Out of the many incredible artifacts that have been recovered from sites in Iraq where flourishing Sumerian cities once stood, few have been more intriguing than the Sumerian King List. An ancient manuscript originally recorded in the Sumerian language, the Sumerian King List is a register of the kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties.
The list includes their names, supposed reign lengths, and the locations of “official” kingship. What makes the Sumerian King List so unique is the fact that it blends apparently mythical pre-dynastic rulers with historical rulers who are known to have existed in real life.
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The first fragment of this rare and unique text, a 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablet, was found in the early 1900s by German-American scholar Hermann Hilprecht at the site of ancient Nippur and his results were published in 1906. Since Hilprecht’s discovery, at least 18 other exemplars of the king’s list have been found, most of them dating from the second half of the Isin Dynasty (c. 2017 to 1794 BC).
No two of these documents are identical. However, there is enough common material in all versions of the Sumerian King List to make it clear that they are derived from a single, “ideal” account of Sumerian history.

The Weld-Blundell Prism. (Ashmolean Museum / CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Weld-Blundell Prism
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 Sumerian King List. The 8-inch-high (20.32 cm) prism contains four sides with two columns on each side.
It is believed that the Weld-Blundell prism originally had a wooden spindle going through its center 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 to 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. It even demonstrates remarkable parallels to accounts in Genesis.
The Ancient Civilization 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 3rd millennium BC, Sumer was the site of at least twelve separate city states, including 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. Each city state 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. Afterwards, the list claims that various city-states and their dynasties of kings temporarily gained power over the others.

Sculptured vase depicting Gilgamesh wrestling two bulls from the Shara temple at Tell Agrab, Diyala Region, Iraq. Gilgamesh was included in the Sumerian King List. (Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin / CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sumer’s Mythical Past: Mythical Figures in the Sumerian King List
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 the Long Tenures of Early Kings
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 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 reigns 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 mythicized. Some scholars, such as Harrison, have even sought to explain the figures through mathematical investigation and interpretation.

Painting of the Great Flood as told in Genesis. Augsburger Wunderzeichenbuch, Folio 1 (Genesis 7, 11-14). (Public domain)
The Sumerian King List and its Relation to Genesis
Some scholars (e.g. Bryant 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, where the text states that “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.
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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.
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.
Top image: Weld-Blundell Prism, a clay cuneiform inscribed with the Sumerian Kings List. Source: Public domain
By Joanna Gillan
References
Geerts, L. C. No date. “The Sumerian King List” in Biblioteca Pleyades. Available at: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/king_list.htm
Harrison, R. K. 1993. “Reinvestigating the Antediluvian Sumerian King List” in JETS 36/I. Available at: https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/36/36-1/JETS_36-1_003-008_Harrison.pdf
Jacobsen, T. 1939. The Sumerian King List. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. The University of Chicago Press. Available at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/as11.pdf
No name. No date. “The Sumerian King List (SKL)” in A Library of Knowledge of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. Available at: https://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=the_sumerian_king_list_skl
No name. No date. “The Sumerian king list: translation” in The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Available at: https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section2/tr211.htm
Wood, B. G. 2003. “Great Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology: The Sumerian King List” in Bible and Space Journal. Available at: https://www.galaxie.com/article/bspade16-4-04


Comments
Sumerian King List
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Why is it that when something is "out of the ordinary"...it is immediately relegated to "Mythical???"
Case-in-point: In the article above, it states that 2 Kings ruled for 64,800 years...right! And, because this is NOT in keeping with OUR standards of life, then they must be "Mythical...!!!"
WHAT IF, "we" were to accept these abnormal, things at face value? Perhaps if we did, we would not succoumb to the lies of our modern-day ...Pharisees???
Perpetuation of species
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Mankind is currently investigating the possibilities of colonizing Mars and Venus. Two very different approaches, but two very real possibilities.
On Mars, we would develop an atmosphere and terraform Mars into a viable planet. In doing so, we would have to introduce an atmosphere. The atmosphere would warm the planet causing the waters to divide. Then we would plant a garden, likely in a biodome. Due to traditions, we may even call the biodome Eden. We would put people there in the biodome to oversee the terraforming and introduction of life. We would introduce life in specific order based on the lifeforms ability to cope with the current atmosphere. Once we had a usable atmosphere, We would "make" a genetic version of ourselves to live and survive in that environment. We would continue to introduce life to Mars until we developed as self sustaining ecosystem.
The people left there would be a version of us. Created in our likeness.
There is a moral dilemma around this though. Do we give them all our knowledge and let the go forward, or do we leave them to themselves? There is fear around sharing everything with them. We fear they may, by human nature, exploit the planet and use up natural resources faster than the history of humanity on Earth. If we leave them, we would basically tell them, don't kill, don't steal, along with maybe 8 other rules for them to continue their development on their own. The fear around this is that within a generation, by human nature, this hybrid species would begin to develop a mythology around the stories of their parents.
The gods came from the skies. They gave us life. They gave us commandments. etc. etc .etc.
Ultimately, we want our species to survive. We want "us" to continue. We have to explore. We have to colonize. There will come a time that we can no longer live here.
Why can't of this simply be the perpetuation of our species?
I'm a contactee and from what
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I'm a contactee and from what I've been told the "kings" were reptilian extraterrestrials. Most space travelling species won't die of natural causes as they have the technology to live as long as they wish. However, reptilians tend to have longer life spans nonetheless, they mature at about 200, and also their mentality is somewhat "robust" (more logic-based approach to emotional things) which allows them to continue their lifes where for example a humanoid Pleiadian would say "I'm tired, I am quitting this". Most Pleiadians don't get much older than 1000, while a 3000 year old reptilian would be considered "young" by his fellows. This doesn't include the fascist reptilians that are currently on earth, they're retarded split-offs that don't live that long (still longer than earth humans though) because degenerated, also politically isolated so no one's really sharing their technology with them (their current ships are kinda backward compared to the ships of other races).
I can't prove this but thought I'd share this anyway in case it could resonate with someone.
known unto me
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it doesn't surprise me that the only things commented on here are what has been verified by others.and so i will offer you this knowledge that can not be verified by most of you... it is known unto me and has been passed down that in order to create gold in its purest form which is in singular atomic form, first you need seek out a rock of substantial size and add what is needed to make it unstable then super heat it.this molten rock becomes a sort of experiment which may or may not produce gold and is a gamble but like many experiments the more it is done the better the odds. as it happens our home earth, was such a rock. once it was known to be of a percentage needed to produce gold. it was seeded. now this doesn't mean someone or something planted something. it does mean that a substantial amount of ice was bombarded onto the surface of the molten rock in such a way as to make steam .spinners were positioned at a safe distance from the rock in order to disperse the rising steam outward in an orbit over the rock just out side of what we know now as atmospheric height.it was super cooled by what we call space and as the process continued it eventually created a shell of ice that encompassed the rock and allowed for a stable atmosphere to be formed, at this point picture a terrarium in which the ice is the glass and the rock is the earth once contained the violent reaction eventually achieved balance although sterile. at this point a hole was made . measurements were taken and the seed was engineered to begin life as as a circle and was slowly ,even more slowly than what has come so far, in order to retain balance of the exosphere .once life grew to become prevalent on the surface of the planet, and the circle that was viable had been created. the experiment was left alone and the creator moved on to seed another rock. some time later it was revisited and a city was built on the face of the ice, gold was found to be in abundance and the experiment was declared a success.then creatures were engineered to be taught to harvest it,but this was done with out the knowledge of that which was in charge of this region of space and therefore this planet. although it was done with out asking permit ion and the creator was very proud of his/her creation. it was allowed to continue in the hope that the creature known today as man would be useful in harvesting the gold, this is the original reason for his creation. but as i mentioned , the earth was a paradise and it was untouched by outside influence, man was the ruler of this domain and was largely passive and in harmony with it only limited communication was allowed in order to teach man, but again the creator was proud of his /her creation and allowed man to progress to far.a self realization and a bond with the planet gave way to what i will refer to as magic here.the word used in translation doesn't have a meaning in English. basically man could communicate on an intimate level with everything exercising will over everything,creation at will or death by thought an ability to know and judge,this was a forbidden development and was seen as a betrayal by the those that had allowed the experiment to continue.but again the creator was proud of man and defended man kinds right to exist, this contention was argued for sometime contingencies were made in an effort to make man kind more acceptable by the other gods.man was given rules to abide by. and told that he must separate himself from nature, man did as he was asked and left the garden cutting his hair in order to separate himself from the ability to manifest the connection to what exist in nature as well as all his brothers and sisters who up until then had been able to hear the creator through thought.this severance from each other created a singularity of conscience and privacy that until then did not exist and with it an ability to defy the will of his fellow man with out the knowledge of such caused discourse and violence.this is known as the introduction of evil into the world. man was forced to develop in this environment were competition was now part of life, and man spread out to avoid his brothers and the distance from nature and the original ballance after several generations many became lost and in their search for meaning grew their hair and attempted to reconnect with nature against the wishes of the creator who was seen less and less over generations and was thought by many to have never existed or to have been a lie, the worship of nature grew as a semblance of a connection no matter how faint allowed a small amount of control over ones environment. thus those who practice magic developed were powerful. the rules of literally everything we know today is based of what was made to be at this point. to this day many men cut their hair to be obedient to their creator.the knowledge of gold as being beyond price or being valued above all, is shared by every culture on earth.although 98 percent of men do not know why or the true use of gold. this is hidden knowledge and is known only to a few.the flood that is spoken of in the bible and the flood in Sumerian history are the same. their was a war in the heavens also known as space, and huge asteroids of salt were hurled at the earth in an attempt to destroy man and his evil nature. but the creator defended the planet in order to save man because of his love and pride and what was considered an unfair fate as it was not mans fault that he was not in balance anymore.the salt asteroids were broken in space and the result was the catastrophic to the planet, as the protective barrier of ice over the planet melted and fell causing the flood. after the event the harmful radiation from the sun was no longer filtered and the life span of man was shortened,it is the hope of the creator that man will eventually regain his balance with the earth and survive, how ever the odds are such that the other gods have left man to die out with out a thought as to their possible survival.this is as much as i am allowed to share, i hope this information is taken in the good intent that it is offered to my brothers on this planet.i should also add that although our lives an singular men are so much shorter than they were in the beginning our efforts to communicate with each other have given us the ability to change this as knowledge and good will among men is shared.it is up to us as people to over come our petty differences and survive together we can thrive, the soul of a man is immortal and is not limited to one life but returns many times, please use yours wisely and share your knowledge with your brothers in an effort to save us all as the creator intends thank you.
Get your arithmetic fixed
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You're making this look like a Velikovski-von-Daniken-Sitchen website---the numbers are days not years... a Sar was a great-number (cf great-father is father-of-father, so Sar is number-of-number = 60×60 = 3600...days---they didn't know what a year was: they were on lunar calendars converted to days and divided by 360 to get years in the earliest calendar by T'Hwti Thoth; The numbers are then all good, and agree with Egyptian and Biblical; compare Heb. Aser is a decade of years ~3600 days.
Pagination