Editing Sumerian King List (section)

==Sources==

{{Location map+|Iraq|width=260|float=right |relief=yes|caption=Map of [[Iraq]] showing the archaeological sites where [[clay tablet]]s containing (parts of) the ''Sumerian King List'' have been found. |places=
  {{Location map~|Iraq|lat=33.058829|long=44.252153|position=right |label_size=75 |label=[[Sippar]]}}
  {{Location map~|Iraq|lat=36.957222|long=41.505278|position=right |label_size=75 |label=[[Tell Leilan]]}}
  {{Location map~|Iraq|lat=32.126444|long=45.233381|position=left |label_size=75 |label=[[Nippur]]}}
  {{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.885|long=45.268611|position=left|label_size=75 |label=[[Isin]]}}
  {{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.285833|long=45.853611|position=left|label_size=75 |label=[[Larsa]]}}
  {{Location map~|Iraq|lat=32.540278|long=44.604722|position=right |label_size=75 |label=[[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]]}}
  {{Location map~|Iraq|lat=31.946944|long=45.968889|position=right |label_size=75 |label=[[Adab (city)|Adab]]}}
  {{Location map~|Iraq|lat=32.190556|long=48.257778|position=left |label_size=75 |label=[[Susa]]}}
}}

The ''Sumerian King List'' is known from a number of different sources, all in the form of [[Clay tablet|clay tablets or cylinders]] and written in [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]. At least 16 different tablets or fragments containing parts of the composition are known. Some tablets are unprovenanced, but most have been recovered, or are known to have come from various sites across Mesopotamia, the majority coming from [[Nippur]]. So far a version of the ''SKL'' has been found outside of Babylonia only twice. One copy was found at [[Susa]] in [[Elam]]. The other, found at [[Tell Leilan]] in Upper Mesopotamia, contains the only clean copy of the Mari list which is badly broken in other recensions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vincente|first=Claudine-Adrienne|date=1995-01-01|title=The Tall Leilãn Recension of the Sumerian King List|journal=Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zava.1995.85.2.234/html|language=de|volume=85|issue=2|pages=234–270|doi=10.1515/zava.1995.85.2.234|s2cid=163785116 |issn=1613-1150}}</ref>

There is only one manuscript that contains a relatively undamaged version of the composition. This is the [[Weld-Blundell Prism]] which includes the antediluvian part of the composition and ends with the Isin dynasty.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=SUMERIAN KING LIST|url=https://www.ashmolean.org/sumerian-king-list#/|access-date=2021-06-29|website=www.ashmolean.org|language=en}}</ref> Other manuscripts are incomplete because they are damaged or fragmentary. The [[Scheil dynastic tablet]], from [[Susa]], for example, only contains parts of the composition running from Uruk II to Ur III.<ref name=":9" /> Given the state of the SKL sources literary compositions like the [[Tummal#Tummal Inscription|Tummal Chronicle]] and the Ballad of the Early Rulers are used as input as well.<ref>Y. Cohen, "Where is Bazi? Where is Zizi? The List of Early Rulers in the Ballad from Emar and Ugarit, and the Mari Rulers in the Sumerian King List and other Sources", Iraq 74, pp. 137-152, 2012</ref>

The majority of the sources are dated to the [[First Babylonian Empire|Old Babylonian period]] (early second millennium BC), and more specifically the early part of that era. In many cases, a more precise dating is not possible, but in one case, the Weld-Blundell prism, it could be dated to year 11 of the reign of king [[Sîn-Māgir|Sin-Magir]] of [[Isin]], the last ruler to be mentioned in the ''Sumerian King List''. The so-called ''Ur III Sumerian King List'' (''USKL''), on a clay tablet possibly found in [[Adab (city)|Adab]], is the only known version of the ''SKL'' that predates the Old Babylonian period. The [[Colophon (publishing)|colophon]] of this text mentions that it was copied during the reign of [[Shulgi]] (2084–2037 BC), the second king of the Ur III dynasty. The ''USKL'' is especially interesting because its pre-Sargonic part is completely different from that of the ''SKL''. Whereas the ''SKL'' records many different dynasties from several cities, the ''USKL'' starts with a single long list of rulers from Kish (including rulers who, in the ''SKL'' were part of different Kish dynasties), followed by a few other dynasties, followed again by the kings of Akkad.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":11">{{Cite journal|last=Steinkeller|first=Piotr|date=2003|title=An Ur III Manuscript of the Sumerian King List|url=https://www.academia.edu/35603955|journal=Literatur, Politik und Recht in Mesopotamien: Festschrift für Claus Wilcke|pages=267–292}}</ref>