Out of the many incredible artifacts that have been recovered from sites in Iraq where flourishing Sumerian cities once stood, few have been more intriguing than the Sumerian.

King List, an ancient manuscript originally recorded in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer (ancient southern Iraq) from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of “official” kingship. What makes this artifact so unique is that the list blends mythical pre-dynastic rulers with historical rulers known to have existed.

The Sumerian Civilization & The Sumerian King List

The origins of Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia are still debated today, but archaeological evidence indicates that they established roughly a dozen city-states by the fourth millennium BC. These usually consisted of a walled metropolis dominated by a ziggurat — the tiered, pyramid-like temples associated with the Sumerian religion.

Major Sumerian city-states included Eridu, Ur, Nippur, Lagash, and Kish. Still, one of the oldest and most sprawling was Uruk, a thriving trading hub that boasted six miles of defensive walls and a population of between 40,000 and 80,000. At its peak around 2800 BC, it was most likely the largest city in the world. In simple words, Ancient Sumerians had influenced the world enormously as they were the reason behind the world’s first urban civilization.