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.

History of Various Areas (11)(as of 1900)

No composition at all like this document has yet been recovered, and as
it is not very long we may here give a translation of the text. It will
be seen that the writer plunges at once into the subject of his
charges against the men of Gishkhu. No historical _r?sum?_ prefaces
his accusations, and he gives no hint of the circumstances that have
rendered their delivery possible. The temples of his city have been
profaned and destroyed, and his indignation finds vent in a mere
enumeration of their titles. To his mind the facts need no comment,
for to him it is barely conceivable that such sacred places of ancient
worship should have been defiled. He launches his indictment against
Gishkhu in the following terms: "The men of Gishkhu have set fire to the
temple of E-ki [... ], they have set fire to Antashura, and they have
carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have
shed blood in the palace of Tirash, they have shed blood in Abzubanda,
they have shed blood in the shrine of Enlil and in the shrine of the
Sun-god, they have shed blood in Akhush, and they have carried away the
silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood in the
Gikana of the sacred grove of the goddess Ninmakh, and they have carried
away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They have shed blood
in Baga, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
therefrom! They have shed blood in Abzu-ega, they have set fire to
the temple of Gatumdug, and they have carried away the silver and the
precious stones therefrom, and have destroyed her statue! They have set
fire to the.... of the temple E-anna of the goddess Ninni, and they
have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom, and have
destroyed her statue! They have shed blood in Shapada, and they have
carried away the silver and precious stones therefrom! They have....
in Khenda, they have shed blood in the temple of Nindar in the town
of Kiab, and they have carried away the silver and the precious stones
therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Dumuzi-abzu in the town
of Kinunir, and they have carried away the silver and the precious
stones therefrom! They have set fire to the temple of Lugaluru, and they
have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
have shed blood in E-engura, the temple of the goddess Nin?, and they
have carried away the silver and the precious stones therefrom! They
have shed blood in Sag..., the temple of Amageshtin, and the silver
and the precious stones of Amageshtin have they carried away! They have
removed the grain from Ginarbaniru, the field of the god Ningirsu,
so much of it as was under cultivation! The men of Gishkhu, by the
despoiling of Shirpurla, have committed a transgression against the god
Ningirsu! The power that is come unto them, from them shall be taken
away! Of transgression on the part of Urukagina, King of Girsu, there
is none. As for Lugalzaggisi, patesi of Gishkhu, may his goddess Ni-daba
bear on her head (the weight of) this transgression!"

Such is the account, which has come down to us from the rough tablet of
some unknown scribe, of the greatest misfortune experienced by Shirpurla
during the long course of her history. Many of the great temples
mentioned in the text as among those which were burnt down and despoiled
of their treasures are referred to more than once in the votive and
historical inscriptions of earlier rulers of Shirpurla, who occupied the
throne before the ill-fated Urukagina. The names of some of them, too,
are to be found in the texts of the later pate-sis of that city, so
that it may be concluded that in course of time they were rebuilt and
restored to their former splendour. But there is no doubt that the
despoiling and partial destruction of Shirpurla in the reign of
Urukagina had a lasting effect upon the fortunes of that city, and
effectively curtailed her influence among the greater cities of Southern
Babylonia.

History of Various Areas (10)(as of 1900)

He thus added greatly to the wealth of Shirpurla by increasing the area
of territory under cultivation, and he continued to exercise authority
in Gishkhu by means of officers appointed by himself. A record of his
victory over Gishkhu was inscribed by Entemena upon a number of clay
cones, that the fame of it might be preserved in future days to the
honour of Ningirsu and the goddess Nin?. He ends this record with a
prayer for the preservation of the frontier. If ever in time to come the
men of Gishkhu should break out across the frontier-ditch of Ningirsu,
or the frontier-ditch of Nin?, in order to seize or lay waste the lands
of Shirpurla, whether they be men of the city of Gishkhu itself or men
of the mountains, he prays that Enlil may destroy them and that Ningirsu
may lay his curse upon them; and if ever the warriors of his own city
should be called upon to defend it, he prays that they may be full of
courage and ardour for their task.

The greater part of this information with regard to the struggles
between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, between the period of Mesilim, King of
Kish, and that of Entemena, is supplied by the inscription of the latter
ruler which has been found written around a small cone of clay. There is
little doubt that the text was also engraved by the orders of Entemena
upon a stone stele which was set up, like those of Mesilim and Eannadu,
upon the frontier. Other copies of the inscription were probably
engraved and erected in the cities of Gishkhu and Shirpurla, and to
ensure the preservation of the record Entemena probably had numerous
copies of it made upon small cones of clay which were preserved and
possibly buried in the structure of the temples of Shirpurla. Entemena's
foresight in this matter has been justified by results, for, while his
great memorials of stone have perished, the preservation of one of his
small cones has sufficed to make known to later ages his own and his
forefathers' prowess in their continual contests with their ancient rival
Gishkhu.

After the reign of Entemena we have little information with regard to
the relations between Gishkhu and Shirpurla, though it is probable that
the effects of his decisive victory continued to exercise a moderating
influence on Gishkhu's desire for expansion and secured a period
of peaceful development for Shirpurla without the continual fear of
encroachments on the part of her turbulent neighbour. We may assume that
this period of tranquillity continued during the reigns of Enannadu II,
Enlitarzi, and Lugal-anda, but, when in the reign of Urukagina the men
of Gishkhu once more emerge from their temporary obscurity, they appear
as the authors of deeds of rapine and bloodshed committed on a scale
that was rare even in that primitive age.

In the earlier stages of their rivalry Gishkhu had always been defeated,
or at any rate checked, in her actual conflicts with Shirpurla. When
taking the aggressive the men of Gishkhu seem generally to have confined
themselves to the seizure of territory, such as the district of Gu-edin,
which was situated on the western bank of the Shaft el-Hai and divided
from their own lands only by the frontier-ditch. If they ever actually
crossed the Shaft el-Hai and raided the lands on its eastern bank, they
never ventured to attack the city of Shirpurla itself. And, although
their raids were attended with some success in their initial stages, the
ruling patesis of Shirpurla were always strong enough to check them; and
on most occasions they carried the war into the territory of Gishkhu,
with the result that they readjusted the boundary on their own terms.
But it would appear that all these primitive Chal?an cities were subject
to alternate periods of expansion and defeat, and Shirpurla was not an
exception to the rule. It was probably not due so much to Urukagina's
personal qualities or defects as a leader that Shirpurla suffered
the greatest reverse in her history during his reign, but rather to
Gishkhu's gradual increase in power at a time when Shirpurla herself
remained inactive, possibly lulled into a false sense of security by the
memory of her victories in the past. Whatever may have been the cause of
Gishkhu's final triumph, it is certain that it took place in Urukagina's
reign, and that for many years afterwards the hegemony of Southern
Babylonia remained in her hands, while Shirpurla for a long period
passed completely out of existence as an independent or semi-independent
state.

The evidence of the catastrophe that befell Shirpurla at this period is
furnished by a small clay tablet recently found at Telloh during Captain
Cros's excavations on that site. The document on which the facts in
question are recorded had no official character, and in all probability
it had not been stored in any library or record chamber. The actual spot
at Telloh where it was found was to the north of the mound in which
the most ancient buildings have been recovered, and at the depth of two
metres below the surface. No other tablets appear to have been found
near it, but that fact in itself would not be sufficient evidence on
which to base any theory as to its not having originally formed part of
the archives of the city. Its unofficial character is attested by the
form of the tablet and the manner in which the information upon it is
arranged. In shape there is little to distinguish the document from the
tablets of accounts inscribed in the reign of Urukagina, great numbers
of which have been found recently at Telloh. Roughly square in shape,
its edges are slightly convex, and the text is inscribed in a series of
narrow columns upon both the obverse and the reverse. The text itself
is not a carefully arranged composition, such as are the votive and
historical inscriptions of early Sumerian rulers. It consists of a
series of short sentences enumerating briefly and without detail the
separate deeds of violence and sacrilege performed by the men of Gishkhu
after their capture of the city. It is little more than a catalogue or
list of the shrines and temples destroyed during the sack of the city,
or defiled by the blood of the men of Shirpurla who were slain therein.
No mention is made in the list of the palace of the Urukagina, or of any
secular building, or of the dwellings of the citizens themselves. There
is little doubt that these also were despoiled and destroyed by the
victorious enemy, but the writer of the tablet is not concerned for the
moment with the fate of his city or his fellow citizens. He appears to
be overcome with the thought of the deeds of sacrilege committed against
his gods; his mind is entirely taken up with the magnitude of the
insult offered to the god Ningirsu, the city-god of Shirpurla. His bare
enumeration of the deeds of sacrilege and violence loses little by its
brevity, and, when he has ended the list of his accusations against the
men of Gishkhu, he curses the goddess to whose influence he attributes
their success.

History of Various Areas (9)(as of 1900)

According to this treaty Gu-edin was restored to Shirpurla, and a deep
ditch was dug between the two territories which should permanently
indicate the line of demarcation. The stele of Mesilim was restored to
its place, and a second stele was inscribed and set up as a memorial
of the new treaty. Enakalli did not negotiate the treaty on equal terms
with Eannadu, for he only secured its ratification by consenting to pay
heavy tribute in grain for the supply of the great temples of Nin-girsu
and Nin? in Shirpurla. It would appear that under Eannadu the power
and influence of Shirpurla were extended over the whole of Southern
Babylonia, and reached even to the borders of Elam. At any rate, it is
clear that during his lifetime the city of Gishkhu was content to remain
in a state of subjection to its more powerful neighbour. But it was
always ready to seize any opportunity of asserting itself and of
attempting to regain its independence.

Accordingly, after Eannadu's death the men of Gishkhu again took the
offensive. At this time Urlumma, the son and successor of Enakalli, was
on the throne of Gishkhu, and he organized the forces of the city
and led them out to battle. His first act was to destroy the frontier
ditches named after Ningirsu and Nin?, the principal god and goddess of
Shirpurla, which Eannadu, the powerful foe of Gishkhu, had caused to be
dug. He then tore down the stele on which the terms of Eannadu's treaty
had been engraved and broke it into pieces by casting it into the fire,
and the shrines which Eannadu had built near the frontier, and had
consecrated to the gods of Shirpurla, he razed to the ground. But
again Shirpurla in the end proved too strong for Gishkhu. The ruler
in Shirpurla at this time was Enannadu, who had succeeded his brother
Eannadu upon the throne. He marched out to meet the invading forces
of the men of Gishkhu, and a battle was fought in the territory of
Shirpurla. According to one account, the forces of Shirpurla were
victorious, while on the cone of Ente-mena no mention is made of
the issue of the combat. The result may not have been decisive, but
Enannadu's action at least checked Urlumma's encroachments for the time.

It would appear that the death of the reigning patesi in Shirpurla was
always the signal for an attack upon that city by the men of Gishkhu.
They may have hoped that the new ruler would prove a less successful
leader than the last, or that the accession of a new monarch might give
rise to internal dissensions in the city which would weaken Shirpurla's
power of resisting a sudden attack. As Eannadu's death had encouraged
Urlumma to lead out the men of Gishkhu, so the death of Enannadu seemed
to him a good opportunity to make another bid for victory. But this time
the result of the battle was not indecisive. Entemena had succeeded his
father Enannadu, and he led out to victory the forces of Shir-purla. The
battle was fought near the canal Lumma-girnun-ta, and when the men of
Gishkhu were put to flight they left sixty of their fellows lying dead
upon the banks of the canal. Entemena tells us that the bones of these
warriors were left to bleach in the open plain, but he seems to have
buried those of the men of Gishkhu who fell in the pursuit, for he
records that in five separate places he piled up burial-mounds in which
the bodies of the slain were interred. Entemena was not content with
merely inflicting a defeat upon the army of Gishkhu and driving it back
within its own borders, for he followed up his initial advantage and
captured the capital itself. He deposed and imprisoned Urlumma, andchose one of his own adherents to rule as patesi of Gishkhu in his
stead.

The man he appointed for this high office was named Hi, and he
had up to that time been priest in Nin?b. Entemena summoned him to his
presence, and, after marching in a triumphal procession from Girsu
in the neighbourhood of Shirpurla to the conquered city, proceeded toEntemena also repaired the frontier ditches named after Ningirsu and
Nin?, which had been employed for purposes of irrigation as well as for
marking the frontier; and he gave instructions to Hi to employ the men
dwelling in the district of Karkar on this work, as a punishment for
the active part they had taken in the recent raid into the territory of
Shirpurla. Entemena also restored and extended the system of canals
in the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates, lining one of the
principal channels with stone.

invest him with the office of patesi of Gishkhu.