Departments

Antiquities

Weld-Blundell Prism: The Sumerian King-List
(Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; number: AN1923.444)

Why is it so famous beyond the world of scholars?

Weld-Blundell Prism Face b (a000143)
Weld-Blundell Prism Face d
  • The list begins with kings before "the Flood".
  • The earlier sections of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament parallels this part of the Sumerian King-List.
  • Not only are there close parallels with the Biblical Flood Story, but also with the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11.
  • The superhuman life-spans given there, which decrease after the Flood, are comparable to those in the inscription on this prism.