History
Alulim
The first king in the Sumerian King List, placed at Eridug before the flood, with a reign of 28,800 years. Tradition, not history.
- Standing:
- Named by the tradition, with no contemporary attestation of the person. The texts are real; whether the individual was is not established.
- Reigned:
- no historical reign; the King List gives 28,800 years, before the flood
- City:
- Eridug
What they did
none recorded outside the list. He is where the tradition says kingship first came down from heaven, which is a claim about how the Sumerians understood authority rather than a claim about a man.
Where the evidence stops
an index of leaders that quietly began with Sargon would hide the fact that Sumerian kingship starts, in Sumer's own telling, with a number nobody believes. He carries no period on purpose: the reigns before the flood sit outside the archaeological scheme, and assigning him one would smuggle in the very claim this row refuses.
Sources
The references this entry is drawn from. ETCSL is the scholarly edition for the Sumerian texts; the rest are general references for the archaeology and the dates.
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