 Cone of Enmetena | |
| Occupation | |
|---|---|
| Names | Lugal Kishki Sumerian: 𒈗𒆧𒆠, romanized: lugal-kish-ki transliterated: [lu.gal.kish.ki] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 69) (help) lit. 'big man of everything' |
| Synonyms | |
Activity sectors | Government |
| Description | |
Related jobs | |
The earliest days of Mesopotamian empire-building was most often a struggle between the kings of the most prominent cities. In these early days, the title of "King of Kish" was recognized as one of particular prestige, with the city of Kish being seen as having a sort of primacy over the other cities. By the Early Dynastic IIIb (EDIIIb) period (c. 2450 – c. 2350 BCE), "King of Kish" meant a divinely authorized ruler with the right to rule over all of Sumer, and it might have somewhat referred to a universal ruler. Use of the title, which was not limited to kings actually in possession of the city itself, implied that the ruler was a builder of cities, victorious in war and a righteous judge. According to the Sumerian King List (SKL), the city of Kish was where the kingship was lowered to from heaven after the Flood, its rulers being the embodiment of human kingship. During the ED period, the rulers of the various city-states (the most prominent being: Kish, Uruk, Ur, Lagash, and Umma) in the region would often launch invasions into regions and cities far from their own, at most times with negligible consequences for themselves, in order to establish temporary and small empires to either gain or keep a superior position relative to the other city-states. This early empire-building was encouraged as the most powerful monarchs were often rewarded with the most prestigious titles, such as the title of lugal. Most of these early rulers had probably acquired these titles rather than inherited them.[1] Eventually this quest to be more prestigious and powerful than the other city-states resulted in a general ambition for universal rule. Since Mesopotamia was equated to correspond to the entire world and Sumerian cities had been built far and wide (cities the like of Susa, Mari, and Assur were located near the perceived corners of the world) it seemed possible to reach the edges of the world (at this time thought to be the lower sea, the Persian gulf, and the upper sea, the Mediterranean).[1] Rulers attempting to reach a position of universal rule became more common during the ED IIIb during which two prominent examples are attested.[2] The first, Lugalannemundu, king of Adab, is claimed by the SKL (though this is a much later inscription, making the extensive rule of Lugalennemundu somewhat doubtful) to have created a great empire covering the entirety of Mesopotamia, reaching from modern Syria to Iran, saying that he "subjugated the Four Corners". The second, Lugalzaggesi, king of Uruk, conquered the entirety of Lower Mesopotamia and claimed (despite this not being the case) that his domain extended from the upper to the lower sea.[2] Lugalzaggesi was originally titled as simply "King of Uruk" and adopted the title "King of the Land" to lay claim to universal rule.[3][4] This title had also been employed by some earlier Sumerian kings claiming control over all of Sumer, such as Enshakushanna of Uruk.[3]
List of rulers to have held the title
edit| Portrait or inscription | Ruler | Approx. date and length of reign | Succession and death details | Comments, notes, and references |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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|
Enmebaragesi | reigned c. 2750 – c. 2700 BCE (≈50 years) |
Unclear succession | |
|
Aga | r. c. 2700 – c. 2585 BCE (≈115 years) |
Son of Enmebaragesi | |
|
Mesilim | r. c. 2585 – c. 2510 BCE (≈75 years) |
Unclear succession | |
| Lugalnamniršumma | r. c. 2510 – c. 2470 BCE (≈40 years) | |||
| Lugalsilâsi I | r. c. 2470 – c. 2445 BCE (≈25 years) | |||
|
Meskalamdug | r. c. 2445 – c. 2430 BCE (≈15 years) |
Son of Akalamdug (?) | |
|
Eannatum | r. c. 2430 – c. 2425 BCE (≈5 years) |
Son of Akurgal (?) | |
|
Mesannepada | r. c. 2425 – c. 2420 BCE (≈5 years) |
Son of Meskalamdug (?) | |
| Urzage | r. c. 2420 – c. 2400 BCE (≈20 years) |
Unclear succession | ||
|
Lugalkinishedudu | r. c. 2400 – c. 2375 BCE (≈25 years) | ||
|
Lugal-kisalsi | r. c. 2375 – c. 2350 BCE (≈25 years) |
Son of Lugalkinishedudu | |
|
Enshakushanna | r. c. 2350 – c. 2340 BCE (≈10 years) |
Son of Elulu (?) | |
|
Lugalzagesi | r. c. 2340 – c. 2316 BCE (≈36 years) |
Son of Ukush | |
Gallery
editSee also
editReferences
editNotes
editCitations
edit- ^ a b Liverani 2013, p. 120.
- ^ a b Liverani 2013, pp. 120–121.
- ^ a b Maeda 1981, p. 4.
- ^ McIntosh 2005, p. 167.
Sources
editBibliography
edit- Liverani, Mario (2013-12-04). The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. Routledge. ISBN 9781134750849.
- Maeda, Tohru (1981). "KING OF KISH" IN PRE-SARGONIC SUMER (Report). Vol. 17. Waseda University, Japan. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
- McIntosh, Jane (2005). Weeks, J. (ed.). Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781576079652.
Journals
edit- Kesecker, Nshan (2018). "Lugalzagesi: The First Emperor of Mesopotamia?". ARAMAZD Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies. XII (1). Retrieved 2024-01-25.
- Marchesi, Gianni (2015). Sallaberger, Walther; Schrakamp, Ingo (eds.). "Toward a Chronology of Early Dynastic Rulers in Mesopotamia". History and Philology (ARCANE 3; Turnhout).
External links
editFurther reading
editGeography
editLanguage
edit- Black, Jeremy Allen; Baines, John Robert; Dahl, Jacob L.; Van De Mieroop, Marc (2024) [1997]. Cunningham, Graham; Ebeling, Jarle; Flückiger-Hawker, Esther; Robson, Eleanor; Taylor, Jon; Zólyomi, Gábor (eds.). "ETCSL: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature". Faculty of Oriental Studies (revised ed.). United Kingdom (published 1997–2024). Retrieved 2024-01-25.
The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), a project of the University of Oxford, comprises a selection of nearly 400 literary compositions recorded on sources which come from ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and date to the late third and early second millennia BCE.
- Renn, Jürgen; Dahl, Jacob L.; Lafont, Bertrand; Pagé-Perron, Émilie (2024) [1998]. "CDLI: Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative" (published 1998–2024). Retrieved 2024-01-25.
Images presented online by the research project Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) are for the non-commercial use of students, scholars, and the public. Support for the project has been generously provided by the Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (ILMS), and by the Max Planck Society (MPS), Oxford and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); network services are from UCLA's Center for Digital Humanities.
- Sjöberg, Åke Waldemar; Leichty, Erle; Tinney, Steve (2024) [2003]. "PSD: The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary" (published 2003–2024). Retrieved 2024-01-25.
The Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project (PSD) is carried out in the Babylonian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. It is funded by the NEH and private contributions. [They] work with several other projects in the development of tools and corpora. [Two] of these have useful websites: the CDLI and the ETCSL.