Weld-Blundell Prism
The Weld-Blundell Prism is a clay, cuneiform inscribed vertical prism housed in the Ashmolean Museum. The prism was found in a 1922 expedition in modern day Iraq by British archaeologist Herbert Weld Blundell. The four sides, about 20 cm high and 9 cm wide, are inscribed in the Sumerian language with lists of Sumerian kings; each side contains the text in two columns: this is the famous Sumerian King List.

The list begins with the antediluvian rulers and ends with Sin-magir of the Isin dynasty (r. 1827–1817). The list was most likely written in Sin-magir's final year, or soon after.
Many, especially antediluvian, kings are credited with incredibly long reigns (counted in sars and nerah), as a result of which many scholars consider this work to be more artistic than historical.

Various theories are being constructed in an attempt to explain such large numbers. They are supposed to express the great importance of rulers who were considered semi- gods . According to another version, sar (3600 years) and ner (600 years), the units of time measurement in the Sumerian number system, should be taken as years and months, respectively.

The museum number is AN1923.444.
Q42302
clay
Concept
Q401
cuneiform
Concept
Q180544
prism
Concept
Q636400
Ashmolean Museum
LOC
Q796
Iraq
LOC
Q5735855
Herbert Weld Blundell
PER
Q36790
Sumerian language
Concept
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Sumer
Concept
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king
LOC
Q270860
Sumerian King List
LOC
Q106576592
Sin-magir
UNK
Q55610176
Isin dynasty
UNK
Q7980851
Weld-Blundell Prism
MEDIA
1922-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1922
DATE
1827-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1827
DATE
+20^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
20
NUMBER
+9^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
9
NUMBER
+1817^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1817
NUMBER
+3600^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
3600
NUMBER
+600^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
600
NUMBER
+1923.444^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
1923.444
NUMBER
made from material
collection
language of work or name
height
width
language of work or name
language of work or name