Papyrus in three layers? P. Haun. 1 (inv. n° 5n)

Engaging “Primitive Democracy”: Mideast Roots of Collective Governance

“…101 Not only was the king the supreme commander of the military, the sole creator of new laws and very wealthy as the administrator of the temple; he was also too often the victim of his own megalomaniacal lust, "striving to become the one who would unite all of southern Mesopotamia into a single centralized state under a single ruling hand -his own." 102 Once again, however, democracy -in one guise or another -seems to have survived this early political shift towards autocracy. Although there was no doubt that the king held the supreme authority of the state, there are a number of examples where the long tradition of assemblies continued throughout Mesopotamia and further abroad.…”