The Earliest Reformer? Urukagina of Girsu and His New Order

As society became more complex and cities developed in southern Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) around 5000 years ago, the opportunities for abuse of power increased. The written record is largely silent on this topic for hundreds of years, except for an inscription written by a king of Girsu, whom we conventionally call Urukagina. This text, often called “Urukagina’s Reforms,” claims that Urukagina reversed the abuses of former times and offered new protections to the weak. In this talk, we take a deeper look at Urukagina and his times, and try to understand the motivations behind these reforms and who really benefitted from them.
Stephen J. Tinney, Ph.D., is Clark Research Associate Professor of Assyriology, Deputy Director of the Penn Museum, Associate Curator of the Babylonian Section of the Penn Museum and director of the Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project. He holds a B.A. in Assyriology from Cambridge University, England, and a Ph.D. in Assyriology from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. His research interests include all aspects of Sumerian language, literature, and culture. Much of his current work is devoted to developing and publishing Sumerian texts and to analyzing and presenting the Sumerian language. This work is primarily focused on the creation of two major projects, the online Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary (ePSD), a project he began work on when he joined Penn in 1991 as a postdoctoral research assistant and which he now directs, and the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative based at UCLA.

[@TheTeacher1020]

Excellent and informative lecture. Sheds light on an area that has long interested me. Thank you for posting.

[@alshukurh.a.m9794]

Great job 👏
From MESOPOTAMIA

[@enkisonofanu2301]

Good to see guys back, you've been missed

[@anleverlfixedlmark]

GREAT name! Thrilled to see it!

[@enkisonofanu2301]

@@anleverlfixedlmark 👍

[@allangardiner2515]

What a wonderful lecturer.

[@abledonald943]

The audio has slightly improved. But you guys need to display the slides to the RUclips screen without us seeing the audience.

[@leosrule5691]

All of this is better visualized, or understood, if one watches the tv series called SG1.

[@stanlibuda96]

Thanks Penn Museum & Prof Tinney, another great lecture!

[@Eumenis]

The case of Urukagina, as brilliantly presented here, brings us to a question that will exist as long as organized societies exist.
Was Peisistratus a tyrant or a leader who increased the power of Athens? Was Julius Caesar a dictator or the protector of his people?
What are the boundaries between tyranny and enlightened governance?

[@DarkMoonDroid]

I'll take that schadenfreude.
Thank you.

[@itatialegre1548]

NO TODOS ABLAN EN OTRO IDIOMA TRADUSCAN NO SEAN PERBERSOS

[@matt42919]

Never ask the penn museum how they got all that stuff

[@lakrids-pibe]

They would lecture for hours about it.

[@annascott3542]

don’t know if your comment is about specific artifact(s) you have in mind that you think are questionable, or if rather, you’re just making a broad generalization and a vague accusation. But if they are still in possession of whatever “stuff” you’re ambiguously refering to, then it was likely by way of legal methods, otherwise it would’ve been repatriated by now, or there are plans to do so, and or long term loans will be/are being/have been made in order to repatriate. This museum seems to have a progressive attitude on this issue if anything, especially in light of the fact that it’s a necessity to maintain good relations and still excavate in a lot of the countries where their artifacts originate and they want to avoid running the risk of having their current sites and future permission to dig denied pending the return of contested objects. Although I’m sure it is the case that they could have some items, like many - most major museums do, from the way Penn has handled this issue in the past they are fully willing to cooperate, as they have done so in the past, even for major items in their collection. Museums today are facing more and more difficulties and challenges from operating in an increasingly litigious atmosphere to ever decreasing government funding and donor revenue sources drying up or being siphoned elsewhere to a public who’s attention would rather be spent on garbage low entertainment, widespread history illiteracy, a general trend of anti intellectualism, disinterest in & low levels of appreciation as knowledge of and exposure to the arts as a result of little to no arts education in school curriculums for decades, and always being first to go during budget cuts, which have now become continuous, which all leads to an ever lowering quality and degeneration of our culture which is the measure of a society. The last thing museums need is more antagonism, especially unfair and unwarranted antagonism like this comment. What public service can we put next to your name?

[@fortunatomartino8549]

The history of these artifacts would be lost forever
The indigenous people don't care

[@matt42919]

@@fortunatomartino8549 its ok to have the completely wrong opinion lol good for you

[@fortunatomartino8549]

@@matt42919
Why don't they have their own museum of their artifacts?
Because they don't care