Mesannepada

A'annepada dedication tablet

Sumerian King List

Mesannepada appears in the Sumerian King List, as the first ruler of the First Dynasty of Ur, and is credited with a reign of 80 years. His successors are also named:

It is considered unlikely for a king to inherit a throne in his childhood and reign thereafter for 80 years. The length of the son's reign was probably added to that of the father.

Old Babylonian tablet: the Tummal Chronicle Mesannepada and his other son are also mentioned in an Old Babylonian tablet (1900-1600 BC), the Tummal Inscription, relating the accomplishments of several kings. Such tablets are usually copies of older tablets, now lost:

Reign Mesannepada is associated with an expansion of Ur, at least diplomatically. A lapis-lazuli bead in the name of Mesannepada was found in Mari, and formed part of the "Treasure of Ur", made for the dedication of a temple in Mari. Seals from the royal cemetery at Ur have also been found bearing the names of Mesannepada and his predecessors Meskalamdug and Akalamdug, along with Queen Puabi. A seal impression in the name of "Mesannepada, king of Kish" was found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.

Mesannepada, Lugal Kish-ki , "Mesannepada, King of Kish", on a seal impression found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur.

Cylinder seal inscribed "Queen Nintur, wife of Mesannepadda" (Nintur ereš, dam Mesannepada). Royal Cemetery at Ur Mesannepada, and his son and successor Meskiagnun, who reigned 36 years, are both named on the Tummal Inscription as upkeepers of the main temple in Nippur along with Gilgamesh of Uruk and his son Ur-Nungal, verifying their status as overlords of Sumer. Judging from the inscriptions, Mesannepada then assumed the title "King of Kish", to indicate his hegemony.

Another son of Mesannepada, named Aannepadda, (Aja-ane-pada or A-Anne-pada, "father chosen by An"), whose years of reigned are unknown, is known for having the temple of Ninhursag constructed (at modern Ubaid) near el-Obed, though he is not named on the kinglist.

A small ziggurat beneath the structure built at Ur by Ur-Nammu may date back to the time of Mes-Anne-pada.

In the 1950s, Edmund I. Gordon conjectured that Mesannepada, and an archaeologically attested early "king of Kish", Mesilim, were one and the same, as their names were interchanged in certain proverbs in later Babylonian tablets; however this has not proved conclusive. More recent scholars tend to regard them as distinct, usually placing Mesilim in Kish before Mesannepada.

Royal Cemetery of Ur Mesannapeda's tomb may have been located in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. It has been suggested that tomb PG 1232, or PG 1237, nicknamed "the Great Death-Pit," might belong to him.