Praise for King Shulgi

Sumerian King Shulgi of the Ur III dynasty ruled for 48 years (2029 BCE–1982 BCE), completed the Great Ziggurat, waged wars, repaired roads, built the first hotel / rest area, standardized weights and measures, and was a long distance runner in his spare time.

Reconstructed ziggurat

But Shulgi never summited.  His name has survived largely through copies of compositions and hymns made by schoolboys studying to be scribes. From "A History of the Ancient Near East" (Mieroop): "Remarkable is the lack of interest in this period by later Mesopotamians when compared to how the Akkadian kings were remembered." (Think Sargon.) Like Horatius at the Bridge and the Light Brigade, Shulgi's fame is as a school exercise.

I asked noted American historian and friend of the blog, Dr. Dave Nichols, for an analogy. He writes:

“James Garfield was not only a Civil War hero, but could supposedly write Latin with one hand while writing Greek with the other (according to Joe Queenan, who may have been exaggerating). And yet he is primarily known as the president who served for just a few months before being shot by a frustrated office-seeker (and then dying a few months later because doctors couldn't find the bullet). Or he is confused with a cartoon cat. Sounds like your Shulgi analogue to me.”


May my Hymn to King Shulgi be pleasing!

Inventor of rest stops, impeccable scribe¹,

Like a mes² tree in bloom, you're hard to describe.

Swift as a cheetah³, you built ziggurats,

Defending your land so that Ur bigger-got.

Most notable king, of legend Nestorian⁴,

Gush-liking ruler, the summus Sumerians.

1. From Self-Praise of Shulgi: "…the fair goddess Nanibgal, the goddess Nisaba, provided me amply with knowledge and comprehension. I am an experienced scribe who does not neglect a thing."
2. "You are a sweet sight, like a fertile mes tree laden with colorful fruit."
3. "When I sprang up, muscular as a cheetah, galloping like a thoroughbred ass at full gallop..."
4. King Nestor was a prolix giver of advice in the Odyssey and most ashur-edly a bore.
"Gush-liking" I leave to you, dear readers, to solve.

On the Beginning of Writing in Mesopotamia

It’s hard to imagine life without reading and writing.  Speech is fine as far as it goes, but it’s essentially non-persistent and short-range: the need to communicate over time and space can’t be filled by speech.  

If you ever were, or knew, a teenage girl, you have seen the true manifestation of an insatiable need for communication. This need is now filled largely by writing, in the form of texting, Facebook, emails and whatever else has been invented lately that I’m too old to know about.

Historically, however, teenage girls were unlikely to be those with the resources for inventing writing in a largely pre-literate world.  Instead it was the poets, stirred by the divine breath of the gods themselves, stretching the wings of song...not!  It was rich guys and their accountants.  Surprised? 

"The oldest signs in the system seem to be imitations of clay tokens of diverse forms, used as counters in an accounting procedure throughout the Near East from the 9th millennium B.C. to the 2nd; each type of counter presumably represented an individual type of goods, and therefore an individual word."

-Introduction to Akkadian, Fourth edition, Caplice and Snell.

This wasn’t so much about communication (yet) as counting. However, where clay tokens were, taxes, tax bills, and letters about taxes soon followed.  And since you’re writing, it was natural enough to ask after the guys over in Accounts Payable in the Ashur office.  And by the way, are you avoiding my calls?

            A letter:

“Speak to Bibiya

            Thus (speaks) Gimil-Marduk,

May Shamash and Marduk keep you alive forever for my sake.

I wrote concerning your well-being: send me (news about) your well-being.

I came to Babylon, but did not see you; I became very upset.

Send me news of your traveling that I may rejoice…

Be well forever for my sake.”

-Saison de Fouilles a Sippar, Vincent Schiel, pg. 131.

Sadly, (S)he’s Just Not That Into You won’t be written for another four thousand years.  Let’s hope Gimul-Marduk figured it out.



To the left is a clay tablet from the British museum from 1850BCE.  You can also see the envelope and read the story here.