Mesannepada

Mesannepada (Sumerian: ๐’ˆฉ๐’€ญ๐’‰Œ๐’…†๐’Š’๐’•, mes-an-ne2-pad3-da), Mesh-Ane-pada or Mes-Anne-pada ("Youngling chosen by An") was the first king listed for the First Dynasty of Ur (ca. the 25th century BC) on the Sumerian king list.[5] He is listed to have ruled for 80 years, having overthrown Lugal-kitun of Uruk: "Then Unug (Uruk) was defeated and the kingship was taken to Urim (Ur)".[6] In one of his seals, found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, he is also described as king of Kish.[7][8]

Mesannepada
๐’ˆฉ๐’€ญ๐’‰Œ๐’…†๐’Š’๐’•
King of Kish, King of Ur

Cylinder seal impression of "Mesanepada, king of Kish", excavated in the Royal Cemetery at Ur (U. 13607).[1][2][3] The seal shows Gilgamish and the mythical bull between two lions, one of the lions biting him in the shoulder. On each side of this group appears Enkidu and a hunter-hero, with a long beard and a Kish-style headdress, armed with a dagger. Under the text, four runners with beard and long hair form a human Swastika. They are armed with daggers and catch each other's foot.[3] University of Pennsylvania. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, UPM 31.16.677.[4]
Reignfl. circa 2600 BCE
PredecessorMeskalamdug
SuccessorA'annepada
HouseFirst Dynasty of Ur
Location of Ur, Kish and Mari

Filiation

The "Treasure of Ur" discovered in Mari
The "Lion eagle", another object found in the dedication deposit of the "Treasure of Ur".[9]

Mesannepada was a son of Meskalamdug.[10] A lapis-lazuli bead with the name of King Meskalamdug was found in Mari, in the so-called "Treasure of Ur", and reads:[11][12][13]

๐’€ญ๐’ˆ—๐’Œฆ / ๐’ˆฉ๐’€ญ๐’‰Œ๐’…†๐’Š’๐’• / ๐’ˆ—๐’‹€๐’€Š๐’†  / ๐’Œ‰๐’ˆฉ๐’Œฆ๐’„ญ / ๐’ˆ—๐’†ง๐’†  / ๐’€€ ๐’ˆฌ๐’ˆพ๐’Š’

dlugal-kalam / mes-an-ne2-pa3-da / lugal uri5ki / dumu mes-ug-du10 / lugal kishki / a munaru

"To god Lugalkalam ("the Lord of the Land", identified with Dagan or Enlil), Mesannepada, king of Ur, son of Meskalamdug, king of Kish, has consecrated this bead""

โ€”โ€‰Mesannepada Mari bead[14][15][11][12][16][17]

Initially, it was thought that this bead (reference M. 4439) referred to a gift by Mesannepada to a king of Mari named Gansud or Ansud.[22][23] This has now been corrected with the translation given above.[11][12] The God "Lugal-kalam" (๐’€ญ๐’ˆ—๐’Œฆ, "Lord of the Land") to whom the dedication is made, is otherwise known in a dedication by a local ruler ล aba (ล alim) of Mari, also as Lugal-kalam, or in the dedication of Ishtup-Ilum where he is named "Lugal-mฤtim" (๐’€ญ๐’ˆ—๐’ˆค๐’ด, "Lord of the Land"), and is considered identical with the local deity Dagan, or Enlil.[24]

It is unclear how this bead came to be in Mari, but this points to some kind of relation between Ur and Mari at that time.[25] The bead was discovered in a jar containing other objects from Ur or Kish, the so-called "Treasure of Ur".[26][27] The jar was recognized as an offering for the foundation of a temple in Mari.[28] Similar dedication beads have also been found from later rulers, such as Shulgi who engraved two carnelian beads with dedication to his gods circa 2100 BCE.[29]

A'annepada dedication tablet
A'annepada tablet inscription (with transcription in standard Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform), mentioning his father Mesannepada. British Museum, BM 116982.[30] Discovered in Tell Al-'Ubaid.[31]

Several dedication tablets by "A'annepada, son of Mesannepada" for the god Ninhursag are also known, which all have similar content:[32][31]

๐’€ญ๐’Šฉ๐’Œ†๐’„ฏ๐’Š• / ๐’€€๐’€ญ๐’‰Œ๐’…†๐’Š’๐’• / ๐’ˆ—๐’Œถ๐’†  / ๐’Œ‰๐’ˆฉ๐’€ญ๐’‰Œ๐’…†๐’Š’๐’• / ๐’ˆ—๐’Œถ๐’†  /๐’€ญ๐’Šฉ๐’Œ†๐’‰บ๐’‚…๐’Š / ๐’‚ ๐’ˆฌ๐’ˆพ๐’†•

Dnin-hur-sag / a-an-ne2-pa3-da / lugal uri5{ki} / dumu mes-an-ne2-pa3-da / lugal uri5{ki} /Dnin-hur-sag-ra / e2 mu-na-du3

"For Nin-hursag: A'annepada, king of Ur, son of Mesannepada, king of Ur, built the temple for Ninhursag."

โ€”โ€‰Dedication tablet by King A'annepada, British Museum, BM 116982.[31][30]

Sumerian King List
Main article: Sumerian King List
Mesannepada appears in the Sumerian King List, as the first ruler of the First Dynasty of Ur

Mesannepada appears in the Sumerian King List, as the first ruler of the First Dynasty of Ur, and is credited with a reign of 80 years. His successors are also named:

"... Uruk with weapons was struck down, the kingship to Ur was carried off. In Ur Mesannepada was king, 80 years he ruled; Meskiagnun, son of Mesannepada, was king, 36 years he ruled; Elulu, 25 years he ruled; Balulu, 36 years he ruled; 4 kings, the years: 171(?) they ruled. Ur with weapons was struck down; the kingship to Awan was carried off.

โ€”โ€‰Sumerian King List, 137-147.[33]

Old Babylonian tablet: the Tummal Chronicle

Mesannepada and his other son are also mentioned in an Old Babylonian tablet (1900-1600 BCE), the Tummal Inscription, relating the accomplishments of several kings. Such tablets are usually copies of older tablets, now lost:

"En-me-barage-si, the king, built the Iri-nanam in Enlil's temple. Aga, son of En-me-barage-si, made the Tummal flourish and brought Ninlil into the Tummal. Then the Tummal fell into ruins for the first time. Meลก-Ane-pada built the Bur-ลกuลกua in Enlil's temple. Meskiagnun, son of Meลก-Ane-pada, made the Tummal flourish and brought Ninlil into the Tummal."

โ€”โ€‰Old Babylonian tablet Tummal Inscription (1900-1600 BCE)[34][35]

Reign

Mesannepada is associated with an expansion of Ur, at least diplomatically.[36][37] A lapis-lazuli bead in the name of Mesannepada was found in Mari, and formed part of the "Treasure of Ur", made for the dedication of a temple in Mari. Seals from the royal cemetery at Ur have also been found bearing the names of Mesannepada and his predecessors Meskalamdug and Akalamdug, along with Queen Puabi. A seal impression in the name of "Mesannepada, king of Kish" was found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.[3]

Mesannepada, Lugal Kish-ki (๐’ˆฉ๐’€ญ๐’‰Œ๐’…†๐’Š’๐’• ๐’ˆ— ๐’†ง๐’† ), "Mesannepada, King of Kish", on a seal impression found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.[38][3] The last column of characters, is thought to mean "his wife..." (๐’ฎ๐’‰ก๐’ผ, dam-nu-gig).[39] This could also mean "the spouse of Inanna.[40]
Cylinder seal inscribed "Queen Nintur, wife of Mesannepadda" (Nintur ereลก, dam Mesannepada). Royal Cemetery at Ur.[41][42][43]

Mesannepada, and his son and successor Meskiagnun, who reigned 36 years,[6] are both named on the Tummal Inscription as upkeepers of the main temple in Nippur along with Gilgamesh of Uruk and his son Ur-Nungal, verifying their status as overlords of Sumer. Judging from the inscriptions, Mesannepada then assumed the title "King of Kish",[7] to indicate his hegemony.[44] In the tablet to the goddess Ninhursag, found in Tell el-Obeid, has the words "A-Anne-pada king of Ur, son of Mes-Anne-pada king of Ur, has built a temple for Ninhursag.[6] Truly it's impossible which a king inherit a throne in his childhood and reign thereafter for 80 years.[6] The reason will be accepted because the length of the son's reign added to the father.[6]

Another son of Mesannepada, named Aannepadda, (Aja-ane-pada or A-Anne-pada, "father chosen by An"), whose years of reigned are unknown,[6] is known for having the temple of Ninhursag constructed (at modern Ubaid) near el-Obed, though he is not named on the kinglist.[5]

Ur-Nammu's structure probably was built on top of a smaller ziggurat which may have been as old as the time of Mes-Anne-pada.[45]

In the 1950s, Edmund I. Gordon conjectured that Mesannepada, and an archaeologically attested early "king of Kish", Mesilim, were one and the same, as their names were interchanged in certain proverbs in later Babylonian tablets; however this has not proved conclusive. More recent scholars tend to regard them as distinct, usually placing Mesilim in Kish before Mesannepada.[46]

  • Mesannepada seal (combat scene)
  • Mesannepada seal (human wheel scene)

Royal Cemetery of Ur

Mesannapeda may have his tomb in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. It has been suggested his tomb could be tomb PG 1232, or PG 1237, nicknamed "the Great Death-Pit".[47]

gollark: Download them in advance, I mean, if I actually needed to use Windows.
gollark: If I particularly wanted to I could just download multiple ISOs and select which one to use when necessary.
gollark: I can just use my phone for that, there are a bunch of apps to allow your (rooted, Android) phone to act as a USB mass storage device.
gollark: Alternatively, it's a test to see whether they'll be able to get away with using it to push advertising.
gollark: My guess: some developer wanted to test their push notification server or something, but accidentally used the *production* one and not the development one.

See also

References
  1. For a modern photograph: Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur. UPenn Museum of Archaeology. 1998. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-924171-54-3.
  2. Hall, H. R. (Harry Reginald); Woolley, Leonard; Legrain, Leon (1900). Ur excavations. Trustees of the Two Museums by the aid of a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. p. 312.
  3. Image of a Mesanepada seal in: Legrain, Lรฉon (1936). UR EXCAVATIONS VOLUME III ARCHAIC SEAL-IMPRESSIONS (PDF). THE TRUSTEES OF THE TWO MUSEUMS BY THE AID OF A GRANT FROM THE CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK. p. 44 seal 518 for description, Plate 30, seal 518 for image.
  4. For a modern photograph: Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur. UPenn Museum of Archaeology. 1998. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-924171-54-3.
  5. Romano Garcรญa, Vicente (1965). Ur, Asur y Babilonia. Tres milenios de cultura en Mesopotamia. Madrid: Ediciones Castilla. p. 33.
  6. Finegan 2015, p. 33, Mesopotamian Beginnings.
  7. Katz 1993, p. 16.
  8. Hall, H. R. (Harry Reginald); Woolley, Leonard; Legrain, Leon (1900). Ur excavations. Trustees of the Two Museums by the aid of a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. p. 312.
  9. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2003. ISBN 978-1-58839-043-1.
  10. Reade, Julian (2003). Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-58839-043-1.
  11. Description with photograph: Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2003. p. 143. ISBN 978-1-58839-043-1.
  12. Orientalia: Vol. 73. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. p. 183.
  13. For the discovery of the "Treasure of Ur" and detailed content of the jar, see: Parrot, Andrรฉ (1965). "Les Fouilles de Mari". Syria. Archรฉologie, Art et Histoire. 42 (3): 197โ€“225. doi:10.3406/syria.1965.5808.
  14. Orientalia: Vol. 73. Gregorian Biblical BookShop.
  15. "CDLI-Archival View". cdli.ucla.edu.
  16. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2003. ISBN 978-1-58839-043-1.
  17. "Mission archรฉologique de Mari" volume 4, p. 44, fig. 35 (photo); p. 53, fig. 36
  18. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2003. ISBN 978-1-58839-043-1.
  19. Object at time of discovery
  20. Malamat, Abraham (1971). "Mari". The Biblical Archaeologist. 34 (1): 4. doi:10.2307/3210950. ISSN 0006-0895. JSTOR 3210950.
  21. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2003. ISBN 978-1-58839-043-1.
  22. Parrot, Andrรฉ (1965). "Les Fouilles de Mari". Syria: 220.
  23. orientalia Vol.38. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. p. 358.
  24. Orientalia: Vol. 73. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. p. 322.
  25. orientalia Vol.38. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. p. 358.
  26. Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to ... Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2003. pp. 139โ€“145. ISBN 9781588390431.
  27. Matthews, Donald M. (1997). The Early Glyptic of Tell Brak: Cylinder Seals of Third Millennium Syria. Saint-Paul. p. 108. ISBN 978-3-525-53896-8.
  28. Spycket, Agnรจs (1981). Handbuch der Orientalistik (in French). BRILL. p. 80. ISBN 978-90-04-06248-1.
  29. McIntosh, Jane (2008). The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 185. ISBN 978-1-57607-907-2.
  30. "CDLI-Archival View". cdli.ucla.edu.
  31. "British Museum, tablet".
  32. "CDLI-Found Texts". cdli.ucla.edu.
  33. "CDLI-Found Texts". cdli.ucla.edu.
  34. "CDLI-Found Texts". cdli.ucla.edu.
  35. Sollberger, Edmond (1962). "The Tummal Inscription". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 16 (2): 40โ€“47. doi:10.2307/1359332. ISSN 0022-0256. JSTOR 1359332.
  36. Matthews 1997, p. 1, Introduction.
  37. Matthews 1997, p. 2, Introduction.
  38. Hall, H. R. (Harry Reginald); Woolley, Leonard; Legrain, Leon (1900). Ur excavations. Trustees of the Two Museums by the aid of a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. p. 312.
  39. Hall, H. R. (Harry Reginald); Woolley, Leonard; Legrain, Leon (1900). Ur excavations. Trustees of the Two Museums by the aid of a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. p. 312.
  40. MAEDA, TOHRU (1981). "KING OF KISH" IN PRE-SARGONIC SUMER. Orient: The Reports of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan, Volume 17. p. 8.
  41. Orientalia: Vol. 73. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. p. 176.
  42. "Cylinder Seal - B16852 Collections - Penn Museum". www.penn.museum.
  43. Finegan, Jack (2019). Archaeological History Of The Ancient Middle East. Routledge. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-429-72638-5.
  44. Kramer, Samuel Noah (1963). "History: Heroes, Kings and Ensi's". The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. University of Chicago Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780226452388.
  45. Finegan 2015, p. 43, Mesopotamian Beginnings.
  46. Finegan, Jack (2019). Archaeological History Of The Ancient Middle East. Routledge. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-429-72638-5.
  47. Reade, Julian (2003). Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-58839-043-1.

Bibliography
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Lugal-kitun of Uruk		 King of Sumer
ca. 26th century BC		 Succeeded by
A'annepada
Preceded by
Meskalamdug		 Ensรญ of Ur
ca. 26th century BC
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