BABLON AND ELAM 8

An unpublished chronicle in the British Museum gives us further details
of Hammurabi's victory over the Elamites, and at the same time makes it
clear that the defeat and overthrow of Rim-Sin was not so crushing
as has hitherto been supposed. This chronicle relates that Hammurabi
attacked Rim-Sin, and, after capturing the cities of Ur and Larsam,
carried their spoil to Babylon. Up to the present it has been supposed
that Hammurabi's victory marked the end of Elamite influence in
Babylonia, and that thenceforward the supremacy of Babylon was
established throughout the whole of the country. But from the
new chronicle we gather that Hammurabi did not succeed in finally
suppressing the attempts of Elam to regain her former position. It is
true that the cities of Ur and Larsam were finally incorporated in the
Babylonian empire, and the letters of Hammurabi to Sin-idinnam, the
governor whom he placed in authority over Larsam, afford abundant
evidence of the stringency of the administrative control which he
established over Southern Babylonia. But R?m-Sin was only crippled for
the time, and, on being driven from Ur and Larsam, he retired beyond
the Elamite frontier and devoted his energies to the recuperation of his
forces against the time when he should feel himself strong enough again
to make a bid for victory in his struggle against the growing power of
Babylon. It is probable that he made no further attempt to renew the
contest during the life of Hammurabi, but after Samsu-iluna, the son
of Hammurabi, had succeeded to the Babylonian throne, he appeared in
Babylonia at the head of the forces he had collected, and attempted to
regain the cities and territory he had lost.
Inscribed in the reign of Hammurabi with a deed recording
the division of property. The actual tablet is on the right; that which appears to be another and larger tablet on theleft is the hollow clay case in which the tablet on the
right was originally enclosed. Photograph by Messrs. Mansell& Co.
The portion of the text of the chronicle relating to the war between
R?m-Sin and Samsu-iluna is broken so that it is not possible to follow
the campaign in detail, but it appears that Samsu-iluna defeated
Rim-Sin, and possibly captured him or burnt him alive in a palace in
which he had taken refuge.

With the final defeat of R?m-Sin by Samsu-iluna it is probable that Elam
ceased to be a thorn in the side of the kings of Babylon and that
she made no further attempts to extend her authority beyond her own
frontiers. But no sooner had Samsu-iluna freed his country from all
danger from this quarter than he found himself faced by a new foe,
before whom the dynasty eventually succumbed. This fact we learn from
the unpublished chronicle to which reference has already been made, and
the name of this new foe, as supplied by the chronicle, will render
it necessary to revise all current schemes of Babylonian chronology.
Samsu-iluna's new foe was no other than Iluma-ilu, the first king of the
Second Dynasty, and, so far from having been regarded as Samsu-iluna's
contemporary, hitherto it has been imagined that he ascended the throne
of Babylon one hundred and eighteen years after Samsu-iluna's death.
The new information supplied by the chronicle thus proves two important
facts: first, that the Second Dynasty, instead of immediately succeeding
the First Dynasty, was partly contemporary with it; second, that during
the period in which the two dynasties were contemporary they were at
war with one another, the Second Dynasty gradually encroaching on
the territory of the First Dynasty, until it eventually succeeded in
capturing Babylon and in getting the whole of the country under its
control. We also learn from the new chronicle that this Second Dynasty
at first established itself in "the Country of the Sea," that is to say,
the districts in the extreme south of Babylonia bordering on the Persian
Gulf, and afterwards extended its borders northward until it gradually
absorbed the whole of Babylonia. Before discussing the other facts
supplied by the new chronicle, with regard to the rise and growth of the
Country of the Sea, whose kings formed the so-called "Second Dynasty,"
it will be well to refer briefly to the sources from which the
information on the period to be found in the current histories is
derived.
All the schemes of Babylonian chronology that have been suggested during
the last twenty years have been based mainly on the great list of kings
which is preserved in the British Museum. This document was drawn up in
the Neo-Babylonian or Persian period, and when complete it gave a list
of the names of all the Babylonian kings from the First Dynasty of
Babylon down to the time in which it was written. The names of the kings
are arranged in dynasties, and details are given as to the length of
their reigns and the total number of years each dynasty lasted. The
beginning of the list which gave the names of the First Dynasty is
wanting, but the missing portion has been restored from a smaller
document which gives a list of the kings of the First and Second
Dynasties only. In the great list of kings the dynasties are arranged
one after the other, and it was obvious that its compiler imagined that
they succeeded one another in the order in which he arranged them.
But when the total number of years the dynasties lasted is learned, we
obtain dates for the first dynasties in the list which are too early to
agree with other chronological information supplied by the historical
inscriptions. The majority of writers have accepted the figures of the
list of kings and have been content to ignore the discrepancies; others
have sought to reconcile the available data by ingenious emendations of
the figures given by the list and the historical inscriptions, or have
omitted the Second Dynasty entirely from their calculations. The new
chronicle, by showing that the First and Second Dynasties were partly
contemporaneous, explains the discrepancies that have hitherto proved so
puzzling.

It would be out of place here to enter into a detailed discussion of
Babylonian chronology, and therefore we will confine ourselves to a
brief description of the sequence of events as revealed by the new
chronicle. According to the list of kings, Iluma-ilu's reign was a long
one, lasting for sixty years, and the new chronicle gives no indication
as to the period of his reign at which active hostilities with Babylon
broke out. If the war occurred in the latter portion of his reign, it
would follow that he had been for many years organizing the forces of
the new state he had founded in the south of Babylonia before making
serious encroachments in the north; and in that case the incessant
campaigns carried on by Babylon against Blam in the reigns of Hammurabi
and Samsu-iluna would have afforded him the opportunity of establishing
a firm foothold in the Country of the Sea without the risk of Babylonian
interference. If, on the other hand, it was in the earlier part of his
reign that hostilities with Babylon broke out, we may suppose that,
while Samsu-iluna was devoting all his energies to crush Bim-Sin, the
Country of the Sea declared her independence of Babylonian control. In
this case we may imagine Samsu-iluna hurrying south, on the conclusion
of his Elamite campaign, to crush the newly formed state before it had
had time to organize its forces for prolonged resistance.

Bablon and Elam 6

The invading Semites brought with them fresh blood and unexhausted
energy, and, finding many of their own race in scattered cities and
settlements throughout the country, they succeeded in establishing a
purely Semitic dynasty, with its capital at Babylon, and set about the
task of freeing the country from any vestiges of foreign control. Many
centuries earlier Semitic kings had ruled in Babylonian cities, and
Semitic empires had been formed there. Sargon and Nar?m-Sin,
having their capital at Agade, had established their control over a
considerable area of Western Asia and had held Elam as a province. But
so far as Elam was concerned Kutir-Nakhkhunte had reversed the balance
and had raised Elam to the position of the predominant power.

Of the struggles and campaigns of the earlier kings of the First Dynasty
of Babylon we know little, for, although we possess a considerable
number of legal and commercial documents of the period, we have
recovered no strictly historical inscriptions. Our main source of
information is the dates upon these documents, which are not dated by
the years of the reigning king, but on a system adopted by the early
Babylonian kings from their Sumerian predecessors. In the later periods
of Babylonian history tablets were dated in the year of the king who was
reigning at the time the document was drawn up, but this simple system
had not been adopted at this early period. In place of this we find that
each year was cited by the event of greatest importance which occurred
in that year. This event might be the cutting of a canal, when the year
in which this took place might be referred to as "the year in which
the canal named Ai-khegallu was cut;" or it might be the building of a
temple, as in the date-formula, "the year in which the great temple of
the Moon-god was built;" or it might be "the conquest of a city, such
as the year in which the city of Kish was destroyed." Now it will be
obvious that this system of dating had many disadvantages. An event
might be of great importance for one city, while it might never have
been heard of in another district; thus it sometimes happened that the
same event was not adopted throughout the whole country for designating
a particular year, and the result was that different systems of
dating were employed in different parts of Babylonia. Moreover, when a
particular system had been in use for a considerable time, it required
a very good memory to retain the order and period of the various events
referred to in the date-formulae, so as to fix in a moment the date of a
document by its mention of one of them. In order to assist themselves
in their task of fixing dates in this manner, the scribes of the First
Dynasty of Babylon drew up lists of the titles of the years, arranged
in chronological order under the reigns of the kings to which they
referred. Some of these lists have been recovered, and they are of the
greatest assistance in fixing the chronology, while at the same time
they furnish us with considerable information concerning the history of
the period of which we should otherwise have been in ignorance.

From these lists of date-formul?, and from the dates themselves which
are found upon the legal and commercial tablets of the period, we learn
that Kish, Ka-sallu, and Isin all gave trouble to the earlier kings of
the First Dynasty, and had in turn to be subdued. Elam did not watch the
diminution of her influence in Babylonia without a struggle to retain
it. Under Kudur-mabug, who was prince or governor of the districts lying
along the frontier of Elam, the Elamites struggled hard to maintain
their position in Babylonia, making the city of Ur the centre from which
they sought to check the growing power of Babylon. From bricks that have
been recovered from Mukayyer, the site of the city of Ur, we learn that
Kudur-mabug rebuilt the temple in that city dedicated to the Moon-god,
which is an indication of the firm hold he had obtained upon the city.
It was obvious to the new Semitic dynasty in Babylon that, until Ur and
the neighbouring city of Larsam had been captured, they could entertain
no hope of removing the Elamite yoke from Southern Babylonia. It is
probable that the earlier kings of the dynasty made many attempts to
capture them, with varying success. An echo of one of their struggles in
which they claimed the victory may be seen in the date-formula for the
fourteenth year of the reign of Sin-muballit, Hammurabi's father and
predecessor on the throne of Babylon. This year was referred to in the
documents of the period as "the year in which the people of Ur were
slain with the sword." It will be noted that the capture of the city
is not commemorated, so that we may infer that the slaughter of the
Elamites which is recorded did not materially reduce their influence,
as they were left in possession of their principal stronghold. In fact,
Elam was not signally defeated in the reign of Kudur-mabug, but in that
of his son Rim-Sin. From the date-formul? of Hammurabi's reign we learn
that the struggle between Elam and Babylon was brought to a climax in
the thirtieth year of his reign, when it is recorded in the formulas
that he defeated the Elamite army and overthrew Rim-Sin, while in the
following year we gather that he added the land of E'mutbal, that is,
the western district of Elam, to his dominions.

Babylon and Elam 5

It is possible that the sukkalu who ruled in Elam during the reign of
Kutir-Nakhkhunte was named Temti-agun, for a short inscription of
this ruler has been recovered, in which he records that he built and
dedicated a certain temple with the object of ensuring the preservation
of the life of Kutir-Na'khundi. If we may identify the Kutir-Va'khundi
of this text with the great Elamite conqueror, Kutir-Nakhkhunte, it
follows that Temti-agun, the sukkal of Susa, was his subordinate. The
inscription mentions other names which are possibly those of rulers of
this period, and reads as follows: "Temti-agun, sukkal of Susa, the son
of the sister of Sirukdu', hath built a temple of bricks at Ishme-karab
for the preservation of the life of Kutir-Na'khundi, and for the
preservation of the life of Lila-irtash, and for the preservation of his
own life, and for the preservation of the life of Temti-khisha-khanesh
and of Pil-kishamma-khashduk." As Lila-irtash is mentioned immediately
after Kutir-Na'khundi, he was possibly his son, and he may have
succeeded him as ruler of the empire of Elam and Babylonia, though no
confirmation of this view has yet been discovered. Temti-khisha-khanesh
is mentioned immediately after the reference to the preservation of the
life of Temti-agun himself, and it may be conjectured that the name was
that of Temti-agun's son, or possibly that of his wife, in which event
the last two personages mentioned in the text may have been the sons of
Temti-agun.
This short text affords a good example of one class of votive
inscriptions from which it is possible to recover the names of Elamite
rulers of this period, and it illustrates the uncertainty which at
present attaches to the identification of the names themselves and the
order in which they are to be arranged. Such uncertainty necessarily
exists when only a few texts have been recovered, and it will disappear
with the discovery of additional monuments by which the results already
arrived at may be checked. We need not here enumerate all the names of
the later Elamite rulers which have been found in the numerous votive
inscriptions recovered during the recent excavations at Susa. The order
in which they should be arranged is still a matter of considerable
uncertainty, and the facts recorded by them in such inscriptions as we
possess mainly concern the building and restoration of Elamite temples
and the decoration of shrines, and they are thus of no great historical
interest. These votive texts are well illustrated by a remarkable find
of foundation deposits made last year by M. de Morgan in the temple of
Shushinak at Susa, consisting of figures and jewelry of gold and silver,
and objects of lead, bronze, iron, stone, and ivory, cylinder-seals,
mace-heads, vases, etc. This is the richest foundation deposit that has
been recovered on any ancient site, and its archaeological interest in
connection with the development of Elamite art is great. But in no other
way does the find affect our conception of the history of the country,
and we may therefore pass on to a consideration of such recent
discoveries as throw new light upon the course of history in Western
Asia.
With the advent of the First Dynasty in Babylon Elam found herself
face to face with a power prepared to dispute her claims to exercise a
suzerainty over the plains of Mesopotamia. It is held by many writers
that the First Dynasty of Babylon was of Arab origin, and there is much
to be said for this view. M. Pognon was the first to start the theory
that its kings were not purely Babylonian, but were of either Arab or
Aramaean extraction, and he based his theory on a study of the forms of
the names which some of them bore. The name of Samsu-imna, for instance,
means "the sun is our god," but the form of the words of which the name
is composed betray foreign influence. Thus in Babylonian the name for
"sun" or the Sun-god would be _Shamash_ or _Shamshu_, not _Samsu_; in
the second half of the name, while _ilu_ ("god") is good Babylonian, the
ending _na_, which is the pronominal suffix of the first person plural,
is not Babylonian, but Arabic. We need not here enter into a long
philological discussion, and the instance already cited may suffice to
show in what way many of the names met in the Babylonian inscriptions
of this period betray a foreign, and possibly an Arabic, origin. But
whether we assign the forms of these names to Arabic influence or not,
it may be regarded as certain that, the First Dynasty of Babylon had
its origin in the incursion into Babylonia of a new wave of Semitic
immigration.

Babylon and Elam 4

The main part of the inscription is written in Semitic Babylonian,
and below there is an addition to the text written in proto-Elamite
characters, probably enumerating the offerings which the
Karibu-sha-Shushinak decreed should be made for the future in honour
of the god.* In course of time this proto-Elamite system of writing by
means of ideographs seems to have died out, and a modified form of the
Babylonian system was adopted by the Elamites for writing their own
language phonetically. It is in this phonetic character that the
so-called "Anzanite" texts of the later Elamite princes were composed.
We have assumed that both inscriptions were the work of
Karibu-sha-Shushinak. But it is also possible that the
second one in proto-Elamite characters was added at a later
period. From its position on the stone it is clear that it
was written after and not before Karibu-sha-Shushinak's
inscription in Semitic Babylonian. See the photographic
reproduction.
Karibu-sha-Shushinak, whose recently discovered bilingual inscription
has been referred to above, was one of the earlier of the subject
princes of Elam, and he probably reigned at Susa not later than B.C.
3000. He styles himself "patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,"
but we do not know at present to what contemporary king in Babylonia
he owed allegiance. The longest of his inscriptions that have been
recovered is engraved upon a stele of limestone and records the building
of the Gate of Shushinak at Susa and the cutting of a canal; it also
recounts the offerings which Karibu-sha-Shushinak dedicated on the
completion of the work. It may here be quoted as an example of the
class of votive inscriptions from which the names of these early Elamite
rulers have been recovered. The inscription runs as follows: "For
the god Shushinak, his lord, Karibu-sha-Shushinak, the son of
Shimbi-ish-khuk, patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,--when
he set the (door) of his Gate in place,... in the Gate of the god
Shushinak, his lord, and when he had opened the canal of Sidur, he set
up in face thereof his canopy, and he set planks of cedar-wood for its
gate. A sheep in the interior thereof, and sheep without, he appointed
(for sacrifice) to him each day. On days of festival he caused the
people to sing songs in the Gate of the god Shushinak. And twenty
measures of fine oil he dedicated to make his gate beautiful. Four
_magi_ of silver he dedicated; a censer of silver and gold he dedicated
for a sweet odour; a,sword he dedicated; an axe with four blades
he dedicated, and he dedicated silver in addition for the mounting
thereof.... A righteous judgment he judged in the city! As for the man
who shall transgress his judgment or shall remove his gift, may the
gods Shushinak and Shamash, Bel and Ea, Ninni and Sin, Mnkharsag and
Nati--may all the gods uproot his foundation, and his seed may they
destroy!"
It will be seen that Karibu-sha-Shushinak takes a delight in enumerating
the details of the offerings he has ordained in honour of his city-god
Shushinak, and this religious temper is peculiarly characteristic of the
princes of Elam throughout the whole course of their history. Another
interesting point to notice in the inscription is that, although the
writer invokes Shushinak, his own god, and puts his name at the head
of the list of deities whose vengeance he implores upon the impious, he
also calls upon the gods of the Babylonians. As he wrote the inscription
itself in Babylonian, in the belief that it might be recovered by
some future Semitic inhabitant of his country, so he included in his
imprecations those deities whose names he conceived would be most
reverenced by such a reader. In addition to Karibu-sha-Shushinak the
names of a number of other patesis, or viceroys, have recently
been recovered, such as Khutran-tepti, and Idadu I and his son
Kal-Rukhu-ratir, and his grandson Idadu II. All these probably ruled
after Karibu-sha-Shushinak, and may be set in the early period of
Babylonian supremacy in Elam.
It has been stated above that the allegiance which these early Elamite
princes owed to their overlords in Babylonia was probably reflected in
the titles which they bear upon their inscriptions recently found at
Susa. These titles are "_patesi_ of Susa, _shakkannak_ of Elam," which
may be rendered as "viceroy of Susa, governor of Elam." But inscriptions
have been found on the same site belonging to another series of rulers,
to whom a different title is applied. Instead of referring to themselves
as viceroys of Susa and governors of Elam, they bear the title of
_sukkal_ of Elam, of Siparki, and of Susa. Siparki, or Sipar, was
probably the name of an important section of Elamite territory, and
the title _sukkalu_, "ruler," probably carries with it an idea of
independence of foreign control which is absent from the title of
_patesi_. It is therefore legitimate to trace this change of title to
a corresponding change in the political condition of Elam; and there is
much to be said for the view that the rulers of Elam who bore the title
of _sukkalu_ reigned at a period when Elam herself was independent, and
may possibly have exercised a suzerainty over the neighbouring districts
of Babylonia.
The worker of this change in the political condition of Elam and
the author of her independence was a king named Kutir-Nakhkhunte or
Kutir-Na'khunde, whose name and deeds have been preserved in
later Assyrian records, where he is termed Kudur-Nankhundi and
Kudur-Nakhundu.* This ruler, according to the Assyrian king
Ashur-bani-pal, was not content with throwing off the yoke under which
his land had laboured for so long, but carried war into the country of
his suzerain and marched through Babylonia devastating and despoiling
the principal cities. This successful Elamite campaign took place,
according to the computation of the later Assyrian scribes, about the
year 2280 B. c, and it is probable that for many years afterwards the
authority of the King of Elam extended over the plains of Babylonia.
It has been suggested that Kutir-Nakh-khunte, after including Babylonia
within his empire, did not remain permanently in Elam, but may have
resided for a part of each year, at least, in Lower Mesopotamia.
His object, no doubt, would have been to superintend in person the
administration of his empire and to check any growing spirit of
independence among his local governors. He may thus have appointed in
Susa itself a local governor who would carry on the business of the
country during his absence, and, under the king himself, would wield
supreme authority. Such governors may have been the sukkali, who, unlike
the patesi, were independent of foreign control, but yet did not enjoy
the full title of "king."

Babylon and Elam 3

On these tablets, in fact, we have a new class of cuneiform writing in
an early stage of its development, when the hieroglyphic or pictorial
character of the ideographs was still prominent.
Although the meaning of the majority of these ideographs has not yet
been identified, P?re Scheil, who has edited the texts, has succeeded
in making out the system of numeration. He has identified the signs for
unity, 10, 100, and 1,000, and for certain fractions, and the signs for
these figures are quite different from those employed by the Sumerians.
sexagesimal, system of numeration.

That in its origin this form of writing had some connection with that
employed and, so far as we know, invented by the ancient Sumerians
is possible.* But it shows small trace of Sumerian influence, and the
disparity in the two systems of numeration is a clear indication that,
at any rate, it broke off and was isolated from the latter at a very
early period. Having once been adopted by the early Elamites, it
continued to be used by them for long periods with but small change or
modification. Employed far from the centre of Sumerian civilization, its
development was slow, and it seems to have remained in its ideographic
state, while the system employed by the Sumerians, and adopted by the
Semitic Babylonians, was developed along syllabic lines.

* It is, of course, also possible that the system of writing
had no connection in its origin with that of the Sumerians,
and was invented independently of the system employed in
Babylonia. In that case, the signs which resemble certain of
the Sumerian characters must have been adopted in a later
stage of its development. Though it would be rash to
dogmatize on the subject, the view that connects its origin
with the Sumerians appears on the whole to fit in best with
the evidence at present available.

It was without doubt this proto-Elamite system of writing which the
Semites from Babylonia found employed in Elam on their first incursions
into that country. They brought with them their own more convenient form
of writing, and, when the country had once been finally subdued, the
subject Elamite princes adopted the foreign system of writing and
language from their conquerors for memorial and monumental inscriptions.
But the ancient native writing was not entirely ousted, and continued
to be employed by the common people of Elam for the ordinary purposes
of daily life. That this was the case at least until the reign of
Karibu-sha-Shu-shinak, one of the early subject native rulers, is clear
from one of his inscriptions engraved upon a block of limestone to
commemorate the dedication of what were probably some temple furnishings
in honour of the god Shu-shinak.

Babylon and Elam 2

Such are the main facts which until recently had been ascertained
with regard to the influence of early Babylonian rulers in Elam. The
information is obtained mainly from Babylonian sources, and until
recently we have been unable to fill in any details of the picture
from the Elamite side. But this inability has now been removed by M.
de Morgan's discoveries. From the inscribed bricks, cones, stel?, and
statues that have been brought to light in the course of his excavations
at Susa, we have recovered the name of a succession of native Elamite
rulers. All those who are to be assigned to this early period, during
which Elam owed allegiance to the kings of Babylonia, ascribe to
themselves the title of _patesi_, or viceroy, of Susa, in acknowledgment
of their dependence. Their records consist principally of building
inscriptions and foundation memorials, and they commemorate the
construction or repair of temples, the cutting of canals, and the like.
They do not, therefore, throw much light upon the problems connected
with the external history of Elam during this early period, but we
obtain from them a glimpse of the internal administration of the
country. We see a nation without ambition to extend its boundaries, and
content, at any rate for the time, to owe allegiance to foreign rulers,
while the energies of its native princes are devoted exclusively to the
cultivation of the worship of the gods and to the amelioration of the
conditions of the life of the people in their charge.
A difficult but interesting problem presents itself for solution at the
outset of our inquiry into the history of this people as revealed by
their lately recovered inscriptions,--the problem of their race and
origin. Found at Susa in Elam, and inscribed by princes bearing purely
Elamite names, we should expect these votive and memorial texts to be
written entirely in the Elamite language. But such is not the case,
for many of them are written in good Semitic Babylonian. While some
are entirely composed in the tongue which we term Elamite or Anzanite,
others, so far as their language and style is concerned, might have been
written by any early Semitic king ruling in Babylonia. Why did early
princes of Susa make this use of the Babylonian tongue?

At first sight it might seem possible to trace a parallel in the use of
the Babylonian language by kings and officials in Egypt and Syria
during the fifteenth century B.C., as revealed in the letters from
Tell el-Amarna. But a moment's thought will show that the cases are not
similar. The Egyptian or Syrian scribe employed Babylonian as a medium
for his official foreign correspondence because Babylonian at that
period was the _lingua franca_ of the East. But the object of the
early Elamite rulers was totally different. Their inscribed bricks and
memorial stel? were not intended for the eyes of foreigners, but for
those of their own descendants. Built into the structure of a temple,
or buried beneath the edifice, one of their principal objects was to
preserve the name and deeds of the writer from oblivion. Like similar
documents found on the sites of Assyrian and Babylonian cities, they
sometimes include curses upon any impious man, who, on finding the
inscription after the temple shall have fallen into ruins, should in
any way injure the inscription or deface the writer's name. It will be
obvious that the writers of these inscriptions intended that they should
be intelligible to those who might come across them in the future. If,
therefore, they employed the Babylonian as well as the Elamite language,
it is clear that they expected that their future readers might be either
Babylonian or Elamite; and this belief can only be explained on the
supposition that their own subjects were of mixed race.
It is therefore certain that at this early period of Elamite history
Semitic Babylonians and Elamites dwelt side by side in Susa and retained
their separate languages. The problem therefore resolves itself into the
inquiry: which of these two peoples occupied the country first? Were the
Semites at first in sole possession, which was afterwards disputed by
the incursion of Elamite tribes from the north and east? Or were the
Elamites the original inhabitants of the land, into which the Semites
subsequently pressed from Babylonia?
A similar mixture of races is met with in Babylonia itself in the
early period of the history of that country. There the early Sumerian
inhabitants were gradually dispossessed by the invading Semite, who
adopted the civilization of the conquered race, and took over the system
of cuneiform writing, which he modified to suit his own language. In
Babylonia the Semites eventually predominated and the Sumerians as a
race disappeared, but during the process of absorption the two languages
were employed indiscriminately. The kings of the First Babylonian
Dynasty wrote their votive inscriptions sometimes in Sumerian, sometimes
in Semitic Babylonian; at other times they employed both languages
for the same text, writing the record first in Sumerian and afterwards
appending a Semitic translation by the side; and in the legal and
commercial documents of the period the old Sumerian legal forms and
phrases were retained intact. In Elam we may suppose that the use of the
Sumerian and Semitic languages was the same.
It may be surmised, however, that the first Semitic incursions into Elam
took place at a much later period than those into Babylonia, and under
very different conditions. When overrunning the plains and cities of the
Sumerians, the Semites were comparatively uncivilized, and, so far as we
know, without a system of writing of their own. The incursions into
Elam must have taken place under the great Semitic conquerors, such as
Sar-gon and Nar?m-Sin and Alu-usharshid. At this period they had fully
adopted and modified the Sumerian characters to express their own
Semitic tongue, and on their invasion of Elam they brought their system
of writing with them. The native princes of Elam, whom they conquered,
adopted it in turn for many of their votive texts and inscribed
monuments when they wished to write them in the Babylonian language.

Such is the most probable explanation of the occurrence in Elam of
inscriptions in the Old Babylonian language, written by native princes
concerning purely domestic matters. But a further question now suggests
itself. Assuming that this was the order in which events took place,
are we to suppose that the first Semitic invaders of Elam found there a
native population in a totally undeveloped stage of civilization? Or did
they find a population enjoying a comparatively high state of culture,
different from their own, which they proceeded to modify and transform!
Luckily, we have not to fall back on conjecture for an answer to these
questions, for a recent discovery at Susa has furnished material from
which it is possible to reconstruct in outline the state of culture of
these early Elamites.
This interesting discovery consists of a number of clay tablets
inscribed in the proto-Elamite system of writing, a system which was
probably the only one in use in the country during the period before the
Semitic invasion. The documents in question are small, roughly formed
tablets of clay very similar to those employed in the early periods of
Babylonian history, but the signs and characters impressed upon them
offer the greatest contrast to the Sumerian and early Babylonian
characters with which we are familiar. Although they cannot be fully
deciphered at present, it is probable that they are tablets of accounts,
the signs upon them consisting of lists of figures and what are
probably ideographs for things. Some of the ideographs, such as that for
"tablet," with which many of the texts begin, are very similar to the
Sumerian or Babylonian signs for the same objects; but the majority are
entirely different and have been formed and developed upon a system of
their own.

Babylon and Elam 1

Up to five years ago our knowledge of Elam and of the part she played in
the ancient world was derived, in the main, from a few allusions to the
country to be found in the records of Babylonian and Assyrian kings. It
is true that a few inscriptions of the native rulers had been found in
Persia, but they belonged to the late periods of her history, and the
majority consisted of short dedicatory formulae and did not supply us
with much historical information. But the excavations carried on since
then by M. de Morgan at Susa have revealed an entirely new chapter of
ancient Oriental history, and have thrown a flood of light upon the
position occupied by Elam among the early races of the East.

Lying to the north of the Persian Gulf and to the east of the Tigris,
and rising from the broad plains nearer the coast to the mountainous
districts within its borders on the east and north, Elam was one of the
nearest neighbours of Chald?a. A few facts concerning her relations with
Babylonia during certain periods of her history have long been known,
and her struggles with the later kings of Assyria are known in some
detail; but for her history during the earliest periods we have had to
trust mainly to conjecture. That in the earlier as in the later periods
she should have been in constant antagonism with Babylonia might
legitimately be suspected, and it is not surprising that we should find
an echo of her early struggles with Chald?a in the legends which were
current in the later periods of Babylonian history. In the fourth and
fifth tablets, or sections, of the great Babylonian epic which describes
the exploits of the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh, a story is told of an
expedition undertaken by Gilgamesh and his friend Ba-bani against an
Elamite despot named Khum-baba. It is related in the poem that Khumbaba
was feared by all who dwelt near him, for his roaring was like the
storm, and any man perished who was rash enough to enter the cedar-wood
in which he dwelt. But Gilgamesh, encouraged by a dream sent him by
Sha-mash, the Sun-god, pressed on with his friend, and, having entered
the wood, succeeded in slaying Khumbaba and in cutting off his head.
This legend is doubtless based on episodes in early Babylonian and
Elamite history. Khumbaba may not have been an actual historical ruler,
but at least he represents or personifies the power of Elam, and the
success of Gilgamesh no doubt reflects the aspirations with which many a
Babylonian expedition set out for the Elamite frontier.
Incidentally it may be noted that the legend possibly had a still closer
historical parallel, for the name of Khumbaba occurs as a component in
a proper name upon one of the Elamite contracts found recently by M. de
Morgan at Mai-Amir. The name in question is written _Khumbaba-arad-ili_,
"Khumbaba, the servant of God," and it proves that at the date at which
the contract was written (about 1300-1000 B.C.) the name of Khumbaba was
still held in remembrance, possibly as that of an early historical ruler
of the country.
In her struggles with Chald?a, Elam was not successful during the
earliest historical period of which we have obtained information; and,
so far as we can tell at present, her princes long continued to own
allegiance to the Semitic rulers whose influence was predominant from
time to time in the plains of Lower Mesopotamia. Tradition relates that
two of the earliest Semitic rulers whose names are known to us, Sargon
and Nar?m-Sin, kings of Agade, held sway in Elam, for in the "Omens"
which were current in a later period concerning them, the former is
credited with the conquest of the whole country, while of the latter it
is related that he conquered Apirak, an Elamite district, and captured
its king. Some doubts were formerly cast upon these traditions inasmuch
as they were found in a text containing omens or forecasts, but these
doubts were removed by the discovery of contemporary documents by which
the later traditions were confirmed. Sargon's conquest of Elam, for
instance, was proved to be historical by a reference to the event in a
date-formula upon tablets belonging to his reign. Moreover, the event
has received further confirmation from an unpublished tablet in the
British Museum, containing a copy of the original chronicle from which
the historical extracts in the "Omens" were derived. The portion of
the composition inscribed upon this tablet does not contain the lines
referring to Sargon's conquest of Elam, for these occurred in an earlier
section of the composition; but the recovery of the tablet puts beyond
a doubt the historical character of the traditions preserved upon the
omen-tablet as a whole, and the conquest of Elam is thus confirmed
by inference. The new text does recount the expedition undertaken by
Nar?m-Sin, the son of Sargon, against Apirak, and so furnishes a direct
confirmation of this event.
Another early conqueror of Elam, who was probably of Semitic origin,
was Alu-usharshid, king of the city of Kish, for, from a number of his
inscriptions found near those of Sargon at Nippur in Babylonia, we learn
that he subdued Elam and Para'se, the district in which the city of Susa
was probably situated. From a small mace-head preserved in the British
Museum we know of another conquest of Elam by a Semitic ruler of this
early period. The mace-head was made and engraved by the orders of
Mutabil, an early governor of the city of D?r-ilu, to commemorate his
own valour as the man "who smote the head of the hosts" of Elam. Mutabil
was not himself an independent ruler, and his conquest of Elam must have
been undertaken on behalf of the suzerain to whom he owed allegiance,
and thus his victory cannot be classed in the same category as those of
his predecessors. A similar remark applies to the success against
the city of Anshan in Elam, achieved by Grudea, the Sumerian ruler
of Shirpurla, inasmuch as he was a patesi, or viceroy, and not an
independent king. Of greater duration was the influence exercised over
Elam by the kings of Ur, for bricks and contract-tablets have been found
at Susa proving that Dungi, one of the most powerful kings of Ur, and
Bur-Sin, Ine-Sin, and Oamil-Sin, kings of the second dynasty in that
city, all in turn included Elam within the limits of their empire.

History of Various Areas (19)(as of 1900)

But perhaps the most interesting conclusions to be drawn from the texts
relate to the influence exerted by the ancient Sumerians upon Semitic
beliefs and practices. It has, of course, long been recognized that the
later Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria drew most of their
culture from the Sumerians, whom they displaced and absorbed. Their
system of writing, the general structure of their temples, the ritual of
their worship, the majority of their religious compositions, and many of
their gods themselves are to be traced to a Sumerian origin, and much of
the information obtained from the cylinders of Gudea merely confirms
or illustrates the conclusions already deduced from other sources. As
instances we may mention the belief in spirits, which is illustrated by
the importance attached to the placating of the Anunnaki, or Spirits of
the Earth, to whom a special place and special offerings were assigned
in E-ninn?. The Sumerian origin of ceremonies of purification is
confirmed by Gudea's purification of the city before beginning the
building of the temple, and again before the transference of the god
from his old temple to the new one. The consultation of omens, which was
so marked a feature of Babylonian and Assyrian life, is seen in actual
operation under the Sumerians; for, even after Gudea had received direct
instructions from Ningirsu to begin building his temple, he did not
proceed to carry them out until he had consulted the omens and found
that they were favourable. Moreover, the references to mythological
beings, such as the seven heroes, the dragon of the deep, and the god
who slew the dragon, confirm the opinion that the creation legends and
other mythological compositions of the Babylonians were derived by them
from Sumerian sources. But there are two incidents in the narrative
which are on a rather different plane and are more startling in their
novelty. One is the story of Gudea's dream, and the other the sign
which he sought from his god. The former is distinctly apocalyptic in
character, and both may be parallelled in what is regarded as purely
Semitic literature. That such conceptions existed among the Sumerians is
a most interesting fact, and although the theory of independent origin
is possible, their existence may well have influenced later Semitic
beliefs.

History of Various Areas (18)(as of 1900)

The cultivator of the district of Gu-edin was the god Gishbare, and he
was installed in the temple that he might cause the great fields to be
fertile, and might make the wheat glisten in Gu-edin, the plain assigned
to Ningirsu for his revenues. It was this god's duty also to tend the
machines for irrigation, and to raise the water into the canals and
ditches of Shirpurla, and thus to keep the city's granaries well filled.
The god Kal was the guardian of the fishing in Gu-edin, and his chief
duty was to place fish in the sacred pools. The steward of Gu-edin was
the god Dimgalabzu, whose duty it was to keep the plain in good order,
so that the birds might abound there and the beasts might raise their
young in peace; he also guarded the special privilege, which the plain
enjoyed, of freedom from any tax levied upon the increase of the
cattle pastured there. Last of all Gudea installed in E-ninn? the god
Lugalenurua-zagakam, who looked after the construction of houses in the
city and the building of fortresses upon the city wall; in the temple it
was his privilege to raise on high a battle-axe made of cedar.
All these lesser deities, having close relations to the god Ningirsu,
were installed by Gudea in his temple in close proximity to him, that
they might be always ready to perform their special functions. But the
greater deities also had their share in the inauguration of the temple,
and of these Gudea specially mentions Ana, Enlil, Ninkharsag, Enki, and
Enzu, who all assisted in rendering the temple's lot propitious. For at
least three of the greater gods (Ana, Enlil, and the goddess Nin-makh)
Gudea erected shrines near one another and probably within the temple's
precincts, and, as the passage which records this fact is broken, it is
possible that the missing portion of the text recorded the building of
shrines to other deities. In any case, it is clear that the composer
of the text represents all the great gods as beholding the erection and
inauguration of Ningirsu's new temple with favour.

After the account of the installation of Ningirsu, and his spouse Bau,
and his attendant deities, the text records the sumptuous offerings
which Gudea placed within Ningirsu's shrine. These included another
chariot drawn by an ass, a seven-headed battle-axe, a sword with nine
emblems, a bow with terrible arrows and a quiver decorated with wild
beasts and dragons shooting out their tongues, and a bed which was
set within the god's sleeping-chamber. On the couch in the shrine the
goddess Bau reclined beside her lord Ningirsu, and ate of the great
victims which were sacrificed in their honour.
When the ceremony of installation had been successfully performed, Gudea
rested, and for seven days he feasted with his people. During this time
the maid was the equal of her mistress, and master and servant consorted
together as friends. The powerful and the humble man lay down side by
side, and in place of evil speech only propitious words were heard. The
rich man did not wrong the orphan and the strong man did not oppress the
widow. The laws of Nin? and Ningirsu were observed, justice was bright
in the sunlight, and the Sun-god trampled iniquity under foot. The
building of the temple also restored material prosperity to the land,
for the canals became full of water and fish swarmed in the pools, the
granaries were filled with grain and the flocks and herds brought forth
their increase. The city of Shirpurla was satiated with abundance.

Such is a summary of the account which Gudea has left us of his
rebuilding of the temple E-ninn?, of the reasons which led him to
undertake the work, and of the results which followed its completion. It
has often been said that the inscriptions of the ancient Sumerians are
without much intrinsic value, that they mainly consist of dull votive
formul?, and that for general interest the best of them cannot be
compared with the later inscriptions of the Semitic inhabitants
of Mesopotamia. This reproach, for which until recently there was
considerable justification, has been finally removed by the working
out of the texts upon Gudea's cylinders. For picturesque narrative, for
wealth of detail, and for striking similes, it would be hard to find
their superior in Babylonian and Assyrian literature. They are, in fact,
very remarkable compositions, and in themselves justify the claim that
the Sumerians were possessed of a literature in the proper sense of the
term.

But that is not their only value, for they give a vivid picture of
ancient Sumerian life and of the ideals and aims which actuated the
people and their rulers. The Sumerians were essentially an unmilitary
race. That they could maintain a stubborn fight for their territory is
proved by the prolonged struggle maintained by Shirpurla against her
rival Gishkhu, but neither ruler nor people was inflamed by love of
conquest for its own sake. They were settled in a rich and fertile
country, which supplied their own wants in abundance, and they were
content to lead a peaceful life therein, engaged in agricultural and
industrial pursuits, and devoted wholly to the worship of their gods.
Gudea's inscriptions enable us to realize with what fervour they carried
out the rebuilding of a temple, and how the whole resources of the
nation were devoted to the successful completion of the work. It is true
that the rebuilding of E-ninn? was undertaken in a critical period when
the land was threatened with famine, and the peculiar magnificence with
which the work was carried out may be partly explained as due to the
belief that such devotion would ensure a return of material prosperity.
But the existence of such a belief is in itself an index to the people's
character, and we may take it that the record faithfully represents the
relations of the Sumerians to their gods, and the important place which
worship and ritual occupied in the national life.

Moreover, the inscriptions of Gudea furnish much valuable information
with regard to the details of Sumerian worship and the elaborate
organization of the temples. From them we can reconstruct a picture of
one of these immense buildings, with its numerous shrines and courts,
surrounded by sacred gardens and raising its ziggurat, or temple tower,
high above the surrounding city. Within its dark chambers were the
mysterious figures of the gods, and what little light could enter would
have been reflected in the tanks of sacred water sunk to the level of
the pavement. The air within the shrines must have been heavy with the
smell of incense and of aromatic woods, while the deep silence would
have been broken only by the chanting of the priests and the feet of
those that bore offerings. Outside in the sunlight cedars and other rare
trees cast a pleasant shade, and birds flew about among the flowers and
bushes in the outer courts and on the garden terraces. The area covered
by the temple buildings must have been enormous, for they included the
dwellings of the priests, stables and pens for the cattle, sheep, and
kids employed for sacrifice, and treasure-chambers and storehouses and
granaries for the produce from the temple lands.

We also get much information with regard to the nature of the offerings
and the character of the ceremonies which were performed. We may mention
as of peculiar interest Gudea's symbolical rite which preceded the
making of the sun-dried bricks, and the ceremony of the installation of
Ningirsu in the presence of the prostrate city. The texts also throw
an interesting light on the truly Oriental manner in which, when
approaching one deity for help, the cooperation and assistance of other
deities were first secured. Thus Gudea solicited the intercession of
Ningirsu and Gatumdug before applying to the goddess Nin? to interpret
his dream. The extremely human character of the gods themselves is also
well illustrated. Thus we gather from the texts that Ningirsu's temple
was arranged like the palace of a Sumerian ruler and that he was
surrounded by gods who took the place of the attendants and ministers
of his human counterpart. His son was installed in a place of honour and
shared with him the responsibility of government. Another god was his
personal attendant and cupbearer, who offered him fair water and looked
after the ablutions. Two more were his generals, who secured his country
against the attacks of foes. Another was his counsellor, who received
and presented petitions from his subjects and superintended his
journeys. Another was the head of his har?m, a position of great
trust and responsibility, while a keeper of the har?m looked after the
practical details. Another god was the driver of his chariot, and it
is interesting to note that the chariot was drawn by an ass, for horses
were not introduced into Western Asia until a much later period. Other
gods performed the functions of head shepherd, chief musician, chief
singer, head cultivator and inspector of irrigation, inspector of the
fishing, land steward, and architect. His household also included his
wife and his seven virgin daughters. In addition to the account of the
various functions performed by these lesser deities, the texts also
furnish valuable facts with regard to the characters and attributes
of the greater gods and goddesses, such as the attributes of Ningirsu
himself, and the character of Nin? as the goddess who divined and
interpreted the secrets of the gods.

History of Various Areas (17)(as of 1900)

While he was engaged on the building Gudea took counsel of the god Enki,
and he built a fountain for the gods, where they might drink. With the
great stones which he had brought and fashioned he built a reservoir
and a basin for the temple. And seven of the great stones he set up as
stel?, and he gave them favourable names. The text then recounts
the various parts and shrines of the temple, and it describes their
splendours in similes drawn from the heavens and the earth and the
abyss, or deep, beneath the earth. The temple itself is described as,
being like the crescent of the new moon, or like the sun in the midst
of the stars, or like a mountain of lapis lazuli, or like a mountain of
shining marble. Parts of it are said to have been terrible and strong as
a savage bull, or a lion, or the antelope of the abyss, or the monster
Lakhamu who dwells in the abyss, or the sacred leopard that inspires
terror. One of the doors of the temple was guarded by a figure of the
hero who slew the monster with six heads, and at another door was a good
dragon, and at another a lion; opposite the city were set figures of
the seven heroes, and facing the rising sun was fixed the emblem of the
Sun-god. Figures of other heroes and favourable monsters were set up as
guardians of other portions of the temple. The fastenings of the main
entrance were decorated with dragons shooting out their tongues, and the
bolt of the great door was fashioned like a raging hound.
After this description of the construction and adornment of the
temple the text goes on to narrate how Gudea arranged for its material
endowment. He stalled oxen and sheep, for sacrifice and feasting, in the
outhouses and pens within the temple precincts, and he heaped up grain
in its granaries. Its storehouses he filled with spices so that
they were like the Tigris when its waters are in flood, and in its
treasure-chambers he piled up precious stones, and silver, and lead in
abundance. Within the temple precincts he planted a sacred garden which
was like a mountain covered with vines; and on the terrace he built
a great reservoir, or tank, lined with lead, in addition to the great
stone reservoir within the temple itself. He constructed a special
dwelling-place for the sacred doves, and among the flowers of the temple
garden and under the shade of the great trees the birds of heaven flew
about unmolested.

The first of the two great cylinders of Gudea ends at this point in the
description of the temple, and it is evident that its text was composed
while the work of building was still in progress. Moreover, the writing
of the cylinder was finished before the actual work of building the
temple was completed, for the last column of the text concludes with a
prayer to Ningirsu to make it glorious during the progress of the work,
the prayer ending with the words, "O Ningirsu, glorify it! Glorify the
temple of Ningirsu during its construction!" The text of the second of
the two great cylinders is shorter than that of the first, consisting
of twenty-four instead of thirty columns of writing, and it was composed
and written after the temple was completed. Like the first of the
cylinders, it concludes with a prayer to Ningirsu on behalf of the
temple, ending with the similar refrain, "O Ningirsu, glorify it!
Glorify the temple of Ningirsu after its construction!" The first
cylinder, as we have seen, records how it came about that Gudea decided
to rebuild the temple E-ninn? in honour of Ningirsu. It describes how,
when the land was suffering from drought and famine, Gudea had a dream,
how Nin? interpreted the dream to mean that he must rebuild the temple,
and how Ningirsu himself promised that this act of piety would restore
abundance and prosperity to the land. Its text ends with the long
description of the sumptuous manner in which the patesi carried out the
work, the most striking points of which we have just summarized. The
narrative of the second cylinder begins at the moment when the building
of the temple was finished, and when all was ready for the great god
Nin-girsu to be installed therein, and its text is taken up with a
description of the ceremonies and rites with which this solemn function
was carried out. It presents us with a picture, drawn from life, of the
worship and cult of the ancient Sumerians in actual operation. In view
of its importance from the point of view of the study and comparison of
the Sumerian and Babylonian religious systems, its contents also may be
summarized. We will afterwards discuss briefly the information furnished
by both the cylinders on the Sumerian origin of many of the religious
beliefs and practices which were current among the later Semitic
inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria.

When Gudea had finished building the new temple of E-ninn?, and had
completed the decoration and adornment of its shrines, and had planted
its gardens and stocked its treasure-chambers and storehouses, he
applied himself to the preliminary ceremonies and religious preparations
which necessarily preceded the actual function of transferring the
statue of the god Ningirsu from his old temple to his new one. Gudea's
first act was to install the Anunnaki, or Spirits of the Earth, in the
new temple, and when he had done this, and had supplied additional
sheep for their sacrifices and food in abundance for their offerings, he
prayed to them to give him their assistance and to pronounce a prayer at
his side when he should lead Ningirsu into his new dwelling-place.
The text then describes how Gudea went to the old temple of Ningirsu,
accompanied by his protecting spirits who walked before him and behind
him. Into the old temple he carried sumptuous offerings, and when he
had set them before the god, he addressed him in prayer and said: "O
my King, Ningirsu! O Lord, who curbest the raging waters! O Lord, whose
word surpasseth all others! O Son of Enlil, O warrior, what commands
shall I faithfully carry out? O Ningirsu, I have built thy temple, and
with joy would I lead thee therein, and my goddess Bau would install at
thy side." We are told that the god accepted Gudea's prayer, and thereby
he gave his consent to be removed from the old temple of E-ninn? to his
new one which bore the same name.

But the ceremony of the god's removal was not carried out at once, for
the due time had not arrived. The year ended, and the new year came,
and then "the month of the temple" began. The third day of the month
was that appointed for the installation of Ningirsu. Gudea meanwhile had
sprinkled the ground with oil, and set out offerings of honey and butter
and wine, and grain mixed with milk, and dates, and food untouched
by fire, to serve as food for the gods; and the gods themselves had
assisted in the preparations for the reception of Ningirsu. The god
Asaru made ready the temple itself, and Ninmada performed the ceremony
of purification. The god Enki issued oracles, and the god Nindub, the
supreme priest of Eridu, brought incense. Nin? performed chants within
the temple, and brought black sheep and holy cows to its folds and
stalls. This record of the help given by the other gods we may interpret
as meaning that the priests attached to the other great Sumerian
temples took part in the preparation of the new temple, and added their
offerings to the temple stores. To many of the gods, also, special
shrines within the temple were assigned.

When the purification of E-ninn? was completed and the way between
the old temple and the new made ready, all the inhabitants of the city
prostrated themselves on the ground. "The city," says Gudea, "was like
the mother of a sick man who prepareth a potion for him, or like the
cattle of the plain which lie down together, or like the fierce lion,
the master of the plain, when he coucheth." During the day and the night
before the ceremony of removal, prayers and supplications were uttered,
and at the first light of dawn on the appointed day the god Ningirsu
went into his new temple "like a whirlwind," the goddess Bau entering
at his side "like the sun rising over Shirpurla." She entered beside his
couch, like a faithful wife, whose cares are for her own household, and
she dwelt beside his ear and bestowed abundance upon Shirpurla.

As the day began to brighten and the sun rose, Gudea set out as
offerings in the temple a fat ox and a fat sheep, and he brought a vase
of lead and filled it with wine, which he poured out as a libation, and
he performed incantations. Then, having duly established Ningirsu and
Bau in the chief shrine, he turned his attention to the lesser gods and
installed them in their appointed places in the temple, where they would
be always ready to assist Ningirsu in the temple ceremonies and in the
issue of his decrees for the welfare of the city and its inhabitants.
Thus he established the god Galalim, the son of Ningirsu, in a chosen
spot in the great court in front of the temple, where, under the orders
of his father, he should direct the just and curb the evil-doer; he
would also by his presence strengthen and preserve the temple, while
his special duty was to guard the throne of destiny and, on behalf of
Ningirsu, to place the sceptre in the hands of the reigning patesi.
Near to Ningirsu and under his orders Gudea also established the god
Dunshaga, whose function it was to sanctify the temple and to look after
its libations and offerings, and to see to the due performance of the
ceremonies of ablution. This god would offer water to Ningirsu with a
pure hand, he would pour out libations of wine and strong drink, and
would tend the oxen, sheep, kids, and other offerings which were brought
to the temple night and day. To the god Lugalkurdub, who was also
installed in the temple, was assigned the privilege of holding in his
hand the mace with the seven heads, and it was his duty to open the door
of the Gate of Combat. He guarded the sacred weapons of Ningirsu and
destroyed the countries of his enemies. He was Ningirsu's chief leader
in battle, and another god with lesser powers was associated with him as
his second leader.

Ningirsu's counsellor was the god Lugalsisa, and he also had his
appointed place in E-ninn?. It was his duty to receive the prayers
of Shirpurla and render them propitious; he superintended and blessed
Ningirsu's journey when he visited Eridu or returned from that city,
and he made special intercessions for the life of Gudea. The minister of
Ningirsu's har?m was the god Shakanshabar, and he was installed near to
Nin-girsu that he might issue his commands, both great and small. The
keeper of the har?m was the god Urizu, and it was his duty to purify the
water and sanctify the grain, and he tended Ningirsu's sleeping-chamber
and saw that all was arranged therein as was fitting. The driver of
Ningirsu's chariot was the god Ensignun; it was his duty to keep the
sacred chariot as bright as the stars of heaven, and morning and evening
to tend and feed Ningirsu's sacred ass, called Ug-kash, and the ass
of Eridu. The shepherd of Ningirsu's kids was the god Enlulim, and hetended the sacred she-goat who suckled the kids, and he guarded her so
that the serpent should not steal her milk. This god also looked
after the oil and the strong drink of E-ninn?, and saw that its store
increased.

Ningirsu's beloved musician was the god Ushum-gabkalama, and he was
installed in E-ninn? that he might take his flute and fill the temple
court with joy. It was his privilege to play to Ningirsu as he listened
in his har?m, and to render the life of the god pleasant in E-ninn?.
Ningirsu's singer was the god Lugaligi-khusham, and he had his appointed
place in E-ninn?, for he could appease the heart and soften anger; he
could stop the tears which flowed from weeping eyes, and could lessen
sorrow in the sighing heart. Gudea also installed in E-ninn? the seven
twin-daughters of the goddess Bau, all virgins, whom Ningirsu had
begotten. Their names were Zarzaru, Impa?, Urenunta?a, Khegir-nuna,
Kheshaga, Gurmu, and Zarmu. Gudea installed them near their father that
they might offer favourable prayers.

History of Various Areas (16)(as of 1900)

Having interpreted the meaning of the dream, the goddess Nin? proceeded
to give Gudea instruction as to how he should go to work to build the
temple. She told him first of all to go to his treasure-house and bring
forth his treasures from their sealed cases, and out of these to make
certain offerings which he was to place near the god Ningirsu, in the
temple in which he was dwelling at that time. The offerings were to
consist of a chariot, adorned with pure metal and precious stones;
bright arrows in a quiver; the weapon of the god, his sacred emblem, on
which Gudea was to inscribe his own name; and finally a lyre, the music
of which was wont to soothe the god when he took counsel with himself.
Nin? added that if the patesi carried out her instructions and made the
offerings she had specified, Ningirsu would reveal to him the plan on
which the temple was to be built, and would also bless him. Gudea bowed
himself down in token of his submission to the commands of the goddess,
and proceeded to execute them forthwith. He brought out his treasures,
and from the precious woods and metals which he possessed his craftsmen
fashioned the objects he was to present, and he set them in Ningirsu's
temple near to the god. He worked day and night, and, having prepared a
suitable spot in the precincts of the temple at the place of judgment,
he spread out upon it as offerings a fat sheep and a kid and the skin of
a young female kid. Then he built a fire of cypress and cedar and other
aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour, and, entering the inner chamber
of the temple, he offered a prayer to Ningirsu. He said that he wished
to build the temple, but he had received no sign that this was the will
of the god, and he prayed for a sign.
While he prayed the patesi was stretched out upon the ground, and the
god, standing near his head, then answered him. He said that he who
should build his temple was none other than Gudea, and that he would
give him the sign for which he asked. But first he described the plan
on which the temple was to be built, naming its various shrines and
chambers and describing the manner in which they were to be fashioned
and adorned. And the god promised that when Gudea should build the
temple, the land would once more enjoy abundance, for Ningirsu would
send a wind which should proclaim to the heavens the return of the
waters. And on that day the waters would fall from the heavens, the
water in the ditches and canals would rise, and water would gush out
from the dry clefts in the ground. And the great fields would once
more produce their crops, and oil would be poured out plenteously in
Sumer[sp.] and wool would again be weighed in great abundance. In that
day the god would go to the mountain where dwelt the whirlwind, and he
would himself direct the wind which should give the land the breath of
life. Gudea must therefore work day and night at the task of building
the temple. One company of men was to relieve another at its toil, and
during the night the men were to kindle lights so that the plain should
be as bright as day. Thus the builders would build continuously. Men
were also to be sent to the mountains to cut down cedars and pines and
other trees and bring their trunks to the city, while masons were to go
to the mountains and were to cut and transport huge blocks of stone to
be used in the construction of the temple. Finally the god gave Gudea
the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his side
touched as by a flame, and thereby he should know that he was the man
chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands.
Gudea bowed his head in submission, and his first act was to consult the
omens, and the omens were favourable. He then proceeded to purify the
city by special rites, so that the mother when angered did not chide her
son, and the master did not strike his servant's head, and the mistress,
though provoked by her handmaid, did not smite her face. And Gudea drove
all the evil wizards and sorcerers from the city, and he purified and
sanctified the city completely. Then he kindled a great fire of cedar
and other aromatic woods, to make a sweet savour for the gods, and
prayers were offered day and night; and the patesi addressed a prayer
to the Anun-naki, or Spirits of the Earth, who dwelt in Shirpurla,
and assigned a place to them in the temple. Then, having completed
his purification of the city itself, he consecrated its immediate
surroundings. Thus he consecrated the district of Gu-edin, whence the
revenues of Ningirsu were derived, and the lands of the goddess Nin?
with their populous villages. And he consecrated the wild and savage
bulls which no man could turn aside, and the cedars which were sacred
to Ningirsu, and the cattle of the plains. And he consecrated the armed
men, and the famous warriors, and the warriors of the Sun-god. And the
emblems of the god Ningirsu, and of the two great goddesses, Nin? and
Ninni, he installed before them in their shrines.
Then Gudea sent far and wide to fetch materials for the construction of
the temple. And the Elamite came from Elani, and men of Susa came from
Susa, and men brought wood from the mountains of Sinai and Melukh-kha.
And into the mountain of cedars, where no man before had penetrated,
the patesi cut a road, and he brought cedars and beams of other precious
woods in great quantities to the city. And he also made a road into the
mountain where stone was quarried, into places where no man before had
penetrated. And he carried great blocks of stone down from the mountain
and loaded them into barges and brought them to the city. And the barges
brought bitumen and plaster, and they were loaded as though they were
carrying grain, and all manner of great things were brought to the
city. Copper ore was brought from the mountain of copper in the land of
Kimash, and gold was brought in powder from the mountains, and silver
was brought from the mountains and porphyry from the land of Melukhkha,
and marble from the mountain of marble. And the patesi installed
goldsmiths and silversmiths, who wrought in these precious metals, for
the adornment of the temple; and he brought smiths who worked in copper
and lead, who were priests of Nin-tu-kalama. In his search for fitting
materials for the building of the temple, Gudea journeyed from the lower
country to the upper country, and from the upper country to the lower
country he returned.
The only other materials now wanting for the construction of the temple
were the sun-dried bricks of clay, of which the temple platform and
the structure of the temple itself were in the main composed. Their
manufacture was now inaugurated by a symbolical ceremony carried out by
the patesi in person. At dawn he performed an ablution with the fitting
rites that accompanied it, and when the day was more advanced he slew
a bull and a kid as sacrifices, and he then entered the temple of
Ningirsu, where he prostrated himself. And he took the sacred mould
and the fair cushion on which it rested in the temple, and he poured a
libation into the mould. Afterwards, having made offerings of honey and
butter, and having burnt incense, he placed the cushion and the mould
upon his head and carried it to the appointed place. There he placed
clay in the mould, shaping it into a brick, and he left the brick in its
mould within the temple. And last of all he sprinkled oil of cedar-wood
arThe next day at dawn Gudea broke the mould and set the brick in the sun.
And the Sun-god was rejoiced at the brick that he had fashioned. And
Gudea took the brick and raised it on high towards the heavens, and he
carried the brick to his people. In this way the patesi inaugurated the
manufacture of the sun-dried bricks for the temple, the sacred brick
which he had made being the symbol and pattern of the innumerable bricks
to be used in its construction. He then marked out the plan of the
temple, and the text states that he devoted himself to the building of
the temple like a young man who has begun building a house and allows
no pleasure to interfere with his task. And he chose out skilled workmen
and employed them on the building, and he was filled with joy. The gods,
too, are stated to have helped with the building, for Enki fixed the
temennu of the temple, and the goddess Nin? looked after its oracles,
and Gatumdug, the mother of Shir-purla, fashioned bricks for it morning
and evening, while the goddess Bau sprinkled aromatic oil of cedar-wood.
Gudea himself laid its foundations, and as he did so he blessed the
temple seven times, comparing it to the sacred brick, to the holy
libation-vase, to the divine eagle of Shirpurla, to a terrible couching
panther, to the beautiful heavens, to the day of offerings, and to the
morning light which brightens the land. He caused the temple to rise
towards heaven like a mountain, or like a cedar growing in the desert.
He built it of bricks of Sumer, and the timbers which he set in place
were as strong as the dragon of the deep.

History of Various Areas (15)(as of 1900)

A most valuable contribution has recently been made to our knowledge of
Sumerian religion and of the light in which these early rulers regarded
the cult and worship of their gods, by the complete interpretation of
the long texts inscribed upon the famous cylinders of Gudea, the patesi
of Shirpurla, which have been preserved for many years in the Louvre.
These two great cylinders of baked clay were discovered by the late M.
de Sarzec so long ago as the year 1877, during the first period of his
diggings at Telloh, and, although the general nature of their contents
has long been recognized, no complete translation of the texts inscribed
upon them had been published until a few months ago. M. Thureau-Dangin,
who has made the early Sumerian texts his special study, has devoted
himself to their interpretation for some years past, and he has just
issued the first part of his monograph upon them. In view of the
importance of the texts and of the light they throw upon the religious
beliefs and practices of the early Sumerians, a somewhat detailed
account of their contents may here be given.
The occasion on which the cylinders were made was the rebuilding by
Gudea of E-ninn?, the great temple of the god Ningirsu, in the city of
Shirpurla. The two cylinders supplement one another, one of them having
been inscribed while the work of construction was still in progress, the
other after the completion of the temple, when the god Ningirsu had been
installed within his shrine with due pomp and ceremony. It would appear
that Southern Babylonia had been suffering from a prolonged drought, and
that the water in the rivers and canals had fallen, so that the crops
had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. Gudea was at a
loss to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country,
when one night he had a dream, and it was in consequence of this dream
that he eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of
Sumerian temples. By this means he secured the return of Ningirsu's
favour and that of the other gods, and his country once more enjoyed the
blessings of peace and prosperity.
In the opening words of the first of his cylinders Gudea describes how
the great gods themselves took counsel and decreed that he should build
the temple of E-ninn? and thereby restore to his city the supply of
water it had formerly enjoyed. He records that on the day on which the
destinies were fixed in heaven and upon earth, Enlil, the chief of the
gods, and Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla, held converse. And Enlil,
turning to Ningirsu, said: "In my city that which is fitting is not
done. The stream doth not rise. The stream of Enlil doth not rise. The
high waters shine not, neither do they show their splendour. The stream
of Enlil bringeth not good water like the Tigris. Let the King (i.e.
Ningirsu) therefore proclaim the temple. Let the decrees of the temple
E-ninn? be made illustrious in heaven and upon earth!" The great gods
did not communicate their orders directly to Gudea, but conveyed their
wishes to him by means of a dream. And while the patesi slept a vision
of the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great
that it equalled the heavens and the earth. And by the crown he wore
upon his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. And by his side
was the divine eagle, the emblem of Shirpurla, and his feet rested upon
the whirlwind, and a lion was crouching upon his right hand and upon his
left. And the figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the
meaning of the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the sun rose from
the earth and he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she
carried also a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed
to take counsel with herself. And while Gudea was gazing he seemed to
see a second man who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis
lazuli and on it he drew out the plan of a temple. And before the patesi
himself it seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion
was set a mould, and within the mould was a brick, the brick of destiny.
And on the right hand the patesi beheld an ass which lay upon the
ground.
Such was the dream which Gudea beheld in a vision of the night, and he
was troubled because he could not interpret it. So he decided to go
to the goddess Nin?, who could divine all mysteries of the gods, and
beseech her to tell him the meaning of the vision. But before applying
to the goddess for her help, he thought it best to secure the mediation
of the god Ningirsu and the goddess Gatumdug, in order that they should
use their influence with Nin? to induce her to reveal the interpretation
of the dream. So the patesi set out to the temple of Ningirsu, and,
having offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water, he prayed to the
god that his sister, Nin?, the child of Eridu, might be prevailed upon
to give him help. And the god hearkened to his prayer. Then Gudea made
offerings, and before the sleeping-chamber of the goddess Gatumdug he
offered a sacrifice and poured out fresh water. And he prayed to the
goddess, calling her his queen and the child of the pure heaven, who
gave life to the countries and befriended and preserved the people or
the man on whom she looked with favour.
"I have no mother," cried Gudea, "but thou art my mother! I have no
father, but thou art a father to me!" And the goddess Gatumdug gave
ear to the patesi's prayer. Thus encouraged by her favour and that of
Ningirsu, Gudea set out for the temple of the goddess Nin?.

On his arrival at the temple, the patesi offered a sacrifice and poured
out fresh water, as he had already done when approaching the presence of
Ningirsu and Gatumdug. And he prayed to Nin?, as the goddess who divines
the secrets of the gods, beseeching her to interpret the vision that had
been sent to him; and he then recounted to her the details of his dream.
When the patesi had finished his story, the goddess addressed him and
told him that she would explain the meaning of his dream to him. And
this was the interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so
great that it equalled the heavens and the earth, whose head was that
of a god, at whose side was the divine eagle, whose feet rested on the
whirlwind, while a lion couched on his right hand and on his left, was
her brother, the god Ningirsu. And the words which he uttered were an
order to the patesi that he should build the temple E-ninn?. And the sun
which rose from the earth before the patesi was the god Ningishzida,
for like the sun he goes forth from the earth. And the maiden who held
a pure reed in her hand, and carried the tablet with the star, was her
sister, the goddess Nidaba: the star was the pure star of the temple's
construction, which she proclaimed. And the second man, who was like a
warrior and carried the slab of lapis lazuli, was the god Nindub, and the
plan of the temple which he drew was the plan of E-ninn?. And the brick
which rested in its mould upon the cushion was the sacred brick of
E-ninn?. And as for the ass which lay upon the ground, that, the goddess
said, was the patesi himself.

History of Various Areas (14)(as of 1900)

Ur, Isin, and,Larsam succeeded one another in the position of leading
city in Babylonia, holding Mppur, Eridu, Erech, Shirpurla, and the other
chief cities in a condition of semi-dependence upon themselves. We may
note that the true reading of the name of the founder of the dynasty
of Ur has now been ascertained from a syllabary to be Ur-Engur; and an
unpublished chronicle in the British Museum relates that his son Dungi
cared greatly for the city of Eridu, but sacked Babylon and carried off
its spoil, together with the treasures from E-sagila, the great temple
of Marduk. Such episodes must have been common at this period when each
city was striving for hegemony. Meanwhile, Shirpurla remained the centre
of Sumerian influence in Babylonia, and her patesis were content to owe
allegiance to so powerful a ruler as Dungi, King of Ur, while at all
times exercising complete authority within their own jurisdiction.
During the most recent diggings that have been carried out at Telloh a
find of considerable value to the history of Sumerian art has been
made. The find is also of great general interest, since it enables us
to identify a portrait of Gudea, the most famous of the later Sumerian
patesis. In the course of excavating the Tell of Tablets Captain Cros
found a little seated statue made of diorite. It was not found in place,
but upside down, and appeared to have been thrown with other d?bris
scattered in that portion of the mound. On lifting it from the trench it
was seen that the head of the statue was broken off, as is the case
with all the other statues of Gudea found at Telloh. The statue bore an
inscription of Gudea, carefully executed and well preserved, but it
was smaller than other statues of the same ruler that had been
already recovered, and the absence of the head thus robbed it of any
extraordinary interest. On its arrival at the Louvre, M. L?on Heuzey was
struck by its general resemblance to a Sumerian head of diorite formerly
discovered by M. de Sarzec at Telloh, which has been preserved in the
Louvre for many years. On applying the head to the newly found statue,
it was found to fit it exactly, and to complete the monument, and we
are thus enabled to identify the features of Gudea. Prom a photographic
reproduction of this statue, it is seen that the head is larger than
it should be, in proportion to the body, a characteristic which is also
apparent in a small Sumerian statue preserved in the British Museum.
Gudea caused many statues of himself to be made out of the hard diorite
which he brought for that purpose from the Sinaitic peninsula, and from
the inscriptions preserved upon them it is possible to ascertain the
buildings in which they were originally placed. Thus one of the statues
previously found was set up in the temple of Ninkharsag, two others in
E-ninn?, the temple of the god Ningirsu, three more in the temple of the
goddess Bau, one in E-anna, the temple of the goddess Ninni, and another
in the temple of Gatumdug. The newly found statue of the king was made
to be set up in the temple erected by Gudea at Girsu in honour of the
god Ningishzida, as is recorded in the inscription engraved on the front
of the king's robe, which reads as follows:
"In the day when the god Ningirsu, the strong warrior of Enlil, granted
unto the god Ningishzida, the son of Nin?zu, the beloved of the gods,
(the guardianship of) the foundation of the city and of the hills and
valleys, on that day Gudea, patesi of Shirpurla, the just man who
loveth his god, who for his master Ningirsu hath constructed his temple
E-ninnu, called the shining Imgig, and his temple E-pa, the temple
of-the seven zones of heaven, and for the goddess Nin?, the queen, his
lady, hath constructed the temple Sirara-shum, which riseth higher than
(all) the temples in the world, and hath constructed their temples for
the great gods of Lagash, built for his god Ningishzida his temple in
Girsu. Whosoever shall proclaim the god Ningirsu as his god, even as
I proclaim him, may he do no harm unto the temple of my god! May he
proclaim the name of this temple! May that man be my friend, and may he
proclaim my name! Gudea hath made the statue, and 'Unto - Gudea - the
- builder - of - the - temple - hath life-been-given hath he called its
name, and he hath brought it into the temple."
The long name which Gudea gave to the statue, "Unto - Gudea - the -
builder - of - the - temple - hath - life-been-given," is characteristic
of the practice of the Sumerian patesis, who always gave long and
symbolical names to statues, stelae, and sacred objects dedicated and
set up in their temples. The occasion on which the temple was built, and
this statue erected within it, seems to have been the investiture of
the god Ningishzida with special and peculiar powers, and it possibly
inaugurated his introduction into the pantheon of Shirpurla. Ningishzida
is called in the inscription the son of Ninazu, who was the husband of
the Queen of the Underworld.

In one of his aspects he was therefore probably a god of the underworld
himself, and it is in this character that he was appointed by Ningirsu
as guardian of the city's foundations. But "the hills and valleys"
(i.e. the open country) were also put under his jurisdiction, so that
in another aspect he was a god of vegetation. It is therefore not
improbable that, like the god Dumuzi, or Tammuz, he was supposed to
descend into the underworld in winter, ascending to the surface of the
earth with the earliest green shoots of vegetation in the spring.*

History of Various Areas (13)(as of 1900)

From any building of his predecessors which he razed to the ground, an
invader would therefore remove the gate-sockets and blocks of stone for
his own use, supposing he contemplated building on the site. If he left
the city in ruins and returned to his own country, some subsequent king,
when clearing the ruined site for building operations, might come across
the stones, and he would not leave them buried, but would use them for
his own construction. And this is what actually did happen in the case
of some of the building materials of one of these early kings, from the
lower strata of Nippur. Certain of the blocks which bore the name of
Lugalkigubnidudu had been used again by Sargon, King of Agade, who
engraved his own name upon them without obliterating the name of the
former king.
It followed that Lugalkigubnidudu belonged to the pre-Sargonic period,
and, although the same conclusive evidence was not forthcoming in the
case of Lugalzag-gisi, he also without much hesitation was set in
this early period, mainly on the strength of the archaic forms of the
characters employed in his inscriptions. In fact, they were held to be
so archaic that, not only was he said to have reigned before Sargon of
Agade, but he was set in the very earliest period of Chald?an history,
and his empire was supposed to have been contemporaneous with the very
earliest rulers of Shirpurla. The new inscription found by Captain
Cros will cause this opinion to be considerably modified. While it
corroborates the view that Lugalzaggisi is to be set in the pre-Sargonic
period, it proves that he lived and reigned very shortly before him. As
we have already seen, he was the contemporary of Urukagina, who belongs
to the middle period of the history of Shirpurla. Lugalzaggisi's capture
and sack of the city of Shirpurla was only one of a number of conquests
which he achieved. His father Ukush had been merely patesi of the city
of Gish-khu, but he himself was not content with the restricted sphere
of authority which such a position implied, and he eventually succeeded
in enforcing his authority over the greater part of Babylonia. From
the fact that he styles himself King of Erech, we may conclude that
he removed his capital from Ukush to that city, after having probably
secured its submission by force of arms. In fact, his title of "king of
the world" can only have been won as the result of many victories, and
Captain Cros's tablet gives us a glimpse of the methods by which he
managed to secure himself against the competition of any rival. The
capture of Shirpurla must have been one of his earliest achievements,
for its proximity to Gish-khu rendered its reduction a necessary
prelude to any more extensive plan of conquest. But the kingdom which
Lugalzaggisi founded cannot have endured long.

Under Sargon of Agade, the Semites gained the upper hand in Babylonia,
and Erech, Grishkhu, and Shirpurla, as well as the other ancient cities
in the land, fell in turn under his domination and formed part of the
extensive empire which he ruled.

Concerning the later rulers of city-states of Babylonia which succeeded
the disruption of the empire founded by Sargon of Agade and consolidated
by Nar?m-Sin, his son, the excavations have little to tell us which has
not already been made use of by Prof. Maspero in his history of this
period.
The tablets found at Telloh by the late M. de Sarzec, and
published during his lifetime, fall into two main classes,
which date from different periods in early Chald?an
history. The great majority belong to the period when the
city of Ur held pre-eminence among the cities of Southern
Babylonia, and they are dated in the reigns of Dungi, Bur-
Sin, Gamil-Sin, and Ine-Sin. The other and smaller
collection belongs to the earlier period of Sargon and
Nar?m-Sin; while many of the tablets found in M. de Sarzec's
last diggings, which were published after his death, are to
be set in the great gap between these two periods. Some of
those recently discovered, which belong to the period of
Dungi, contain memoranda concerning the supply of food for
the maintenance of officials stopping at Shirpurla in the
course of journeys in Babylonia and Elam, and they throw an
interesting light on the close and constant communication
which took place at this time between the great cities of
Mesopotamia and the neighbouring countries.

History of Various Areas (12)(as of 1900)

We may now turn our attention to the leader of the men of Gishkhu, under
whose direction they achieved their final triumph over their ancient,
and for long years more powerful, rival Shirpurla. The writer of our
tablet mentions his name in the closing words of his text when he curses
him and his goddess for the destruction and sacrilege that they have
wrought. "As for Lugalzaggisi," he says, "patesi of Gishkhu, may his
goddess Nidaba bear on her head (the weight of ) this transgression!"
Now the name of Lugalzaggisi has been found upon a number of fragments
of vases made of white calcite stalagmite which were discovered by Mr.
Haynes during his excavations at Nippur. All the vases were engraved
with the same inscription, so that it was possible by piecing the
fragments of text together to obtain a more or less complete copy of
the records which were originally engraved upon each of them. From
these records we learned for the first time, not only the name of
Lugalzaggisi, but the fact that he founded a powerful coalition of
cities in Babylonia at what was obviously a very early period in the
history of the country. In the text he describes himself as "King of
Erech, king of the world, the priest of Ana, the hero of Nidaba, the
son of Ukush, patesi of Gishkhu, the hero of Nidaba, the man who wasfavourably regarded by the sure eye of the King of the Lands (i.e.
the god Enlil), the great patesi of Enlil, unto whom understanding was
granted by Enki, the chosen of the Sun-god, the exalted minister of
Enzu, endowed with strength by the Sun-god, the worshipper of Ninni, the
son who was conceived by Nidaba, who was nourished by Ninkharsag with
the milk of life, the attendant of Umu, priestess of Erech, the servant
who was trained by Nin?gidkhadu, the mistress of Erech, the great
minister of the gods." Lugalzaggisi then goes on to describe the extent
of his dominion, and he says: "When the god Enlil, the lord of the
countries, bestowed upon Lugalzaggisi the kingdom of the world, and
granted unto him success in the sight of the world, when he filled the
lands with his power, and conquered them from the rising of the sun unto
the setting of the same, at that time he made straight his path from the
Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates unto the Upper Sea, and he granted
him dominion over all from the rising of the sun unto the setting of the
same, so that he caused the lands to dwell in peace."
Now when first the text of this inscription was published there existed
only vague indications of the date to be assigned to Lugalzaggisi and
the kingdom that he founded. It was clear from the titles which he bore,
that, though Gishkhu was his native place, he had extended his authority
far beyond that city and had chosen Erech as his capital. Moreover,
he claimed an empire extending from "the Lower Sea of the Tigris and
Euphrates unto the Upper Sea." There is no doubt that the Lower Sea here
mentioned is the Persian Gulf, and it has been suggested that the Upper
Sea may be taken to be the Mediterranean, though it may possibly have
been Lake Van or Lake Urmi. But whichever of these views might be
adopted, it was clear that Lugalzaggisi was a great conqueror, and had
achieved the right to assume the high-sounding title of lugal halama,
"king of the world." In these circumstances it was of the first
importance for the study of primitive Chald?an history and chronology
to ascertain approximately the period at which Lugalzaggisi reigned.
The evidence on which such a question could be provisionally settled was
of the vaguest and most uncertain character, but such as it was it
had to suffice, in the absence of more reliable data. In settling all
problems connected with early Chald?an chronology, the starting-point
was, and in fact still is, the period of Sargon I, King of Agade,
inasmuch as the date of his reign is settled, according to the reckoning
of the scribes of Nabonidus, as about 3800 B.C. It is true that this
date has been called in question, and ingenious suggestions for amending
it have been made by some writers, while others have rejected it
altogether, holding that it merely represented a guess on the part of
the late Babylonians and could be safely ignored in the chronological
schemes which they brought forward. But nearly every fresh discovery
made in the last few years has tended to confirm some point in the
traditions current among the later Babylonians with regard to the
earlier history of their country. Consequently, reliance may be placed
with increased confidence on the truth of such traditions as a
whole, and we may continue to accept those statements which yet await
confirmation from documents more nearly contemporary with the early
period to which they refer. It is true that such a date as that assigned
by Nabonidus to Sargon is not to be regarded as absolutely fixed, for
Nabonidus is obviously speaking in round numbers, and we may allow for
some minor inaccuracies in the calculations of his scribes. But it is
certain that the later Babylonian priests and scribes had a wealth of
historical material at their disposal which has not come down to us. We
may therefore accept the date given by Nabonidus for Sargon of Agade
and his son Nar?m-Sin as approximately accurate, and this is also the
opinion of the majority of writers on early Babylonian history.
The diggings at Nippur furnished indications that certain inscriptions
found on that site and written in a very archaic form of script were
to be assigned to a period earlier than that of Sargon. One class of
evidence was obtained from a careful study of the different levels at
which the inscriptions and the remains of buildings were found. At a
comparatively deep level in the mound inscriptions of Sargon himself
were recovered, along with bricks stamped with the name of Nar?m-Sin,
his son. It was, therefore, a reasonable conclusion roughly to date the
particular stratum in which these objects were found to the period of
the empire established by Sargon, with its centre at Agade. Later on
excavations were carried to a lower level, and remains of buildings
were discovered which appeared to belong to a still earlier period
of civilization. An altar was found standing in a small enclosure
surrounded by a kind of curb. Near by were two immense clay vases which
appeared to have been placed on a ramp or inclined plane leading up to
the altar, and remains were also found of a massive brick building in
which was an arch of brick. No inscriptions were actually found at this
level, but in the upper level assigned to Sargon were a number of texts
which might very probably be assigned to the pre-Sargonic period. None
of these were complete, and they had the appearance of having been
intentionally broken into small fragments. There was therefore something
to be said for the theory that they might have been inscribed by the
builders of the construction in the lowest levels of the mound, and that
they were destroyed and scattered by some conqueror who had laid their
city in ruins.

But all such evidence derived from noting the levels at which
inscriptions are found is in its nature extremely uncertain and liable
to many different interpretations, especially if the strata show signs
of having been disturbed. Where a pavement or building is still intact,
with the inscribed bricks of the builder remaining in their original
positions, conclusions may be confidently drawn with regard to the age
of the building and its relative antiquity to the strata above and below
it. But the strata in the lowest levels at Nippur, as we have seen, were
not in this condition, and such evidence as they furnished could only be
accepted if confirmed by independent data. Such confirmation was to be
found by examination of the early inscriptions themselves.

It has been remarked that most of them were broken into small pieces,
as though by some invader of the country; but this was not the case with
certain gate-sockets and great blocks of diorite which were too hard
and big to be easily broken. Moreover, any conqueror of a city would be
unlikely to spend time and labour in destroying materials which might
be usefully employed in the construction of other buildings which he
himself might erect. Stone could not be obtained in the alluvial plains
of Babylonia and had to be quarried in the mountains and brought great
distances.