Sumerian King List

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The Sumerian King List is an ancient Mesopotamian text that records a legendary sequence of kings, their dynasties, and improbably long reigns from mythical times through early historical periods.

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All labels observed (3)

Label Occurrences
Sumerian King List canonical 7
Sumerian chronology 1
Sumerian king lists 1

Statements (74)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Mesopotamian text
ancient text
historiographical text
king list
bestPreservedCopyLocation Ashmolean Museum
bestPreservedCopyName Weld-Blundell Prism
chronologicalScope mythical times to early second millennium BCE
compiledBy anonymous Sumerian scribes
cosmologicalElement division into pre-flood and post-flood eras
culture Sumerian civilization
describes dynasties of Sumer
early historical kings
lengths of royal reigns
mythical antediluvian kings
sequence of Sumerian kings
earliestCompilationDate early second millennium BCE
extantCopies multiple clay tablets and prisms
genre chronographic text
royal list
includesEvent The Flood
surface form: Great Flood
includesKing Alulim
En-me-barage-si of Kish
En-men-lu-ana
Etana of Kish
Gilgamesh
surface form: Gilgamesh of Uruk

Ishbi-Erra of Isin
Mesannepada of Ur
Naram-Sin of Akkad
Sargon of Akkad
Shulgi of Ur
Ur-Nammu
surface form: Ur-Nammu of Ur

Utu-hegal of Uruk
influenced later Mesopotamian king lists
language Sumerian language
listsCity Akkad
Awan
Bad-tibira
Eridu
Hamazi
Isin
Kish
Larak
Shuruppak
Sippar
Ur
Uruk
mainSubject dynasties of Mesopotamia
Sumer
surface form: kings of Sumer

reigns of kings
material clay prisms
clay tablets
narrativeFeature improbably long reigns
kingship descending from heaven
transition from mythical to historical kings
placeOfOrigin Mesopotamia
Sumer
politicalFunction legitimation of dynastic rule
unification of Sumerian history
preservationState fragmentary in many copies
reignLengthsType more realistic for later kings
mythically long for antediluvian kings
relatedWork Babylonian chronicles
surface form: Babylonian King List

Weld-Blundell Prism
religiousContext Mesopotamian religion
religiousElement kingship conferred by gods
scholarlyUse reconstruction of Sumerian dynasties
study of Mesopotamian historiography
scriptDirection left-to-right horizontal lines
sourceFor Sumerian King List self-linksurface differs
surface form: Sumerian chronology

early Mesopotamian political history
structure dynasties arranged by city
sequence of cities holding kingship
transmission copied and updated over centuries
writingSystem cuneiform script

Referenced by (9)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Nippur mentionedIn Sumerian King List
Uruk mentionedIn Sumerian King List
this entity surface form: Sumerian king lists
Ur mentionedInText Sumerian King List
Enlil textualSource Sumerian King List
Sumerian language usedIn Sumerian King List
Early Dynastic period documentedIn Sumerian King List
Sumerian King List sourceFor Sumerian King List self-linksurface differs
this entity surface form: Sumerian chronology
Kish mentionedIn Sumerian King List
Eridu archaeological site isMentionedIn Sumerian King List