kingship was intertwined with religion. While in Egypt the king himself was worshiped as divine, in Mesopotamia kingship was regarded as “one of the basic institutions of human life devised by the gods for mankind.” The opening words of the famous Sumerian King List (ca. 2100), for example, read, “When the kingship was lowered from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu.”181 The concept of divine sponsorship of kingship was foundational in the cognitive environment of the ancient Near East. Commenting