Shulgi of Ur: The Runner King of Sumer's Third Dynasty

Shulgi of Ur was the second and longest-reigning king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, ruling much of Mesopotamia for about 48 years, c. 2094–2047 BC. He turned the kingdom founded by his father Ur-Nammu into one of the most tightly administered states of the ancient world. He also proclaimed himself a living god and boasted in hymns of running between Nippur and Ur in a single day.

Background

Shulgi’s father, Ur-Nammu, founded the Third Dynasty of Ur (often called Ur III) around 2112 BC, after the collapse of the Akkadian Empire and the period of Gutian rule. Ur-Nammu began the great Ziggurat of Ur and is credited with the oldest surviving law code.

According to a later Sumerian poem, Ur-Nammu died in battle, and Shulgi inherited a young and still fragile kingdom in southern Iraq. His reign is unusually well documented because each year was named after a major event, and these year names survive in thousands of dated tablets.

Reforms and administration

Shulgi’s most lasting achievement was administrative. In the second half of his reign the Ur III state produced records on an enormous scale: tens of thousands of tablets survive from this period, recording workers, rations, livestock and goods.

His main measures included:

• Standard weights and measures. Official units of weight and capacity were imposed across the state, making taxation and trade easier to control.
• A state calendar. A common administrative calendar was introduced alongside local calendars.
• Provinces and taxes. The heartland was divided into provinces run by governors (ensi), who paid regular contributions to the centre through a rotating system known as bala.
• Puzrish-Dagan. Around his 39th year he founded Puzrish-Dagan (modern Drehem), near Nippur, a collection centre where tens of thousands of sheep, goats and cattle were received and redistributed.
• Scribal schools. Shulgi claimed to have been trained in the scribal art, and his reign saw the growth of schools that trained the officials the bureaucracy needed.

Some scholars think Shulgi, rather than his father, issued or completed the Code of Ur-Nammu. The surviving copies do not settle the question.

Wars and diplomacy

Shulgi’s year names record campaigns, especially in the second half of his reign, into the Zagros Mountains and northern Mesopotamia. Cities such as Simurrum and Urbilum (modern Erbil) were attacked repeatedly. He also controlled Susa in Elam, to the east.

Diplomacy mattered as much as war. Several of Shulgi’s daughters were married to rulers of Iranian states such as Marhashi and Anshan. Around his 37th year he built a defensive wall, called in his year names “the wall of the land”, against pressure from the north-west.

The god-king

Around the middle of his reign, Shulgi’s name began to be written with the cuneiform sign for a deity. Temples were dedicated to him, offerings were made to his statues, and a large body of Sumerian royal hymns praised him.

Deification was not entirely new: Naram-Sin of Akkad had done the same. But Shulgi made it a central part of his rule. Presenting the king as divine raised him far above provincial governors and gave a large, diverse state a common focus of loyalty.

The famous run

In the hymn known today as Shulgi A, the king claims that he ran from Nippur to Ur, a distance of roughly 150–160 kilometres, and back again, so that he could celebrate a festival in both cities on the same day, even through a storm. One of his early year names also commemorates a journey between the two cities.

Historians treat the hymn as royal propaganda. It presents Shulgi as superhumanly strong and devoted to the gods, the ideal of a Sumerian king. Whether any real journey lay behind it, and how fast it was made, cannot be known.

Death and succession

Shulgi died around 2047 BC. Some later sources hint that his death was not peaceful, but the evidence is unclear. He was succeeded by Amar-Sin, then Shu-Sin and Ibbi-Sin, under whom the state collapsed in the fall of Ur around 2004 BC.

Legacy

Shulgi was remembered long after his dynasty fell. Scribes in the Old Babylonian period, several centuries later, still copied hymns in his praise as part of their training, so his self-image as the perfect king shaped how later generations imagined Sumerian kingship. His name also appears in the Sumerian King List, which credits him with a reign of 46 years, slightly fewer than the 48 years counted from his year names.

For modern historians, the archives of his reign are a treasure. Records from Drehem, Umma and Girsu allow scholars to trace prices, wages, herds and the work of individual labourers in remarkable detail, more than four thousand years ago.

Timeline

• c. 2112 BC: Ur-Nammu founds the Third Dynasty of Ur.
• c. 2094 BC: Shulgi becomes king of Ur.
• c. 2088 BC: Year name records the king’s journey between Nippur and Ur.
• c. 2070s BC: Shulgi’s name begins to be written with the divine sign.
• c. 2056 BC: Puzrish-Dagan livestock centre founded near Nippur.
• c. 2047 BC: Shulgi dies and Amar-Sin succeeds him.

Why it matters

Shulgi’s reign shows how early states ran on paperwork as much as on armies. His standard measures, taxes and record keeping created one of the best-documented societies of the ancient world. His deification and hymns also show how kings used religion and literature to build loyalty.