Meanings
- historicalno pluralrareThe office or tenure of a lugal.
Steinkeller has argued that the notion of “lugalship” came to Sumer from Kiš and reflected a more authoritarian style of rule in comparison with the local Sumerian office of ensi, “city-state ruler.
2020, Karen Radner, Nadine Moeller, Daniel T. Potts, The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, Volume 1, page 5543 more examples
called himself "Ensi" as well as "Lugal" (179); the God Ningirsu bestowed upon him the "Lugalship" (nam-lugal) of Lagash (180), and the Goddess Bau destined him for the "shepherdship" (nam-sipa) of the land (181).
1962, Silvestro Fiore, Voices from the Clay, A Study on Asyro-Babylonian Poetry, page 103His reform inscriptions state that when he "had received the lugalship ... he removed from the inhabitants of Lagash usury, forestalling, famine, robbery, attacks; he established their freedom ... [and] protected the widow and the orphan from the powerful man."
1973, Thomas Walter Wallbank, Alastair MacDonald Taylor, Nels M. Bailkey, Western Perspectives, A Concise History of Civilization, page 18As the temple and city lands of one state became insufficient to support its people, or as the possessions of one divinity seemed disproportionately greater than another whose adherents coveted the riches of their neighbour, or as a palace servant seized the 'lugalship' from a failing master, so the pressures began to mount which eventually would lead to the collapse of the Sumerian state.
1994, Michael Rice, The Archaeology of the Arabian Gulf, page 104
Origin
Cite this entry
lugalship. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lugalship
“lugalship.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lugalship. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lugalship,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lugalship.
Source: lugalship on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.