ENMEBARAGESI
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Alabaster
vase fragment with transcription of Mebaragesi as king of Kish (illustration)
me-bara2-si
lugal kish "Mebarasi, King of Kish"
King
of the First dynasty of Kish
Reign : EDI (2900 - 2700 BC)
Preceded by : Iltasadum
Succeeded by : Agga
of Kish
Issue : Agga of Kish
Dynasty : Kish I
Regnal
titles of Enmebaragesi : King of Kish
and Ruler of Sumer
Enmebaragesi
(Sumerian : En-me-barag-gi-se [EN-ME-BARA2-GI4-SE]) originally Mebarasi
was the penultimate king of the first dynasty of Kish and is recorded
as having reigned 900 years in the Sumerian King List. Like his
son and successor Aga he reigned during a period when Kish had hegemony
over Sumer. Enmebaragesi signals a momentous documentary leap from
mytho-history to history, since he is the earliest ruler on the
king list whose name is attested directly from archaeology.
Name
:
The name construction of "Title A Place B-e si-Ø"
(Official A who is appropriate for place B) was commonly used in
the Early Dynastic onomasticon.
EN
: Honorific title that was not part of the original name, used on
kings associated with cities sacred to Inanna in the mythical historiography
of Ur-Namma's dynasty.
ME : Michalowski reads it as isib (priest), while Steinkeller concludes
it is an abbreviated writing form of men (crown).
BARA2 : According to the onomastic it is a cultic/political place.
However, if the pattern is "ME fit for Official A", it
would mean "ruler".
SI : Verb meaning "to fill", which has more active force
than the intransitive verb TUŠ (to sit, dwell), having a highly
ideological meaning.
Given both options, the name can be translated as "Priest who
permeates the throne" or "Crown fit for a ruler".
Date
:
The dating of Enmebaragesi's reign and lifespan has inspired a fair
amount of debate within the scholarly community, with propositions
ranging from beginning Early Dynastic I (c.2900-2800 BCE) to Early
Dynastic IIIa (c.2600 BCE). Most scholars typically attribute a
date of c.2600 BCE, citing several inscriptions that are datable
to that period, while others place these inscriptions slightly earlier
at c.2700 BCE. Gianni Marchesi and Niccolo Marchetti, in their 2006
book: Royal Statuary of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia, propose that
three of the four inscriptions typically attributed to Enmebaragesi
refer to a non-royal personage, due to their lack of royal dedicators
and the fact that they are dated later than the only known inscription
referring to Enmebaragesi as king. These ideas are also reflected
in the publications of the ARCANE project (Associated Regional Chronologies
for the Ancient Near East), the most up-to-date evaluation of the
chronology of 3rd millennium BC Mesopotamia.
Inscriptions
:
Four inscriptions have been found with the name Mebaragesi, however,
only one specifically mentions the title of king in front of the
name Mebaragesi and is housed in the Baghdad Museum; ("Mebaragsi,
King of Kish"). This inscription can be dated on palaeographic
grounds to the Early Dynastic I based on the very archaic form of
the sign Kish, still showing the horns of the aurochs’ heads'
at the origin of the grapheme.
Another vessel fragment from Khafajah, inscribed with the name Me-barag-[si]
is usually also attributed to the king of Kish. However, the dating
of the piece is from the ED IIIa, and the Bara2 of the inscription
is of a different shape than that of the inscription in the Baghdad
Museum, which might suggest it is referring to another Mebaragesi
who was not king. He is also attested in the Sumerian King List
and in the Tummal Inscription, both as the father of Aga of Kish
and the first builder of the temple :
Enmebaragesi,
the king in this very city (Nippur),
built the House of Enlil,
Agga the son of Enmebaragesi,
made the Tummal pre-eminent.
-
Old Babylonian tablet Tummal Inscription (1900-1600 BCE)
Enmebaragesi is also mentioned Gilgamesh and Aga as the father of
Aga who laid siege to Uruk. In The Lord to the Living One's Mountain
Gilgamesh's sister, who is offered to the monster Huwawa, is named
Enmebaragesi.
Reign
:
According to the Sumerian King List, Kish had the hegemony over
the entire territory of northern Babylonia and the most northern
section of southern Babylonia cities such as Nippur, Isin, and Eresh,
and large portions of the Diyala Region. He succeeded Iltasadum
on the throne, where he reigned 900 years, leading a successful
campaign against Elam and capturing Dumuzid the Fisherman in Uruk.
There is some scant evidence to suggest that like the later Ur III
kings, the rulers of Early Dynastic Kish sought to ingratiate themselves
to the authorities in Nippur, possibly to legitimize a claim for
leadership over the land of Sumer or at least part of it. The use
of the royal title King of Kish expressing a claim of national rulership
owes its prestige to the fact that Kish once did rule the entire
nation. Archeology evidence from Kish shows a city flourishing in
ED II with its political influence extending beyond the territory,
however in ED III the city declined rapidly.
Elamite
campaign :
The Sumerian King List recounts "En-me(n)-barage-si, the one
who carried away as he spoiled the weapons of the land of Elam,
became king." A tradition of the Kishite expansion into the
Susiana and Iranian plateau are reflected in an inscription of an
ED II king of Kish named Enna-il, which commemorates his military
operations in Elam. The Discoveries of the inscriptions of Enmebaragesi
and an unidentified king of Kish at Khafajah and Tell Agrab respectively
are convincing indicators of the Kišite presence in the Diyala
Region.
Invasion
of Uruk and its ambiguity in interpretation :
While the previously found duplicates of the Sumerian King List
(only in one version) were interpreted by scholars as Dumuzid the
Fisherman king of Uruk capturing Enmebaragesi, a new translation
based on the duplicate of the SKL tablet BT14has been made, which
exchanges Enmebaragesi as the one who captured Dumuzid.
Sumerian
King List translations
Reading |
Transliteration |
Translation |
Before |
Šu
aš en?-me-barag-ge4?-e-si nam-ra [i3?]-ak? |
Single
handed he (Dumuzid) captured En-me-barage-si. |
After |
[Šu aš] en?-me-[barag-ge4?-e-si-ta] nam-ra
[ak] |
He
(Dumuzid) was taken captive by the (single) hand
of Enmebaragesi. |
|
This
allows a better perspective on the political and military struggle
between Kish and Uruk, the short duration of Dumuzid rulership and
why he had no hereditary successors. After the general-king Lugalbanda
in Uruk, Dumuzid the Fisherman,who is said to be from Kuara seized
the throne. Enmebaragesi attacked Uruk, captured Dumuzid and subjugated
the city placing Gilgamesh as his vassal-king.
Defeated
by Gilgamesh theory :
The later Ur III king Shulgi addressed one of his praise poems (Shulgi
Hymn O) to Gilgamesh, that credits him with capturing and defeating
Enmebaragesi of Kish instead of his son Aga as Gilgamesh and Aga
recounts. While in the historical scene of the Early Dynastic period
this is quite conceivable,c the assumption of two different wars
is difficult to uphold because Gilgamesh emerges as victorious in
both; his first victory would imply defeat and submission by the
kingdom of Kish.
Since
Gilgamesh addresses Aga denoting military relations between them
in the past and indebtedness to him for saving his life leads to
Gilgamesh being dependent on Aga previously, conflicting with the
assumption that he won a previous war against Kish.
Another
theory is since Enmebaragesi established the hegemony of Kish, defeating
Aga would be less impressive than his powerful father, who therefore
served the purpose of the hymn and portrays Gilgamesh as a mighty
figure. Since Enmebaragesi was inserted to replace Aga, the hymn
doesn't reflect a separate but rather one literary tradition from
the tale.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enmebaragesi