Near East Kingdoms

Bad-tibira (City State) (Sumer)

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The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture. It developed out of the end of the Pottery Neolithic across the Fertile Crescent, a period which had seen Neolithic Farmer practices spread far and wide across the Near East and beyond.

As irrigation improved so the more southerly reaches of the Euphrates could at last be occupied by humans and their animals. Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement, initially in the form of pastoralists but soon as farmers too. Cultures around the edges of this progression included the Hassuna and Samarra which began this settlement process, and perhaps elements of the Hissar culture in the Iranian highlands were also involved.

By the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen city states which were independent of one another and which used local canals and boundary stones to mark their borders. Many early historical events in the region are found only in the Sumerian king list, which notates the rulers of the city states (and see feature link), but archaeology has also uncovered a wealth of detail.

Second of the early city states to be mentioned in the Antediluvian section of the king list, Bad-tibira (with a probable modern location at the archaeological site of Tell Madineh) was situated on the Iturungal Canal, below Umma. The same canal connected Umma with the small city of Zabalam to its north. The Old Testament mentions the city as Tubal, while in Akkadian it was Dûr-gurgurri.

The city's main god was Lulal, while the city's main temple was E-mush-kalamma, which was mentioned in the tale, Inanna's Descent to the Underworld. Bad-tibira seems to have lost its initial importance in the 'Post-Diluvian' period as the king list sees it, although it was known by the Greeks as Panti-Biblos (Pantibiblos).

According to the Sumerian king list, a total of three kings ruled for 108,000 years, once (one dynasty) in Bad-tibira and then the kingship was removed to Larak. A later version of the list, written in Larsa in the Gutian or 'Third Dynasty' of Ur period, inserts Kichu-Ana as the second king in the sequence. Possibly he was omitted from other lists for political reasons.

List 1 is primarily used here, but is backed up by List 2 and List 3 to provide a more complete list Note that older dating systems place the earliest reigns at dates which have been shown to be unrealistically early.

The king list presents kingship as a divine gift which had been bestowed upon mankind in primordial times. It was passed down from king to king and from city to city through the will of the gods and could only be held by one person at a time. This now appears to be more of a high kingship, with each city recognising the most powerful king of the period while ruling their own territory. Only later did the concept of empire emerge to remove or minimise local rule under a more powerful empire-builder.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, J N Postgate (Routledge, 1994), from The First Empires, J N Postgate (Oxford 1977), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), and from External Links: Ancient Worlds, and Ancient History, Anthony Michael Love ('List 3' of Sumerian rulers at Sarissa.org), and City of Culture 2600 BC - Early Mesopotamian History and Archaeology at Abu Salabikh, John Nicholas Postgate (Archaeopress Archaeology, 2024, and available via Archaeopress).)

fl c.2856? BC

Ruled for 43,200 years (12 years?). Founded the city.

(From the WB-62 list. Some versions have Kichu-Ana of Larsa.)

fl c.2844? BC

Ruled for 28,800 years (8 years?).

fl c.2836? BC

Unrelated. Ruled for 36,000 years (10 years?).

Dumuzi is 'the shepherd', not to be confused with the king of the 'First Dynasty' city of Uruk, Dumuzi 'the fisherman'.

This terracotta foundation peg of Entemena of Lagash is dated between 2404-2375 BC, and mentions a treaty with the king of Uruk

c.2405 - 2375 BC

As the last great ensi of Lagash, Entemena is dominant across many cities in Sumer during his reign. Numerous clay nails from Bad-tibira record that he builds a temple for Inanna and Lugal-emuš, and 'at that time Entemena, ensi of Lagaš, and Lugal-kinice-dudu, ensi of Uruk, established brotherhood'.

Entemena undertakes temple construction at Girsu, cancelling Lagash's debts as the mother city to Girsu. In relation to the construction of the Emuš temple at Bad-tibira, he cancels debts for the citizens of Bad-tibira, Larsa, and Uruk in the earliest attested case of a ruler cancelling the debts of his subjects. This becomes the norm in the Old Babylonian period.