{{Infobox royalty | name = Mesilim<br>{{nobold|{{cuneiform|๐’ˆจ๐’ฒ}}}} | image = 300px300px | image_size = 250 | caption = Head of a votive mace with a lion-headed eagle (emblem of god Ningirsu) and six lions, dedicated at a shrine in Girsu by King Mesilim of Kish. Inscription in archaic script: โ€œMesilim, king of Kish, builder of the temple of Ningirsu, brought [this mace head] for Ningirsu, Lugalshaengur [being] prince of Lagashโ€.<ref>{{cite web |title=CDLI-Found Texts |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P222741 |website=cdli.ucla.edu}}</ref> Louvre Museum.<ref>{{cite web |title=Masse d'armes du roi Mesilim |url=https://www.louvre.fr/oeuvre-notices/masse-d-armes-du-roi-mesilim |website=Louvre Museum |date=2020}}</ref> | spouse = | reign = c. 2550 BC | father = | predecessor = Possibly Uhub | successor = | dynasty = | succession = King of Kish }} '''Mesilim''' ({{langx|sux|{{cuneiform|๐’ˆจ๐’ฒ}}}}),<ref>{{cite web |title=CDLI-Found Texts |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&ObjectID=P222532 |website=cdli.ucla.edu}}</ref> also spelled '''Mesalim''' ({{fl.|{{circa}} 2550 BC}}), was ''lugal'' (king) of the Sumerian city-state of Kish.

Though his name is missing from the ''Sumerian king list'', Mesilim is among the earliest historical figures recorded in archaeological documents. He reigned some time in the "Early Dynastic III" period (c. 2600โ€“2350 BC). Inscriptions from his reign state that he sponsored temple constructions in both Adab and Lagash, where he apparently enjoyed some suzerainty.<ref name="Istituto universitario orientale">{{cite book |last1=Visicato |first1=Giuseppe |last2=Alberti |first2=Amedeo |last3=asiatici |first3=Amedeo |title=Early dynastic administrative tablets of ล uruppak |date=1994 |publisher=Istituto universitario orientale |pages=15โ€“19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RnVtAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> He is also known from a number of fragments.<ref>{{cite web |title=CDLI-Found Texts |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&requestFrom=Search&DatesReferenced=Mesalim |website=cdli.ucla.edu}}</ref>

==Frontier mediator== Mesilim is best known for having acted as mediator in a conflict between Lugal-sha-engur, his ''ensi'' in Lagash, and the neighboring rival city state of Umma, regarding the rights to use an irrigation canal through the plain of Gu-Edin on the border between the two. After asking the opinion of the god Iลกtaran, Mesilim established a new border between Lagash and Umma, and erected a pillar to mark it, on which he wrote his final decision.<ref name="JF46"/> This solution was not to be permanent; a later king of Umma, Ush, destroyed the pillar in an act of defiance. These events are mentioned in one of the inscriptions of the ruler of Lagash Entemena, as an ancient foundational event which settled the frontier between the two Sumerian cities.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cone of Enmetena, king of Lagash |url=https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/cone-enmetena-king-lagash |website=Louvre Museum |date=2020}}</ref>

{{Quote box |class = <!-- Advanced users only. See the "Custom classes" section below. --> |title = |quote = right|60px'''8โ€“12'''<br> {{Script/Cuneiform|sum|๐’ˆจ๐’ฒ ๐’ˆ—๐’†ง๐’† ๐’†ค ๐’…— ๐’€ญ๐’…—๐’ฒ๐’ˆพ๐’‹ซ ๐’‚  ๐’ƒท ๐’‰๐’Š ๐’† ๐’€ ๐’ˆพ ๐’‰ˆ๐’†•}}<br> me-silim lugal kiลก<sup>ki</sup>-ke<sub>4</sub> inim <sup>d</sup>iลกtaran-na-ta eลก<sub>2</sub> gana<sub>2</sub> be<sub>2</sub>-ra ki-ba na bi<sub>2</sub>-ru<sub>2</sub><br><br> "Mesilim, king of Kiลก, at the command of Iลกtaran, measured the field and set up a stele there."<br><br> Extract from the Cone of Enmetena, Room 236 Reference AO 3004, Louvre Museum.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cone of Enmetena, king of Lagash |url=https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/cone-enmetena-king-lagash |date=2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&ObjectID=P222532|title=CDLI-Found Texts|website=cdli.ucla.edu|access-date=2018-03-12}}</ref> |align = left }} {{clear}}

==Identification== {{Location map | Near East | width = 260px | float = right | border = | caption = Location of Kish | alt = | relief = yes | AlternativeMap = | overlay_image = | label = Kish | label_size = | position = | background = | mark = | marksize = | link = | lat_deg = 32.54027 | lon_deg = 44.60472 }} In the 1950s, Sumerologist Edmund Gordon reviewed the literary evidence and suggested a tentative theory that Mesilim and King Mesannepada of Ur, who later in his reign also assumed the title "King of Kish", were in fact one and the same.<ref name="JF46">{{cite book |last1=Finegan |first1=Jack |title=Archaeological History Of The Ancient Middle East |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-72638-5 |page=46 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d72ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR46 |language=en}}</ref> Both names are known elsewhere from a unique Mesopotamian proverb about the king whose temple was torn down. In Sumerian version, the proverb reads "The E-babbar which Mesilim had built, Annane, the man whose seed was cut off, tore down." E-babbar was the temple in Lagash, and Gordon took ''Annane'' to be a corruption of the name A-anne-pada, i.e. Mes-anne-pada's own son. The much later Akkadian proverb reads "The temple which Mesannepadda had built, Nanna, whose seed was picked off, tore down".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gordon |first=Edmund I. |title=Mesilim and Mesannepadda - Are They Identical? |jstor=1355797 |date=December 1953 |issue=132 |pages=27โ€“30 |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=132 |publisher=The American Schools of Oriental Research |doi=10.2307/1355797|s2cid=163619860 }}</ref> However, Thorkild Jacobsen disputed this theory and reached the opposite conclusion, that Mesilim and Mesannepada were probably distinct, arguing that the Akkadian scribe did not recognise the name of Mesilim that was not on the kinglist, and simply substituted that of a name he knew from the list.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jacobsen |first=Thorkild |author-link=Thorkild Jacobsen |title=Towards the Image of Tammuz |jstor=1062051 |volume=1 |issue=2 |year=1962 |journal=History of Religions |pages=189โ€“213 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press|doi=10.1086/462443 |s2cid=150634256 }}</ref>

Per his own inscription on the head of a mace, Mesilin was contemporary with an otherwise unknown king of Lagash named Lugalshaengur.<ref>Douglas Frayne, "Rulers with the Title โ€œKing of Kiลกโ€ Whose Dynastic Affiliations Are Unknown", Presargonic Period: Early Periods, Volume 1 (2700-2350 BC), RIM The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 67-76, 2008</ref><ref name="DK">{{cite book |last1=Katz |first1=Dina |title=Gilgamesh and Akka |date=1993 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-72371-67-6 |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCn5-COYETwC&pg=PA13 |language=en}}</ref> This suggests that Mesilin ruled before the Lagash dynasty of Ur-Nanshe.<ref name="DK"/>

Mesilim is also known from other fragmentary inscriptions.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Delougaz |first1=P. |title=Architectural Representations on Steatite Vases |journal=Iraq |date=1960 |volume=22 |pages=90โ€“95 |doi=10.2307/4199671 |jstor=4199671 |s2cid=155744201 |issn=0021-0889}}</ref> In particular, there are two dynastic administrative tablets in which he is named as contemporary (and probably suzerain) of Lugalshaengur, Governor of Lagash, and Nin-Kisalsi, Governor of Adab.<ref name="Istituto universitario orientale"/> One inscription on a bowl reads:

{{Blockquote|{{cuneiform|๐’ˆจ๐’ฒ ๐’ˆ—๐’†ง๐’† / ๐’‚๐’Šฌ ๐’“ ๐’ˆฌ๐’„„ / ๐’Ž๐’†ฆ๐’‹› ๐’‘๐’‹ผ๐’‹› ๐’Œ“๐’‰ฃ}}<br> ''me-silim lugal kisz e2-sar bur mu-gi4 nin-KISAL-si ensix(GAR.PA.TE.SI) adab''<br> "Me-silim, king of Kish, to the Esar temple sent over (this) bowl (for the burgi ritual). Nin-KISALsi, (was) the governor of Adab." |Inscription of Mesilim mentioning Nin-Kisalsi<ref>{{cite web |title=CDLI-Archival View |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/archival_view.php?ObjectID=P462182 |website=cdli.ucla.edu}}</ref>}}

<gallery widths="300px" heights="150px" perrow="4"> File:Mesilim macehead.jpg|Mesilim macehead at time of discovery File:Mesilim macehead MesilimLugal Kish.jpg|Mesilim macehead with inscription ''Mesilim Lugal Kish'' ({{cuneiform|๐’ˆจ๐’ฒ ๐’ˆ— ๐’†ง}}), "Mesilim, King of Kish". File:Mesilim Lugal Kish-ki on the Net Vase of Entemena.jpg|''Mesilim Lugal Kish-ki'' ({{cuneiform|๐’ˆจ๐’ฒ ๐’ˆ— ๐’†ง๐’† }}), "Mesilim, King of Kish", on the "Net Cylinder" of Entemena </gallery>

==See also== {{Commons category|Mesilim}} *History of Sumer

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&requestFrom=Search&DatesReferenced=Mesalim Inscriptions of Mesilim]

== Bibliography == * Vojtech Zamarovskรฝ, ''Na poฤiatku bol Sumer'', Mladรฉ letรก, 1968 Bratislava * Plamen Rusev, ''Mesalim, Lugal Na Kish: Politicheska Istoriia Na Ranen Shumer (XXVIII-XXVI V. Pr. N. E.), Faber, 2001'' (LanguageBulgarian) [(Mesalim, Lugal of Kish. Political History of Early Sumer (XXVIIIโ€“XXVI century BC.)]

Category:26th-century BC Sumerian kings Category:Kings of Kish Category:3rd-millennium BC births Category:3rd-millennium BC deaths