Out of the many incredible artifacts that have been recovered from sites in Iraq where flourishing Sumerian cities once stood, few have been more intriguing than the Sumerian King List. An ancient manuscript originally recorded in the Sumerian language, the Sumerian King List is a register of the kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties.
The list includes their names, supposed reign lengths, and the locations of “official” kingship. What makes the Sumerian King List so unique is the fact that it blends apparently mythical pre-dynastic rulers with historical rulers who are known to have existed in real life.
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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 his results were 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 to 1794 BC).
No two of these documents are identical. However, there is enough common material in all versions of the Sumerian King List to make it clear that they are derived from a single, “ideal” account of Sumerian history.
The Weld-Blundell Prism. (Ashmolean Museum / CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Weld-Blundell Prism
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 Sumerian King List. The 8-inch-high (20.32 cm) prism contains four sides with two columns on each side.
It is believed that the Weld-Blundell prism originally had a wooden spindle going through its center 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 to 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. It even demonstrates remarkable parallels to accounts in Genesis.
The Ancient Civilization of Sumer
Sumer (sometimes called Sumeria), is the site of the earliest known civilization, located in the southernmost part of Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, in the area that later became Babylonia and is now southern Iraq from around Baghdad to the Persian Gulf.
By the 3rd millennium BC, Sumer was the site of at least twelve separate city states, including Kish, Erech, Ur, Sippar, Akshak, Larak, Nippur, Adab, Umma, Lagash, Bad-tibira and Larsa. Each of these states comprised a walled city and its surrounding villages and land. Each city state worshiped its own deity, whose temple was the central structure of the city.
Political power originally belonged to the citizens, but, as rivalry between the various city states increased, each adopted the institution of kingship. The Sumerian King List records that eight kings reigned before a Great Flood. Afterwards, the list claims that various city-states and their dynasties of kings temporarily gained power over the others.
Sculptured vase depicting Gilgamesh wrestling two bulls from the Shara temple at Tell Agrab, Diyala Region, Iraq. Gilgamesh was included in the Sumerian King List. (Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin / CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sumer’s Mythical Past: Mythical Figures in the Sumerian King List
The Sumerian King List begins with the very origin of kingship, which is seen as a divine institution: “the kingship had descended from heaven.” The rulers in the earliest dynasties are represented as reigning fantastically long periods:
After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years. Alaljar ruled for 36000 years. 2 kings; they ruled for 64800 years.
Some of the rulers mentioned in the early list, such as Etana, Lugal-banda and Gilgamesh, are mythical or legendary figures whose heroic feats are subjects of a series of Sumerian and Babylonian narrative compositions.
The early list names eight kings with a total of 241,200 years from the time when kingship “descended from heaven” to the time when “the Flood” swept over the land and once more “the kingship was lowered from heaven” after the Flood.
Interpretation of the Long Tenures of Early Kings
The amazingly long tenure of the early kings has provoked many attempts at interpretation. At one extreme is the complete dismissal of the astronomically large figures as “completely artificial” and the view that they are unworthy of serious consideration. At the other extreme, is the belief that the numbers have a basis in reality and that the early kings were indeed gods who were capable of living much longer than humans.
In between the two extremes is the hypothesis that the figures represent relative power, triumph or importance. For example, in ancient Egypt, the phrase “he died aged 110” referred to someone who lived life to the full and who offered an important contribution to society.
In the same way, the extremely reigns of the early kings may represent how incredibly important they were perceived as being in the eyes of the people. This doesn’t explain, however, why the periods of tenure later switched to realistic time periods.
Related to this perspective is the belief that although the early kings are historically unattested, this does not preclude their possible correspondence with historical rulers who were later mythicized. Some scholars, such as Harrison, have even sought to explain the figures through mathematical investigation and interpretation.
Painting of the Great Flood as told in Genesis. Augsburger Wunderzeichenbuch, Folio 1 (Genesis 7, 11-14). (Public domain)
The Sumerian King List and its Relation to Genesis
Some scholars (e.g. Bryant G. Wood, 2003) have drawn attention to the fact that there are remarkable similarities between the Sumerian King List and accounts in Genesis. For example, Genesis tells the story of ‘the great flood’ and Noah’s efforts to save all the species of animals on Earth from destruction. Likewise, in the Sumerian King List there is discussion of a great deluge, where the text states that “the flood swept over the earth.”
The Sumerian King List provides a list of eight kings (some versions have 10) who reigned for long periods of time before the flood, ranging from 18,600 to 43,200 years. This is similar to Genesis 5, where the generations from Creation to the Flood are recorded. Interestingly, between Adam and Noah there are eight generations, just as there are eight kings between the beginning of kingship and the flood in the Sumerian King List.
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After the flood, the King List records kings who ruled for much shorter periods of time. Thus, the Sumerian King List not only documents a great flood early in man’s history, but it also reflects the same pattern of decreasing longevity as found in the Bible - men had extremely long life spans before the flood and much shorter life spans following the flood.
The Sumerian King List truly is a perplexing mystery. Why would the Sumerians combine mythical rulers with actual historical rulers in one document? Why are there so many similarities with Genesis? Why were ancient kings described as ruling for thousands of years? These are just some of the questions that still remain unanswered after more than a century of research.
Top image: Weld-Blundell Prism, a clay cuneiform inscribed with the Sumerian Kings List. Source: Public domain
By Joanna Gillan
References
Geerts, L. C. No date. “The Sumerian King List” in Biblioteca Pleyades. Available at: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/king_list.htm
Harrison, R. K. 1993. “Reinvestigating the Antediluvian Sumerian King List” in JETS 36/I. Available at: https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/36/36-1/JETS_36-1_003-008_Harrison.pdf
Jacobsen, T. 1939. The Sumerian King List. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. Available at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/as11.pdf
No name. No date. “The Sumerian King List (SKL)” in A Library of Knowledge of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. Available at: https://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=the_sumerian_king_list_skl
No name. No date. “The Sumerian king list: translation” in The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Available at: https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr211.htm
Wood, B. G. 2003. “Great Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology: The Sumerian King List” in Bible and Space Journal. Available at: https://www.galaxie.com/article/bspade16-4-04
What if....
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In reply to Pre-History by Walt (not verified)
Modern man has a problem with reconciling past 'larger than life' history/legend/myth with current conventional wisdom/scientific fact/dogma.
What if the earth was smaller, to the degree that rotational speed would be faster, meaning the day/night cycle shorter. Gravitational pull would also be weaker, (astronauts hop/bound on the moon), allowing for larger than life beings, let's call them giants and dinosaurs, I wonder if there are any ancient calendars correlating lunar cycles as longer than our current 28 days.
Let's assume a biosphere similar to what is currently on venus, a canopy of vapor, only not as hostile to life, shielding all life forms from cosmic/solar radiation. A true green-house with tropical flora and fauna where our polar caps now reside. With shorter days, greater health you have amazingly long life spans.
One only needs a cataclysmic event (a planet killer), such as a moon size (smaller is ok too) comet (lot's of dirty ice on them so I read) to hit the earth, say in the pacific...punching a bulge on the other side, leaving the Himalayas and expanding the previously smaller earth by whatever magnitude the object/s (shoemaker levy) may have been. The earth is popped like a popcorn kernel, all the continents fit exactly with each other..NO CONTINENTAL drift needed.
The resulting massive Tsunami that would bury any peak in it's path. Oh and once particulates hit the atmosphere, already saturated with moisture (high humidity) and the extra cosmic water, you could have a TORRENTIAL rain that would last say...40 days and 40 nights??
After a year or so, the water would eventually settle to the lowest depression on earth (Pacific?), fill in the spaces between the continents, creating tremendous pressure on the mantle which would of course raise the exposed landmasses more (exposing underwater land formations above water, like southpacific islands) and a NEW coastline all around the globe, burying ancient civilizations, etc. etc.
The new 'clear skies' would expose all life to 'radiation', the first obvious sign of this light would be a rainbow' and because of it...increase sugar content in fruits...like grape juice, which would have given our Noah such a hangover (not used to the extra kick/alchohol) and made him a little hot/sweaty and a little crazy. (this would btw also render carbon dating prior to the flood invalid, since radiation would not have been constant).
With shorter life spans and longer days and greater gravitational force dragging us down. The former giants shrink/dissapear/go underground? , we get a redo and life goes on......until.......the BIG ONE
Just an assumption
Lifespans and environments
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In reply to What if.... by Hermix (not verified)
The Bible's account of the earth separating from the atmosphere is almost identical to science's. There are numerous stories from around the world, not just of Jewish/Christian origin, that specify the rainbow as a new, never before seen phenomenon having shown up immediately after the deluge. An ultra humid atmosphere would indeed have protected life from cosmic radiation, reasonably indicating longer life spans as constant bombardment from radiation is a distinct part of the aging process.
To put this in perspective, imagine a large radioactive body impacting the earth, exploding and spreading its radioactivity over the entire surface. Those who survived the initial impact would likely still be able to breed but with the new planet wide radioactivity levels, lifespans would be significantly reduced. After thousands of years, the new shortened lifespan would be the norm and it would be difficult for people to accept that their ancestors were once something more than they are. Records, from the "before" time, would eventually be dismissed by those in power as myth and thus dismissed by the masses. People would, as we are today, be ridiculed for believing in magic and fairy tales. However, as science progresses, we are beginning to understand that not only are these magical feats possible but that it's probable that they actually happened.
Back to the rainbow. There's an American Indian legend of the before time that tells of another people who had many large fires, fires larger than any that the ancient Indians ever had. Either the fires caused the flood or the flood was devised to extinguish the fires, I don't remember but as the waters rose, all people sought higher ground. A great chief eventually stretched a buffalo skin from mountain to mountain, protecting all under it from the water. As the waters receded, the skin dried and shrank until it was a thin band, stretching across the sky and had turned from white to all of the colors of the flowers. They understood this new development to be an indicator that this kind of destruction would never happen again.
The atmosphere and/or solar output of today is evidently very different than it was then. We should expect that life is probably very different as well. Don't get me started on what we used to be before our current "perfected" version. Oh, and yes, the remaining giants have indeed gone underground. I could go on and on but won't. Enjoy your lives. I will enjoy mine.
They are underground...
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In reply to Lifespans and environments by Mars (not verified)
They are underground....because they are dead.
You're probably right. I
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In reply to They are underground... by Amando (not verified)
You're probably right. I should have said that they "went" underground. Mention of actual giants has dropped off over the last thousand years. The last reasonable documentation of an actual, living "double toothed" giant was written hundreds of years ago.
When people claim to have found giant remains, the follow-up claim is then, that the remains have been stolen or otherwise relocated, delegating the claim to the realm of urban myth. If false, then oh well. If true, I shudder to think what geneticists are doing with the dna.
When I was a child, I was exploring some cliffs with friends in upstate NY. We found a big rock that had been pushed up by the roots of a large tree. Air was being sucked inward through a hole next to the rock. We dug until we fit through and found ourselves in a cave. The walls were high and unusually smooth. 40 or 50 feet in, the cave ended at a rock that appeared to have been cut to fit the cave exactly. We played for a while, then left and went fishing. That night at around 1:00 in the morning there was a loud boom that rattled cups and Windows and such. Three days later, we went back to explore the cave but the opening, including the big tree, had been buried by earth and boulders. Too much weirdness, too many coincidences.
Stories like these mean little to most but to the teller, they are evidence of questions that are screaming to be answered. Consider the urban myth of the Denver airport's astronomical construction costs and duration and the claim that there are giant tunnels underneath. If there are still giants, they likely would have a hard time surviving on the surface. It's not unheard of that some people are forced to live inside due to the harsh conditions of their environment. It is good that you have, at least, acknowledged that they did indeed exist.
Kings and Dynasties
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In reply to dynasties by Allen (not verified)
For example, how many Kings in England under the House of Windsor? They changed their House name for political reasons, too.
If a King's birth name is Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, House of Windsor, and his King name is Edward VIII, but his everyday name is David, maybe that's why the confusion between the historic, archaeologic Kings' list and the Bible.