The first part of the Sumerian King List: “1-39 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...
Between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers extends a wide and fertile valley that deserves to be called “The Cradle of Civilization”more than any other place in the world. To the south of this long basin, the ancient Sumerian entrepreneurs were determined to build the first cities of the world...
Its name Sumer came from the language of Akkadian, inhabitants of northern Mesopotamia, which implied the land of civilized kings. However, the Sumerians acknowled... Top Inventions and Discoveries of Mesopotamia Located in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia is southwest Asia's...
While this may not seem like too much of a mystery, it's what is inscribed along with the list of kings that makes it so interesting. There are mythological elements embedded within it. Along with a who's-who of Sumerians in power, the King List also incorporates events such as the...
After a minor exchange of pleasantries, Prof. Oppenheim asked me what I was doing at the Institute; when I told him that I was editing the Sumerian literary correspondence, he looked into my eyes and stated dismissively: "This is work for an experienced scholar, not for a beginner." This...
Also known as Dumuzid, Dumuzi was a god of fertility. This symbolic union was enacted to bring fertility to the land each spring, ensuring a new year of abundance in crops and herds, and on a less ostentatious scale, for human offspring as well. “An ancient Sumerian depiction of the ...
The Turin Royal Canon is one of the most interesting ancient Egyptian texts. It is eerily similar to the Sumerian Kind List and details the rule of ‘Gods’ in Ancient Egypt. The Turin papyrus –referred to by many as the Turin Royal Canon—is an ancient text written in the hieratic lang...
The development from primarily small settlements to cities was a slow, thousand-year-long process, and the Sumerians depicted this transformation in a cuneiform document from 2100 BCE called the "Sumerian King List." It is described as a period in which the gods and Sumer's kings were able ...
BABYLONIAN KINGS 1. Nabopolassar Nabopolassar was a Babylonian king who ruled the Neo-Babylonian Empire for more than two decades from 658 to 605 BC. One of his major accomplishments was the invasion of the oldest Sumerian city, Nippur. The Assyrian Empire was collapsing as a result of civi...
The oldest extant love lyric appears to be the ancient Sumerian poem "The Love Song of Shu-Sin," which has also been called "The Love SongforShu-Sin" because it was apparently written to be recited to the ancient Sumerian king Shu-Sin by a woman he was about to marry (or perhaps jus...