Out
of the many incredible artefacts that have been recovered from sites in Iraq
where flourishing Sumerian cities once stood, few have been more intriguing
that the Sumerian King List, an ancient manuscript originally recorded in the
Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian
and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of
“official” kingship. What makes this artefact so unique is the fact that the
list blends apparently mythical pre-dynastic rulers with historical rulers who
are known to have existed.
The
first fragment of this rare and unique text, a 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablet,
was found in the early 1900s by German-American scholar Hermann Hilprecht at
the site of ancient Nippur and published in 1906. Since Hilprecht’s
discovery, at least 18 other exemplars of the king’s list have been found, most
of them dating from the second half of the Isin dynasty (c. 2017-1794
BCE.). No two of these documents are identical. However, there is enough
common material in all versions of the list to make it clear that they are
derived from a single, “ideal” account of Sumerian history.
Among
all the examples of the Sumerian King List, the Weld-Blundell prism in the
Ashmolean Museum cuneiform collection in Oxford represents the most extensive
version as well as the most complete copy of the King List. The 8-inch-high
prism contains four sides with two columns on each side. It is believed that it
originally had a wooden spindle going through its centre so that it could be
rotated and read on all four sides. It lists rulers from the antediluvian
(“before the flood”) dynasties to the fourteenth ruler of the Isin dynasty (ca.
1763–1753 BC).
The
list is of immense value because it reflects very old traditions while at the
same time providing an important chronological framework relating to the
different periods of kingship in Sumeria, and even demonstrates remarkable
parallels to accounts in Genesis.
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