Disclaimer: TAKE WITH A BIG FAT GRAIN OF SALT PLZ! Population counts range from estimates to sheer fucking guesswork, but should give *a certain* impression. Squares indicate powerful city-state, circle indicates a city that might not necesarily be very influential or powerful at the time.
I've done my bestest to show the ancient shorelines, that today are not there at all, only sand.
ca 5500 BCE, Eridu grows out of a community of farmers, animal herders and fishermen. These herders probably have access to pigs, goats, sheep and cattle. Dogs and cats are probably part of daily life, as well as possibly donkeys. "Kingship" descends from heaven, focused around an aquifer-slash-temple, known as Abzu. King Alulim reigns for 28 800 years. His successor Alalngar rules for 36 000 years. Yeah, you figure that out.
By now, I have to struggle to interpret the absolutely bat-shit time-estimates credited to much later Babylonians, who wrote all this nonsense down. I'm guessing roughly 4700 BCE, when "kingship" is "transferred" from Eridu to Bad-tibira. Bad-tibira being known as "the copperworkers fort", and these cities being very thematic, I'm going to guess Bad-tibira pretty much worshipped spears and swords, and eventually put them to good use. My "territorial control" guess is as minimalistic as possible. It is also not a certainty that one would control the other, but the King's List does seem pretty adament that only one city rules at the time - indicating that one city rules the other. Enmenluana and Enmengalana rule for respectively 43 200 and 28 800 years, followed by Dumuzid the Shepherd, who rule for 36 000 years, before he follows his gf Inanna (yes, the goddess of love and war) into the Underworld, where he is raped to death by demons (In a following story, it is indicated that Inanna is sort of saddened by Dumuzids demise, although not that much so).
Around this time a lot of the mythology we know from the Sumerians become established, as well as irrigation channels becoming common.
By - let's guess - around 3600 BCE, kingship is then taken to Larsa, where king Ensipadzidana rules for 28 800 years. You now can probably tell a certain pattern here, with how the Sumerians counted periods of time. However, there's no way to just divide these time-periods into shorter pieces, because later kings - following *the same system* of counting years, rule for 1-2 years at the time. If those time periods were to be divided by 20 000, it'd equal reigns of just hours at the time. In other words, these people were cray-cray man, w a straight face and all, "Yes, he ruled for nearly thirty thousand years. YES, I am aware a human can barely surpass 80. No, I see no contradiction here."
My year-calcs are still based on trying to force a division, especially since all these rulers rule for insane ammounts of time. Even then, I get rulers sitting on the throne for "merely" centuries without dying. Oh, and by the way, around this time, the figure out wheels.
A bit of an odd move, around 3300 BCE, where kingship is taken to Sippar, where king Enmendurana rules for, sigh, 21 000 years. Sippar was the centre of worshipping the sungod Utu. Around this time cuneiform writing is developed. My territory-marker should include both shores of the river, but I got really tired by that time. I'm still hungry.
Then, around 3100 BCE, kingship goes to Shuruppak, with king Ubara-Tutu, son of Enmendurana, ruling for 18 600 years. When he got sick of existing on earth, he ascended to heaven, kind of like Jesus (in the sense that in real Christianity, nobody goes to heaven, only Jesus. Well, not untill judgement day anyway)
Around this time, pottery wheels become commonplace.
"THEN THE FLOOD SWEPT OVER" aka "Shuruppak flood" that indicates the transition from the Jemdet Nasr period to the Early dynastic period in the area, typically set to exactly 2900 BCE, in which kingship is taken to Kish:
Kish then develops the first actual dynasty, that lasts for thousands and thousands of years, without that making any sense whatsoever. By now, strong city states litter the land, with countless smaller towns and villages between them, that I have no interest in tracking down and mapping. Soon after, Uruk will wake from its slumber, and conquer most of these territories, while Lagash on the coast will take Girsu (and eventually make it its capital), while also battling several wars with Umma. Elamite warriors will come from the immediate east, and wage many wars, untill a semitic warlord of the name Sargon will march down from Akkad in the north, and conquer everything, before it all falls apart again. These wars will include the use of horse-chariots and bronze swords, where they up til now have used mostly spears, clubs, slings and bows. From there on, there is no more mystery, only stupidity. Stupidity for centuries to come, and pitiful rulers who cannot rule for thousands of years, even if they really, really tried.
I've done my bestest to show the ancient shorelines, that today are not there at all, only sand.
ca 5500 BCE, Eridu grows out of a community of farmers, animal herders and fishermen. These herders probably have access to pigs, goats, sheep and cattle. Dogs and cats are probably part of daily life, as well as possibly donkeys. "Kingship" descends from heaven, focused around an aquifer-slash-temple, known as Abzu. King Alulim reigns for 28 800 years. His successor Alalngar rules for 36 000 years. Yeah, you figure that out.
By now, I have to struggle to interpret the absolutely bat-shit time-estimates credited to much later Babylonians, who wrote all this nonsense down. I'm guessing roughly 4700 BCE, when "kingship" is "transferred" from Eridu to Bad-tibira. Bad-tibira being known as "the copperworkers fort", and these cities being very thematic, I'm going to guess Bad-tibira pretty much worshipped spears and swords, and eventually put them to good use. My "territorial control" guess is as minimalistic as possible. It is also not a certainty that one would control the other, but the King's List does seem pretty adament that only one city rules at the time - indicating that one city rules the other. Enmenluana and Enmengalana rule for respectively 43 200 and 28 800 years, followed by Dumuzid the Shepherd, who rule for 36 000 years, before he follows his gf Inanna (yes, the goddess of love and war) into the Underworld, where he is raped to death by demons (In a following story, it is indicated that Inanna is sort of saddened by Dumuzids demise, although not that much so).
Around this time a lot of the mythology we know from the Sumerians become established, as well as irrigation channels becoming common.
By - let's guess - around 3600 BCE, kingship is then taken to Larsa, where king Ensipadzidana rules for 28 800 years. You now can probably tell a certain pattern here, with how the Sumerians counted periods of time. However, there's no way to just divide these time-periods into shorter pieces, because later kings - following *the same system* of counting years, rule for 1-2 years at the time. If those time periods were to be divided by 20 000, it'd equal reigns of just hours at the time. In other words, these people were cray-cray man, w a straight face and all, "Yes, he ruled for nearly thirty thousand years. YES, I am aware a human can barely surpass 80. No, I see no contradiction here."
My year-calcs are still based on trying to force a division, especially since all these rulers rule for insane ammounts of time. Even then, I get rulers sitting on the throne for "merely" centuries without dying. Oh, and by the way, around this time, the figure out wheels.
A bit of an odd move, around 3300 BCE, where kingship is taken to Sippar, where king Enmendurana rules for, sigh, 21 000 years. Sippar was the centre of worshipping the sungod Utu. Around this time cuneiform writing is developed. My territory-marker should include both shores of the river, but I got really tired by that time. I'm still hungry.
Then, around 3100 BCE, kingship goes to Shuruppak, with king Ubara-Tutu, son of Enmendurana, ruling for 18 600 years. When he got sick of existing on earth, he ascended to heaven, kind of like Jesus (in the sense that in real Christianity, nobody goes to heaven, only Jesus. Well, not untill judgement day anyway)
Around this time, pottery wheels become commonplace.
"THEN THE FLOOD SWEPT OVER" aka "Shuruppak flood" that indicates the transition from the Jemdet Nasr period to the Early dynastic period in the area, typically set to exactly 2900 BCE, in which kingship is taken to Kish:
Kish then develops the first actual dynasty, that lasts for thousands and thousands of years, without that making any sense whatsoever. By now, strong city states litter the land, with countless smaller towns and villages between them, that I have no interest in tracking down and mapping. Soon after, Uruk will wake from its slumber, and conquer most of these territories, while Lagash on the coast will take Girsu (and eventually make it its capital), while also battling several wars with Umma. Elamite warriors will come from the immediate east, and wage many wars, untill a semitic warlord of the name Sargon will march down from Akkad in the north, and conquer everything, before it all falls apart again. These wars will include the use of horse-chariots and bronze swords, where they up til now have used mostly spears, clubs, slings and bows. From there on, there is no more mystery, only stupidity. Stupidity for centuries to come, and pitiful rulers who cannot rule for thousands of years, even if they really, really tried.
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