Meskalamdug

Meskalamdug was a ruler of the Sumerian city-state Ur ( archaeological period : Ed IIIa ).

He lived between 2600 and 2500 BC. And is counted to the 1st dynasty. His son Mesanepada is the first king of Ur to be mentioned in the so-called Sumerian King List , a surviving cuneiform document.

archeology

In the middle of the royal tombs of Ur there is a grave marked with the number 1054, which could be assigned to a Meskalamdug. Whether this person is the ruler or a namesake has not yet been clarified.

The undisturbed shaft grave with dimensions of 2.5 × 1.5 m, uncovered by Sir Sir Leonhard Woolley in the 1927-28 campaign, is one of the richest finds in the royal cemetery. In the shaft there was a 1.70 × 0.65 × 0.50 m wooden coffin. The buried man was lying in a crouching position on the left, surrounded by several magnificent grave goods. Near the skull was a gold helmet in the shape of a wig that was sunk down to the cheeks and an ax head made of electron. At shoulder level there was a gold lamp and a head of a double ax, also made of electrons. Two gold bowls were found in the chest area. He wore a silver belt with a gold dagger and a whetstone made of lapis lazuli. In front of the upper body of the skeleton lay several hundred lazurite and gold beads, headdresses, bracelets, amulets, crescent-shaped earrings and rings woven from gold wire. The coffin was surrounded by other grave goods. There were rows of spearheads at both the head and foot of the coffin. In other places within the grave one found groups of stone, clay and metal vessels, ornate daggers made of gold and bronze, as well as axes, spear and arrow heads and copper saws. On two of the golden vessels and a lamp was the inscription "Mes-kalam-dug the hero of the noble land".

In a seal inscription discovered by André Parrot on a pearl in Mari , Meskalamdug is explicitly referred to as the father of King Mes-ane-pada. These two inscriptions as well as the location of the grave in the royal cemetery are the basis of the thesis that the buried person is the ruler Meskalamdug. The representatives of the namesake thesis refer to the comparatively modest grave equipment and the form of burial, which differs from the actual royal tombs. Woolley himself initially advocated the ruler's thesis, but later changed his mind to the effect that the buried was not a king himself, without questioning his status as the father of King Mes-ane-pada.

literature

• John Reader: Cities . Grove 2006, ISBN 0-8021-4273-7
• Jane R. McIntosh: Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (California) 2005, ISBN 1-576-07965-1
• CL Woolley, Ur Excavations II. The Royal Cemetery, New York 1934, pp. 150-163
• RL Zettler & D. Hansen (Eds.), Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur, Philadelphia 1998, pp. 24-25, ISBN 0-92-417154-5

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jane R. McIntosh: Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives . P. 73 .

predecessor	Office	successor
unknown	King of Ur around 2550 BC Chr.	Akalamdug