I was just combing through the earliest Gilgamesh tablets and found a scribal glitch—“lord” in one line, “king” in the next—tiny, but it makes me wonder how such a detail could reshape ancient ideas about rulership. What do you think?

You’re right, the nuance is crucial. If the scribe intended “lord,” it could suggest a semi-divine patronage model, whereas “king” would be a more secular, administrative designation. The shift might reflect an evolving ideology—perhaps the scribal hand was influenced by regional dialects or the patron’s own worldview. In any case, it’s a reminder that our modern categories of “personal” versus “institutional” power were far from fixed even in Sumer.