Kingdoms of Mesopotamia

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 Uruk was situated to the east of the present course of the Euphrates, in a region of marshes along the line of the ancient Nil Canal. Sometimes labelled the 'mother of all cities', it was one of the oldest and most important cities in Sumer. It led the way in the advance towards the formation of individual city states and was an influential leader during the fourth millennium BC, during the Uruk IV cultural period (around 3900-3100 BC).

Uruk was already a major city by 3300 BC, and it was here that Sumerian civilisation seems to have reached its creative and social peak. Many familiar urban human themes and groupings seem to have emerged during this period. Trade with many regions outside of Mesopotamia was already flourishing by the start of the third millennium BC, notably with the Hatti in Anatolia. But very few cities last forever.

It was in AD 1856 that members of the Royal Asiatic Society were informed of a ruin site which had been found in southern Mesopotamia's remote desert region. The Arabs knew it as Warka, a mangling of the Old Testament's Erech in the 'land of Shinar (Sumer)'. This was the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk (or Unug or Urak in some later records). The visible site was vast even when half-covered by desert sand, with a still-discernable ring of city walls of about nine kilometres in circumference.

Initial archaeological investigations took place between 1850-1856, but discoveries at the time were less exciting than elsewhere. More detailed examinations took place around twentieth century wars, in 1912-1914, 1928-1939, and 1953-1990. German archaeologists especially provided highly-detailed reports.

Kings did not generally appear until the 'Early Dynastic I' period at the start of the third millennium BC. The position generally grew out of senior temple posts, with head priests - the en - coming to command entire cities as those cities grew and needed more centralised leadership. Older leadership posts may have had a basis in pre-city tribal groups, but details have not been preserved. Initially the new city rulers could hold varying titles, with lugal (initially an important figure, or a rich and influential one, but later a king) only eventually emerging as the default.

Meskiaggasher, the first documented king of Uruk, was one of the first documented kings anywhere, and Uruk may even have driven the formation of the concept of kingship outside of tribal groups. He founded his own dynasty in the temple of Eanna (E-anna, or temple of Inanna, the holy sanctuary which is mentioned many times in the Epic of Gilgamesh).

Eanna was the most prominent of archaeological mounds, one which contained a dense sequence of nineteen building levels for the early fifth millennium BC and the fourth millennium BC, plus some later remains from the post-Sumer second millennium BC. These levels revealed a great deal of advancement and improvement, but Eanna only became part of the greater (and expanding) city of Uruk during the reign of Enmerkar in the later twenty-eighth century BC.

As the first king (according to the later Sumerian king list at least), Meskiaggasher dominated a region which extended from the Mediterranean to the Zagros Mountains, to the east of Sumer. His son, the aforementioned Enmerkar, officially gained the kingship after conquering Kish's 'First Dynasty'.

According to the Sumerian king list, a total of twenty-two kings ruled in Uruk for 2,610 + X years, six months and fifteen days, five times (dynasties). Here, List 1 is primarily used, backed up by List 2 and List 3. 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.

Near East Kingdoms

Ancient Mesopotamia

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