57 articles
King of Kish
King of Kish (Sumerian lugal Kish) was the title of the rulers of Kish, a city-state in northern Babylonia, during the Early Dynastic period of Sumer.
Kish tablet
The Kish tablet is a small limestone tablet excavated at Kish in southern Iraq, inscribed with proto-cuneiform signs around 3200-3000 BC recording commodities and brewing.
Kunga
The kunga was a hybrid equid bred in third-millennium BC Mesopotamia from a female donkey and a male Syrian wild ass, the earliest known human-made animal hybrid.
Lexical lists
Lexical lists are cuneiform lists of signs and words that Mesopotamian scribes used to teach writing and Sumerian vocabulary, invented at Uruk around 3200 BCE.
Lugal
Lugal, literally 'big man', is the Sumerian royal title conventionally translated 'king', borne by independent Early Dynastic city-state rulers and later by kings of Akkad and Ur III.
Lyres of Ur
The Lyres of Ur are wooden lyres and harps buried with elite dead in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, southern Iraq, around 2600 BC, excavated by Leonard Woolley.
Mask of Warka
The Mask of Warka, also known as the Lady of Uruk, is a carved marble female face from Uruk, Iraq, made around 3100 BC and held in Baghdad.
Proto-cuneiform
Proto-cuneiform, also called archaic cuneiform, is the earliest attested stage of cuneiform writing, found on clay tablets from Uruk, southern Iraq, dated c. 3350–3000 BC.
Queen Puabi's headdress
Queen Puabi's headdress is a gold, lapis lazuli, and carnelian ornament from Early Dynastic Ur, found in her tomb and held by the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.
Ram in a Thicket
The Ram in a Thicket, or Ram Caught in a Thicket, is a pair of Sumerian goat statuettes found in the Royal Cemetery of Ur and excavated by Leonard Woolley in 1928–29.
Scheil dynastic tablet
The Scheil dynastic tablet is an Old Babylonian manuscript of the Sumerian King List, published by Jean-Vincent Scheil in 1911 and held in the British Museum.
Shuruppak tablets
The Shuruppak tablets, also called the Fara tablets, are over 900 clay tablets from ancient Shuruppak in southern Iraq, mostly written in the 26th century BC.
Simurrum
Simurrum was an ancient kingdom in the Zagros foothills, centered on the Shahrizor plain in Iraqi Kurdistan, an adversary of the Ur III state under King Šulgi.
Song of the hoe
The Song of the hoe is a Sumerian poem of about 109 lines in which the god Enlil separates heaven from earth and forms humankind with a hoe.
Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur, or Royal Standard of Ur, is a mosaic-inlaid wooden box excavated by Leonard Woolley at Ur in the 1920s, now in the British Museum.
Statue of Ebih-Il
The Statue of Ebih-Il is a seated votive gypsum figure of Ebih-Il, a superintendent of Mari, made around 2400 BC and now in the Louvre.
Stele of Ushumgal
The Stele of Ushumgal is a small gypsum alabaster monument from Early Dynastic Sumer, carved on four sides with one of the earliest known Sumerian land records.
Sumerian disputations
Sumerian disputations, also called Sumerian debates, are eight Sumerian poems in which non-human entities such as seasons, animals, and tools argue over which is superior.
Sumerian temple economy
The Sumerian temple economy was the Early Dynastic system in which Sumerian temples administered land, livestock, workshops, and dependent workforces, with the city's deity as nominal owner.
Tell al-'Ubaid Copper Lintel
The Tell al-'Ubaid Copper Lintel is a hammered copper frieze of the eagle Imdugud grasping two stags, from a temple near Ur, held by the British Museum.
Tell Asmar Hoard
The Tell Asmar Hoard is a group of Early Dynastic votive statues of worshippers and gods, excavated at Tell Asmar, ancient Eshnunna in Iraq, in 1933–34.
Tell Brak Head
The Tell Brak Head is a 17 cm alabaster human head with a groove at the back, found at Tell Brak, Syria, by Max Mallowan in 1937–38.
Treaty of Mesilim
The Treaty of Mesilim, also printed Mesalim, was a boundary settlement between the Sumerian city-states of Lagash and Umma, mediated around 2600 BC by Mesalim, king of Kish.
Uruk Trough
The Uruk Trough is a carved limestone trough from Uruk in southern Mesopotamia, dated about 3300–3000 BC and now in the British Museum, with reliefs of sheep before a reed hut symbolizing the goddess Inanna.
Vase of Entemena
The Vase of Entemena, also called the Silver vase of Enmetena, is a silver votive vase dedicated by Lagash's ruler Enmetena to the god Ningirsu around 2400 BC.
Warka Vase
The Warka Vase, also known as the Uruk Vase, is a carved alabaster ritual vessel from the temple of Inanna at Uruk in southern Iraq, around 3000 BC.
Zame Hymns
The Zame Hymns, also known as the Zami Hymns, are Early Dynastic Sumerian hymns from about 2600 BC, found at Tell Abū Ṣalābīḫ in southern Iraq.