Like his son and successor Aga, he reigned during a period when Kish had hegemony over Sumer.a[4] Enmebaragesi signals a momentous documentary leap from mytho-history to history, since he is the earliest ruler on the king list whose name is attested directly from archaeology.

[1] This inscription can be dated on palaeographic grounds to the Early Dynastic I based on the very archaic form of the sign Kish, still showing the horns of the aurochs’ heads' at the origin of the grapheme.

[21] He succeeded Iltasadum on the throne, where he reigned 900 years, leading a successful campaign against Elam and capturing Dumuzid the Fisherman in Uruk.

There is some scant evidence to suggest that like the later Ur III kings, the rulers of Early Dynastic Kish sought to ingratiate themselves to the authorities in Nippur, possibly to legitimize a claim for leadership over the land of Sumer or at least part of it.

A tradition of the Kishite expansion into the Susiana and Iranian plateau is reflected in an inscription of an ED II king of Kish named Enna-il, which commemorates his military operations in Elam.

[25] The inscriptions of Enmebaragesi discovered at Khafajah, and an unidentified king of Kish at Tell Agrab, are convincing indicators of the Kišite presence in the Diyala Region.

Another theory is since Enmebaragesi established the hegemony of Kish, defeating Aga would be less impressive than his powerful father, who therefore served the purpose of the hymn and portrays Gilgamesh as a mighty figure.