What is the Sumerian King List?
The Sumerian King List is an ancient list of Mesopotamian rulers: their names, their seat of power and the length of their reigns. The list as we have it today is actually a critical reconstruction of nearly 20 ancient fragments published in 1939 by the renowned Danish, Sumerologist Thorkild Jacobson. The list is of special interest to the biblical archaeological community, particularly because of its antediluvian (pre-flood) portion. The list of pre-flood kings is interesting for two reasons. First, because it mentions an antediluvian civilization and a cataclysmic deluge, and second, because the pre-flood kings have really long life-spans (as is evidenced by their really long reigns). After the flood, the life-spans drop dramatically but remain inordinately long for a time. The length of monarchial reigns gradually decreases until they reflect ordinary life-spans. This parallels the biblical account somewhat, except that the life-spans represented in the Sumerian King List are a lot
