Urukagina (reigned ca.
2380 BC–2360 BC, short
chronology), alternately rendered as
Uruinimgina or Irikagina, was a
ruler (énsi) of the city-state Lagash
in Mesopotamia. He is best known for his
reforms to combat corruption, which are sometimes cited as the
first example of a
legal code in
recorded history. Although the actual text
has not been discovered yet, much of its content may be surmised
from other references to it that have been found. In it, he
exempted widows and orphans from taxes; compelled the city to pay
funeral expenses (including the ritual food and drink
libations for the journey of the dead into the
lower world); and decreed that the rich must use silver when
purchasing from the poor, and if the poor does not wish to sell,
the powerful man (the rich man or the priest) cannot force him to
do so.
Urukagina's code is perhaps the first recorded example of
government reform, seeking to achieve a higher level of
freedom and
equality. It limited the power of
the
priesthood and
large property owners and took measures against
usury, burdensome controls, hunger, theft, murder, and seizure (of
people's property and persons); as he states, "The widow and the
orphan were no longer at the mercy of the powerful man". He is also
said to have abolished the former custom of
polyandry in his country, on pain of the woman
taking multiple husbands being stoned with rocks upon which her
crime is written.
He also
participated in several conflicts, notably a losing border conflict
with Uruk
.
During his
reign, Uruk fell under the leadership of Lugal-Zage-Si, énsi of Umma
, who
ultimately annexed most of the territory of Lagash and established
the first reliably documented kingdom to encompass all of
Sumer. The destruction of Lagash was described in a lament
(possibly the earliest recorded example of what would become a
prolific Sumerian literary genre), which stressed that "the men of
Umma ... committed a sin against Ningirsu. ... Offence there was
none in Urukagina,
king of Girsu, but as for
Lugal-Zage-Si,
governor of Umma, may his
goddess
Nisaba make him carry his sin upon
his neck" (alternatively - "may she carry his sin upon her neck").
Lugal-Zage-Si himself was soon defeated and his kingdom was annexed
by
Sargon of Akkad.
Praise poem of Urukagina
Some insight into Sumerian values can be gained from praise poems
written for kings. While the kings may not always live up to this
praise they show the type of achievements that they wished to be
remembered by. Extracts below praise Urukagina who appears as a
social reformer, getting rid of gross abuses of power that had
taken hold in Lagash.
1. Since time immemorial, since life began, in those days, the head
boatman appropriated boats, the livestock official appropriated
asses, the livestock official appropriated sheep, and the fisheries
inspector appropriated.... The shepherds of wool sheep paid a duty
in silver on account of white sheep, and the surveyor, chief
lamentation-singer, supervisor, brewer and foremen paid a duty in
silver on account of young lambs. . . These were the conventions of
former times!
2. When Ningirsu, warrior of Enlil, granted the kingship of Lagash
to Urukagina, selecting him from among the myriad people, he
replaced the customs of former times, carrying out the command that
Ningirsu, his master, had given him.
3. He removed the head boatman from control over the boats, he
removed the livestock official from control over asses and sheep,
he removed the fisheries inspector from control....
4. He removed the silo supervisor from control over the grain taxes
of the guda-priests, he removed the bureaucrat responsible for the
paying of duties in silver on account of white sheep and young
lambs, and he removed the bureaucrat responsible for the delivery
of duties by the temple administrators to the palace.
5. The... administrators no longer plunder the orchards of the
poor. When a high quality ass is born to a shublugal, and his
foreman says to him, "I want to buy it from you"; whether he lets
him buy it from him and says to him "Pay me the price I want!," or
whether he does not let him buy it from him, the foreman must not
strike at him in anger.
6. When the house of an aristocrat adjoins the house of a
shublugal, and the aristocrat says to him, "I want to buy it from
you"; whether he lets him buy it from him, having said to him, "Pay
me the price I want! My house is a large container—fill it with
barley for me!," or whether he does not let him buy it from him,
that aristocrat must not strike at him in anger.
7. He cleared and cancelled obligations for those indentured
families, citizens of Lagash living as debtors because of grain
taxes, barley payments, theft or murder.
8. Urukagina solemnly promised Ningirsu that he would never
subjugate the waif and the widow to the powerful.
See also
Notes
- The Powers p. 40 by Walter Wink,
1992
-
http://www.humanistictexts.org/sumer.htm#4%20Praise%20of%20Urukagina
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