The Sumerian World (Routledge Worlds)

THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD: WARRING CITY-STATES
Although not much is known about the Jamdat Nasr period, it is likely that southern
Mesopotamia underwent profound changes during this period (Pollock 1999 : 6 ). The
Uruk ‘network’ of the Late Uruk period probably collapsed, as did some of the urban
spaces (Pollock 1999 : 6 ). In the following Early Dynastic (ED) period we gain a clearer
picture of city-states and how they interacted with each other, especially for those
periods when we have more and more written sources (Table 6. 2 ).
Based on the stratigraphy from the excavations in the Diyala region of Iraq, the
archaeologist Henri Frankfort divided the Early Dynastic period into three phases. ED
III was then further subdivided into phases a and b (see below). There is a suggestion
that the period ED II did not exist in southern Mesopotamia or outside of the Diyala
region (Porada et al. 1992 : 103 ). The term ‘Pre-Sargonic’, which is sometimes used to
indicate the period immediately preceding the Old Akkadian period (ED IIIb), should
probably be avoided, because it is relatively imprecise.
Levels of the Early Dynastic I–II period in southern Mesopotamia have been
excavated in Nippur, Ur, Jamdat Nasr, Ubaid and Kish (Porada et al. 1992 : 103 – 106 ).
Radiocarbon dates from Nippur would support a date for the Early Dynastic I–II
period in southern Mesopotamia of c. 2900 – 2600 BC(Thomas 1992 : 146 ). The most
important archive of this period comes from the city of Ur (Burrows 1934 ) and can be
dated into the late ED I period through stratigraphy (Porada et al. 1992 : 105 ). Like the
‘proto-cuneiform’ texts, the archaic texts from Ur offer primarily information on the
socio-economic history of this period. For example, the texts mention the title lugal,
which later is translated as ‘king’, but it only occurs in personal names and there is no
evidence that a lugalresided at Ur during this time (Wright 1969 : 41 ). In addition, the
texts mention both a temple(?) (AB) and a palace(?) (é-gal) (ibid.). And like the
preceding periods, the textual evidence also indicates a specialisation of labour (Wright
1969 : 122 ).
The above-mentioned Sumerian Kinglist (SKL), whose earliest manuscript dates to
the Ur III period, is a list consisting of several dynasties that ruled over southern
Mesopotamia. Many scholars have written and commented on the SKL, and not all
their contributions can be acknowledged here. Several things are remarkable about the
SKL: it lists individual dynasties according to the cities from which they ruled, listing

–– Nicole Brisch ––

Table 6. 2 Periods of third and early second millennium southern Mesopotamia

Dates BC Period

c. 3150 / 3100 – 2900 Jamdat Nasr Period (‘Uruk III’)
c. 2900 – 2600 Early Dynastic I–II
c. 2600 – 2500 Early Dynastic IIIa
c. 2500 – 2350 Early Dynastic IIIb
c. 2350 – 2200 Dynasty of Akkad/(Old) Akkadian
c. 2200 – 2112 Second Dynasty of Lagasˇ
c. 2112 – 2004 Third Dynasty of Ur/Ur III period
c. 2004 – 1595 Old Babylonian period
(Early Old Babylonian c. 2004 – 1763 [=Isin-Larsa period]; Old Babylonian
c. 1763 – 1595 )