Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c10.45

c10.45

But we must return to the Mesopotamian sequence after Jemdet Nasr times, at which point we enter the realms of recorded history. Lists of kings and of dynasties were beginning to be compiled at least by 2000 B.C., and, though much of the earliest part is fabulous, especially the estimated length of reigns (for example the pre-Flood dynasty of eight kings together reigning for 241,200 years!), nevertheless a fairly coherent chronological skeleton has been pieced together from about 2800 B.C. The *Early Dynastic Period* of the Kingdom of Sumer appears to begin at this date, and on the evidence of archaeology and stratigraphy has been divided into three (E.D.I to E.D.III). These subdivisions need not concern us very much in dealing with the Indian material, and there is no place here to describe in any detail the achievements of Early Dynastic Sumer, with its fully literate urban culture, advanced metallurgy, and monumental buildings and sculpture.