From The Alpha and the Omega - Volume III
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © July 20, 2002, all rights reserved
"Volume III - Sumerian Kings List - E-ana/Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)- First Dynasty"

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Sumerian Kings List - E-ana/Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)- First Dynasty


    Kings after the Flood, the city of E-ana/Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka) reigns.

    Sumerian unug, unu6 [TEMEN-ČŠ]: elevated shrine, temple.
    The city Uruk, Early Dynastic-II, the Heroic Age (2700-2500 B.C.), same as the Sumerian unug, in the bible it is Erech, which is situated near modern Warka (still showing the same root consonants *'rk but with a different vocalization).    This period is also called the Heroic Age, due to epics written some time later, it is the city of the goddess Inanna and the supreme god An.    Kings of Uruk are called en 'lord' (with a primitive democracy, with decisions made by the king after consulting a counsel of elderly men).
    After the Flood in Sumer, Emmerkar, Lugalbanda (Lugulbanda) and Gilgamesh (estimated at 3,000 B.C.), were among the first kings of the city of Erech.    The second, third, and fifth rulers of the First Dynasty of Erech, which followed the First Dynasty of Kish, which received the "kingship" from heaven immediately after the Flood.    Some believe that this flood occurred in 4,000 B.C. and was a different one than compiled in the Genesis account.    Lugalbanda was a god and shepherd king of Uruk (Erech) where he was worshipped for over a thousand years.    Possibly the third king of Uruk after the great flood.    Gilgamesh (Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, 5th king of the 1st Dynasty of Erech after the Flood) presented Lugulbanda with the horns of the Bull of Heaven.     Ziggurat (Assyr.-Bab. ziqqurata, from the verb zaqaru, meaning to be high or raised up; hence the top of a mountain, or a staged tower).    A drawing of the Ziggurat of Anu (Lord of the Great Above) at Uruk (Erech) is crowned by a "white temple" of the Jamdat Nasr period, probably built shortly before 3000 B.C.    They were designed to elevate the mind and heart to supernal contemplation and provide a scale of descent for the gods to come down to earth.    Erech (Heb. 'erekh) was a city of ancient Babylonia founded by Nimrod, the Babylonian form of the name is Uruk.    The modern site is called Warka and is located near the Euphrates River, forty miles NW of Ur.    Erech was the home of Gilgamesh, the hero of the great Akkadian epic.     Archaeologists have found that this city was one of the oldest of Babylonia, founded before 4000 B.C.    One of the earliest dynasties of the Sumerians ruled from Erech, it boasted the first ziggurat, or temple tower, and began the use of clay cylinder seals.
    E-Anna(k), "the House of Heaven," is the oldest preserved temple at Uruk, and was supposedly the dwelling place of the goddess Inanna, the Akkadian "Ishtar."
    As can be seen at Sumerian INANNA.   Sumerian Dingir', the Sumerian Inanna, which is connected with:
    Sumerian INANNA - The Goddess Inanna or Ishtar was the most important female deity of ancient Mesopotamia at all periods.    Her Sumerian name Inanna is probably derived from a presumed Nin-ana, 'Lady of Heaven', it also occurs as Innin.    The sign for Innana's name (the ring-post) is found in the earliest written texts.    Inana, "queen of heaven," Sumerian E.AN.NA.

City King City No. King Flood No. Kings Name Years ruled Other Notes
E-ana (same as Unug)
1
24
 Mec-ki-aj-gacer 324 years
 Other manuscripts have 325 years.    He entered the sea and disappeared.    Son of Utu, the dynasty of Mec-ki-aj-gacer lasted 745 years.
    One source calls this king Meš-kiag-gašer, who became High Priest and King, and scholars date this around 2722-2692 B.C.    Meš-kiag-gašer went into the sea, and was reported he came out to the mountains.

    Eannatum (Enannatum??), (E-ana-tum) the first king who called himself 'King of Kish', 'he who overrules the countries', and boasts that his territory extends from Kish in the north, to Mari in the west, Uruk in the south and Elam in the east, although it is not clear what the 'ruling' over these cities actually means.    After a long reign his territory was reduced again to its original size.    Famous is the victory depicted on the so-called vulture stela of Eannatum, (see figure of the vulture stela at UCLA Art History).    It is the oldest direct witness of the political and military power of a king, of which one-third is preserved.    The text announces new borders and the victory of Eannatum of Lagash over the ruler of Umma.     It depicts military high lights, imprisoning of the enemy, the burial of the dead and the vultures who escape with the bones of the dead.    It is shown as a series of unrelated pictures.    It is either an artist impression of a historical battle or just expresses the intention of such a battle.
Akkadian cylinder seal

City King City No. King Flood No. Kings Name Years ruled Other Notes
Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
2
25
 Enmerkar 420 years
 Other manuscripts have 900 + X years.    Son of Mec-ki-aj-gacer, the king of Unug, who built Unug, also under whom Unug was built.
    One source calls this king En-mer-kar and dates him at 2692-2672 B.C.

    Enmerkar is mentioned under the Ursa Major Continued Constellation Names and may have a reference to the Decan of Jupiter.

    Sumerian EN.MER.KAR, Enmerkar (Emmerkar??) or SAG.ME.GAR, was king of Uruk, called en 'lord,' was the first to write on clay tablets and Kullub (Caleb?) has as epithet 'he who build Uruk' known from two epics, with no known inscription or archeological proof of his existence.    Enmerkar is called en 'lord,' and was the first to write on clay tablets.    The texts refer to commercial and military contacts with a city called Aratta (not yet localized, probably in Iran), where the Sumerian goddess Inanna (later Akkadian Ištar, Ishtar) and (supreme god An) Dumuzi were also worshipped.    These epics are seen as a proof of trade contacts, e.g. the trade in precious stones, like lapis lazuli.    Enmerkar was the first, according to legend, to write on clay tablets.

Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
3
26
 Lugalbanda 1200 years
 Referred to as the shepherd.
    One source calls this king Lugal-banda and dates him at 2672-2652 B.C.
    Lugalbanda (lugal 'king', banda 'small', so 'junior king') was the third king in the first dynasty of Uruk, and also featured in the so-called Lugalbanda heroic-epic Sumerian poem (two parts, together 900 lines).

Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
4
27
 Dumuzid 100 years
 Other manuscripts have 110 years.    Referred to as the fisherman.    His city was Kuara, and he captured En-me-barage-si single-handed.
    See detailed information on Dumuzid for the 5th king before the Flood.    No date was given for this king.
    To see information about the Sumerian Dumuzi, which is connected to Cancer Introduction, and Ursa Major Continued Constellation Names.
    As noted the Babylonian Du'uzu, is the name of a god (Dumuzi).
    As to Dumuzid being called the fisherman:
Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
5
28
 Gilgamec 126 years
 His father was a phantom (?) or a lillu-demon - a High Priest of Kullab (2632-2602 B.C., the lord of Kulaba).
    Gilgameš (Gilgamesh) is grandson of Enmerkar, whose fame spread over a large region through the Gilgamesh-epic.    The Assyrian version is in the library of Aššurbanipal (around 650 B.C.) dating to 1700 B.C., and Sumerian fragments dated around 2000 B.C.    Smaller Sumerian fragments with only a few hundred lines are dated around 2000 B.C.    The spread in time and location indicates that the epic was known for more than 15 centuries in a large region up to Anatolia.    Gilgamesh was responsible for the construction of the city walls of Uruk.    Indeed, it appears from archeological records that these walls were expanded around 2700 B.C. with its typical plano-convex type of bricks. Archeologists take the use of this material as a characteristic for the start of Early Dynamic-II.    There is no archeological evidence for the existence of Gilgamesh.
    Some scholars' date Gilgamesh around 2750 B.C., as the hero of Sumerian legends, and reigned as king of Erech.
    In "Hamlet's Mill" by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Gambit Inc. 1969 it states on page 323, "...name Gilgamesh -- dGIS.GIN.MEZ/MAS, and other forms - one can mention that GIS means 'wood tree,' and MEZ/MAS a particular kind of wood, and that there are reasons for understanding our hero as a true Prometheus."

Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
6
29
 Ur-Nungal 30 years
 Son of Gilgamec.
    One source calls this king Ur-lugal and dates him at 2602-2572 B.C.

Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
7
30
 Udul-kalama 15 years
 Other manuscripts names him as Ur-lugal.    Son of Ur-Nungal.
    One source calls this king Utul-kalamma and dates him at 2572-2557 B.C.

Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
8
31
 La-ba'cum 9 years
 .
    One source calls this king Labahšum and dates him at 2557-2548 B.C.

    In The Alpha and the Omega, Volume I -- by Jim A. Cornwell -- Chapter Four page 350, regarding Louis Waddell's chart of Kings No. 2 (3348 B.C.) through No. 34 (2751 B.C), in the column of Sumerian Names in King Lists and Monuments, also the Babylonian List (Kish and Isin Chronicles), he shows king number 20, as Medi or Meti, which may correspond with the above King number 32, La-ba'cum, and dates somewhere between 3100-2900 B.C.    He comments that Medi or Meti (between 3180-2751 B.C.) the twentieth Sumerian king, was called Semitic and Semitized his name into "Me-Silim" is placed by some around 3638 B.C.

Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
9
32
 En-nun-tarah-ana 8 years
 .
    One source calls this king En-nun-dara-Anna and no date was given.

    In The Alpha and the Omega, Volume I -- by Jim A. Cornwell -- Chapter Four page 350, regarding Louis Waddell's chart of Kings No. 2 (3348 B.C.) through No. 34 (2751 B.C), in the column of Sumerian Names in King Lists and Monuments, also the Babylonian List (Kish and Isin Chronicles), he shows king number 21, as Kiuga, Mukuda, which may correspond with the above King number 33, En-nun-tarah-ana, and dates somewhere between 3100-2900 B.C.

Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
10
33
 Mec-he 8 years
 Referred to as the smith.
    One source calls this king Meš-gande and dates him at 2548-2540 B.C.

    In The Alpha and the Omega, Volume I -- by Jim A. Cornwell -- Chapter Four page 350, regarding Louis Waddell's chart of Kings No. 2 (3348 B.C.) through No. 34 (2751 B.C), in the column of Sumerian Names in King Lists and Monuments, also the Babylonian List (Kish and Isin Chronicles), he shows king number 22, as Tarsi, Dix-saax or (?) Shu-Dix, which may correspond with the above King number 34, Mec-he, and dates somewhere between 3100-2900 B.C.

    As to Mec-he being referred to as the smith.
Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
11
34
 Melem-ana 6 years
 Other manuscripts have 900 years.
Other manuscripts has the name Til-kug (?) …….
    One source calls this king Melam-Anna and dates him at 2504-2498 B.C.

    In The Alpha and the Omega, Volume I -- by Jim A. Cornwell -- Chapter Four page 350, regarding Louis Waddell's chart of Kings No. 2 (3348 B.C.) through No. 34 (2751 B.C), in the column of Sumerian Names in King Lists and Monuments, also the Babylonian List (Kish and Isin Chronicles), he shows king number 23, as Tizama or Tiz-kar, which may correspond with the above King number 35, Melem-ana, and dates somewhere between 3100-2900 B.C.
    Noted, there is a mention of king Tizkar (Tizqar) as the 19th king of Kish and which is dated 2701-2671 B.C.

Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
12
35
 Lugal-kitun (?) 36 years
 Other manuscripts have 420 years.
    One source calls this king Lugal-ki-tun and dates him at 2498-2462 B.C.

    In The Alpha and the Omega, Volume I -- by Jim A. Cornwell -- Chapter Four page 350, regarding Louis Waddell's chart of Kings No. 2 (3348 B.C.) through No. 34 (2751 B.C), in the column of Sumerian Names in King Lists and Monuments, also the Babylonian List (Kish and Isin Chronicles), he shows king number 23a, as (?) Anda, which may correspond with the above King number 36, Lugal-kitun (?), and dates somewhere between 3100-2900 B.C.

City Number of Kings Total Years Ruled
E-ana/Unug (Uruk/Erech/Warka)
First Dynasty
12
2,310 years.
Other manuscripts have 3,588 years

    I counted a total of 2,304 years that the 12 kings ruled.    The first king of Unug (Uruk) was estimated by scholars as dated between 2722 B.C. to the last one, king 12 at 2462 B.C., which is only 260 years.
    Waddell's chart shows his king number 20, Medi, who projects king 8 of Uruk as La-ba'cum would be dated around 3180 B.C. to 3100 B.C., with the rest of Unug kings between 3100-2900 B.C., a period of 230 years.

    As most scholars estimate these 12 kings to have started around 3000 B.C., but most likely they started before 4000 B.C. when the city of Erech was founded and ended around 2400 B.C.    There is no archeological evidence for the existence of Gilgamesh, who some scholars' date around 2750 B.C.    If these 12 kings ruled for 2,310 years then they would have ended this reign around 1,690 B.C., which is unrealistic.    King #1 through King #5 totaled 2,170 years.    King #6 Ur-Nungul is dated at 2602 B.C. through King #12 Lugal-kitun ending at 2462 B.C., which is 140 years.


    This file was created on November 20, 2004, and has been updated on March 14, 2005 and December 31, 2006.

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