This is a foundation statue of Shulgi (2094 BC – 2046
BC). He is shown carrying the first basket of clay to make bricks for a new
temple. The statue still has some of the original cloth that was wrapped around it.
Shulgi had a round face and a bulbous nose (partially eroded on this statue). He also had asymmetrical
eyes, just like his father, Ur-Namma. See The Face of Shulgi.
Ur-Namma.
Disaster.
Ur-Namma, the Mighty Man, the king of Ur, the king of Sumer
and Akkad, had been wounded in a battle against the barbarians. He was carried
from the battlefield, bleeding from his mortal wounds.
The barbarians surged across the countryside. The entire
land was struck. The palace was devastated. Panic spread rapidly among the
dwellings of the Sumerians. People abandoned their homes. In Sumer, cities
were destroyed in their entirety. The people were seized with panic.
Ur-Namma was taken to the city of Ur. “The king of
the Land was brought into the house. The proud one lay in his palace.”
Ur-Namma died of his wounds. “Evil came upon Ur and made the trustworthy shepherd pass away. Sweet sleep
did not come to the people of Sumer. They passed their time in lamentation over
the trustworthy shepherd who had been snatched away.”
The cities were destroyed. The people were in a panic. This was Shulgi's first day on the job.
Shulgi was beginning his kingship under a dark cloud. His
father had been killed in battle, which meant he was no longer favored by the
gods. The supreme god Enlil “deceitfully changed the fate he had decreed for
Ur-Namma.” The gods had turned their backs on Ur-Namma. He lost the Mandate of
Heaven. Did this also apply to his successor?
Not if Shulgi had anything to say about it. He quickly began consolidating his power and rebuilding his cities.
Then he turned his attention to the barbarians. “The hero
avenged his city. Whatever had been ravaged in Sumer, he ravaged in the foreign
land.”
Shulgi would reign for the next 47 years.
According to the “year names” of Shulgi’s reign (each
calendar year wasn’t known by a number, but instead was named for an
important event, e.g. "the year Shulgi became king")
the first half of Shulgi’s rulership was relatively peaceful, with the mention
of only a few military campaigns. During the second part of his reign, military
conquests are mentioned in half of the year names. One year was called,
“Year the cities of Simurrum and Lullubum were destroyed for the ninth
time." Shulgi fought wars for hegemony in Sumer and wars of conquest abroad.
“I sow fear and confusion in the foreign land. In those
battles, where weapon clashes on weapon, Utu [the sun
god] shines on me. Thus I broke the weapons of the highlands over my knees, and
in the south placed a yoke on the neck of Elam. I
make the populations of the rebel lands -- how could they still resist my
weapons? -- scatter like seed-grain over Sumer and Akkad.” (excerpt from a praise poem for Shulgi.)
Reading by column from right to left: "(For the
goddess) Nimintaba/ His queen/ Shulgi/ The mighty man/ King of
Ur/ King of Sumer and Akkad/ Her temple/ He built."
Shulgi also built a long defensive wall, known as the ‘‘Wall
of the Land,’’ or the ‘‘Wall Facing the Highland.” The highlands were the home
of the foreign barbarians. Like the Great Wall of China, Shulgi’s wall was
designed to prevent frequent border raids or unobstructed large-scale
invasions. The wall was heavily garrisoned by a large army. To help paid for
the soldiers, Shulgi began taxing the temples. This made him unpopular with the
priests, but more popular with the people because they weren’t being taxed so much.
The Wall of the Land worked reasonably well, for a while,
but 40 years after Shulgi’s death it proved ineffective in stemming the
barbarian invasions that completely destroyed Sumer.
Shulgi’s character:
Shulgi was a strong, vigorous, and energetic man. He was
also an intellectual and he was artistically inclined.
Most of what we know of Shulgi’s character comes from “praise
poems” that were written by scribes. The compositions are written as “first
person” narratives. Obviously there is some exaggeration in them, but they
provide invaluable insight into the character of a very dynamic man.
Shulgi himself was a scribe, in the world’s most difficult
language. Very few people could read and write, even among the nobility. “When
I was small, I was at the academy, where I learned the scribal art from the
tablets of Sumer and Akkad.
None of the nobles could write on clay as I could… I qualified fully in
subtraction, addition, reckoning and accounting. The fair Nisaba
[the goddess of writing], provided me amply with knowledge and
comprehension. I am an experienced scribe…”
Shulgi was also an accomplished musician, able to play a
variety of musical instruments. “I, Šulgi, king of Ur, have also devoted myself to the art of music. Nothing
is too complicated for me; I know the full extent of the tigi
and the adab, the perfection of the art of
music. When I fix the frets on the lute, which enraptures my heart, I never
damage its neck; I have devised rules for raising and lowering its intervals.
On the gu-uš lyre I know the melodious
tuning...” Shulgi then goes on to list all the instruments he can pay.
Shulgi was multilingual. He could read Akkadian tablets in
their original language. In addition, “I can understand what an [Elamite]
spokesman answers... I can do service as a translator with a man of Martu, a man of the mountains… I myself can correct his confused words in
his own language. When a man of Subir yells, I can
even distinguish the words in his language, although I am not a fellow-citizen
of his. When I provide justice in the legal cases of Sumer,
I give answers in all five languages. In my palace no one in conversation
switches to another language as quickly as I do.”
Shulgi was an athlete. It is said that he ran from Ur to Nippur and back in a single day so he could preside over ceremonies in both cities. That’s a round trip of 200 miles, the equivalent of 8 marathons. Technically it is possible. It has been duplicated by modern runners. In any case, he apparently accomplished some great feat of long-distance running for which he was famous.
Shulgi was an avid hunter. “I stride forward in majesty,
trampling endlessly through the esparto grass and thickets, capturing elephant
after elephant, creatures of the plain; and I put an end to the heroic roaring
in the plains of the different lions… I do not go after them with a net, nor do
I lie in wait for them in a hide; it comes to a confrontation of strength and
weapons. I do not hurl a weapon; when I plunge a bitter-pointed lance in their
throats, I do not flinch at their roar. I am not one to retreat to my
hiding-place but, as when one warrior kills another warrior, I do everything
swiftly on the open plain…In the sheepfold and the cattle-pen, I put the
shepherd tribesmen at ease. [Sumerian kings thought it a duty to protect
herdsmen from the wild animals preying on their livestock] … The number of
lions that I have dispatched with my weapons is limitless; their total is
unknown.”
Shulgi was well known for his sexual virility. He had many
wives (partly to establish political alliances with their powerful families, both
foreign and domestic). Shulgi even pleasured Inanna, the goddess of lust and
war.
Shulgi was a builder of temples. He completed the great
ziggurat at Ur that was started by his father.
The ziggurat at Ur. It was dedicated to Nanna, the moon god.
Shulgi excelled at government administration. He unified the
administration of northern and southern Mesopotamia. He overhauled the finances
of the kingdom. He built numerous scribal schools, providing future clerks with
standard education. He also standardized the system of weights and measures. He
introduced a new calendar.
After the first half of his reign, Shulgi was deified as a
living god. All Mesopotamian kings considered themselves to be descendants of
the gods, with a divine right to rule, but Shulgi became an actual god himself.
Temples were built for him. Priests were appointed to conduct religious
services dedicated to the worship of this God King.
During Shulgi’s reign, the Sumerians didn’t always have
peace, but they had security. They prospered, and they enjoyed an artistic
renaissance.
Forty years after the death of Shulgi, Sumerian civilization
was utterly destroyed by the hordes of barbarians pouring into the countryside from
every direction.
In its long history, Sumer never lacked for great kings, but
Shulgi was the last and the greatest king of them all.
The {d} is dingir, representing divinity. It means
Shulgi was worshiped as a god during his lifetime.
