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The Sumerian King’s Tablet One of My Top 5 Victory List Accomplie Evan Mladenoff DC Among the numerous ancient texts, manuscripts and scrolls that completely disagree with mainstream history –or at least offer a complementary view— we find the ancient Sumerian King list which according to many is one of the most mysterious and important ancient texts ever discovered on Earth. Page 1 of 6 Why? Because it suggests that the ancient rulers had implausible lengthy reigns: “…Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years. Alaljar ruled for 36000 years. 2 kings; they ruled for 64800 years. Then Eridug fell and the kingship was taken to Bad-tibira. In Bad-tibira, En-men-lu-ana ruled for 43200 years…” This ancient text describes in great detail a time when Earth was ruled by beings referred to as ‘Gods’ for thousands of years. The list composed in Ancient Sumerian offers details about numerous generations of kings that ruled over the land of ancient Sumer. The list not only offers us their names, but it details their supposed length and location of Kingship. The Ancient Sumerian king list provides a comprehensive list of the Sumerian Kings from the beginning, before the great flood, and the 10 kings who lived before the Flood who lived for thousands of years. The first part of the Sumerian King List reads: “…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. Then Eridug fell and the kingship was taken to Bad-tibira. In Bad-tibira, En-men-lu-ana ruled for 43200 years. En-men-gal-ana ruled for 28800 years. Dumuzid, the shepherd, ruled for 36000 years. 3 kings; they ruled for 108000 years…” Fragments of the Sumerian Kind list were discovered in 1900’s by German-American researcher Hermann Hilprecht at Nippur. After 1906, 18 other lists have been discovered dating from the second half of the Isin dynasty. There are more than a dozen of copies of Sumerian King Lists, found in Babylon, Susa, and Assyria, and the Royal Library of Nineveh from the VII century BC. The best-preserved specimen of the Sumerian King List is called the Weld-Blundell Prism, which is a clay, cuneiform inscribed vertical prism housed in the Ashmolean Museum. Page 2 of 6 Mainstream scholars suggest that the Ancient Sumerian King list is a mixture of prehistorical and mythological accounts. Scholars are unable to explain why the unique list blends mythical pre-dynastic rulers with historical rulers. The list is only partially accepted in the academic community. Experts claim that some of the accounts are myths while other are genuine. The Sumerian King list suggests that Ancient kings had implausible lengthy reigns, which has led many to conclude its not real. Experts argue that the antediluvian reigns described in the Sumerian King list were measured in Sumerian numerical units known as sars (units of 3,600), need (units of 600), and sosses (units of 60). Researchers have mixed feelings about the Sumerian King list. The mind-boggling lengthy reigns described in the Sumerian King list has led to the creation of countless theories trying to explain the implausible lengthy reigns. Some scholars argue that the years of reign described in the Sumerian King list were not actual years, but are a reflection of the importance of the king. The more years the king ‘ruled’ the more important He was to history in the eyes of mortal humans. The only problem with this theory is that no one can explain why the period of reign was switched to realistic numbers afterward. Page 3 of 6 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. The ancient civilisation 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 3 rd millennium BC, Sumer was the site of at least twelve separate city states: 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, and each 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. After the Flood, various city-states and their dynasties of kings temporarily gained power over the others. Sumer’s mythical past 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 long reigns 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 Page 4 of 6 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 long periods of reign 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 mythicised. Finally, some scholars have sought to explain the figures through a mathematical investigation and interpretation (e.g. Harrison, 1993). Relation to Genesis Some scholars (e.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: “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. 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 (Wood, 2003). 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. By April Holloway References The Sumerian King List – University of Oxford Great Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology: The Sumerian King List – by Bryant G. Wood The Sumerian king list: translation - The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature The Sumerian King List - by L.C.
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