Composite lines 36–38 total five cities and eight kings; line 39 introduces the flood. Lines 40–45 move the kingship to Kish and name Jucur. WB is the default numerical source unless a variant note says otherwise.
Sky records & flood tablets · Sumerian
Sumerian King List: the flood boundary and kingship at Kish
The inspected edition places the eight-kings total, the flood boundary and kingship’s renewed location at Kish in consecutive lines.
Composite lines and named witness siglum checked
- Physical witness
- Ashmolean Museum AN1923.444 · Weld-Blundell prism · ETCSL siglum WB
- Selected unit
- ETCSL 2.1.1 · composite lines 36–45; physical prism-face concordance pending
- Edition or research reference
- Oxford Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, The Sumerian king list, composition 2.1.1, composite text and English translation. Its bibliography identifies Ash 1923,444 as source WB and treats WB62 as a different, unused source.
- Review boundary
- The Oxford transliteration, translation and witness bibliography were consulted with the Ashmolean’s object explanation. No independent cuneiform reading of the prism photograph is claimed.
Follow the reading
Oxford ETCSL’s English reading is consulted alongside its numbered composite. The edition is a comparison of witnesses, not an unqualified single-object transcription.
AN1923.444 is matched to the edition’s source WB, and composite lines 36–45 identify a bounded kingship-and-flood transition.
Read the selected passage
The selected unit gives the pre-flood total as 241,200 years, then marks the flood and introduces kingship at Kish. This provides a textual sequence to study. It does not by itself provide elapsed historical time from a known calendar epoch.
The Ashmolean explains the work’s combination of myth, legend and historical information and its political account of succession. Oxford identifies this prism as WB. The similarly named WB62 is a separate witness and is explicitly excluded from the composite’s source selection. Keeping those labels distinct prevents a false manuscript match.
What remains to check
Locate these lines on the prism’s individual face and column images, compare the underlying sign readings and preserve numerical variants. An absolute chronology requires independent dating evidence and an explicit conversion method.
Bring the learning forward
When a familiar story presents a sequence as inevitable, ask what it explains and whose perspective it carries. Babylon’s inward exercise can identify one inherited assumption about authority and one truthful commitment you choose today. A reflective question can enrich the reading while the ancient list retains its own political and literary setting.
The Father and Yeshua remain Babylon’s devotional centre. This reflection offers perspective and a freely chosen next step; it makes no judgement about a reader’s worth.
Sources you can retrace
These source links identify the consulted catalogue, transcription, edition or scholarly quotation. Source images and complete modern translations remain at their original hosts.
- Oxford ETCSL · King List composite text ↗
ETCSL composition 2.1.1, lines 36–45. The introductory note states its witness selection and default numerical source.
Consulted numbered Sumerian composite - Oxford ETCSL · King List translation ↗
Oxford ETCSL project translation; the selected unit crosses its displayed translation groups 1–39 and 40–94.
Consulted English reading - Oxford ETCSL · King List bibliography and sources ↗
Ash 1923,444 / OECT2 plate1ff. is source WB; Ash WB62 / OECT2 no.4 is a distinct source marked unused.
Consulted witness-siglum concordance - Ashmolean Museum · Sumerian King List ↗
University of Oxford, Ashmolean Museum · AN1923.444. Images remain at the source and require their own reuse permission.
Consulted object and historical explanation
Cite this Babylon study
Babylon Learning Centre. “Sumerian King List: the flood boundary and kingship at Kish.” Passage Research Studio, revision 1, 5 November 2026. https://learn.babylonencyclopedia.com/research/passages/king-list-flood-kingship-kish/
The ancient edition is credited separately above. These downloads cite Babylon’s study, not a new edition or translation of the manuscript.
Compare this passage ↗Prepare a notebook for this passage ↗Correct or extend this study ↗Revision history ↗Explore the contextual vocabulary ↗View the wider translation map ↗
Learning in the Light
In Babylon, the Father’s light opens perspective, learning and a chosen next step. Your worth remains intact. Every person is sovereign, with dignity, freedom and room to grow.
Read the learning principle ↗Follow the Flood and human-time investigation
Read the CT 46, 5 join, the published chronicle route and the declared human-era count, alongside Babylon’s Great Flood thesis and Cosmic Clock.
Follow the Flood and human-time investigation ↗