An-am


An-am was a ruler of the Old Babylonian period city of Uruk. He took the titles of "Shepard of Uruk" and "Army Chief of Uruk". An-am is known to be the father of the succeeding ruler Irdanene from the latter's year name "... brought a statue in gold representing Dingiram his father into the temple of Nanaia". Unlike the rest of the dynasty, An-am and Irdanene had Sumerian names. A royal hymn to An-am was found at Uruk. He restored the temples of An and Inanna "the ancient work of divine Ur-Nammu and Sulgi".
From one inscription found at Uruk we know that he was the son of Ilān-šemeā and that
he rebuilt the city wall of Uruk.
In another inscription he records building a temple for the goddess Kanisurra, called the "mistress of the Iturungal", with the Iturungal being a major canal in Sumer.
Several of An-am's year names are known:
  • Year AN-am became king
  • Year in which made opposite the gate of the gipar / "nunnery" a pure and placed there a statue adorned with gold for An and Inanna
  • Year 2 thrones a statue of the king
  • Year he restored the interior of the decaying temple of An and Inanna
In a letter to ruler of Babylon Sin-Muballit, An-am reminds him that they are both of "one house" ie. from the Yaminite tribe of Amnanum. Sîn-kāšid, the founder of the 6th Dynasty of Uruk, took as a title "King of the Amnanum " as did the third ruler, Sîn-gāmil.
A few of the inscriptions of An-am are thought to have antedated his reign. In two inscriptions of An-am from the rule of Sîn-gāmil on the construction of a temple for the god Nergal in the city of Uṣarpara close with "Anam, archivist, son of Ilān-šemeā, built this temple". The location of Uṣarpara is unknown.
A millennium later an inscribed barrel cylinder of Babylonian ruler Marduk-apla-iddina II records rebuilding a "house of the god Ningishzida" in Uruk built by An-am.