Enhegal: A Spurious King?

University of Pennsylvania

The University Museum

Publications of the Babylonian Section

Vol.IX,No1

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Notes on Lugalshaengur

Under Entemena, nephew and second successor of Eannatum and only other militarily strong members of Ur-Nanshes dynastie, the high priests of Ningirsu appeared on inscriptions as coequals with the ensi. The second of these hightpriests,Enetarzi, allowed Entemena´s son (EnanatumII) only some four years of puppet rule before usurping the position of Ensi and drawing down the courtain on Ur-Nanshes dynastie. The next 12 years, during Enetarzi was followed in the office by his son, the high priest Lugalanda, marked the high point at Lagash of the abusive practices that for some time had been eroding the "theocratic socialism" of the temple communities and the remaining clan lands. A reaction ensued (about 2400b.c.) that saw Lugalanda replaced by Urukagina, a man of unknown background, whose efforts to restore the former collectivism and equalitarianism make him the first know social reformer in history.

Early Mesopotamian Constitutional Development, Nels Bailkey The American Historical Review, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Jul., 1967), pp. 1211-1236