose city was Kuara." ("He was taken captive by the (single) hand of Enmebaragesi.")*	100 years	Jemdet Nasr period	A new translation has been made, which exchanges Enmebaragesi as the one who captured Dumuzid.[24]
Gilgamesh	"whose father was a phantom (?), the lord of Kulaba"	126 years	EDI	contemporary with Aga of Kish, according to Gilgamesh and Aga[23]
Ur-Nungal	"the son of Gilgamesh"	30 years
Udul-kalama	"the son of Ur-Nungal"	15 years
La-ba'shum		9 years
En-nun-tarah-ana		8 years
Mesh-he	"the smith"	36 years
Melem-ana		6 years
Lugal-kitun		36 years
"Then Unug was defeated and the kingship was taken to Urim (Ur)."

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Mesh-Ane-pada		80 years	c. 27th century BC	Existence is likely as it is supported by lot of tablets.
Mesh-ki-ang-Nuna	"the son of Mesh-Ane-pada"	36 years
Elulu		25 years
Balulu		36 years
"Then Urim was defeated and the kingship was taken to Awan."

Ruler	Epithet	Length of reign	Approx. dates	Comments
Three kings of Awan		356 years	c. 26th century BC
"Then Awan was defeated and the kingship was taken to Kish."