Enmerkar

Enmerkar (Sumerian: 𒂗𒈨𒅕𒃸 EN.me.er.kar2) is a legendary king listed as the builder of the Sumerian city of Uruk. He was said to have reigned for "420 years"; some copies read "900 years". The Sumerian King List adds that Enmerkar became king after his father Mesh-ki-ang-gasher, son of Utu, had "entered the sea and disappeared."

Enmerkar
𒂗𒈨𒅕𒃸
Priest-king of Uruk from the Late Uruk Period
King of the First dynasty of Uruk
Reignc. 3400-3100 BC (Late Uruk Period)[1][2]
PredecessorMesh-ki-ang-gasher
SuccessorLugalbanda
DynastyUruk I

Enmerkar in Sumerian Epics

Enmerkar is known from a few other Sumerian legends, most notably Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, where a previous confusion of the languages of mankind is mentioned. In this account, it is Enmerkar himself who is called 'the son of Utu' (the Sumerian sun god). Aside from founding Uruk, Enmerkar is said here to have had a temple built at Eridu, and is even credited with the invention of writing on clay tablets, for the purpose of threatening Aratta into submission. Enmerkar furthermore seeks to restore the disrupted linguistic unity of the inhabited regions around Uruk, listed as Shubur, Hamazi, Sumer, Uri-ki (the region around Akkad), and the Martu land.

Three other texts in the same series describe Enmerkar's reign. In Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana, while describing Enmerkar's continued diplomatic rivalries with Aratta, there is an allusion to Hamazi having been vanquished. In Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave, Enmerkar is seen leading a campaign against Aratta. The fourth and last tablet, Lugalbanda and the Anzu Bird, describes Enmerkar's year-long siege of Aratta. It also mentions that fifty years into Enmerkar's reign, the Martu people had arisen in all of Sumer and Akkad, necessitating the building of a wall in the desert to protect Uruk.

In these last two tablets, the character of Lugalbanda is introduced as one of Enmerkar's war chiefs. According to the Sumerian king list, it was this Lugalbanda "the shepherd" who eventually succeeded Enmerkar to the throne of Uruk. Lugalbanda is also named as the father of Gilgamesh, a later king of Uruk, in both Sumerian and Akkadian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Historical King

As many of Enmerkar's deeds have been recorded within the context of the Sumerian Royal Epic, it is quite difficult to discern what is mythological and what is not. The longstanding traditions of the Old Babylonian Period cited Enmerkar as the builder of Uruk, but until recently it was thought this might have just been a fabrication of the period. Now it seems that this tradition dates back as far as the Jemdet Nasr Period (c.3100-2900 BC), lending much creedence to the possible reality of Enmerkar as the head of an architectural reform.[3]

An archaic tablet from Uruk recording the title "Lord of Aratta" gives further reason to believe the traditions surrounding Enmerkar's deeds are based in reality.[2][4] Professor of Assyriology, Gong Yushu(拱玉书), even suggests that Enmerkar (or his administration) may be factually attributed as the first person/people to put cuneiform to clay tablets. He suggests that writing did indeed exist before Enmerkar, citing the fact that the Lord of Aratta understood Enmerkar's cuneiform message, but had previously been done on a number of different materials: "Besides clay tablets, writing materials of ivory, wood, wax, leather and even papyrus were also in common use during the latter part of the Mesopotamian history. Their origin is by no means clear. Some may be later inventions, others may well be the later development or even the continuation of an early tradition." Dr. Yushu also notes that many proto-cuneiform signs were difficult to write on clay, possibly pointing to their initial development on a different writing surface.[2]

Date

Enmerkar has generally been placed within the context of c.2700 BC,[5][6][7] however, this notion has certainly been called into question by the discovery of an Uruk III (c.3100-2900 BC) tablet mentioning king Enmerkar as having helped build Uruk in the distant past.[3][8] This text would therefore allow for a date of no later than the Late Uruk Period (c.3400-3100 BC) for the reign of Enmerkar.

Later Influence

In Antiquity

In a legend related by Aelian [9] (ca. AD 200), the king of Babylon, Euechoros or Seuechoros (also appearing in many variants as Sevekhoros, earlier Sacchoras, etc.), is said to be the grandfather of Gilgamos, who later becomes king of Babylon (i.e., Gilgamesh of Uruk). Several recent scholars have suggested that this "Seuechoros" or "Euechoros" is moreover to be identified with Enmerkar of Uruk, as well as the Euechous named by Berossus as being the first king of Chaldea and Assyria. This last name Euechous (also appearing as Evechius, and in many other variants) has long been identified with Nimrod.[10]

Identification as Nimrod

The controversial historian David Rohl has claimed parallels between Enmerkar, builder of Uruk, and Nimrod, ruler of biblical Erech (Uruk), who, according to some extra-biblical legends, was supposedly the architect of the Tower of Babel. One parallel Rohl has noted is between the epithet "the Hunter", applied to Nimrod, and the suffix -kar at the end of Enmerkar's name, which means "hunter". Rohl has also argued that Eridu near Ur is the original site of the city of Babel and that the not complete ziggurat found there is none other than the Biblical tower itself.[11]

References
  1. Pournelle, Jennifer R. (2003). Marshland of Cities: Deltaic Landscapes and the Evolution of Civilization. S.N. p. 267.
  2. Yushu, Gong (2004). The Sumerian Account of the Invention of Writing —A New Interpretation. Elsevier Ltd. p. 7446-7453.
  3. Katz, D. (2017). Ups and Downs in the Career of Enmerkar, King of Uruk. In 1038779203 795202920 O. Drewnowska & 1038779204 795202920 M. Sandowicz (Authors), Fortune and misfortune in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 60th Rencontre assyriologique internationale at Warsaw 21-25 July 2014 (pp. 201-202). Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns.
  4. Green, M. W. (1980). "Animal Husbandry at Uruk in the Archaic Period". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 39 (1): 16–18. ISSN 0022-2968.
  5. McIntosh, Jane (2005). Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspectives. BC-CLIO. p. 133.
  6. Lapinkivi, Pirjo (2004). The Sumerian Sacred Marriage in the Light of Comparative Evidence. Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. p. 16. ISBN 9789514590580.
  7. Pryke, Louise M. (July 14, 2017). Ishtar. Taylor & Francis. p. 135.
  8. Civil, Miguel (2013). "Remarks on AD-GI 4 (A.K.A."Archaic Word List C" or "Tribute"". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 65.
  9. De Natura Animalium 12.21
  10. Wouter F. M. Henkelman, "The Birth of Gilgamesh", in Altertum und Mittelmeerraum: die antike Welt diesseits und jenseits der Levante, p. 819.
  11. Legends: The Genesis of Civilization (1998) and The Lost Testament (2002) by David Rohl
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Mesh-ki-ang-gasher		 Sumerian ruler
En of Uruk
c. 34000-3100 BC (Late Uruk Period)		 Succeeded by
Lugalbanda
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