History
In the Sumerian King List, before the kingship was in Zimbir, it was in the city of Larak, which fell approximately 64,800 years ago, after being around for 28,800 years, meaning it was founded circa 93,600 years ago. So far, no ruins have been found in Iraq associated with a dynastic city called Larak, however, it is believed they may lie somewhere near the ruins if Isin. Almost nothing is known about Larak. The King of Larak was said to be En-Sipadzidana of which there are no surviving stories. The name En-Sipadzidana translates approximately as ‘time of the shepherd for the faithful of heaven,’ which doesn’t really enlighten us as to what Larak was, other than that they were apparently shepherding. Sheep are believed to have been domesticated in the Middle East, approximately 13,000 years ago, however, the wild mouflon species which sheep were domesticated from, have been around for approximately four million years, and therefore sheep could have been domesticated earlier than 13,000 years ago. In fact, some studies have suggested that sheep may have been domesticated up to three times from three different wild mouflon species. Of course, the term shepherd could have been used metaphorically, as it is being used within the concept ‘shepherd for the faithful of heaven,’ which sounds like something a Christian minister might describe himself as being. The world was different between 94,000 and 65,000 years ago, and modern-humans weren’t the only people on it. The Neanderthals and Denisovans of Eurasia were the other humans on the planet at the time. Modern-humans are believed to have initially left Africa sometime between 110,000 and 95,000 years ago, and by 100,000 years ago humans and Neanderthals had begun interbreeding. While modern-human remains are found in the Middle East earlier than 80,000 years ago, after 80,000 years ago they were replaced by Neanderthals. It is believed that modern-humans left the region because the world was cooling, which allowed the neanderthals to migrate down into the area from Eastern Europe or Central Asia. Somewhere in Eurasia, a group of modern-humans with some Neanderthal DNA did survive, presumably in South Asia. Between 55,000 and 45,000 years ago these modern-humans returned to the Middle East, as the neanderthals withdrew to Europe and Siberia.