Enmerkar
? · Uruk
Enmerkar is remembered as an early king of Uruk, central to the Sumerian 'matter of Aratta.' In 'Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta' he conducts a long-distance duel of challenges with the distant mountain city of Aratta over trade, tribute, and the favor of the goddess Inana — and the poem famously claims that when a message grew too long to memorize, Enmerkar pressed his words into clay and so invented writing. He is listed among the kings of the First Dynasty of Uruk in the Sumerian King List.
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Uruk
What they did here
Known through legend. The Sumerian King List and the Enmerkar poems make him a king of Uruk who contended with distant Aratta.
About Uruk
One of the oldest cities of Sumer (modern Warka, southern Iraq), sacred to Inanna and Anu, where some of the earliest known writing was found (c. 3300-3000 BCE). The Sumerian King List and later epics name Enmerkar, Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh among its early kings; these figures are known through legend and later tradition. Uruk remained a temple city into the Seleucid period, and many late scholarly tablets were excavated here; for a tablet, the pin marks where it was found.
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