Mesilim (),
Though his name is missing from the Sumerian king list, Mesilim is among the earliest historical figures recorded in archaeological documents. He reigned some time in the "Early Dynastic III" period (c. 2600–2350 BC). Inscriptions from his reign state that he sponsored temple constructions in both Adab and Lagash, where he apparently enjoyed some suzerainty.
Frontier mediator
Mesilim is best known for having acted as mediator in a conflict between
Lugalshaengur, his
ensi in Lagash, and the neighboring rival
city state of
Umma, regarding the rights to use an
Irrigation through the plain of
Gu-Edin on the border between the two. After asking the opinion of the god
Ishtaran, Mesilim established a new border between Lagash and Umma, and erected a pillar to mark it, on which he wrote his final decision.
This solution was not to be permanent; a later king of Umma, Ush, destroyed the pillar in an act of defiance. These events are mentioned in one of the inscriptions of the ruler of Lagash
Entemena, as an ancient foundational event which settled the frontier between the two Sumerian cities.
Identification
In the 1950s, Sumerologist Edmund Gordon reviewed the literary evidence and suggested a tentative theory that Mesilim and King
Mesannepada of Ur, who later in his reign also assumed the title "King of Kish", were in fact one and the same.
Both names are known elsewhere from a unique Mesopotamian proverb about the king whose temple was torn down. In Sumerian version, the proverb reads "The E-babbar which Mesilim had built, Annane, the man whose seed was cut off, tore down." E-babbar was the temple in Lagash, and Gordon took
Annane to be a corruption of the name A-anne-pada, i.e. Mes-anne-pada's own son. The much later Akkadian proverb reads "The temple which
Mesannepadda had built, Nanna, whose seed was picked off, tore down".
However, Thorkild Jacobsen disputed this theory and reached the opposite conclusion, that Mesilim and Mesannepada were probably distinct, arguing that the Akkadian scribe did not recognise the name of Mesilim that was not on the kinglist, and simply substituted that of a name he knew from the list.
Per his own inscription on the head of a mace, Mesilin was contemporary with an otherwise unknown king of Lagash named Lugalshaengur.[Douglas Frayne, "Rulers with the Title “King of Kiš” Whose Dynastic Affiliations Are Unknown", Presargonic Period: Early Periods, Volume 1 (2700-2350 BC), RIM The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 67-76, 2008]
Mesilim is also known from other fragmentary inscriptions.
File:Mesilim macehead.jpg|Mesilim macehead at time of discovery
File:Mesilim macehead MesilimLugal Kish.jpg|Mesilim macehead with inscription Mesilim Lugal Kish (), "Mesilim, King of Kish".
File:Mesilim Lugal Kish-ki on the Net Vase of Entemena.jpg| Mesilim Lugal Kish-ki (), "Mesilim, King of Kish", on the "Net Cylinder" of Entemena
See also
External links
Bibliography
-
Vojtech Zamarovský, Na počiatku bol Sumer, Mladé letá, 1968 Bratislava
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Plamen Rusev, Mesalim, Lugal Na Kish: Politicheska Istoriia Na Ranen Shumer (XXVIII-XXVI V. Pr. N. E.), Faber, 2001 (LanguageBulgarian) (Mesalim,
