The Eight Kings Who Ruled Before the Flood: Unveiling the Sumerian King

After the flood, kingship again "descended from heaven," the reigns that followed are much more aligned with human lifespans. We begin to see names and durations that resemble historical reality.

A Forgotten Record of Impossible Reigns: Unraveling the Enigma of the Sumerian King List

In the cradle of civilization, where the first written words were penned, and society took its earliest steps, ancient scribes inscribed a remarkable document into clay tablets: the Sumerian King List. This cuneiform text, over 4,000 years old, lists the names of kings who reigned in ancient Mesopotamia.

However, this is no ordinary historical account. The list begins not with human kings but rulers who "descended from heaven," eight mysterious kings who ruled for 241,200 years before a great flood swept the Earth.

Historians have long debated the meaning of this text. Some dismiss it as myth, while others believe it encodes real events remembered through the fog of time. Still, others propose a more extraordinary explanation: these eight kings were not human. The Sumerian King List is the oldest surviving document describing when gods walked the Earth.

The Tablet: A Record from Antiquity

The most complete version of the King List was discovered in the early 20th century in the ancient city of Larsa. Written in Sumerian cuneiform on a clay prism, the list likely was copied from even older texts. Versions of the list have been found at Nippur, Kish, Uruk, and other sites across Mesopotamia, indicating how widespread and accepted this story once was.

The list begins with the words:

"After kingship had descended from heaven, kingship was in Eridu."

This phrase sets the tone for what follows. Kingship is not described as a human invention; it is depicted as a divine institution, a gift from the sky.

The Eight Kings and Their Impossible Reigns

According to the list, eight kings ruled over five cities before the great flood. Their names and reigns are as follows:

- Alulim of Eridu – Reigned 28,800 years

- Alalgar of Eridu – Reigned 36,000 years

- En-men-lu-ana of Bad-tibira – Reigned 43,200 years

- En-men-gal-ana of Bad-tibia – Reigned 28,800 years

- Dumuzid, the Shepherd of Bad-tibia – Reigned 36,000 years

- Ensipazi-anna of Larak – Reigned 28,800 years

- Enmengalanna of Sippar – Reigned 21,000 years

- Ubara-Tutu of Shuruppak – Reigned 18,600 years

Total: 241,200 years

Then the tablet states: "Then the flood swept over."

After the flood, kingship again "descended from heaven," the reigns that followed are much more aligned with human lifespans. We begin to see names and durations that resemble historical reality. However, before the flood, the rules of time and nature appear to have been different.

Why the Numbers Matter

The massive lifespans listed in the King List are not random. Many scholars have noted that they are based on the Sumerian sexagesimal system (base 60), a numerical system widely used in Mesopotamia. The numbers are divisible by 3,600, known as a sar, a sacred number in Mesopotamian cosmology, suggesting that these reigns were not meant to be taken literally but symbolically.

This led some researchers to speculate: were these numbers symbolic, reflecting a time when the Earth moved differently, or did life function under another order?

Similar themes can be found in biblical texts. For instance, Noah's grandfather, Methuselah, is said to have lived for 969 years, while Adam lived for 930. The Book of Genesis also describes a great flood and a time when divine beings (the Nephilim) walked the Earth. These parallels suggest a shared cultural memory of a distant past, preserved in both Sumerian and biblical texts. The parallels are too strong to ignore.

Eridu: The First City and the First King

The list begins with Eridu, recognized as the oldest city in southern Mesopotamia. Modern archaeology dates back to around 5400 BCE, confirming its great antiquity. In mythology, Eridu was the home of Enki, the god of wisdom, water, and creation.

Eridu is not only the first city but also described as the first place where kingship descended from the sky. Alulim, its first ruler, is said to have reigned for 28,800 years. Who was Alulim? Why such an immense timespan?

In Sumerian myth, these early kings were often depicted as semi-divine or divine beings. They ruled not merely over people but also the laws of nature and time. They were the culture-bringers, the builders who provided humanity with agriculture, mathematics, writing, and the institution of kingship itself.

A Flood of Memory

The Sumerian King List mentions a global flood, echoing the story of Noah. In Sumerian texts, this event is described in the Epic of Ziusudra, a tale remarkably similar to the later Epic of Gilgamesh and, ultimately, to the Book of Genesis.

In all versions, the gods, or a single deity, warn a chosen man to build an ark to survive a deluge that would reset humanity. After the flood, kingship resumed, but something changed.

The post-flood kings live shorter lives. They are more human. It's like an era of giants, gods, or something else has ended.

Who were these eight kings?

Were they actual humans with exaggerated reigns for symbolic purposes? Were they mythological archetypes of divine power? Or were they, as some suggest, visitors from beyond our world, Anunnaki who descended from the heavens to rule over early humanity?

The ancient astronaut theory posits that the early gods were not divine but advanced beings. Their lifespans seem impossible by our standards, but perhaps they lived according to different biological laws. Their "descent from heaven" could be taken literally as an arrival from another planet, dimension, or realm of existence.

Mainstream scholars reject this theory, of course. However, they also struggle to explain why a civilization more than 4,000 years ago recorded these names, with such specific reign lengths, etched in clay and passed down across centuries. Why create a list so precise unless it was meant to preserve something real?

Echoes from a Time Before Time

The Sumerian King List is more than just a curiosity; it is a gateway into a forgotten chapter of our history, a time when the world was ruled by beings who came from the sky and whose lives spanned tens of thousands of years.

Whether these kings were gods, aliens, or symbolic representations of power, their stories survived the flood. It was etched into stone to ensure it would not be lost.