These differences are both the result of copying errors, and of deliberate editorial decisions to change the text to fit current needs.

These versions differ in their exact content some sections are missing, others are arranged in a different order, names of kings may be absent or the lengths of their reigns may vary. The clay tablets on which the SKL was recorded were generally found on sites in southern Mesopotamia. Most of these date to the Old Babylonian period, but the oldest version dates to the Ur III period. The SKL is preserved in several versions. It ends with a dynasty from Isin (early second millennium BC), which is well-known from other contemporary sources. In its best-known and best-preserved version, as recorded on the Weld-Blundell Prism, the SKL begins with a number of fictional antediluvian kings, who ruled before a flood swept over the land, after which kingship went to Kish. In later versions from the Old Babylonian period, the list consisted of a large number of cities between which kingship was transferred, reflecting a more cyclical view of how kingship came to a city, only to be inevitably replaced by the next. 2112–2004 BC) but probably based on Akkadian source material, the SKL reflected a more linear transition of power from Kish, the first city to receive kingship, to Akkad. In the oldest known version, dated to the Ur III period (c. Especially in the early part of the list, these reigns often span thousands of years. It does so by repetitively listing Sumerian cities, the kings that ruled there, and the lengths of their reigns. The Sumerian King List (abbreviated SKL) or Chronicle of the One Monarchy is an ancient literary composition written in Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims to power of various city-states and kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia during the late third and early second millennium BC. Sumerian King List at the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

The scorpion king 1991