This is an old revision of the document!
Table of Contents
Amar-Suen
Amar-Suen (2046-2038 BC)
Although Amar-Suen succeeded his father Shulgi (2094-2047) and ruled as the third king of Ur III dynasty for a period of nine-years (2046-2038), little is known about him. He is not mentioned in economic texts that date to his father’s reign, and the only documents that specifically mention Amar-Suen by name and that date to his reign are building inscriptions (Michalowski 1977:155).
Amar-Suen in Ur III texts
This brick inscription (ca. 1998-1989 BC) follows the standard literary formula for building inscriptions that consists of several lines of epithets and a description of a building or monument that the king commissioned in honor of the god(s). In this text the god Enlil sanctions Amar-Suen’s rule, and he is credited with building a basin for the god Enki at Nippur. Matouš suggests that this basin (referred to as an abzu/zu-ab in the text) was a temple basin that was filled with water and was a symbol of the junction of the physical world and the deep waters of the underworld (Matouš,1962, 3)
Bibliography
Matouš, L. "The Inscription of Amar-Suen". 1962.
Michalowski, Piotr, "Amar-Su'ena and the Historical Tradition, in Ellis, Maria de Jong (ed.), Essays on the Ancient Near East in Memory of Jacob Joel Finkelstein (Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, 19), Archon Books: Hamden, Connecticut 1977, 155-157: score transliteration, translation, commentary.
