Sumerian King List

Langdon1923 WB444 study, printedpage 3

w-B. 1923, 444. THE SUMERO-ACCADIAN SYSTEM OF LEGENDARY AND HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY 3 obviously the fourth city falsely replaced by Pantibiblus (Badtibira) in Berossus, and its king Euedorachus is. Enmenduranna of the two Sumerian sorces. Dumuzi-sib was the last of three kings at Badtibira and corresponds to Dadnus of Berossus. Now Dadnos is called a shepherd in the Greek text‘ and Dumuzi-sib means « Tammuz the shepherd ». A variant of the Greek is Dajs and this is probably a corruption of Damv-zi °. Enmenluanna was the first king at Badtibira and W-B. 62 has transposed Dumuzi-sib and Emmenluanna. He corresponds to the very corrupt name Amelén of the Greek. Less corrupt is Almelon of Eusebius (Aramean) and Amillaros of Abydenus. Enmengalanna the second king of Badtibira was corrupted to Ammendn by omission of the element gal. Emmenanna is Ammendn. This name is omitted in W-B. 62 whose two kings at Ellasar are an insertion by the scribes of that city. This leaves Megalaros of Pantibiblus unexplained. It cannot correspond to either of the two names inserted on W-B. 62 for Ellasar, and since Berossus obviously utilized a list current at Babylon, the name must depend upon some other corrupt tradition. The original list was, therefore ;— 1. Alulim 1. Alorus. 2. Alagar . 2. Alaparos. 8. Enmenluanna ® 8. Amélon. 4. Enmen(gal)anna 4, Ammendon. 5. Dumuzi-sib 5. Dads. 6. . Ensibzianna 6. Amempsinos. 7. Enmenduranna 7. Euedorachos. 8. Ubardudu 8. Opartes. 9. Aradgin 9. Ardates. * 10. Zitsuddu 10. Sisythes. ° Of the 23 kings of Kish who reigned after the Flood all but two are preserved with the exception of the 5" and 6 names which are partially preserved. The lengths of their reigns are naturally mythical, and the huge total of 24.510 years 3 months’ and 3 days is probably due to an astronomical calculation of the so called “ World-year », or period of 25.920 years of the sun’s apparent revolution through the 12 signs of the zodiac. “ The precession of the equinoxes, or slow motion of the earth’s axis, in consequence of which the intersection of the equator with the ecliptic travels along the latter» at the rate of 1 degree in 72 years, causes this apparent . revolution of the sun.° It is difficult to discover any similar computation in the figures given t See Poéme du Paradis, 129. / 2 Tammuz is reduced to Du-’-uz already in late Babylonian and was pronounced Tatiz by the Ssabeans of Harran in the Middle Ages. See Tammuz and Ishtar, p. 2 n. 3. See also E. Burrows, Orientalia, VII, 55. Sayce suggests that the original Greek was AAQZ02, corrupted to AAQNOZ which is very probable. 3 Wenner has discovered the names of the ante-diluvian kings on an Assur tablet, and I understand that this name appears as Am-me-lu-an-na there. This removes the last suggestion of any Semitic name in the list. Amélon is not the Semitic amélu. In the Assur list Zi-t-sud-du is written Zi-sud-da. | ‘ Preserved only by Alexander Polyhistor. See JRAS. 1923, 259 n. 1. 5 See JRAS. 1923, 259 n. 2. ® Sm Roserr Bart, A Popular Guide to the Heavens, p. 56. If this period assigned to the first historical dynasty be based upon the great solar cycle it must be assumed that the Sumerians discovered the precession of the equinoxes, an extremely doubtful assumption. Kucter, Sternkunde II 24.32 denies that this discovery ‘was known even in the age of the best Babylonian astronomy.