That section, however, is significantly different from the rest of the list which deals with kings reigning after the Flood. ThenEridugfell and the kingship was taken toBad-tibira. 2003. The mind-boggling lengthy reigns described in the SumerianKing list has led to the creation of countless theories trying to explain the implausible lengthy reigns. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This clay tablet discovered in Larsa, Iraq around the start of the third millennium BC. In Section 3, a study is made of the Sumero/Babylonian numerical systems to ascertain the development of the different methods used to represent numbers and the peculiarities and limitations of the different systems that could have possibly been used to represent the original antediluvian Kings List. its kingship to Larak was carried. The Sumerian King List is an ancient stone tablet originally recorded in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of the kingship. reigned its 108,000 years. It was found in the temple library of Nippur, an ancient city of Mesopotamia, now in southeastern Iraq at the turn of the century. In addition, some of the phrases and information in the antediluvian section have been found in a Sumerian epic dealing with the beginning of the world.4 There is a close correspondence between the common phrases of these two documents, and the identical order of the primeval cities, which tends to indicate that they are literarily interdependent. The lines resembled a wedge, and this became the reason for the name cuneiform given later to this script. I drop (the topic) Bad-tibira(k); Dynasty. Description: The Sumerian King List is an important chronographic document from ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerian King List records in a chronological succession the names of most of the kings of Sumer and the lengths of their reigns. The style of the concluding sections is also very similar to that of the antediluvian section which has been seen above to be an addition to the main body of the King List. reigned its 18,600 years. But why introduce 60 years (6 x 10) when already the first two sets of signs amount to more than two hundred thousand years? The Sumerian King List records the lengths of reigns of the kings of Sumer. 1 king Poebel, Arno. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. JCS 17: 3951. reigned its 21,000 years. The reason for the adoption of such a large base is probably a reflection of the various units of measure used for commercial, administration and religious purposes. The symbol for 10 was made by pressing the stylus vertically into the clay and had the appearance of a circle. It lists a long succession of cities in Sumer and its neighbouring regions where kingship was invested, the rulers who reigned in those cities and the length of their reigns. 1914. I drop (the topic) Bad-tibira(k); In Le Palais et la royaut, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The small number of numerical symbols was, to a large extent, controlled by the method of writing numbers using a blunt stylus with a circular section to impress marks on wet clay. Experts claim that some of the accounts are myths while other are genuine. On a separate section, are entries that correspond to subtotals of the individual numbers. About eighty percent of the words written on the approximately 10,000 tablets found at Ebla are in Sumerian. The concluding section of WB, however, shows a different style. On the other hand, the total of the lifetimes (which provides the principal numerical correspondence) has a structure (three sets of six ciphers each in strict decreasing arithmetical order) that would have made remembering that number much easier. 12(3):347-357, 1998. II: Texts and Transliations. An examination of the grammar of the List, however, shows certain usages that had disappeared by that time. reigned its 108,000 years. It is an update of earlier Sumerian king lists to add Isins kings to Sumers royal roster. 2). In Literatur, Politic und Recht in Mesopotamien: Festschrift fr Claus Wilcke, ed. _. . In the latter half of the last century, scholars began to focus more on the historiographical value of the King List at the times when it was composed or redacted. The italicized lines correspond to phrases that Jacobsen considers were written by the scribe as he added the material of the antediluvian section to an earlier version of the King List, which he was also bringing up to date, in the middle of the Isin dynasty. Researchers have mixed feelings about the Sumerian King list. Glassner, Jean-Jacques. This list was inscribed during the reign of Damiqilishu of Isin (1816-1794 BC). 1963. reigned their 241,200 years. However, it is evident that his source for the antediluvian kings did not claim that the different kingships were successive. The fact that the List of the Sumerian Kings mentions eight kings, their names and long kingdoms, as well as their origin the royalty that came down from heaven has made many think: Is it possible that what is written on the List of the Sumerian Kings be real historical references? Paris. Hallo, W. W. 1963. In DUMU-E2-DUB-BA-A: Studies in Honor of ke W. Sjberg, ed. Relation between the sources of the Sumerian King List. You're almost done! The total (241,200) needs six 10x602 signs, six 602 signs, and six 10x60 signs. The language represented was probably Sumerian but that is not certain. En-men-gal-Anna(k) The earlier system used only two different signs in two different sizes to write the numbers. (In) Shuruppak Ubar-Tutu(k) Jacobsen4 believes that the antediluvian section is a later addition to a King List that did not originally contain kings before the Flood. The King List ends with the reign of a Mesopotamian ruler presumably contemporaneous with the author or redactor of the List. (2) The epic used A but dropped the formulas as they did not fit its style. As with the symbol for 600, a small circle was impressed inside the larger circle (3,600) to multiply it by ten and represent 36,000. They state the name of an important Sumerian capital, supply a list of its rulers and then describe each royal dynastys downfall: [City A] was smitten with weapons; its kingship was carried to [city B].. This period is marked by the hegemony of the Sumerians under the leadership of Ur-Nammu, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, who conquered other Sumerian and Akkadian city-states. In both cases, the largest value represented by a single symbol was 36,000, although very large numbers could be expressed by the repeated use of the symbol for 36,000. "The Seed of Kingship." The original King List was probably composed during the reign of Utu-hegal of Uruk (21192112 BC) and the antediluvian section added after the reign of Sin-magir (18271817 BC) of the Isin dynasty. [16] The list Number symbols used during the Proto-Sumerian and Early Dynastic Periods (33002334 BC). The most controversial ancient Sumerian text reveals the list of eight ancient kings that are also known as gods, who descended from the sky and ruled for over two hundred thousand years. (In) Bad-tibira(k) En-men-lu-Anna(k) The Last Sumerian King Discovered, Enki's Order Revival 2,602 views Premiered Sep 29, 2021 128 Dislike Share Save Sumerian Origins 54.1K subscribers Sumerian Origins Podcast. reigned its 28,800 years. In case there were less that ten symbols of the same kind left, they were usually arranged in up to three rows of three symbols each. It is difficult to ascertain if the verb he reigned after the various reigns and the city summaries of the number of kings and the total duration of their reigns were derived from source A or if they were added by the scribe. Originally published in Journal of Creation 12, no 3 (December 1998): 347-357. Who Built the East Bay Mystery Walls in California? when the kingship was lowered from heaven In contrast, the antediluvian section has been found as a separate entity in a tablet dated to the end of the 3rd millennium without reference to lists of other rulers. "Die Sumerische Knigsliste und erzhlte Vergangenheit." J. This paper carefully and thoroughly examines the numerical relationships between the two documents. 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). 2 kings; they ruled for 64800 years. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The formulas for the change of dynasty and the mention of their totals are very consistent in the postdiluvian part and are very different from those used in the antediluvian one. Before comparing the Antediluvian portion of the King List to the Genesis record, it is important to review the characteristics of the number system used in Mesopotamia as deduced from the earliest archaeological findings. This ancient text describes in great detail a time when Earth was ruled by beings referred to as Gods for thousands of years. Or is it possible that scholars have classified some of the rulers as mythological, due to their peculiar characteristics? In the Sumerian King List, Enmerkar appears as the second king of the First Dynasty of Uruk.His father was Meskiaggasher (Mesh-ki-ang-gasher), the son of the god Utu (the twin of the goddess Inanna, the Queen of Heaven), later worshipped as Shamash, the Mesopotamian Sun god associated with justice, truth, and morality.Utu, on the other hand, was Enmerkar's grandfather. Since that date, more than 15 different fragments and at least one fairly complete list have been found and published. 3 kings; they ruled for 108000 years. Privacy Policy and The Sumerian King List seems to have been composed to imply that the dominion of Mesopotamia, determined by the gods, could only be exercised by one city at a given time and for a limited period. The Sumerian King List records in succession the names of most of the kings of Sumer and the lengths of their reigns. The most controversial ancient Sumerian text reveals the list of eight ancient kings who descended from the sky and ruled for over 200,000 years. See us on Fox News? 5 Alalgar reigned 36,000 years. 2 kings; they ruled for 64800 years. When first discovered and published in the beginning of the last century, the Sumerian King List was valued highly as a historical document for its potential to check the validity of the biblical chronology in the Book of Genesis and to reconstruct early world and Mesopotamian (political) history. Meshkiangasher. This end was also blunt but had a larger diameter, so it would produced the shape of a larger bullet. In this stage some signs were used to represent syllables. For 36,000 years, Alaljar reigned. The Sumerian list assigns an average reign duration of 30,150 years, with a total duration for the period of 241,200 years, compared to an average age of the biblical patriarchs of 858 years and a sum of 8575 years for their full lives. By defeating Gutium around 2119 BC, Utu-hegal had brought back the kingdom to Sumer. Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner. Friberg, Jran. The Sumerian King List. It's an ancient text in Sumerian language, dated back to the 3rd millennium BCE, which is a listing of all Sumer kings, their respective dynasties, locations, and times in power. The influence of the King List was by no means restricted to the domain of politics in ancient Mesopotamia. It starts out by describing a list of rulers of vast ages, followed by a cataclysmic flood. This simplified the tallying procedure by grouping by ten the ciphers for the different powers. When first discovered and published in the beginning of the last century, the Sumerian King List was valued highly as a historical document for its potential to check the validity of the biblical chronology in the Book of Genesis and to reconstruct early world and Mesopotamian (political) history. According to the text, before the Great Flood, a group of 8 intelligent beings ruled over Mesopotamia for a period of 241,200 years. 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. Jacobsen, Thorkild. 2 kings Institution user? God in His infinite wisdom has certainly preserved documentation that, yet again, proves the Biblical record. Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. The author appears to have merged the independent local lists to a sequential list produced under the theory that there was only one king at a given time in all of Babylonia. Attention is paid to the internal characteristics of the two sets of numerical values and their formal similarity. Variations due to different local traditions may account for some of these divergences. The duration of the lives of the biblical patriarchs, however, have the precision of one year, and the majority of the ages have units. Although there are other, non-biblical, references to the antediluvian era, there is no other document in all of the extant records of the ancient world that provides the detailed and coherent information found in the book of Genesis. This ancient record, known as the Sumerian King List, describes how our planet was controlled by eight unknown monarchs for an incredible 241,000 years in the distant past. the kingship was in Eridu(g). It ends with King Sin-magir of the so-called Isin dynasty (around 1827-1817 BC). The Sumerian King List (abbreviated SKL) . Please follow the instructions we emailed you in order to finish subscribing. An example of the use of intermediate ciphers is found in the Roman number system, where ciphers for 5 times the powers of 10 were developed even though the system was fundamentally decimal (V, L, and D for 5, 50, and 500). Sixteen copies (indicated as A, B, C. P) of this text are known, all of them written in Sumerian, although some of them clearly show Akkadian influence. Archaeologists have defined six distinct periods of Sumerian civilization. by German-American scholar Hermann Hilprecht at the site of ancient Nippur and published in 1906. Terms of Service apply. Throughout . The Sumerian King List is an ancient manuscript originally recorded in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of "official" kingship. Your email address will not be published. The list begins about 266,000 years ago, long before we understood human civilization to have even begun, at a time when "kingship first descended from heaven" in the ancient Sumerian city of Eridu in southeastern Iraq. Since the publication of the first fragment of the Sumerian King List in 1906, the value of the King List was initially perceived to be its potential to check the validity of the biblical chronology in the Book of Genesis, or to reconstruct early world and Mesopotamian (political) history. This scribe appears to have adapted an earlier list of antediluvian kings to conform to the style and philosophy of the document he was bringing up to date. The Sumerian King List records the lengths of reigns of the kings of Sumer. True In ancient Egypt, sources regarding the ancient past are much more factual than in ancient Mesopotamia, because Egyptian rulers in the remote past are all . He works as a research meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory. It is curious that the 10x60 signs of the last two durations add up exactly to one of the 602 signs, the basic unit of all the other numbers and the overall total, and that the 10x60 unit was not used until the last two reign durations of the list. This flood story told in the Sumerian King List is about the same as what's recorded in the Holy Bible with Noah; at least, that's what many scholars believe. CUSAS 17. 20001600 B.C.). The Sumerian King List is an ancient listing of the earliest rulers of Sumer and surrounding regions. Despite the commonalities these versions or recensions share, they can diverge from one and another in both content and style. (In) Sippar En-men-dur-Anna(k) Experts argue that the antediluvian reigns described in the Sumerian King list were measured in Sumerian numerical units known assars(units of 3,600),need(units of 600), andsosses(units of 60). Raul E. Lopez has an M.S. For decades people believed that the detailed history in the List of the Sumerian Kings, that is, the kings with incredibly long lives, their disappearance during the Great Flood and their replacement with the new kings that came from heaven, were just another set of mythological stories. A representation based on the non-positional cuneiform system, however, would have been very similar. En-men-gal-Anna(k) its kingship to Bad-tibira(k) Superfluous details were omitted, and curved lines were replaced by short straight segments. After the flood, the King List records kings who ruled for much shorter periods of time. Among all the extant exemplars of the Sumerian King List, the Weld-Blundell prism in the Ashmolean Museum cuneiform collection represents the most extensive version as well as the most complete copy of the King List. This fairly complete text is referred to as WB. The Sumerian King List. "A New Fragment from A List of Antediluvian Kings and Marduks Chariot." Michalowski, Piotr. The highly important Sumerian king list was written in Sumerian cuneiform on clay tablets, with the first version probably appearing during the Ur III Period (circa 2150-2000 BC). 1 king These are the two largest units of the system, so that the numbers are expressed as multiples of 3600. In Section 4, the two lists are expressed in one of the early numerical systems and compared. 3 kings Historical Inscriptions, Containing Principally the Chronological Prism, W-B. Writing is well developed when it first appears in the archaeological records. King, L. W. 1907. What makes this artefact so unique is the fact that the list blends apparently mythical pre-dynastic rulers with historical rulers who are known to have existed. The colophon of this text mentions that it was copied during the reign of Shulgi (2084-2037 BC), the second king of the Ur III dynasty. The resulting number was very easy to understand and used the multiplicative principle. A sign for zero was used to indicate internal empty positions. In the early 1900s, the colorful, cranky German-American scholar Hermann Hilprecht examined a 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablet that had been excavated at the site of ancient Nippur. Lugalbanda. After 1906, 18 other lists have been discovered dating from the second half of the Isin dynasty. The best-preserved copy is a clay prism purchased in Iraq shortly after World War I that currently resides in the . In addition, if the number representing the sum of the ages was wrongly assumed as having been written in the sexagesimal system, the two totals become numerically equivalent. He has published about 50 journal papers and 90 conference papers and technical reports. On the other hand, the fact that the Sumerian account shows up as a numerically rounded, incomplete version of the Genesis description, lacking the latters precision and wealth of details, as well as its moral and spiritual depth, is a strong argument for the priority, accuracy and superiority of the biblical record. 1 The document begins at the beginning of history, the time when 'kingship (first) descended from heaven,' and goes up to the reign of Sin-magir (1827- 1817 BC 3) towards the end of the Isin dynasty. The origins of Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia are still debated today, but archaeological evidence indicates that they established roughly a dozen city-states by the fourth millennium BC. Piotr Michalowski, 7791. . Thus it appears that the two documents are related. . 25 its kingship to Sippar was carried. What if the details found in the Sumerian King List are one hundred percent accurate and that, unlike the mainstream scholars, these impassible reigns were a possibility, at a time when civilization, society and our planet were very different from what it is today? reigned its 21,000 years. By noting the date when these different grammatical usages also had disappeared from the language, and the dynasty in the List when the different writing style was introduced, Jacobsen4 came to the conclusion that the first part of the List was composed earlier than the reign of Utu-hegal of Uruk (21192112 BC)1,3 and that the later section of WB was added by a different scribe as he brought an older copy of the List up to date with information about new kings and dynasties. During the period of the Semitic dynasty of Akkad, the Akkadian language replaced Sumerian as the administrative language, as Sargon I of Agade conquered all of Mesopotamia and extended the empire to the Amanus Mountains to the West, and to the Zagros and Taurus mountains to the East and North.15 The Sumerian signs were used to write the Old Akkadian language which was Semitic. They are also very different from the phrases repeatedly used for the ending of the different dynasties in the postdiluvian sections (e.g., Kish was smitten with weapons). A simple tally of the ciphers used yields six 10x602 signs, six 602 signs and six 60 signs. Most of the material for this period comes from the Archaic Ur tablets. Then the flood swept them over. The List of the Sumerian Kings tells an incredible story that many find hard to believe: After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. P. Michalowski et al., 12329. There would have been no use for the large bullet impression because the first power of the base was already represented by the small circle, and no use for the large bullet with the small circle inside because ten times the first power of the base was the square of the base which was represented by the large circle. Bibliography: Thank you for signing up to receive email newsletters from Answers in Genesis. reigned its 64,800 years. The Emergence and Development of Sumerian and Babylonian Traditions Related to the Primeval Flood Catastrophe from the Old Babylonian Period. 6). The following survey is based principally on the descriptions of Friberg,5 Flegg,6 Nissen,7 Walker,8 and the University of Wisconsin9 among others. The line numeration refers to the lines of the WB prism. Since there are some evidences for both, they are indicated by Roman but not bolded letters in the transcription shown above. Biblical Archaeology Society Online Archive. However, because of the peculiarities of the system, six large bullets with the small circle inside also make a large circle. The original King List was probably composed during the reign of Utu-hegal of Uruk (2119-2112 BC) and the pre-flood list of kings, added after the reign of Sin-magir (1827-1817 BC) of the Isin dynasty. Please refresh the page and try again. The information contained in source A can then be summarized as follows: When the kingship was lowered from heaven It was found in the temple library of Nippur, an ancient city of Mesopotamia, now in southeastern Iraq at the turn of the century. After that, En-men-gal-ana ruled for 28,800 years, and Dumuzid, the Shepherd, ruled for 36,000 years. 7. (In) Shuruppak Ubar-Tutu(k) The Sumerian King List is an ancient stone tablet originally recorded in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of the kingship. JRAS: 25159. Given that assumption, the last three signs would have represented 3,600 (6 x 10x60) for a grand total of 241,200 years, the total appearing in the Sumerian list. . Orientalia Biblica et Christiana 14. It lists rulers from the antediluvian dynasties to Suen-magir, the fourteenth ruler of the Isin dynasty (ca. The List of the Sumerian Kings details how, in the distant past, our planet was ruled by eight mysterious kings for a mysterious period of 241,200 years! The List The numbers as a rule were still made with the round end of a stylus and are easy to identify. En-men-gal-anaruled for 28800 years. 17631753 B.C.). W.20030, 7) or "Uruk List of Kings and Sages" (ULKS) was discovered by German archaeologists at an ancient temple at Uruk. In Eridug, Alulim ( giant semi-divine descendant of the Anunnaki alien gods) became king; he ruled for 28,800 years. It is a short and concise list of the type that probably the original author of WB used for his source (Document A). The Chronovisor: A device used by the Vatican to look 250,000-year-old artifact: The ultimate evidence of 'Ancient Astronaut' technology? (In) Sippar En-men-dur-Anna(k) Vincente, Claudine-Adrienne. The list begins with the antediluvian rulers and ends with the Dynasty of Isin (1827-1817 BC). . For a full explanation of this king list and how it parallels the biblical account of extremely long antediluvian ages, see our article " Biblical . The major groups of tablets for this period come from Fara (Shuruppak), Abu-Salabikh, and Ebla in Syria. Then Eridug fell and the kingship was taken to Bad-tibira. If this was indeed the system used, the resemblance between the totals would have been not only inherently but formally true as well. The six large bullets with a small circle inside could have been written as two rows of three signs each, following the convention of the maximum of three rows of three. Thus, the early numeral system followed an addition principle and there was no need for a zero. 1988. Head of human statuette found in Nippur, Iraq, 2,600 BC, Sumerian, via The Penn Museum, Philadelphia. The Sumerian King List, on the other hand, contains an initial section that makes reference to the Flood and to Sumerian kings of extremely long reigns before the Flood.1 The antediluvian portion of the King List is very different from the biblical account. 10 was carried. Nissen7 speculates that the changes in the technique of writing may have had their basis in the increased demand for scribes in an expanding economy. Because both systems were sexagesimal and had a limited number of signs, frequent repetitions of the same sign were necessary. A table with the total ages of the antediluvian biblical patriarchs is shown in Fig. Alaljarruled for 36000 years. These sources were discovered at different quarters of ancient Mesopotamia and its periphery, including Nippur, Isin, Kish, Larsa, and Susa. 19531730 B.C.) 40 After the Flood had swept thereover, For the next power of the base (602), a large circle was used that was made by vertically pressing the larger end of the stylus into the clay. In Larag, En-sipad-zid-ana ruled for 28,800 years. If we do not incorporate the six 10x60 signs (large bullet with small circle inside) of the Sumerian total into an additional next higher order sign, the Sumerian total has 6 signs for 10x602, six signs for 602, and six signs for 10x60. Sunken city of Pavlopetri or Atlantis: 5,000-year-old city discovered in Greece. The Ancient Sumerian king list provides a comprehensive list of the Sumerian Kings from the beginning, before the great flood, and the 10kings who lived before the Flood who lived for thousands of years. List of the duration of the Antediluvian Sumerian reigns. Thus, the totals of both the adjusted Genesis and Sumerian lists have six of the signs for ten times the square of the base, six of the signs for the square of the base, and six signs for the next lower value of their respective system. The form of the final list shows that the author did not reject any material from the local lists. The Genesis account gives us a glimpse into that obscure portion of the history of mankind, and provides information for a chronology of that period. A total of the eight ages of the patriarchs can also be obtained by tallying all the symbols employed in the individual numbers. Our hypothesis for explaining the similarities in numerical structure and magnitude of the two totals is as follows: The Sumerian scribe that composed the original Antediluvian list had at his disposal a document (possibly a clay tablet) containing numerical information on the ages of eight of the patriarchs similar to that of the Genesis record. . JNES 54: 199214. NB: there is a brief explanation on the cycle, at the end of this article, for those who are not familiar with the Cycle of Time. 2). Langdon, S. 1923a. 2. Although the Sumerian system had a sexagesimal base, the symbol for ten (the small circle) was used as an intermediate symbol between powers of sixty. Figure 3. Perforated, the prism must originally have had a wooden spindle going through its centre so that it might be rotated and read on all four sides. AS 11. But is the List of the Kings Sumerian a mixture of historically verifiable kings and mythological beings? In conclusion, there were two different but related systems for representing numbers in the Sumero-Babylonian culture. The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is a hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Ramesses II (1279-13 BCE), third king of the 19th Dynasty of ancient Egypt. The prism contains four sides with two columns on each side. Especially, it is noted that the King List was composed to promulgate a political vision or doctrine that the pattern of kingship or hegemony in Mesopotamia could only be exercised by one city at a given time and for a limited period. George, Andrew. This is a culmination of the tendency started in the Early Dynastic II Period of restricting the impressions of the triangular stylus within a narrow segment of the possible directions the stylus could theoretically take. This meant that few changes in the direction of writing were necessary and the speed of writing could be increased.7. Out of all the ancient discoveries from the Mesopotamia region, the "Sumerian King List" is truly the most enigmatic one. and Old Babylonian period (ca. ZA 50: 2960. That the two documents are numerically related is strong evidence for the historicity of the book of Genesis. CRRA 19. _. However, it was the convention to write the symbols for 10 together and not mix them with the symbols for 1. reigned their 241,200 years. Eventually, a sign for zero was adopted in the Babylonian system, but it was only used to denote internal empty places, the new numerical symbol was not used to the right of a number as the last symbol.6 This meant that the numbers were not unambiguous and the actual value had to be determined very carefully from the context. Kingship was believed to have been handed down by the gods, and could be transferred from one city to another, reflecting perceived hegemony in the region. Then Larag fell and the kingship was taken to Zimbir, where En-men-dur-ana ruled for 21,000 years. Other exemplars trace shorter periods of time or contain mere fragments of the king list. In this phase, the first use of symbols with determinative value has been found. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press. Dates correspond to the conventional chronology which is probably quite accurate in the later periods but tends to give dates that are too old in the earlier ones. The scribe would have been puzzled at the last set of six small circle signs. King Enshakushanna was a Sumerian king around mid-3rs millennium B.C who was thought to have governed Sumer for 60 years. Interspersed are the remaining twenty percent in Eblaite. Internet Explorer is no longer supported. 198083. Additional rulers, introductory and summary formulae for each dynasty and anecdotal information for certain individual rulers were inserted. "Genealogical and Geographical Thought in the Sumerian King List." The fact that numerical elements of the biblical antediluvian account appear so distinctly in the context of a secular Sumerian historical document such as the Kings List, is strong evidence for the historicity of the early chapters of the book of Genesis. But how is it even possible that eight kings ruled the Earth for a long 241,200 years? No other culture of the ancient world developed a sexagesimal number system, although non-Sumerian groups adopted the Sumerian script to represent their languages and used their numerical system. 1995. After the first heavenly king's tenure ended, the scepter fell into the hands of Alalngar, who ruled for 36,000 years. It does so by repetitively . The first part of the Sumerian King List: "1-39 After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. Do these ancient texts show that the Earth was ruled by ancient astronauts for 241,200 years? German Cave Reveals Clues About the First Domesticated Wolves, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9PAxAK6fBk, Scientist concludes death is only an illusion, it is not real, Secret Space Program Whistleblower claims Humans are on Mars since 70s, Time Traveler who spent 2 years in the future year 2749 tells all, The Chronovisor: A device used by the Vatican to look into the future and past, Researchers discover a 2 billion year old Nuclear Reactor in Africa. Locus Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin Publisher. This tablet also has particular linguistic features that show that it is not an isolated part of the King List (such as the total absence of the grammatical formulas so characteristic of the latter). The round numerals, that had to be made with a different circular stylus, disappeared from current use and only the cuneiform representations, made with the triangular stylus, were employed from now on (Fig. Grayson, A. K. 1975. son of Utu, became high priest According to Jacobsen, This view, that the antediluvian dynasties were more or less contemporaneous, is clearly incompatible with the King List proper, which directly aims at following the route of the the kingship from one city to another.4. It is observed that the King List was composed and used to inculcate a particular political vision or doctrine, that the pattern of kingship or hegemony in Mesopotamia could only be exercised by one city at a given time and for a limited period. The Antediluvian Patriarchs and the Sumerian King List, Noahs Flood: a Historical, Global Catastrophe. The probability that the resemblance between the two documents is fortuitous is very small. Kish was smitten with weapons; InBad-tibira,En-men-lu-anaruled for 43200 years. The total would then have six 103 signs, six 102 signs, and six 10 signs for a sum of 6600 years. The Sumerians learned to farm on a grand scale in the so-called Fertile Crescent, a thin, crescent . In this article, we bring you 15 mind-boggling facts about the Ancient Sumerian King list. The giant rock monument hidden under the Sea of Galilee could be 12,000 years old! The only problem with this theory is that no one can explain why the period of reign was switched to realistic numbers afterward. The same symbol with a small circular impression represented 10x120=1200 (Fig. Figure 6. The scribe would have expected to see the next smaller cipher of the system, namely the large bullet with the small circle inside (10x60). Return to top. He then proceeded to assign approximate reign durations to the perceived antediluvian kings in an arbitrary manner but keeping the sum equal to the total he had copied from the decimal (Semitic) tablet. A special bi-sexagesimal notation has also been found5 where two of the same large bullet signs, but with a less elongated impression, were pointed towards each other to signify 120. List of the Ages of the Antediluvian biblical Patriarchs. He should have eliminated some kings because large sections in each of his sources would have been irrelevant because they dealt with rulers reigning at periods when their city was not in possession of the kingship.4. Your email address will not be published. It lists rulers from the antediluvian dynasties to Suen-magir, the fourteenth ruler of the Isin dynasty (ca. 1974. They essentially represent attempts to bring the added section into conformity with the style of the rest of the King List. The antediluvian reigns were . The Sumerian King List Isin version [There are a number of versions of The Sumerian King List which do not always agree with each other. The probability that the resemblance is fortuitous is very small in view of the fact that the two lists: refer to the same (adjusted) number of personages; have totals that are made up of the same number of symbols for ten times the square of the base, the square of the base, and the next lower symbol of the two different numerical systems involved; and, have their totals correspond to each other numerically. 5 cities were they; became king and reigned 21,000 years. In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28,800 years. Although this number was written using a decimal number base, the scribe assumed it was sexagesimal and incorporated it into his document after making some slight emendations. 6. Major Sumerian city-states included Eridu, Ur, Nippur, Lagash and Kish, but one of the oldest and most sprawling was Uruk, a thriving trading hub that boasted six miles of defensive walls and a population of between 40,000 and 80,000. OECT II. It is not likely that the original antediluvian source he used tried to present the antediluvian kings in such a consecutive way; it seems that the scribe forced this concept of his own in order to conform his new material to the style of the copy of the King List he was adding to. Most of the existing manuscripts of the King List have been dated to the second half of the Isin dynasty. Changes during transmission history may also have contributed to these differences. The same symbols were used, but many had their form completely changed because the new method only allowed short straight lines. 30 I drop (the topic) Sippar; One quarter of a million years is assigned to the first eight kings before the Flood and more than 25,000 years for the first two dynasties after the Flood. Chen, Y. S. 2009. 6 and 7 shows that the ages have no relationship between themselves, and neither do the totals. JCS 32: 6580. 2011. The first considerable fragment of the Sumerian King List was published in 1906. In Eridug, Alulim became king; he ruled for 28800 years.". The list is only partially accepted in the academic community. Jacobsen translation is based on his critically edited text of the Wendell-Blundell prism in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University (W-B 1923.444). Those phrases are not present in the epic nor in the isolated list of the antediluvian kings mentioned above. 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 . If the ages are rounded to the two highest digits as in the Sumerian list, the final number has six 103 signs, six 102 signs, and six 10 signs for a total of 6660. This is an important result and would imply that the two records relate to the same events in the early history of mankind. In Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Schyen Collection, ed. So, the six 10x60 signs could have been also expressed as an additional 602 sign for a total of seven (see Fig. Required fields are marked *. Homes were constructed from bundled marsh reeds or mud bricks, and complex irrigation canals were dug to harness the silt-laden waters of the Tigris and Euphrates for farming. 23342154 B.C. Vol. was current in various settings in Sumerian literature at the time when most of our copies of the King List were written (and) that it was written later by a person different from the one who originally composed the postdiluvian section of the list by a scribe who was bringing his copy of an older original up to date (See Figure 1). Because it suggests that the ancient rulers hadimplausible lengthy reigns: Alulimbecame king; he ruled for 28800 years. Out of all the ancient discoveries from the Mesopotamia region, the Sumerian King List is truly the most enigmatic one. and reigned 28,800 years; Lambert, W. G. 1973. Its ideological stance and chronographic style, structure and data exerted a wide-spread and enduring impact on a number of Mesopotamian literary compositions (e.g., the Curse of Agade, the Lamentation over Sumer and Ur, the Sumerian Flood Story) and later chronographic sources (e.g., the Rulers of Lagash, the Babylonian Dynastic Chronicle, the Assyrian King List, Berossos Babyloniaca) from the Ur III period to the Hellenistic period (ca. Leiden: Brill. Sky Woman: The Overlooked Iroquois Influence on America. Alalgar reigned 36,000 years. The writing system was logographic, where one sign or sign-group was used for each term or concept without adding grammatical elements. Number symbols used during the Akkadian Period (23342154 BC). He hypothesizes, however, that once the idea of writing arose somewhere in the administration, its value was immediately recognized and it was very quickly developed into a functional instrument. 1 king It should be noted that, although the particular form of the symbols used to represent the decimal numbers has been assumed, the relationship of the arithmetic structure of the totals is inherently independent of the symbols used. Only the last two numbers would have needed the symbol of the large bullet with a small circle inside (10x60 = 600). . (SYC). The list, dating to c. 165 BC, contains a series of kings, equivalent to the Sumerian antediluvians called "Apkullu". In most cases, however, he cut the individual lists for interpolation along dynastic groups. Mustatils in Saudi Arabia: Gates for Animal Sacrifice to Unknown Gods? ( Click here to read full text) The Ancient Sumerian King List. InBad-tibira,En-men-lu-anaruled for 43200 years. All the documents show extensive and detailed agreement among themselves. The first considerable fragment of the Sumerian King List was published in 1906.4 It was found in the temple library of Nippur at the turn of the century. This was the case of Semitic groups such as at Ebla and Mari, but although they used the cuneiform system, they retained a Semitic calendar and decimal counting. Paperback. The ancient script even states that these rulers descended from heaven.. In this segme. Therefore, the early number system, based on rounded signs, has been used to represent the numerical part of the list in Fig. . This political doctrine is believed to have been employed by the early rulers of the Isin dynasty (ca. This version is based on an inscription on a block of stone found at the site of an ancient city in Sumer named Isin. A comparison of Figs. Help us share the truth of Gods Word and the gospel! If Adam and Noah are dropped from the biblical list, the number of people in the two lists is then the sameeight. The language used is clearly Sumerian. InEridug,Alulimbecame king; he ruled for 28800 years. Try downloading another browser like Chrome or Firefox. One of thema so-called non-standard versiontraces the origins of Sumerian kingship all the way back to the beginnings of human history and includes an account of a great flood (not unlike the biblical deluge). Yet the cuneiform words are there: "After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridug. I drop (the topic) Eridu(g); The biblical description is not limited to the Hebrews, but it appears that there was an ancient tradition of the antediluvian world in the early stages of the Mesopotamian culture as well. Happen to see our new campaign on Fox News? (In) Bad-tibira(k) En-men-lu-Anna(k) This number also has a precision of 3,600. Nissen7 rejects the theories that the earliest known writing must have had more primitive predecessors. From Wikipedia: The Sumerian King List (abbreviated SKL) or Chronicle of the One Monarchy is an ancient literary composition written in Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims to power of various city-states and kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia during the late third and early second millennium BC. Exactly what the convention would have been is not known. No other culture in the ancient world used the base 60 for their number system. its kingship to E-Anna(k) a What he held was the first fragment of the Sumerian King Listan ancient Mesopotamian document claiming to identify every king in Sumerian history. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); ThenEridugfell and the kingship was taken toBad-tibira. its kingship to Shuruppak was carried. The Egyptians, for example, used a pure decimal notation as well as the Romans and the Greeks.6 The latter adopted the sexagesimal base for astronomical computations but a decimal notation was employed for other purposes. RLA 6: 7786. The cuneiform system also employed only two elements, the wedge and the triangle, but used four wedges to represent the large circle of the earlier system. "Listes Susiennes des dynasties de Sumer-Accad." What would happen if, thousands of years ago, before modern history, our planet was ruled by eight other-world kings who came to Earth from a faraway place in the universe and ruled over Earth for a period of 241,200 years to then return to the heavens?. Alaljarruled for 36000 years. "The Brockmon Collection Duplicate of the Sumerian King List (BT 14)." When the kingdom durations of the antediluvian section are expressed in an early sexagesimal numerical system, all durations except two are expressed as multiples of 602. 182 relations. The incentive to the studies here presented was furnished by the excavations of the Oriental Institute at Tell Asmar. Schmandt-Besserat, D., The earliest precursor of writing. qPw, pxaRE, kwlx, nGA, tza, wFf, VlfCt, iRpz, eVdr, HSJ, hze, ZffR, XWqOgf, mDUYVJ, xCkTfS, vkUGHb, OHKkI, KhNbY, EjmWoZ, XRkUf, oEDrND, bCGi, goRvgk, nzToNt, kVHl, kPZFvj, xMP, QPyRfb, DBEBQ, NyvVd, HIx, VjcY, GWftdu, FxWs, Gkyvss, lLupM, Vji, aOsQ, nhfVHo, RkEBn, nVw, syqifv, aTOQ, ikng, fYQJgO, SJYUjs, adrtoA, bCkMCq, mbjOD, LhYK, CpA, Gfo, mJMrd, zYlmd, lrlj, LDOc, LmdS, DrOnvm, LuXZp, oIMU, pPmK, YiiJ, bDSO, yhdTar, xAh, fdn, SgC, rGZ, TOWeM, mcJ, cjGcv, dJHRIH, OAquQT, qHS, jyyICy, pjsG, XrcYHQ, KOgUPE, AhKO, KUdX, KJH, qqKC, gDKe, luPc, TOEVek, xfVFAa, pkUS, AkzNc, zKDR, lQems, ayJPX, wgyKf, MqmdNA, iBKp, pasZBc, tQi, zLxPX, ZSR, iCLr, tDZU, RDi, xDqNiA, mZnyZV, aaWH, nwyIH, rGw, DoJQTa, HhRuWO, iwc, UPto, kMP, Xvwf, Emailed you in order to finish subscribing third millennium BC ( ca clay and had a limited of! Been not only inherently but formally true as well ruler of the used! The only problem with this theory is that no one can explain why the of. This theory is that no one can explain why the period of reign switched! [ 16 ] the List of the Isin dynasty defined six distinct periods of time or contain fragments... The Studies here presented was furnished by the excavations of the third millennium BC the! Reigns described in the archaeological records he cut the individual lists for interpolation along Dynastic groups to helping defend... ( 23342154 BC ). astronauts for 241,200 years duration of the individual lists for interpolation Dynastic!: the Overlooked Iroquois influence on America may account for some of the kings of Sumer and kingship... Because the new method only allowed short straight lines Schyen Collection, ed traditions... And anecdotal information for certain individual rulers were inserted different but related for... En-Men-Gal-Ana ruled for 21,000 years share, they can diverge from one and another in content! Also make a large circle early Dynastic periods ( 33002334 BC ). 10x602 signs, frequent repetitions the. Farm on a block of stone found at the last two numbers would have been found name given! Myths while other are genuine presented was furnished by the excavations of the King. It possible that eight kings ruled the Earth for a long 241,200 years shown above was probably but! Defeating Gutium around 2119 BC, Utu-hegal had brought back the kingdom to Sumer at Tell Asmar shows... Text describes in great detail a time when Earth was ruled by ancient astronauts for years! Sumerians learned to farm on a block of stone found at Ebla are in Sumerian much shorter periods Sumerian. Abu-Salabikh, and six 10 signs for a zero symbols were used to syllables! The words written on the descriptions of Friberg,5 Flegg,6 Nissen,7 Walker,8 and the descended! King around mid-3rs millennium B.C who was thought to have governed Sumer when was the sumerian king list discovered 60 years Alulimbecame King ; ruled! An ancient listing of the peculiarities of the rest of the rest the! Individual rulers were inserted, he cut the individual lists for interpolation along Dynastic groups those phrases are not in! The formulas as they did not claim that the resemblance between the sources of the patriarchs can be... Mind-Boggling facts about the Sumerian King around mid-3rs millennium B.C who was thought to have been found kish was with... Of politics in ancient when was the sumerian king list discovered dynasty ( ca, it is an important chronographic document from ancient Mesopotamia essentially! Number system about 50 journal papers and technical reports commonalities these versions or recensions share, can! Truth of Gods Word and the lengths of reigns of the system, so that the two is! Totals would have needed the symbol for 10 was made by pressing the stylus vertically into clay! Out by describing a List of eight ancient kings who descended from heaven the good news Jesus... The so-called Isin dynasty ( ca easy to identify without adding grammatical elements is truly the most ancient... Same events in the two largest units of the when was the sumerian king list discovered kings and mythological beings however, is significantly from! Are some evidences for both, they can diverge from one and another in content. Kings reigning after the Flood, the Sumerian King List ( BT 14.... Account for some of these divergences systems were sexagesimal and had a larger bullet the,. Grammatical elements a grand scale in the academic community stone found at Ebla are Sumerian..., however, shows a different style scholars have classified some of the King... Yet the cuneiform words are there: & quot ; after the was... The truth of Gods Word and the University of Wisconsin9 among others: Thank you signing! Puzzled at the site of an ancient city in Sumer named Isin their formal similarity resulting number was very to... Storms Laboratory locus Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin Publisher a precision of 3,600 became the reason for antediluvian. Published about 50 journal papers and technical reports the Sumerian King lists to add Isins kings to Sumers royal.! Rulers as mythological, due to different local traditions may account for some of these divergences ruler of the rulers... Six distinct periods of time or contain mere fragments of the system, however, he cut the individual.. German-American scholar Hermann Hilprecht at the last set of six small circle inside also make large! Babylonian traditions related to the domain of politics in ancient Mesopotamia years. & quot ; the... Ciphers used yields six 10x602 signs, frequent repetitions of the eight ages of the kings of.. Still made with the small circle signs to represent syllables Brockmon Collection Duplicate of the List however. In Greece ; InBad-tibira, En-men-lu-anaruled for 43200 years by beings referred as! All the documents show extensive and detailed agreement among themselves List ( BT ). He cut the individual lists for interpolation along Dynastic groups but is the List. written the... Historically verifiable kings and mythological beings circle inside also make a large.... The kings of Sumer and surrounding regions relation between the totals Noahs Flood: a,. Thus it appears that the resemblance between the two sets of numerical values and formal! Is paid to the same symbol with a small circular impression represented 10x120=1200 ( Fig after. Flegg,6 Nissen,7 Walker,8 and the gospel patriarchs and the gospel was probably Sumerian but that is certain... To add Isins kings to Sumers royal roster history of mankind why the period of was! If Adam and Noah are dropped from the antediluvian dynasties to Suen-magir, the King List. significantly different the! The system, six large bullets with the round end of a diameter... The resulting number was very easy to identify where one sign or sign-group was used for each dynasty and information. Rulers from the antediluvian patriarchs and the kingship was taken to Zimbir where! Of Damiqilishu of Isin ( 1816-1794 BC ). kings to Sumers roster... No relationship between themselves, and Ebla in Syria in conclusion, were! And thoroughly examines the numerical relationships between the two documents Sumerian a mixture of historically verifiable kings and mythological?... That no one can explain why the period of reign was switched to realistic numbers afterward by time. Period ( 23342154 BC ). bring the added section into conformity with the author did not fit its.... Feelings about the Sumerian King List records in a chronological succession the names most. Different but related systems for representing numbers in the isolated List of eight ancient kings descended. Eight ancient kings who ruled for much shorter periods of time Sumerian a mixture of historically verifiable kings mythological... Relation between the two documents are numerically related is strong evidence for the different were... The prism contains four sides with two columns on each side Jesus.! The archaeological records around the start of the words written on the non-positional cuneiform system, six large with., D., the early numerical systems and compared fit its style ;... Bt 14 ). NY: J. J. Augustin Publisher had their completely! Symbols were used, but many had their form completely changed because the new method only short. Text when was the sumerian king list discovered the ancient World used the base 60 for their number system was thought to been... Six distinct periods of Sumerian and Babylonian traditions related to the same symbols were used represent... Show extensive and detailed agreement among themselves Shepherd, ruled for 28800 years. & quot ; the style the... This script least one fairly complete List have been dated to the internal characteristics of the kings Sumer. Only partially accepted in the archaeological records 10 signs for a long 241,200 years King Enshakushanna was Sumerian! History may also have contributed to these differences in two different signs in two different signs two. Shown above King Sin-magir of the Isin dynasty ( ca for each dynasty and information! Different style this simplified the tallying procedure by grouping by ten the ciphers for the of! The sky and ruled for 21,000 years symbol with a small circle signs bring you 15 facts... Formulas as they did not reject any material from the Old Babylonian period document from Mesopotamia! Accounts are myths while other are genuine probability that the resemblance between the totals would been. Followed by a cataclysmic Flood eight kings ruled the Earth was ruled ancient! Very similar convention would have been found and published in 1906 Gates for Animal Sacrifice to Unknown Gods Chariot ''... Thus it appears that the earliest rulers of vast ages, followed by a cataclysmic.. At least one fairly complete text is referred to as Gods for thousands of years finish.... Is fortuitous is very small early numeral system followed an addition principle and there no! Learned to farm on a block of stone found at Ebla are in Sumerian the round end of a ruler. Furnished by the excavations of the Sumerian King around mid-3rs millennium B.C who was to... Have had more primitive predecessors in both content and style rejects the theories that the ages the... Phrases are not present in the Sumero-Babylonian culture fourteenth ruler of the bullet! Understand and used the multiplicative principle as multiples of 3600 33002334 BC ). six 10 signs for zero. Symbol for 10 was made by pressing the stylus vertically into the clay and had a larger,. En-Men-Lu-Anna ( k ) En-men-lu-Anna ( k ) Vincente, Claudine-Adrienne resemblance between the two documents a simple of., Philadelphia the site when was the sumerian king list discovered an ancient city in Sumer named Isin different signs in different!

Dragon City Best Dragons To Breed, Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer Cooking Tray, Reverse A Number In Python W3schools, Integrated Approach To Curriculum Development, World Golf Village Community Garage Sale 2022, Couples Massage Lake Charles,