A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

“King of Kish” by rulers from other cities with hegemonic claims

suggests that Mesalim controlled most of northern and southern

Babylonia.^12 The administrative archives from Fara,^13 ancient Shurup-

pak, ca. 2550, attest to a group of six cities in central and southern

Babylonia that, again, could represent a centrally controlled state or

a loose confederacy, either allied with or subordinate to Kish.^14

2.3 The period from ca. 2500 to the advent of Sargon of Akkade,

ca. 2350, is known as Early Dynastic IIIb, the Presargonic period,

or, occasionally, the Old Sumerian period. Evidence for interstate

relations expands significantly with numerous royal inscriptions from

Babylonia^15 and archival texts from Ebla in northwestern Syria.

2.3.1 In southern Babylonia, three larger polities can be discerned:

Lagash (including the major cities of Girsu, Lagash, and Nina), Umma

(together with Zabalam), and a union of Uruk and Ur. The north

seems to have been dominated by Kish, in concert with Akshak.^16

2.3.2 Beyond Babylonia, there are, by the end of this period, three

regional states to the north and west, as revealed by the Ebla archives:

Mari on the middle Euphrates, Ebla in northwestern Syria, and

Nagar in the ›abur triangle.^17 To the east of Babylonia lay the

Elamite confederacy.^18

2.4 The Sargonic (Akkade, or Old Akkadian) period (ca. 2350–2200)

is marked by Akkadian hegemony over Babylonia and regions beyond,

(^12) SARI Ki 3; ABW Mes. v. Ki“; RIM E1.8.1. The inscriptions record building,
ritual, or dedicatory activity and in each case mention the name of a local ruler
or governor. Later tradition records that Mesalim marked offthe boundary between
Lagash and Umma (Cooper, Reconstructing History.. ., 22; Bauer, in Bauer et al.,
Mesopotamien.. ., 446). The right to set boundaries between cities’ territories was
traditionally exercised by a strong hegemonic ruler, e.g. Sharkalisharri of Akkade
(Volk, “Puzur-Mama.. .”), Utuhegal of Uruk (RIM E2.13.6; cf. RIM E3/2 p. 10),
and Urnammu of Ur (RIM E3/2.1.1.21).
(^13) See Krebernik in Bauer et al., Mesopotamien...
(^14) Pomponio and Visicato, Tablets of ”uruppak.. ., 10ff.; Visicato, Bureaucracy...,
144f.; Krebernik in Bauer et al., Mesopotamien.. ., 242.
(^15) ABW; RIM E1; SARI (English translations only).
(^16) Cooper, Reconstructing History.. ., 9; cf. Pomponio, “Re di Uruk...”
(^17) Archi, “Nagar...”
(^18) See, most recently, Westenholz in Sallaberger and Westenholz, Mesopotamien...,
90 ff.
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