Sumerian King List
E212313
The Sumerian King List is an ancient Mesopotamian text that records a legendary sequence of kings, their dynasties, and improbably long reigns from mythical times through early historical periods.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sumerian King List canonical | 42 |
| Sumerian King List tradition | 2 |
| Sumerian king lists | 2 |
| Sumerian chronology | 1 |
| The Sumerian King List | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1907133 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sumerian King List Context triple: [Nippur, mentionedIn, Sumerian King List]
-
A.
Babylonian chronicles
The Babylonian Chronicles are a series of ancient cuneiform tablets that record key political and military events in Babylonian history, providing one of the most important primary sources for the chronology of the ancient Near East.
-
B.
Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur is an ancient Sumerian artifact from around 2600–2400 BCE, a richly inlaid wooden box depicting scenes of war and peace that offers key insights into early Mesopotamian society.
-
C.
Code of Ur-Nammu
The Code of Ur-Nammu is one of the oldest known law codes in history, originating from ancient Sumer under the rule of King Ur-Nammu and outlining early principles of justice and social order.
-
D.
Cyrus Cylinder
The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact inscribed with a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, often regarded as an early charter of human rights and a key source on his policies toward conquered peoples.
-
E.
Lachish ewer inscription
The Lachish ewer inscription is an early Proto-Canaanite text engraved on a pottery vessel from ancient Lachish, often cited as one of the oldest known examples of alphabetic writing in the Levant.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Sumerian King List Target entity description: The Sumerian King List is an ancient Mesopotamian text that records a legendary sequence of kings, their dynasties, and improbably long reigns from mythical times through early historical periods.
-
A.
Babylonian chronicles
The Babylonian Chronicles are a series of ancient cuneiform tablets that record key political and military events in Babylonian history, providing one of the most important primary sources for the chronology of the ancient Near East.
-
B.
Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur is an ancient Sumerian artifact from around 2600–2400 BCE, a richly inlaid wooden box depicting scenes of war and peace that offers key insights into early Mesopotamian society.
-
C.
Code of Ur-Nammu
The Code of Ur-Nammu is one of the oldest known law codes in history, originating from ancient Sumer under the rule of King Ur-Nammu and outlining early principles of justice and social order.
-
D.
Cyrus Cylinder
The Cyrus Cylinder is an ancient clay artifact inscribed with a proclamation by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, often regarded as an early charter of human rights and a key source on his policies toward conquered peoples.
-
E.
Lachish ewer inscription
The Lachish ewer inscription is an early Proto-Canaanite text engraved on a pottery vessel from ancient Lachish, often cited as one of the oldest known examples of alphabetic writing in the Levant.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (74)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Mesopotamian text
ⓘ
ancient text ⓘ historiographical text ⓘ king list ⓘ |
| bestPreservedCopyLocation | Ashmolean Museum ⓘ |
| bestPreservedCopyName | Weld-Blundell Prism ⓘ |
| chronologicalScope | mythical times to early second millennium BCE ⓘ |
| compiledBy | anonymous Sumerian scribes ⓘ |
| cosmologicalElement | division into pre-flood and post-flood eras ⓘ |
| culture | Sumerian civilization ⓘ |
| describes |
dynasties of Sumer
ⓘ
early historical kings ⓘ lengths of royal reigns ⓘ mythical antediluvian kings ⓘ sequence of Sumerian kings ⓘ |
| earliestCompilationDate | early second millennium BCE ⓘ |
| extantCopies | multiple clay tablets and prisms ⓘ |
| genre |
chronographic text
ⓘ
royal list ⓘ |
| includesEvent |
Great Flood
ⓘ
linked to:
The Flood
|
| includesKing |
Alulim
ⓘ
En-me-barage-si of Kish ⓘ En-men-lu-ana ⓘ Etana of Kish ⓘ Gilgamesh of Uruk ⓘ
linked to:
Gilgamesh
Ishbi-Erra of Isin ⓘ Mesannepada of Ur ⓘ Naram-Sin of Akkad ⓘ Sargon of Akkad ⓘ Shulgi of Ur ⓘ Ur-Nammu of Ur ⓘ
linked to:
Ur-Nammu
Utu-hegal of Uruk ⓘ |
| influenced | later Mesopotamian king lists ⓘ |
| language | Sumerian language ⓘ |
| listsCity |
Akkad
ⓘ
Awan ⓘ Bad-tibira ⓘ Eridu ⓘ Hamazi ⓘ Isin ⓘ Kish ⓘ Larak ⓘ Shuruppak ⓘ Sippar ⓘ Ur ⓘ Uruk ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
dynasties of Mesopotamia
ⓘ
kings of Sumer ⓘ
linked to:
Sumer
reigns of kings ⓘ |
| material |
clay prisms
ⓘ
clay tablets ⓘ |
| narrativeFeature |
improbably long reigns
ⓘ
kingship descending from heaven ⓘ transition from mythical to historical kings ⓘ |
| placeOfOrigin |
Mesopotamia
ⓘ
Sumer ⓘ |
| politicalFunction |
legitimation of dynastic rule
ⓘ
unification of Sumerian history ⓘ |
| preservationState | fragmentary in many copies ⓘ |
| reignLengthsType |
more realistic for later kings
ⓘ
mythically long for antediluvian kings ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Babylonian King List
ⓘ
linked to:
Babylonian chronicles
Weld-Blundell Prism ⓘ |
| religiousContext | Mesopotamian religion ⓘ |
| religiousElement | kingship conferred by gods ⓘ |
| scholarlyUse |
reconstruction of Sumerian dynasties
ⓘ
study of Mesopotamian historiography ⓘ |
| scriptDirection | left-to-right horizontal lines ⓘ |
| sourceFor |
Sumerian chronology
ⓘ
linked to:
Sumerian King List
early Mesopotamian political history ⓘ |
| structure |
dynasties arranged by city
ⓘ
sequence of cities holding kingship ⓘ |
| transmission | copied and updated over centuries ⓘ |
| writingSystem | cuneiform script ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Sumerian King List Description of subject: The Sumerian King List is an ancient Mesopotamian text that records a legendary sequence of kings, their dynasties, and improbably long reigns from mythical times through early historical periods.
Referenced by (48)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Sumerian King List
linked to: Sumerian King List
linked to: Sumerian King List
linked to: Sumerian King List
linked to: Sumerian King List
subject linked to:
Mesh-ki-ang-gasher (in some traditions)
subject linked to:
ancient city of Uruk
linked to: Sumerian King List