The Uruk List of Kings and Sages and Late Mesopotamian Scholarship

TLDR: The Uruk List of Kings and Sages as discussed by the authors is the most explicit scholarly genealogy written in the Hellenistic period and who is the last named person in the text.

Abstract: The Uruk List of Kings and Sages is best known for its genealogy connecting human scholars to antediluvian sages. Since its publication in 1962, however, questions pertaining to the text's specific purpose within the context of Hellenistic Uruk have been neglected. This study seeks to understand two such questions: why is the most explicit scholarly genealogy written in the Hellenistic period?; and who is the last named person in the text? Seeking answers to these questions sheds new light on the text's purpose: it is an attempt by scholars to gain support for themselves and their novel cultic agenda. La reputation de la liste des Uruk de les rois et les sages est due a sa genealogie, qui cree un lien entre les savants humains et les sages antediluviens. Par contre, depuis sa publication en 1962 on a neglige les questions qui ont affaire au but specifique du texte dans le contexte de l'Uruk hellenistique. Cette etude cherche a comprendre deux questions dans ce domaine: pourquoi la genealogie la plus explicitement savante est-elle ecrite pendant l'epoque hellenistique?; et qui est la derniere personne nommee dans le texte? Chercher des reponses a ces questions illumine d'une nouvelle facon le but du texte; c'est une tentative par des savants de gagner du soutien pour leur programme original de culte ainsi que pour eux-memes.