Kingdoms of Mesopotamia

Located in southern Mesopotamia, close to the rivers Euphrates and Tigris between modern Iraq's Baghdad and the tip of the Persian gulf, Sumer was one of the first great civilisations (see feature link), inventor of the wheel and of writing.

This civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt - albeit also with a notable pre-dynastic Sumerian culture which encompassed the entire fourth millennium BC (the Uruk IV period) - and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture. It developed out of the end of the Pottery Neolithic across the Fertile Crescent. This period had seen Neolithic Farmer practices spread far and wide across the Near East and beyond.

As irrigation improved so the more southerly reaches of the Euphrates could at last be occupied by humans and their animals. Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement, mainly pastoralists at first, herding sheep or goats.

Cultures around the edges of this progression included the Hassuna and Samarra which began this settlement process, and perhaps elements of the Hissar culture in the Iranian highlands were also involved. The subsequent Halaf and Ubaid cultures completed this development process.

By the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer (or Ki-en-gir, 'Land of the Sumerian tongue') was divided into approximately a dozen city states which were independent of one another and which used local canals and boundary stones to mark their borders. Competition was sometimes fierce, and battles were often marked by later agreements and physical stelae to show boundaries.

However, that name, Ki-en-gir, or Kengi, seems originally to refer to a central place which provided a pivotal role in a third millennium BC wider political association. This association included Adab, Lagash, Nippur, Shuruppak, Umma, Ur, and Uruk. The city of Kish, while being independent of this group, seems to have been seen as an associate member. This 'central place' is otherwise unknown, although the early city of Eridu must be a candidate for housing it. The name itself eventually came to be used for the region as a whole.

Many early historical events in the region are found only in the Sumerian king list, which notates the rulers of the city states (and see feature link), along with another list which continued to be updated until about two centuries after the fall of Sumer around 2004 BC. Archaeology has also uncovered a wealth of detail, as described in each of the city state pages.

Ranging from legendary early names (which are generally backed here in lilac even though they may still have a basis in historical fact), to the later fully-historical dynasties which are confirmed by that archaeology, the Sumerian king list records many names and lengths of rule but omits others. Some reigns are exceptionally long where the legendary rulers are concerned, but see the controversial theory regarding this via the feature link.

It also lists some contemporaneous dynasties as if they followed each other, suggesting that the kingship which was handed down by the gods could only be passed to another city through military conquest. The suggestion is that it formed a kind of high kingship, a generally-recognised superiority by one individual over a range of lesser kings. Such a system may have mirrored a similar, later practice in Anglo-Saxon Britain or the Gaul of La Tène culture.

There are at least four different translations which sometimes agree and sometimes disagree on the names of rulers and their (legendary or formulaic) lengths of rule. Here, for kings listed 'After the Flood', List 1 (Samuel Kramer) is primarily used. For the most part, List 2 (JA Black, et al) and List 4 (LC Gerts) seem to agree with one another, so the latter is omitted here.

Where List 2 and List 3 (Michael) provide a noticeably different translation from List 1, the data is shown here in the respective text colours. List 1 is used exclusively for kings 'Before the Flood'. Some additional data comes from the WB-62 translation of the list.

The Sumerian title lugal means 'king', a title which long outlived the Sumerians themselves and one which was not exclusively used in a period which witnessed kingship emerge from disparate and multi-layered origins. The lugals exercised power in eleven cities in southern Mesopotamia (according to the Sumerian king list).

This amounted to a total of 134 kings (MS P4+Ha has 139) who, altogether, ruled for 28,876 + X years (MS P4+Ha has 3,443 + X years). While the lengths of rule for the semi-legendary kings are calculated on a scale which makes them appear fanciful, the names themselves probably reflect real rulers at the dawn of fully descriptive writing.

Near East Kingdoms

Ancient Mesopotamia

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