Sources
The Sumerian King List
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The Sumerian King List is an ancient Mesopotamian text, composed in its surviving early second millennium BCE form, that names Gilgamesh among the rulers of the first dynasty of Uruk. As primary scripture it is the correct source for what the ancient list itself claims. Its limit is well established among Assyriologists: the list is a political construction compiled to assert a continuous, divinely sanctioned line of kingship across Sumer, not a historical chronicle, and its reign lengths for the earliest rulers, running into the tens of thousands of years, are plainly unusable as chronology. A claim that a name appears in the list is well supported by it; a claim about that reign's actual length is not.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
The Sumerian King List is itself the primary ancient document, with no modern author, cited here as the primary text. NotesEarly second millennium BCE. Names Gilgamesh as a ruler of the first dynasty of Uruk. A political construction rather than a chronicle; its reign lengths are unusable.
Citation
AuthorAnonymous
Source Typeprimary-text
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Gilgamesh directly: "second millennium BCE form, that names Gilgamesh among the rulers of the first dynasty of Uruk."
This source names Mesopotamians directly: "The Sumerian King List is an ancient Mesopotamian text, composed in its surviving early second millennium BCE form, that names Gilgamesh among the rulers of the first dynasty of Uruk."
This source names Sumerians directly: "The Sumerian King List is an ancient Mesopotamian text, composed in its surviving early second millennium BCE form, that names Gilgamesh among the rulers of the first dynasty of Uruk."
Claims Backed By This Source (48 claims)
This source backs 48 claims across the atlas. As facts: 27 well-attested, 3 scholarly debate. As cited relationships: 11 holds. Plus 7 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Esoteric Texts, 13 claims: 7 well-attested, 3 scholarly debate, 2 holds, 1 general references.
- Religious Events, 9 claims: 5 well-attested, 3 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 8 claims: 5 well-attested, 3 holds.
- Articles, 4 claims: 4 well-attested.
- Cultures, 4 claims: 3 holds, 1 general references.
- Doctrines, 4 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Figures, 3 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Sacred Sites, 2 claims: 1 well-attested, 1 general references.
- Regions, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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