Mesannepada

Mesannepada (or Mesh-Ane-pada, "youngling chosen by An") was the first king listed for the first dynasty of Ur (ca. the 25th century BC) on the Sumerian king list. He is listed to have ruled for 80 years, having overthrown Lugal-kitun of Uruk.

Mesannepada gave gifts to the kings of Mari, and according to a lapis lazuli bead inscription found there, his father was Meskalamdug. Seals from the royal cemetery at Ur have also been found bearing the names of Mesannepada and his predecessors Meskalamdug and Akalamdug, along with Queen Puabi.

Mesannepada, and his son and successor Meskiag-nuna, are both named on the Tummal Inscription as upkeepers of the main temple in Nippur along with Gilgamesh of Uruk and his son Ur-Nungal, verifying their status as overlords of Sumer. Judging from the inscriptions, Mesannepada then assumed the title "King of Kish", to indicate his hegemony.^[1]

Another son of Mesannepada, named A-anne-pada, (Aja-ane-pada 'father chosen by An'), is known for having a temple constructed (at modern Ubaid), though he is not named on the kinglist.

In the 1950s, Edmund I. Gordon conjectured that Mesannepada, and an archaeologically attested early "king of Kish", Mesilim, were one and the same, as their names were interchanged in certain proverbs in later Babylonian tablets; however this has not proved conclusive. More recent scholars tend to regard them as distinct, usually placing Mesilim in Kish before Mesannepada.

Notes

1. S.N. Kramer, The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Chicago, 1963, p. 49.

See also

• History of Sumer