Scheil dynastic tablet in the context of "Kish tablet"

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. It does so by repetitively listing Sumerian cities, the kings that ruled there, and the lengths of their reigns. Especially in the early part of the list, these reigns often span thousands of years. In the oldest known version, dated to the Ur III period (c. 2112 – c. 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 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. 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. It ends with a dynasty from Isin (early second millennium BC), which is well-known from other contemporary sources.

The SKL is preserved in several versions, the first fragment of which was published in 1906 by Hermann Volrath Hilprecht, and the second in 1911 by Jean-Vincent Scheil. Most of these date to the Old Babylonian period, but the oldest version of the SKL dates back to the Ur III period. The clay tablets on which the SKL was recorded were generally found on sites in southern Mesopotamia. 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. These differences are both the result of copying errors, and of deliberate editorial decisions to change the text to fit current needs.

Father Jean-Vincent Scheil (born 10 June 1858, Kœnigsmacker – died 21 September 1940, Paris) was a French Dominican scholar and Assyriologist. He is credited as the discoverer of the Code of Hammurabi in Persia. In 1911 he came into possession of the Scheil dynastic tablet and first translated it.After being ordained in 1887, he took courses in Egyptology and Assyriology at the École des Hautes Études, and was a student at the Collège de France, where he was a pupil of Assyriologist Julius Oppert. In 1890/91 as a member of the French Archaeological Mission of Cairo, he took part in excavations at Thebes. In 1892 he conducted excavations near Baghdad for the Ottoman Imperial Museum, followed by work in Constantinople, where he was tasked with classifying and drafting a catalog of Assyrian, Chaldean and Egyptian antiquities of the museum.

In 1895 he became a lecturer at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, where in 1908 he was named its director. In 1908 he also became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. In 1923 he became an officer of the Légion d'honneur.