Rise of Sumerian city-states and kingship
- Date
- c. 2900–2350 BCE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Southern Mesopotamia (Iraq)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
During the Early Dynastic period southern Mesopotamia was organised into competing city-states such as Uruk, Ur, Kish, Lagash and Umma, each centred on a walled city, its patron deity's temple and surrounding farmland.
Authority that had earlier been concentrated in temple institutions was increasingly matched by a secular ruler, the 'lugal' (literally 'big man') or 'ensi,' who led in war, undertook building works and mediated with the gods. Later Sumerian tradition, preserved in the Sumerian King List, expressed this ideology by claiming that 'kingship descended from heaven' and passed from one city to another, beginning with Kish after a great flood. Among the rulers it names is Gilgamesh of Uruk, generally accepted as a historical king of the early Early Dynastic period who became the hero of later epic. The consolidation of hereditary kingship and inter-city rivalry shaped Mesopotamian politics for the rest of the third millennium.
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Related politics & governance events
- Monumental urbanism at Caral and the Norte Chico civilisationc. 2600 BCE
- Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Narmerc. 3100 BCE
- Rise of Kerma as an Urban Centre in Nubiac. 2500 BCE
- Sargon of Akkad founds the world's first empirec. 2334 BCE
- Reforms of Urukagina of Lagashc. 2350 BCE
- Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest surviving law codec. 2100 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction
Concise, expert intro to Mesopotamia, Persia and the Near East before Alexander.
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