Sumerian King List#Dynasty of Hamazi

The text is best known under its modern name Sumerian King List, which is often abbreviated to SKL in scholarly literature. A less-used name is the Chronicle of the One Monarchy, reflecting the notion that, according to this text, there could ever be only one city exercising kingship over Mesopotamia. In contemporary sources, the SKL was called after its first word: "nam-lugal", or "kingship".{{Cite journal|last=Marchesi|first=Gianni|date=2010|title=The Sumerian King List and the Early History of Mesopotamia|url=https://www.academia.edu/10052536|journal=M. G. Biga - M. Liverani (Eds.), ana turri gimilli: Studi dedicati al Padre Werner R. Mayer, S. J., da amici e allievi (Vicino Oriente - Quaderno 5; Roma)|pages=231–248}} It should also be noted that what is commonly referred to as the Sumerian King List, is in reality not a single text. Rather, it is a literary composition of which different versions existed through time in which sections were missing, arranged in a different order, and names, reigns and details on kings were different or absent.

Modern scholarship has used numbered dynasties to refer to the uninterrupted rule of a single city; hence the Ur III dynasty denotes the third time that the city of Ur assumed hegemony over Mesopotamia according to the SKL. This numbering (e.g. Kish I, Uruk IV, Ur III) is not present in the original text. It should also be noted that the modern usage of the term dynasty, i.e. a sequence of rulers from a single family, does not necessarily apply to ancient Mesopotamia. Even though the SKL points out that some rulers were family, it was the city, rather than individual rulers, to which kingship was given.

{{Location map+|Iraq|width=260|float=right |relief=yes|caption=Map of Iraq showing the archaeological sites where clay tablets containing (parts of) the Sumerian King List have been found. |places=

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=33.058829|long=44.252153|position=right |label_size=75 |label=Sippar}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=36.957222|long=41.505278|position=right |label_size=75 |label=Tell Leilan}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=32.126444|long=45.233381|position=left |label_size=75 |label=Nippur}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.885|long=45.268611|position=left|label_size=75 |label=Isin}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.285833|long=45.853611|position=left|label_size=75 |label=Larsa}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=32.540278|long=44.604722|position=right |label_size=75 |label=Kish}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.946944|long=45.968889|position=right |label_size=75 |label=Adab}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=32.190556|long=48.257778|position=left |label_size=75 |label=Susa}}

}}

The Sumerian King List is known from a number of different sources, all in the form of clay tablets or cylinders and written in Sumerian. At least 16 different tablets or fragments containing parts of the composition are known. Some tablets are unprovenanced, but most have been recovered, or are known to have come from various sites across Mesopotamia, the majority coming from Nippur. So far a version of the SKL has been found outside of Babylonia only twice. One copy was found at Susa in Elam. The other, found at Tell Leilan in Upper Mesopotamia, contains the only clean copy of the Mari list which is badly broken in other recensions.{{Cite journal|last=Vincente|first=Claudine-Adrienne|date=1995-01-01|title=The Tall Leilãn Recension of the Sumerian King List|journal=Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zava.1995.85.2.234/html|language=de|volume=85|issue=2|pages=234–270|doi=10.1515/zava.1995.85.2.234|s2cid=163785116 |issn=1613-1150}}

There is only one manuscript that contains a relatively undamaged version of the composition. This is the Weld-Blundell Prism which includes the antediluvian part of the composition and ends with the Isin dynasty.{{Cite web|title=SUMERIAN KING LIST|url=https://www.ashmolean.org/sumerian-king-list#/|access-date=2021-06-29|website=www.ashmolean.org|language=en}} Other manuscripts are incomplete because they are damaged or fragmentary. The Scheil dynastic tablet, from Susa, for example, only contains parts of the composition running from Uruk II to Ur III. Given the state of the SKL sources literary compositions like the Tummal Chronicle and the Ballad of the Early Rulers are used as input as well.Y. Cohen, "Where is Bazi? Where is Zizi? The List of Early Rulers in the Ballad from Emar and Ugarit, and the Mari Rulers in the Sumerian King List and other Sources", Iraq 74, pp. 137-152, 2012

The majority of the sources are dated to the Old Babylonian period (early second millennium BC), and more specifically the early part of that era. In many cases, a more precise dating is not possible, but in one case, the Weld-Blundell prism, it could be dated to year 11 of the reign of king Sin-Magir of Isin, the last ruler to be mentioned in the Sumerian King List. The so-called Ur III Sumerian King List (USKL), on a clay tablet possibly found in Adab, is the only known version of the SKL that predates the Old Babylonian period. The colophon of this text mentions that it was copied during the reign of Shulgi (2084–2037 BC), the second king of the Ur III dynasty. The USKL is especially interesting because its pre-Sargonic part is completely different from that of the SKL. Whereas the SKL records many different dynasties from several cities, the USKL starts with a single long list of rulers from Kish (including rulers who, in the SKL were part of different Kish dynasties), followed by a few other dynasties, followed again by the kings of Akkad.{{Cite journal|last=Steinkeller|first=Piotr|date=2003|title=An Ur III Manuscript of the Sumerian King List|url=https://www.academia.edu/35603955|journal=Literatur, Politik und Recht in Mesopotamien: Festschrift für Claus Wilcke|pages=267–292}}

{{Location map+|Iraq|width=260|float=right |relief=yes|caption=Map of Iraq showing the cities that are mentioned in the Sumerian King List and that have been identified archaeologically. Akkad, Awan, Akshak and Larak have not yet been securely identified. Gutium is located in the Zagros Mountains. |places=

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.379722|long=45.999722|position=right|label_size=75 |label=Bad-Tibira}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.777222|long=45.510833|position=right|label_size=75 |label=Shuruppak}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=33.058829|long=44.252153|position=right |label_size=75 |label=Sippar}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=32.540278|long=44.604722|position=right |label_size=75 |label=Kish}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=30.815833|long=45.996111|position=left |label_size=75 |label=Eridu}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=34.549444|long=40.89|position=right |label_size=75 |label=Mari}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.946944|long=45.968889|position=top|label_size=75 |label=Adab}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.885|long=45.268611|position=left|label_size=75 |label=Isin}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=30.9625|long=46.103056|position=right |label_size=75 |label=Ur}}

{{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.322222|long=45.636111|position=left|label_size=75 |label=Uruk}}

}}

The sources differ in their exact contents. This is not only the result of many sources being fragmentary, it is also the result of scribal errors made during copying of the composition, and of the fact that changes were made to the composition through time. For example, the section on rulers before the flood is not present in every copy of the text, including every text from Nippur, where the majority of versions of the SKL were found. Also, the order of some of the dynasties or kings may be changed between copies, some dynasties that were separately mentioned in one version are taken together in another, details on the lengths of individual reigns vary, and individual kings may be left out entirely.

The following summary and line numbers are taken from the compilation by the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, which in turn takes the text of the Weld-Blundell prism as its main source, listing other versions when there are differences in the text.{{Cite web|title=The Sumerian king list: translation|url=https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr211.htm|access-date=2021-06-30|website=etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk}}{{Cite book|last=Friberg|first=Jöran|title=A remarkable collection of Babylonian mathematical texts|date=2007|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-387-48977-3|location=New York|oclc=191464830}}

This section, which is not present in every copy of the text, opens with the line "After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu." Two kings of Eridu are mentioned, before the city "fell" and the "kingship was taken to Bad-tibira". This pattern of cities receiving kingship and then falling or being defeated, only to be succeeded by the next, is present throughout the entire text, often in the exact same words. This first section lists eight kings who ruled over five cities (apart from Eridu and Bad-tibira, these also included Larag, Zimbir and Shuruppak). The duration of each reign is also given. In this first section, the reigns vary between 43,200 and 28,800 years for a total of 241,200 years. The section ends with the line "Then the flood swept over". Among the kings mentioned in this section is the ancient Mesopotamian god Dumuzid (the later Tammuz).

"After the flood had swept over, and the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Kish." After this well-known line, the section goes on to list 23 kings of Kish, who ruled between 1500 and 300 years for a total of 24,510 years. The exact number of years varies between copies. Apart from the lengths of their reigns and whether they were the son of their predecessor (for example, "Mashda, the son of Atab, ruled for 840 years"), no other details are usually given on the exploits of these kings. Exceptions are Etana, "who ascended to heaven and consolidated all the foreign countries" and Enmebaragesi, "who made the land of Elam submit". Enmebaragesi is also the first king in the Sumerian King List whose name is attested from contemporaneous (Early Dynastic I) inscriptions. His successor Aga of Kish, the final king mentioned before Kish fell and kingship was taken to E-ana, also appears in the poem Gilgamesh and Aga.

The next lines, up until Sargon of Akkad, show a steady succession of cities and kings, usually without much detail beyond the lengths of the individual reigns. Every entry is structured exactly the same: the city where kingship is located is named, followed by one or more kings and how long they reigned, followed by a summary and a final line indicating where kingship went next. Lines 134–147 may serve as an example:

In Ur, Mesannepada became king; he ruled for 80 years. Meskiagnun, the son of Mesannepada, became king; he ruled for 36 years. Elulu ruled for 25 years. Balulu ruled for 36 years. 4 kings; they ruled for 171 years. Then Ur was defeated and the kingship was taken to Awan.

This section is devoted to the well-known Akkadian ruler Sargon and his successors. After the entry on Shar-kali-sharri, the Sumerian King List reads "Then who was king? Who was not king?", suggesting a period of chaos that may reflect the uncertain times during which the Akkadian Empire came to an end.{{Cite book|last=Roaf|first=Michael|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21523764|title=Cultural atlas of Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East|date=1990|isbn=0-8160-2218-6|location=New York, NY|oclc=21523764}} Four kings are mentioned to have ruled for a total of only three years. Of the Akkadian kings mentioned after Shar-kali-sharri, only the names of Dudu and Shu-turul have been attested in inscriptions dating from the Akkadian period. The Akkadian dynasty is succeeded by the fourth dynasty of Uruk, two kings of which, Ur-nigin and his son Ur-gigir, appear in other contemporary inscriptions. Kingship was then taken to the "land" or "army" of Gutium, of which it was said that at first they had no kings and that they ruled themselves for a few years. After this short episode, 21 Gutian kings are listed before the fall of Gutium and kingship was taken to Uruk. Only one ruler is listed during this period of kingship (Utu-hegal), before it moved on to Ur. The so-called Third Dynasty of Ur consisted of 5 kings who ruled between 9 and 46 years. No other details of their exploits are given. The Sumerian King List remarks that, after the rule of Ur was abolished, "The very foundation of Sumer was torn out", after which kingship was taken to Isin. The kings of Isin are the final dynasty that is included in the list. The dynasty consisted of 14 kings who ruled between 3 and 33 years. As with the Ur III dynasty, no details are given on the reigns of individual kings.

Some versions of the Sumerian King List conclude with a summary of the dynasties after the flood. In this summary, the number of kings and their accumulated regnal years are mentioned for each city, as well as the number of times that city had received kingship: "A total of 12 kings ruled for 396 years, 3 times in Urim." The final line again tallies the numbers for all these dynasties: "There are 11 cities, cities in which the kingship was exercised. A total of 134 kings, who altogether ruled for 28876 + X years."

Assyriologist {{interlanguage link|Piotr Steinkeller}} has observed that, with the exception of the Epic of Gilgamesh, there might not be a single cuneiform text with as much "name recognition" as the Sumerian King List. The SKL might also be among the compositions that have fuelled the most intense debate and controversy among academia. These debates generally focused on when, where and why it was created, and if and how the text can be used in the reconstruction of the political history of Mesopotamia during the third and second millennia BC.

File:Scheil dynastic tablet (1911).jpg, containing a part of the Sumerian King List, from Uruk II to Ur III. Transcription and translation in French (1911).]]

All but one of the surviving versions of the Sumerian King List date to the Old Babylonian period, i.e. the early part of the second millennium BC.{{Cite book|last=Postgate|first=J. N.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24468109|title=Early Mesopotamia : society and economy at the dawn of history|date=1992|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-00843-3|location=London|oclc=24468109}}{{Cite book|last=Crawford|first=Harriet E. W.|author-link=Harriet Crawford|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20826485|title=Sumer and the Sumerians|date=1991|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-38175-4|location=Cambridge|oclc=20826485}} One version, the Ur III Sumerian King List (USKL) dates to the reign of Shulgi (2084–2037 BC). By carefully comparing the different versions, especially the USKL with the much later Old Babylonian versions of the SKL, it has been shown that the composition that is now known as the SKL was probably first created in the Sargonic period in a form very similar to the USKL. It has even been suggested that this precursor of the SKL was not written in Sumerian, but in Akkadian. The original contents of the USKL, especially the pre-Sargonic part, were probably significantly altered only after the Ur III period, as a reaction to the societal upheaval that resulted from the disintegration of the Ur III state at the end of the third millennium BC. This altering of the composition meant that the original long, uninterrupted list of kings of Kish was cut up in smaller dynasties (e.g. Kish I, Kish II, and so forth), and that other dynasties were inserted. The result was the SKL as it is known from Old Babylonian manuscripts such as the Weld-Blundell prism. The cyclical change of kingship from one city to the next became a so-called Leitmotif, or recurring theme, in the Sumerian King List.

It has been generally accepted that the main aim was not to provide a historiographical record of the political landscape of ancient Mesopotamia.{{Cite book|last=Van De Mieroop|first=Marc|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oknsEhcALLEC|title=A History of the Ancient Near East|publisher=Blackwell|year=2004|isbn=0-631-22552-8|pages=}}{{Cite journal|last=Michalowski|first=Piotr|date=1983|title=History as Charter Some Observations on the Sumerian King List|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/601880|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=103|issue=1|pages=237–248|doi=10.2307/601880|jstor=601880 |issn=0003-0279}}{{Cite book|last=Pollock|first=Susan|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40609053|title=Ancient Mesopotamia : the eden that never was|date=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-57334-3|location=Cambridge|oclc=40609053}} Instead, it has been suggested that the SKL, in its various redactions, was used by contemporary rulers to legitimize their claims to power over Babylonia. Steinkeller has argued that the SKL was first created during the Akkad dynasty to position Akkad as a direct heir to the hegemony of Kish. Thus, it would make sense to present the predecessors to the Akkadian kings as a long, unbroken line of rulers from Kish. In this way the Akkadian dynasty could legitimize its claims to power over Babylonia by arguing that, from the earliest times onwards, there had always been a single city where kingship was exercised. Later rulers then used the Sumerian King List for their own political purposes, amending and adding to the text as they saw fit. This is why, for example, the version recorded on the Weld-Blundell prism ends with the Isin dynasty, suggesting that it was now their turn to rule over Mesopotamia as the rightful inheritors of the Ur III legacy. The use of the SKL as political propaganda may also explain why some versions, including the older USKL, did not contain the antediluvian part of the list. In its original form, the list started with the hegemony of Kish. Some city-states may have been uncomfortable with the preeminent position of Kish. By inserting a section of primordial kings who ruled before a flood, which is only known from some Old Babylonian versions, the importance of Kish could be downplayed.

During much of the 20th century, many scholars accepted the Sumerian King List as a historical source of great importance for the reconstruction of the political history of Mesopotamia, despite the problems associated with the text. For example, many scholars have observed that the kings in the early part of the list reigned for unnaturally long time spans. Various approaches have been offered to reconcile these long reigns with a historical time line in which reigns would fall within reasonable human bounds, and with what is known from the archaeological record as well as other textual sources. Thorkild Jacobsen argued in his major 1939 study of the SKL that, in principle, all rulers mentioned in the list should be considered historical because their names were taken from older lists that were kept for administrative purposes and could therefore be considered reliable. His solution to the reigns considered too long, then, was to argue that "[t]heir occurrence in our material must be ascribed to a tendency known also among other peoples of antiquity to form very exaggerated ideas of the length of human life in the earliest times of which they were conscious." In order to create a fixed chronology where individual kings could be absolutely dated, Jacobsen replaced time spans considered too long with average reigns of 20–30 years. For example, Etana ruled for 1500 years according to the SKL, but instead Jacobsen assumed a reign of circa 30 years. In this manner, and by working backwards from reigns whose dates could be independently established by other means, Jacobsen was able to fit all pre-Sargonic kings in a chronology consistent with the dates that were at that time (1939) accepted for the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia.{{Cite book |last=Jacobsen |first=Thorkild |url=https://isac.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/shared/docs/as11.pdf |title=The Sumerian king list |date=1939 |publisher=the University of Chicago press |isbn=0-226-62273-8 |location=Chicago (Ill.) |oclc=491884743}} Jacobsen has been criticised for putting too much faith in the reliability of the king list, for making wishful reconstructions and readings of incomplete parts of the list, for ignoring inconsistencies between the SKL and other textual evidence, and for ignoring the fact that only very few of the pre-Sargonic rulers have been attested in contemporaneous (i.e. Early Dynastic) inscriptions.{{Cite web|title=ANE TODAY - 201611 - The Sumerian King List or the 'History' of Kingship in Early Mesopotamia|url=https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2016/11/sumerian-king-list-history-kingship-early-mesopotamia/|access-date=2021-06-29|website=American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR)|language=en-US}}

Others have attempted to reconcile the reigns in the Sumerian King List by arguing that many time spans were actually consciously invented, mathematically derived numbers. Rowton, for example, observed that a majority of the reigns in the Gutian dynasty were 5, 6, or 7 years in length. In the sexagesimal system used at that time, "about 6 years" would be the same as "about 10 years" in a decimal system (i.e. a general round number). This was sufficient evidence for him to conclude that at least these figures were completely artificial.{{Cite journal|last=Rowton|first=M. B.|date=1960-04-01|title=The Date of the Sumerian King List|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/371575|journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies|volume=19|issue=2|pages=156–162|doi=10.1086/371575|s2cid=161074704 |issn=0022-2968}} The longer time spans from the first part of the list could also be argued to be artificial: various reigns were multiples of 60 (e.g. Jushur reigned for 600 years, Puannum ruled for 840 years) while others were squares (e.g. Ilku reigned for 900 years (square of 30) while Meshkiangasher ruled for 324 years (square of 18)).{{Cite journal|last=Young|first=Dwight W.|date=1988|title=A Mathematical Approach to Certain Dynastic Spans in the Sumerian King List|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/544384|journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies|volume=47|issue=2|pages=123–129|doi=10.1086/373263 |jstor=544384 |s2cid=162342434 |issn=0022-2968}}

During the last few decades, scholars have taken a more careful approach. For example, many recent handbooks on the archaeology and history of ancient Mesopotamia all acknowledge the problematic nature of the SKL and warn that the list's use as a historical document for that period is severely limited up to the point that it should not be used at all.{{Cite book|last=von Soden|first=Wolfram|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientorientint0000sode|title=The Ancient Orient|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans|others=Donald G. Schley (trans.)|year=1994|isbn=0-8028-0142-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientorientint0000sode/page/47 47]|url-access=registration}}{{Cite book|last=Nissen|first=Hans Jörg|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/899007792|title=The early history of the ancient Near East, 9000-2000 B.C.|date=1988|others=Elizabeth Lutzeier, Kenneth J. Northcott|isbn=978-0-226-18269-8|location=Chicago|oclc=899007792}} It has been argued, for example, that the omission of certain cities in the list which were known to have been important at the time, such as Lagash and Larsa, was deliberate. Furthermore, the fact that the SKL adheres to a strict sequential ordering of kingships which were considered equal means that it does no justice at all to the actual complexities of Mesopotamian political history where different reigns overlapped, or where different rulers or cities were not equally powerful. Recent studies on the SKL even go so far as to discredit the composition as a valuable historical source on Early Dynastic Mesopotamia altogether. Important arguments to dismiss the SKL as a reliable and valuable source are its nature as a political, ideological text, its long redactional history, and the fact that out of the many pre-Sargonic kings listed, only seven have been attested in contemporary Early Dynastic inscriptions. The final volume on the history and philology of third millennium BC Mesopotamia of the ESF-funded ARCANE-project (Associated Regional Chronologies for the Ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean), for example, did not list any of the pre-Sargonic rulers from the SKL in its chronological tables unless their existence was corroborated by Early Dynastic inscriptions.{{Cite journal|last=Marchesi|first=Gianni|title=Toward a Chronology of Early Dynastic Rulers in Mesopotamia|url=https://www.academia.edu/10655886|journal=In W. Sallaberger and I. Schrakamp (Eds.), History & Philology (ARCANE 3; Turnhout), Pp. 139-156|date=January 2015 }}

Thus, in the absence of independent sources from the Early Dynastic period itself, the pre-Sargonic part of the SKL must be considered fictional. Many of the rulers in the pre-Sargonic part (i.e. prior to Sargon of Akkad) of the list must therefore be considered as purely fictional or mythological characters to which reigns of hundreds of years were assigned. However, there is a small group of pre-Sargonic rulers in the SKL whose names have been attested in Early Dynastic inscriptions. This group consists of seven rulers: Enmebaragesi, Gilgamesh, Mesannepada, Meskiagnun, Elulu, Enshakushanna and Lugal-zage-si. It has also been shown that several kings did not rule sequentially as described by the Sumerian King List, but rather contemporaneously. Starting with the Akkadian rulers, but especially for the Ur III and Isin dynasties, the SKL becomes much more reliable.{{Cite book|last1=Sallaberger|first1=Walther|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/904661061|title=History & philology|last2=Schrakamp|first2=Ingo|date=2015|isbn=978-2-503-53494-7|location=Turnhout|pages=1–133|chapter=Part I: Philological data for a historical chronology of Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium|oclc=904661061}} Not only are most of the kings attested in other contemporaneous documents, but the reigns attributed to them in the SKL are more or less in line with what can be established from those other sources. This is probably due to the fact that the compilers of the SKL could rely on lists of year names, which came in regular use during the Akkadian period. Other sources may have included votive and victory inscriptions.

However, while the SKL has little value for the study on Early Dynastic Mesopotamia, it continues to be an important document for the study on the Sargonic to Old Babylonian periods. The Sumerian King List offers scholars a window into how Old Babylonian kings and scribes viewed their own history, how they perceived the concept of kingship, and how they could have used it to further their own goals. For example, it has been noted that the king list is unique among Sumerian compositions in there being no divine intervention in the process of dynastic change. Also, the style and contents of the Sumerian King List certainly influenced later compositions such as the Curse of Akkad, the Lamentation over Sumer and Akkad, later king lists such as the Assyrian King List, and the Babyloniaca by Berossus.{{Cite web|title=The Sumerian King List (SKL) [CDLI Wiki]|url=https://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=the_sumerian_king_list_skl|access-date=2021-07-03|website=cdli.ox.ac.uk}}

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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 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.

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).{{cite journal |url=http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2009/cdlj2009_001.html |title=CDLJ 2009:1 |journal=Cuneiform Digital Library Journal |date=22 June 2009 |volume=2009 |issue=1 |access-date=2011-03-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130013201/http://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2009/cdlj2009_001.html |archive-date=2012-01-30 |last1=Proust |first1=Christine }} Christine Proust, "Numerical and Metrological Graphemes: From Cuneiform to Transliteration," Cuneiform Digital Library Journal, 2009, ISSN 1540-8779 Attempts have been made to map these numbers into more reasonable regnal lengths.R.K. Harrison, “Reinvestigating the Antediluvian Sumerian King List,” JETS, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 3-8, (Mar 1993) {{ISSN|0360-8808}}

First dynasty of Kish

First rulers of Uruk

First dynasty of Ur

{{main|First Dynasty of Ur}}

Dynasty of Awan

{{main|Awan dynasty}}

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

{{main|Adab (city)}}

Other rulers of Adab are known, besides Lugal-Ane-mundu, but they are not mentioned in the Sumerian King List.

Dynasty of Mari

{{main|Mari, Syria}}

Many rulers are known from Mari, but different names are mentioned in the Sumerian king list.

Third dynasty of Kish

Dynasty of Akshak

{{see also|Akshak}}

Fourth dynasty of Kish

Third dynasty of Uruk

Dynasty of Akkad

{{main|Akkadian Empire}}

Fourth dynasty of Uruk

::(Possibly rulers of lower Mesopotamia contemporary with the Dynasty of Akkad){{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

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

{{main|Gutian Dynasty}}

Fifth dynasty of Uruk

Third dynasty of Ur

{{main|Third dynasty of Ur}}

Dynasty of Isin

{{main|Dynasty of Isin}}

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.

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

• Chronology of the ancient Near East
• History of Sumer
• List of Mesopotamian dynasties

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite journal|last=Albright|first=W. F.|date=1923|title=The Babylonian Antediluvian Kings|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/593359|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=43|pages=323–329|doi=10.2307/593359|jstor=593359 |issn=0003-0279}}
• Charvát, Petr, "A Tale of Twin Cities: Archaeology and the Sumerian King List", Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 57th Rencontre Assyriologique International at Rome, 4–8 July 2011, edited by Alfonso Archi, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 75–80, 2015
• de Boer, Rients, "Studies on the Old Babylonian Kings of Isin and Their Dynasties with an Updated List of Isin Year Names", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 111, no. 1, pp. 5–27, 2021
• Gabriel, Gösta, "The “Prehistory” of the Sumerian King List and Its Narrative Residue", in The Shape of Stories, Brill, pp. 234–257, 2023
• {{Cite book|last=Glassner|first=Jean-Jacques|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/558440503|title=Mesopotamian chronicles|date=2004|publisher=Society of Biblical Literature|others=Benjamin R. Foster|isbn=90-04-13084-5|location=Atlanta|oclc=558440503}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Goetze|first=Albrecht|date=1961-06-01|title=Early Kings of Kish|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/1359020|journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies|volume=15|issue=3|pages=105–111|doi=10.2307/1359020|jstor=1359020 |s2cid=163246620 |issn=0022-0256}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Hallo|first=William W.|date=1963-03-01|title=Beginning and End of the Sumerian King List in the Nippur Recension|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/1359064|journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies|volume=17|issue=2|pages=52–57|doi=10.2307/1359064|jstor=1359064 |s2cid=163318286 |issn=0022-0256}}
• Végsó, Béla Lukàcs-Làszló, "The Chronology of the "Sumerian King List", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 25–46, 1975
• {{Cite journal|last=Young|first=Dwight W.|date=1991|title=The Incredible Regnal Spans of Kish I in the Sumerian King List|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/545413|journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies|volume=50|issue=1|pages=23–35|doi=10.1086/373462 |jstor=545413 |s2cid=162210363 |issn=0022-2968}}

• [https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.1&display=Crit&charenc=gcirc# Full translation of the SKL at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature]
• [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/266-the-sumerian-king-list/ Full translation of the SKL at Livius.org]
• [https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/b211.htm Bibliography on the Sumerian King List]
• [https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?CompositeNumber=Q000371 Composite list of SKL sources and images at CDLI]

{{Sumerian King List|state=collapsed}}

{{Ancient Mesopotamia topics}}

{{Ancient Near East}}

{{Ancient Mesopotamian royal titles}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Early Rulers of Mesopotamia}}

Category:22nd-century BC literature

Category:21st-century BC literature

Category:Regnal lists

Category:Sumerian literature

Category:Mesopotamian chronicles

King list

King list

King list

King list

Category:Third Dynasty of Ur

Category:First Babylonian Empire

Category:Longevity myths