Near East Kingdoms

Umma / Gisha (City) (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.

The city of Umma (traditionally linked to the modern Tell Jokha / Djoha) was situated in central southern Mesopotamia, with the minor city of Zabalam to its immediate north. The city was relatively poorly documented in surviving records for much of its existence but it did grown to cover a large footprint.

Increasing city sophistication in Sumer from village beginnings meant the rise of individual patriarchal households, the accumulation of capital in the form of productive land and specialised craft production, and the increasing secularisation of political power in Sumer. This gradually led to the rise of individual city leaders. Such leaders arrived on the scene in the 'Early Dynastic' period, when cities were becoming much more competitive in terms of resources.

The position of lugal was one of several offices of varying names which gained control of their respective cities. It is believed that the office of lugal arose in Ur, but later became increasingly common in other cities. It also quickly became a dynastic (inherited) office, in contrast to the position of en which had temple connections and which required temple recognition and selection.

At Umma the title held by the local ruler was ensi, or governor (for the city god), but he could acknowledge the superior authority of a lugal who held sway over a larger territory. No doubt this was a practical adaptation to changing circumstances and the rise of lugals who could impose their authority on other cities. Umma's chief god was Šara, the son of Inanna, who herself was the chief deity of Zabalam.

In the twenty-fourth century BC, Umma was engaged in a drawn-out border conflict with its more powerful neighbour, Lagash. It eventually won this during the reign of Lugalzaggesi, under whose guidance the city reached its zenith. Starting out as the city's ensi, he later claimed a greater title after having conquered most of the Sumerian cities, one which translates as 'king of all the lands, king of Uruk, king of the country'.

He was the last ethnic Sumerian king prior to the conquest of Sumer by Sargon of Akkad, and was also the only king of Uruk's third dynasty thanks to his sweeping but short-lived conquests. Despite that briefness, he was arguably the first ruler to unite Sumer as a single kingdom. Once it had been done for the first time, it would be repeated again and again.

The name 'Umma' has been linked to the site of Tell Jokha since the beginning of the twentieth century AD. The name has been extracted from the cuneiform signs GIŠ.KUŠU2ki. Today it is suspected that this refers to a Sumerian settlement called Gisha. Confusion between these names comes from Babylonian lexical sources.

As with Girsu and Lagash, it is likely that Gisha and Umma were neighbouring towns which traditionally formed part of a single polity. D Frayne (and others) now argues that the site of Jokha was actually Gisha, and that the site of Umm al-Aqarib a few kilometres to the south-east was Umma.

The only difficulty is in how GIŠ.KUŠU2ki is read. It makes little real difference to the history of Umma as a small urban collective which became one of Sumer's biggest 'Early Dynastic' cities. The province of which Umma was the capital also included a number of smaller cities, which included Apišal, Garšana, KI.AN, Zabalam, and others.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City, Gwendolyn Leick (Penguin Books, 2001), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Samuel Noah Kramer ('List 1' of Sumerian rulers, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963), from First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies, Peter Bellwood (Second Ed, Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC, Amélie Kuhrt (Routledge, 2000, Vol I & II), from Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from The Archaeology of Mesopotamia, S Lloyd (Revised Ed, London, 1984), 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 History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), from Ancient History: A Theory About Ancient Times, L C Gerts (List 4 of Sumerian rulers, Chapter 12: The Sumerian king list, 2002), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), from The Age of the God-Kings, Kit van Tulleken (Ed, Time Life Books, Amsterdam 1987), from History & Philology, Walther Sallaberger & Ingo Schrakamp (Eds, Arcane III, Brepols, 2015), and from External Links: Ancient Worlds, and The Sumerian Kings List, J A Black, G Cunningham, E Fluckiger-Hawker, E Robson, & G Zólyomi ('List 2' of Sumerian rulers, available via the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford, 1998), and Ancient History, Anthony Michael Love ('List 3' of Sumerian rulers at Sarissa.org), and Evolution of Sumerian kingship (Ancient World Magazine), and Three Administrative Texts from the Time of Me'annedu, Armando Bramanti (The American Schools of Oriental Research, January 2017, pp 33-47, and available for download in PDF format), and Gišša (Umm al-Aqarib), Umma (Jokha), and Lagaš in the Early Dynastic III Period, Haider O R A I B I Almamori (University of Babylon, 2014, and available for download via Academia.edu), and Seal Impressions on Tablets from Umma, Rudolf H Mayr (2005, and available via Academia.edu), and City of Culture 2600 BC - Early Mesopotamian History and Archaeology at Abu Salabikh, John Nicholas Postgate (Archaeopress Archaeology, 2024, and available via Archaeopress).)

c.2650s BC

The earliest two governors of Umma are unknown aside from mentions on tablets which make it possible to approximate their period of office. For now nothing further can be added.

fl c.2650s? BC

Ensi. Dating highly uncertain, but predating other governors.

fl c.2610s? BC

Ensi. Contemporary of Ur-Pabilsag of Ur.

c.2550 BC

Mesilim of Kish is famous for drawing the border between Umma and Lagash, a clearly contentious point between these two cities. His decision, which enacts the will of the god Enlil and which is accepted by both parties, appears to favour Lagash over Umma.

Mesalim sets up a stele to mark the border and builds a temple to Ningirsu in Lagash. That border is an area of fields which are known as Gu'edena, or 'the edge of the plain', perhaps showing that all agricultural land is important at this time, even on the periphery.

fl c.2530 BC

Ensi. Governed at the time of Mesalim.

fl c.2500 BC

Ensi. Contemporary of Meskiagnunna of Ur.

fl c.2465 BC

Ensi (governor). Captured. Succeeded by Ush.

c.2455 BC

Pabilgagaltuku is the ensi (governor) of Umma, but he is captured by Ur-Nanshe of Lagash. His successor in Umma, Ush, seemingly starts out as an ensi, but is later referred to as lugal (king).

fl c.2455 BC

Ensi & lugal. Possibly killed Akurgal of Lagash.

c.2455 BC

Ush is the ruler of Umma, twenty-nine kilometres away from Lagash. Initially at least, he holds the title ensi, or governor. This title is not unusual for a Sumerian king as he will see himself as being the city's governor on behalf of its god, in this case Shara.

Although the records come from his principal rival, Lagash, he is accused of acting arrogantly when he rips up the stele of Mesalim to claim the fields of Gu'edena (largely a territorial dispute about crops and water).

fl c.2450 BC

Ensi. Contemporary of Ikun-Shamash of Mari.

fl c.2445 BC

Ensi. Defeated by Eannatum of Lagash and made tributary.

c.2440s BC

Eannatum of Lagash annexes virtually all of 'Post-Diluvian' Sumer, including Kish, Nippur, Umma, Uruk (briefly), Ur, and Larsa. In addition, he extends his realm to parts of Elam and along the Persian Gulf, apparently using terror as a matter of policy.

In time, Urur of Akshak leads a northern coalition against him but that is destroyed, with Akshak, along with Mari, recognising Lagash's supremacy. Only after Eannatum's reign, and a century later, is Lagash eclipsed by Umma under Lugalzaggesi, never again to be a great power.

c.2430 BC

Lugalure of Uruk helps Lagash to defeat his arch-rivals at Umma after the latter launch an attack on Lagash. Umma is reduced to a tributary state with the defeat of its ruler, Enakalle (he remains in charge of the city for a total of eight years overall).

As a way of resolving the ongoing conflict there, Eannatum extends the channel of the Inun-canal into the Gu'edena, dividing the fields in two and giving one side of the division to Umma. At the canal he inscribes the stele of the vultures to mark the event, and he also restores the stele of Mesalim.

The stele of the vultures describes the violent treatment which is meted out to his enemies while he claims the coveted (and quite possibly worshipped) title, 'king of Kish'. At the boundary-line of Ningirsu (patron god of Lagash), Eannatum built protective shrines ('sanctuaries') for Enlil, Ninhursag, Ningirsu, and Utu.

The conflict continues, however, and is recorded in detail. Through harvesting (presumably on Gu-edena), 'the men of Umma had eaten one storehouse-full of the grain of Nina [goddess of oracles], the grain of Ningirsu', so Eannatum penalises them. They have to purchase '144,000 gur, a great storehouse full [of grain, as repayment]'. The taking of this grain is not to be repeated in the future.

fl c.2425 BC

Son. Rebelled against Lagash, defeated, fled, killed.

c.2425 BC

Urlumma drains the boundary canals of Ningirsu and of Nina, and destroys the protective shrines and the steles. Described as being 'as puffed up as the mountains', he crosses the boundary canal of Ningirsu, forcing Enannatum of Lagash to offer battle at Ugigga, in the fields near Girsu.

Urlumma is utterly defeated by the king's nephew, Entemena, and flees, only to be killed at Umma. Then Enannatum establishes a vassal ruler at Umma in the form of the priest Ili, head of the temple of Zabalam and priest of Ininni of Esh in Girsu.

fl c.2420 BC

Cousin. Temple head at Zabalam. Priest of Ininni of Esh in Girsu.

c.2400 BC

Ili proves to be unfaithful to Lagash, instead continuing Urlumma's aggressive work against Umma's traditional enemy and its satellite city of Girsu. He drains the boundary canal of Ningirsu as far as the Tigris and close to the boundary of Girsu. The water is diverted to his advantage, and he takes a full storehouse of Lagash's grain.

Entemena, the present ruler of Lagash, has to declare renewed hostilities as the gods Enlil and Ninhursag do not permit such actions. Entemena fully restores the canal.

This leads to unspecified continued hostilities between the two city states which continue until Umma is conquered by Sargon I as he builds his Akkadian empire.

fl c.2400 BC

Son. Ensi (governor). m Bara-irnum to reunite two family strands.

fl c.2400 BC

Wife. Dau of Ur-Lumma.

fl c.2387 - 2355 BC

Ensi (for at least 32 years). Dominated Zabalam.

c.2355 - 2330 BC

Son. Conquered Uruk and became king there.

Under the priest-king Lugalzaggesi, Umma overthrows Lagash's domination (circa 2355 BC), captures Uruk and Akshak (circa 2353 BC), and claims an empire which extends from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.

Lugalzaggesi sacks Lagash and burns all of its holy temples, with the support of the priestly elite of Nippur. Urukagina flees to the town of Girsu, which does not seem to have fallen to Umma, and subsequently disappears from history. Adab has dealings with Lugalzaggesi but whether as the city's overlord is not clear. Nearby Zabalam more certainly is under the domination of Lugalzaggesi.

Umma's domination only lasts for Lugalzaggesi's lifetime, however, and his name is a combination of title and personal name. The kingship passes next to the Elamite city of Awan (and rejoins the information shown in the king list).

fl c.2360 BC

Ensi. Contemporary of Enetarzi of Lagash.

fl c.2350s BC

Ensi. Contemporary of Lugalanda of Lagash.

fl c.2350 BC

Ensi. Contemporary of Urukagina of Lagash.

fl c.2340s BC

Ensi. Contemporary of Ur-Zababa of Kish.

c.2330 BC

Lugalzaggesi's Uruk and Umma are defeated by Sargon I as the latter creates his Akkadian empire. Akkadian controls in the south appear to be pretty loose, and at least some governors are known for Umma at this time.

fl c.2330s BC

Ensi. Contemporary of Sargon I of Agade.

c.2193 BC

Uruk is struck and defeated by the Gutians at the same time as they destroy Agade and carry off the kingship. It is from this point that the Gutian kings are recorded in more detail as Mesopotamia apparently undergoes a gradual climate-induced collapse which also affects Egypt, Anatolia (in city states which include Hatti), and Syria (such as in Tuba), as well as other locations around the world.

fl c.2130 BC

Ensi for at least 35 years. Subject to Si'um of the Gutians.

c.2120 BC

Utuhegal, king of Erech (Uruk) throws out the Gutians once and for all, claiming the kingship. Seemingly unable to retaliate or so broken that they have been destroyed as a fighting force, they retreat back into the mountains where they remain a more distant menace for quite some time.

c.2112 BC

Lagash controls Umma for a short time but with the ascendancy of Ur's Third Dynasty, Umma falls under its control.

Umma's 'Ur III' Girizal Governors (City State) (Sumer)

During the 'Ur III' period (circa 2112-2004 BC) the conquered province of Umma was governed by the members of one family. In local literature this family is referred to either as the 'Ruling Family of Ur III Umma', or the 'Family of Girizal/GIRI.NI'. The ancestor of this family, GIRI.NI, is only attested through the seal-inscriptions of his sons, and he remains an almost mythical figure.

Due to the scarcity of sources which relate the earliest years of Ur's hegemony over Umma it is difficult to estimate the role of this ruling family. However, it is likely that the members of this family were appointed to their offices in Shulgi's thirty-third year in Ur. During the remaining forty-or-so years of Ur's rule the governor's office, as well as a majority of the remaining important offices in Umma's administration, were in the hands of the same family.

c.2061 BC

Shulgi of Ur appoints the first governor of Umma from the family of Girizal. Although there must be governors before this date, from about 2112 BC onwards, their names and relationships remain unknown for now. These governors also oversee affairs in Zabalam.

fl c.2061 BC

Son of Girini? 'Chief Cattle Administrator'. Title inherited.

c.2061 - 2038 BC

Son. Ur's governor of Umma for 23 years.

c.2038 - 2029 BC

Brother. Ur's governor of Umma for 9 years.

c.2029 - 2022 BC

Brother. Ur's governor of Umma for 7 years.

fl c.2010s? BC

Brother. 'Chief Cattle Administrator'.

c.2017 BC

As with much of southern Mesopotamia, Ur is rapidly fading in power and influence as harvests fail and the population declines. Grain prices in Ur seem to increase fifteen times over, but the city's massive bureaucracy hinders it from making rapid decisions to ameliorate the situation.

On top of all of this, new waves of immigration into the region by Amorites add an extra layer of confusion and conflict. One of Ibbi-Sin's officials, Ishbi-Erra, now takes the opportunity to move to the subject city of Isin and create his own city state there.

fl c.2000s? BC

Son. Probable 'Chief Cattle Administrator'.

c.2004 BC

The waning Sumerian civilisation which has at its centre the city of Ur now collapses entirely when the Shimashki king of Elam, Kindattu, together with the people of Susa, sacks the city and captures Ibbi-Sin.

The great brick mausoleums and temples of the third dynasty kings are destroyed and the king is carried off into captivity. Documentation from Umma now ceases. Isin now enjoys a period of dominance in Sumer while a now-Amorite-dominated Ur re-emerges in a reduced state.

1800s BC

Sumu-el of Larsa destroys the city of Umma, an event which is of sufficient importance to be recorded in a year name. After this calamity Umma disappears from the historical record, and it is doubtful whether the city is ever occupied again. Its canals dry up and it is abandoned to the desert sands.