Ubara-Tutu
Last pre-Flood king in the Sumerian King List
- City
- Shuruppak
- Reign in king list
- 18,600 years
- Son
- Utnapishtim (Gilgamesh, Tablet XI)
- Followed by
- The Flood
The last king before the Flood in the Sumerian King List, ruler of Shuruppak and father of the flood hero Utnapishtim.
What is Ubara-Tutu known for?
Ubara-Tutu ruled Shuruppak for 18,600 years according to the Sumerian King List. He is the eighth and last of the kings before the Flood; the list follows his name with the line that then the flood swept over.
Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh calls the flood hero Utnapishtim 'son of Ubara-Tutu', the man of Shuruppak. Some versions of the tradition also connect the Sumerian flood hero Ziusudra to him. Assyriologists treat him as legendary.
His position matters for comparisons with Genesis. In both traditions a line of long-lived rulers or patriarchs before the Flood ends with a figure whose son survives the deluge in a boat: Ubara-Tutu's son Utnapishtim in Mesopotamia, and Lamech's son Noah in the Bible. Shuruppak itself, modern Tell Fara in Iraq, has produced Early Dynastic tablets and a flood deposit, though archaeologists do not link that layer to a single world flood.
Ends the list of pre-Flood kings just before the line 'Then the flood swept over.'
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeShuruppak
Sources
- ETCSL, 'The Sumerian King List: translation' (University of Oxford)Primary text
- Wikipedia, 'Ubara-Tutu'Reference
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