Weld-Blundell Prism
| Weld-Blundell Prism | |
|---|---|
The Prism in the Ashmolean Museum | |
| Material | Clay |
| Height | c. 20 cm |
| Width | c. 9 cm |
| Created | c. 1800 BC |
| Discovered | 1922 Dhi Qar, Iraq |
| Present location | Ashmolean Museum, England, United Kingdom |
| Registration | AN1923.444 |
The Weld-Blundell Prism (WB) is a clay, cuneiform-inscribed vertical prism housed in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.[1] The prism was found in a 1922 expedition in Larsa in modern-day Iraq by British archaeologist Herbert Blundell.[2] The prism's four sides, about 20 cm × 9 cm (8 in × 3.5 in), are inscribed in Sumerian with lists of the kings of Sumer; each side contains the text in two columns: this is the famous Sumerian King List. It is considered the most complete of the Sumerian King Lists which have been found, of which there are approximately 25 more or less complete fragments as of 2016.[1]
The list begins with the antediluvian rulers and ends with Suen-magir of the Isin dynasty. The list was most likely written in Sin-magir's final year, or soon after.[3] Many, especially antediluvian, kings are credited with incredibly long reigns (counted in sars and nerah), as a result of which many scholars consider this work to be more fictional rather than historical.[2]
Various theories have been constructed in an attempt to explain such large numbers. They are supposed to express the great importance of rulers who were considered demigods. According to another version, sar (3,600 years) and ner (600 years), units of time measurement in the Sumerian number system, should be taken as years and months, respectively.[4]
This text of the Old Babylonian period (Isin dynasty) is inscribed in traditional Sumerian cuneiform.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Milstein, Sara Jessica (2016). Tracking the Master Scribe: Revision Through Introduction in Biblical and Mesopotamian Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-19-020539-3.
- ^ a b "Weld-Blundell Prism". University of Oxford – Ashmolean Museum.
- ^ Van De Mieroop, Marc (2016). A History of the Ancient Near East (3rd ed.). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. p. 47.
- ^ "Kingdoms of Mesopotamia – Sumer". The History Files.
- ^ Chrisomalis, Stephen (15 December 2020). Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History. MIT Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-262-04463-9.
- ^ Van De Mieroop, Marc (2016). A History of the Ancient Near East (3rd ed.). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. p. 47.
External links
- Information on the Ashmolean Museum's website
- "The Sumerian king list: translation". Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Archived from the original on 2008-05-08.
- Langdon, Stephen Herbert (1923). The Weld-Blundell Collection. Historical Inscriptions, Containing Principally the Chronological Prism, W-B. 444 (PDF). Oxford Editions of Cuneiform Texts. Vol. II. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–27, Plates I–IV. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-10-10.
- "CDLI Literary 000371, ex. 006 (P384786)". Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.