26: Uruk III Unug, 3200-3000 BCE (Lugalbanda, part 1)

Guest: Kelten

First, the fragile peace has collapsed, and the virtuous king Enmerkar leads the army of fair Unug in an invasion of the faraway mountain kingdom of Aratta. However, en route to otherwise certain victory, the king's mightiest warrior, Lugalbanda, falls sick! His fellow soldiers, unable to help him and fearing the worst, lay him in a cave in the mountain wilderness as if it were his tomb.

Then: the Uruk period is over, long live Unug! We cover the Uruk III period at Unug, elsewhere known as the Jemdet Nasr period, around the turn of the millennium. The same temple administration continued producing the same kinds of bureaucratic records, with some innovations to the writing system.

We look at evidence of what appear to be a tradition of ritual offerings to Inanna sent by a league of other cities from the alluvial plain, from as far north as Jemdet Nasr and Tell Uqair. Also, a text which may be a lexical list or possibly the first work of literature known from human history!

Then, Lugalbanda prays to a series of gods, to forestall the funeral feast his friends have already arranged for him. Will he ever leave the mountain cave?

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Works cited