Sumerian King List

The Sumerian King list (also abbreviated SKL ) is on the Weld-Blundell prism , a Sumerian cuneiform - clay tablet with Sumerian and Accadian v rulers from the time from the end of the fourth to the beginning of the second millennium. Written down with name, place of rule and duration of the respective reign. The drawing up of the Sumerian king list is dated at the earliest in the reign of the Utuḫengal (end of the third millennium BC), at the latest in the Isin epoch (beginning of the second millennium BC).

Sumerian King List, Larsa / Tell Senkerech (Iraq), 1740 BC BC, clay, Oxford Museum

The list also contains a possible reference to the Flood .

"The Flood swept over [the land]. After the Flood had swept over [the land] and kingship had descended from heaven [for a second time], Kish became the seat of Kingship ... "

- English translation from the Ashmolean Museum , Oxford

The described rulers

The list of kings is one of the most important testimonies to Sumerian history and chronology . The problem, however, is that all the dynasties shown were shown in a chronological order, even if the dynasties - which were mostly limited to city-states or loose sovereignties - partly ruled at the same time. Another problem is the lack of some important dynasties, such as the 2nd dynasty of Lagash with such an important ruler as Gudea .

The lists of kings were continued during the rule of the Babylonians and Assyrians and go back to the time of the Arsacids in the 2nd century BC. Chr.

The clay tablet

The Sumerian list of kings has been handed down in the form of the so-called Weld-Blundell prism . It is a clay block, the four sides of which are written in cuneiform and are each 20 cm high and 9 cm wide. The cuboid is drilled through vertically in the middle, so that it could be rotated with an appropriate suspension. The Weld-Blundell prism was created around 1800 BC. In the Babylonian city ​​of Larsa on the Euphrates . It gives the names of the kings, their place of rule and the respective duration of the reign.

Today the Weld Blundell Prism is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford , UK.

See also

• The Sumerian Empire ,

Sumerian kings (city-states):

• List of the kings of Kisch (1st – 4th dynasty) (around 2800 BC to around 2380 BC)
• List of the kings of Uruk (1st – 6th dynasty) (around 2770 BC to 1802 BC)
• List of the kings of Ur (1st – 3rd dynasty) (around 2600 BC to 2004 BC)
• List of the kings of Lagasch (1st – 2nd dynasty) (around 2550 BC to 2110 BC)
• List of the kings of Ummah (around 2500 BC to 2347 BC)
• List of the kings of Mari (around 2350 BC to 1759 BC)
• List of the kings of Larsa (around 2025 BC to around 1737 BC)
• List of the kings of Ešnunna (around 2025 BC to around 1735 BC)
• List of the kings of Isin (1st Dynasty) (2017 BC to 1794 BC)

literature

• Dietz-Otto Edzard : King Lists and Chronicles. A. Sumerian . In: Dietz-Otto Edzard u. a. (Ed.): Real Lexicon of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology ; Vol. 6: Lamentation – Lebanon . de Gruyter, Berlin 1980-1983, ISBN 3-11-010051-7 , pp. 77-86.
• SN Kramer, The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character (University of Chicago Press, 1963): Appendix E gives a translation of the Sumerian King List.

Web links

• The Weld Blundell Prism (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dietz-Otto Edzard and a .: Real Lexicon of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology . P. 80.
2. ↑ http://collections.ashmolean.org/collection/search/per_page/25/offset/0/sort_by/relevance/object/23650