Chapter 10

BRONZE CONE AND VOTIVE FIGURE.Brit. Mus., Nos.90951and91016.

STONE CYLINDER WITH A VOTIVE INSCRIPTIONBrit. Mus., No.91085.

In that year Sin-muballit records that he slew the army of Ur with the sword, and, since we know that Ur was at this time a vassal-city of Larsa, it is clear that the army referred to was one of those under Rîm-Sin's command. Three years later he transferred his attention from Larsa to Nîsin, then under the control of Damiḳ-ilishu, the son and successor of Sin-magir. On that occasion Sin-muballit commemorates his conquest of Nîsin, but it must have been little more than a victory in the field, for Damiḳ-ilishu lost neither his city nor his independence. In the last year of his reign we find Sin-muballit fighting on the other front, and claiming to have slain the army of Larsa with the sword. It is clear that in these last seven years of his reign Babylon proved herself capable of cheeking any encroachments to the north on the part of Larsa and the Elamites, and, by a continuance of the policy of fortifying her vassal-cities,[80]she paved the way for a more vigorous offensive on the part of Hammurabi, Sin-muballit's son and successor. Meanwhile the unfortunate city of Nîsin was between two fires, though for a few years longer Damiḳ-ilishu succeeded in beating off both his opponents.

The military successes of Hammurabi fall within two clearly defined periods, the first during the five years which followed his sixth year of rule at Babylon,and a second period, of ten years' duration, beginning with the thirteenth of his reign. On his accession he appears to have inaugurated the reforms in the internal administration of the country, which culminated towards the close of his life in the promulgation of his famous Code of Laws; for he commemorated his second year as that in which he established righteousness in the land. The following years were uneventful, the most important royal acts being the installation of the chief-priest in Kashbaran,[81]the building of a wall for the Gagûm, or great Cloister of Sippar, and of a temple to Nannar in Babylon. But with his seventh year we find his first reference to a military campaign in a claim to the capture of Erech and Nîsin. This temporary success against Damik-ilishu of Nîsin was doubtless a menace to the plans of Rîm-Sin at Larsa, and it would appear that Kudur-Mabuk came to the assistance of his son by threatening Babylon's eastern border. At any rate Hammurabi records a conflict with the land of Emutbal in his eighth year, and, though the attack appears to have been successfully repulsed with a gain of territory to Babylon,[82]the diversion was successful. Rîm-Sin took advantage of the respite thus secured to renew his attack with increased vigour upon Nîsin, and in the following year, the seventeenth of his own reign, the famous city fell, and Larsa under her Elamite ruler secured the hegemony in the whole of Central and Southern Babylonia.

Rîm-Sin's victory must have been a severe blow to Babylon, and it would seem that she made no attempt at first to recover her position in the south, since Hammurabi occupied himself with a raid on Malgûm[83]in the west and with the capture of the cities of Rabikumand Shalibi. But these were the last successes during his first military period, and for nineteen years afterwards Babylon achieved nothing of a similar nature to commemorate in her date-formulæ. For the most part the years are named after the dedication of statues and the building and enrichment of temples. One canal was cut,[84]and the process of fortification went on, Sippar especially being put in a thorough state of defence.[85]But the negative evidence supplied by the formulæ for this period suggests that it was one in which Babylon completely failed in any attempt she may have made to hinder the growth of Larsa's power in the south.

In addition to his capital, Rîm-Sin had inherited from his brother the control of the southern group of cities, Ur, Erech, Girsu and Lagash, all of which lay to the east of Larsa and nearer to the coast; and it was probably before his conquest of Nîsin that he took Erech from Damiḳ-ilishu, who had been attacked there by Hammurabi two years before. For in more than one of his inscriptions Rîm-Sin refers to the time when Anu, Enlil and Enki, the great gods, had given the fair city of Erech into his hands.[86]We also know that he took Kisurra, rebuilt the wall of Zabilum, and extended his authority over Kesh, whose goddess Ninmakh, he relates, gave him the kingship over the whole country.[87]The most notable result of his conquest of Nîsin was the possession of Nippur, which now passed to him and regularized his earlier claim to the rule of Sumer and Akkad. Thereafter he describes himself as the exalted Prince of Nippur, or as the shepherd of the whole land of Nippur; and we possess an interesting confirmation of his recognition there in a clay cone inscribed with a dedication for theprolongation of his life by a private citizen, a certain Ninib-gamil.[88]

That Rîm-Sin's rule in Sumer was attended by great prosperity throughout the country as a whole, is attested by the numerous commercial documents which have been recovered both at Nippur and Larsa and are dated in the era of his capture of Nîsin. There is also evidence that he devoted himself to improving the system of irrigation and of transport by water. He canalized a section in the lower course of the Euphrates, and dug the Tigris to the sea, no doubt removing from its main channel an accumulation of silt, which not only hindered traffic but increased the danger of flood and the growth of the swamp-area. He also cut the Mashtabba Canal, and others at Nippur and on the Khabilu river.[89]It would seem that, in spite of his Elamite extraction and the intimate relations he continued to maintain with his father Kudur-Mabuk, he completely identified himself with the country of his adoption; for in the course of his long life he married twice, and both his wives, to judge from their fathers' names, were of Semitic descent.[90]

It was not until nearly a generation had passed, after Rîm-Sin's capture of Nîsin, that Hammurabi made any headway against the Elamite domination, which for so long had arrested any increase in the power of Babylon.[91]But his success, when it came, was complete and enduring. In his thirtieth year he records that he defeated the army of Elam, and in the next campaign he followedup this victory by invading the land of Emutbal, inflicting a final defeat on the Elamites, and capturing and annexing Larsa. Rîm-Sin himself appears to have survived for many years, and to have given further trouble to Babylon in the reign of Hammurabi's son, Samsu-iluna.—And the evidence seems to show that for a few years at least he was accorded the position of vassal ruler at Larsa.[92]On this supposition Hammurabi, after his conquest of Sumer, would have treated the old capital in the same way that Sumu-abum treated Kish.[93]But it would seem that after a time Larsa must have been deprived of many of its privileges, including that of continuing its own era of time-reckoning; and Hammurabi's letters to Sin-idinnam, his local representative, give no hint of any divided rule. We may perhaps assume that Rîm-Sin's subsequent revolt was due to resentment at this treatment, and that in Samsu-iluna's reign he seized a favourable opportunity to make one more bid for independent rule in Babylonia.

The defeat of Rîm-Sin, and the annexation of Sumer to Babylon, freed Hammurabi for the task of extending his empire on its other three sides. During these later years he twice made successful raids in the Elamite country of Tupliash or Ashnunnak, and on the west he destroyed the walls of Mari and Malgûm, defeated the armies of Turukkum, Kagmum and Subartu, and in his thirty-ninth year he records that he destroyed all his enemies that dwelt beside Subartu. It is probable that he includes Assyria under the geographical term Subartu, for both Ashur and Nineveh were subject to his rule; and one of his letters proves that his occupation of Assyria was of a permanent character, and that his authority was maintained by garrisons of Babylonian troops. Hammurabi tells us too, in the Prologue to his Code of Laws, that he subjugated "the settlements on the Euphrates," implying the conquest of such local West-Semitic kingdoms as that of Khana.[94]On the west we may therefore regard the area of his militaryactivities as extending to the borders of Syria. Up to the close of his reign he continued to improve the defences of his country, for he devoted his last two years to rebuilding the great fortification of Kâr-Shamash on the Tigris and the wall of Rabikum on the Euphrates, and he once again strengthened the city-wall of Sippar. His building-inscriptions also bear witness to his increased activity in the reconstruction of temples during his closing years.[95]

An estimate of the extent of Hammurabi's empire may be formed from the very exhaustive record of his activities which he himself drew up as the Prologue to his Code. He there enumerates the great cities of his kingdom and the benefits he has conferred upon each one of them. The list of cities is not drawn up with any administrative object, but from a purely religious standpoint, a recital of his treatment of each city being followed by a reference to what he has done for its temple and its city-god. Hence the majority of the cities are not arranged on a geographical basis, but in accordance with their relative rank as centres of religious cult. Nippur naturally heads the list, and its possession at this time by Babylon had, as we shall see,[96]far-reaching effects upon the development of the mythology and religious system of the country. Next in order comes Eridu, in virtue of the great age and sanctity of its local oracle. Babylon, as the capital, comes third, and then the great centres of Moon-and Sun-worship, followed by the other great cities and shrines of Sumer and Akkad, the king characterizing the benefits he has bestowed on each. The list includes some of his western conquests and ends with Ashur and Nineveh.[97]It issignificant of the racial character of his dynasty that Hammurabi should here ascribe his victories on the middle Euphrates to "the strength of Dagan, his creator," proving that, like his ancestors before him, he continued to be proud of his West-Semitic descent.

In view of the closer relations which had now been established between Babylonia and the West, it may be interesting to recall that an echo from these troubled times found its way into the early traditions of the Hebrews, and has been preserved in the Book of Genesis. It is there related[98]that Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim or the "nations," acting as members of a confederation, invaded Eastern Palestine to subdue the revolted tribes of that district. Chedorlaomer is represented as the head of the confederation, and though we know of no Elamite ruler of that name, we have seen that Elam at about this period had exercised control over a great part of Southern and Central Babylonia, and that its Babylonian capital was the city of Larsa, with which the Ellasar of the Hebrew tradition is certainly to be identified.[99]Moreover, Kudur-Mabuk, the historical founder of the Elamite domination in Babylonia, did lay claim to the title ofAddaor ruler of the Amorites.[100]Amraphel of Shinar may well be Hammurabi of Babylon himself, though, so far from acknowledging the suzerainty of the Elamites, he was their principal antagonist and brought their dominationto an end. Tidal is a purely Hittite name,[101]and it is significant that the close of Hammurabi's powerful dynasty was, as we shall see presently, hastened by an invasion of Hittite tribes. Thus all the great nations which are mentioned in this passage in Genesis were actually on the stage of history at this time, and, though we have as yet found no trace in secular sources of such a confederation under the leadership of Elam, the Hebrew record represents a state of affairs in Western Asia which was not impossible during the earlier half of Hammurabi's reign.[102]

While Sumu-la-ilum may have laid the foundations of Babylon's military power, Hammurabi was the real founder of her greatness. To his military achievements he added a genius for administrative detail, and his letters and despatches, which have been recovered, reveal him as in active control of even subordinate officials stationed in distant cities of his empire. That he should have superintended matters of public importance is what might be naturally expected; but we also see him investigating quite trivial complaints and disputes among the humbler classes of his subjects, and often sending back a case for retrial or for further report. In fact, Hammurabi's fame will always rest on his achievements as a law-giver, and on the great legal code which he drew up for use throughout his empire. It is true that this elaborate system of laws, which deal in detail with every class of the population from the noble to the slave, was not the creative work of Hammurabi himself. Like all other ancient legal codes it was governed strictly by precedent, and where it did not incorporate earlier collections of laws, it was based on careful consideration of established custom. Hammurabi's great achievement was the codification of this mass of legal enactmentsand the rigid enforcement of the provisions of the resulting code throughout the whole territory of Babylonia. Its provisions reflect the king's own enthusiasm, of which his letters give independent proof, in the cause of the humbler and the more oppressed classes of his subjects. Numerous legal and commercial documents also attest the manner in which its provisions were carried out, and we have evidence that the legislative system so established remained in practical force during subsequent periods. It may be well, then, to pause at the age of Hammurabi, in order to ascertain the main features of early Babylonian civilization, and to estimate its influence on the country's later development.

[1]Cf. Hogarth, "The Penetration of Arabia," pp. 206 ff.

[2]Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," pp. 352 ff.

[3]An interesting confirmation of this view has been made by General P.J. Maitland. He points out that the great tanks at Aden, which were hewn out of the solid rock in early Himyarite if not in Sabajan times, are at the present day absolutely dry for four years out of five, and that the heaviest rainfalls since they were discovered and cleared out have not filled them to an eighth part of their capacity; cf. his preface to G. W. Bury's "Land of Uz," p. xii. f.

[4]It has been established that these pulsations of climatic change apply to all the great inland steppes upon the earth's surface, periods of maximum moisture being followed by long intervals of comparative aridity; see especially, Huntington, "The Pulse of Asia" (1907).

[5]On this subject, see especially Myres, "The Dawn of History," pp. 16 ff., 104 ff.

[6]This view seems to be more probable than the assumption that the Semitic inhabitants of Canaan learnt the use of metal after their first period of settlement.

[7]For the more important monographs on the subject, see Macalister, "The Excavation of Gezer" (1912), and Bliss and Macalister, "Excavations in Palestine during the years 1898-1900" (1902), both issued by the Palestine Exploration Fund; Sellin, "Tell Ta'annek," published by the Vienna Academy in its "Denkschriften," Phil.-Hist. Kl., Bd. 60, No. 4 (1904), and "Eine Nachlese auf dem Tell Ta'annek in Palästina," ibid., Bd. 52, No. 3 (1906); Schumacher, "Tell el-Mutesellim," published by the "Deutscher Palästina Verein" in 1908; and Sellin and Watzinger, "Jericho," a volume issued by the "Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft" in its "Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen," Hft. 22 (1913). For further references and a useful summary of the archæological results, see Driver, "Modern Research as illustrating the Bible" (Schweich Lectures, 1908), pp. 40 ff.; for later summaries, see especially Sayce, "Patriarchal Palestine," new ed. (1912), pp. 233 ff., and Handcock, "Latest Light on Bible Lands," 1913; and for an estimate of artistic achievement, cf. Hall, "Ancient History of the Near East" (1913), pp. 440 ff. On the racial character of the earliest inhabitants of Canaan, see especially Sergi, "The Mediterranean Race" (1901).

[8]There are few data for estimating the period at which these centres of population were first fortified. There is no doubt that the city-walls are long anterior to the Egyptian conquest, and from the accumulation ofdébrisin the lower strata they have been provisionally placed at an early period in the third millenniumb.c.; in any case they preceded the age of the First Babylonian Dynasty.

[9]The evidence has been recovered in connexion with the excavations at Carchemish, conducted by Mr. Hogarth for the British Museum. For discussions of the problems presented by the main excavation, see his volume on "Carchemish" (1914), and "Hittite Problems and the excavation of Carchemish," in the "Proceedings of the British Academy," Vol. V. The results of recent native digging in neighbouring mounds have been recovered on the spot by his assistants Messrs. Woolley and Lawrence, and Mr. Woolley has published an account of them in a paper ou "Hittite Burial Customs," in the Liverpool "Annals of Archæology," VI., No. 4 (1914), pp. 87 ff.

[10]In view of the haphazard nature of the native diggings, the absence of cylinder-seals on some neighbouring sites is not to be taken as necessarily dis-proving Babylonian influence there. At Amarna, for example, some eight miles to the south of Jerablus, no seals nor cylinders are reported to have been found, but at Kara Kuzal, on the Mesopotamian side of the Euphrates opposite Hammam, where the pottery is of the Amarna type, two cylinder-seals of a later period and probably of local manufacture were recovered; they are engraved in the style classified by Mr. Woolley as "the Syrian Geometric" (op. cit.,p. 92). The find is also of interest as proving the assimilation of the cylindrical form of seal, which had then ceased to be merely a foreign import.

[11]Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 233 f.

[12]One of these large vessels is mentioned in an inventory among the belongings of a votary of the Sun-god, of which we possess two copies dating from the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon; see "Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus.," II., pl. 1, Obv., 1. 8, and pl. 6, 1. 11; and cf. Hogarth, "Carchemish," p. 17. The vessel was of large size, as it is stated to have been of two-thirds of agur,the greatest Babylonian measure of capacity; it may have been used for grain.

[13]Cf. Woolley,op. cit.,pp. 88 f., 92 ff.

[14]See below, pp. 137 ff.

[15]Cf. Condamin, "Zeits. für Assyr.," XXI. (1908), pp. 247 ff. The votive inscription was drawn up by Shamshi-Adad IV.

[16]See Thureau-Dangin, "Rev. d'Assyr.," IV. (1898), p. 85 f., and pl. xxxii., No. 85, and Schorr, "Urkunden des altbabylonischen Zivil- und Prozessrechts," p. 302 f. Both Thureau-Dangin and Ungnad ("Beitr. z. Assyr.," VI., No. 5, p. 26) had regarded it as a deed of sale, but the ten manehs mentioned in the text is not a sale-price but a fine to be imposed for any infringement of the deed.

[17]See Ungnad, "Vorderasiat. Schriftdenkmäler," VII., No. 204, and "Beitr. z. Assyr.," VI., No. 5 (1909), pp. 26 ff. The tablet was purchased by Prof. Sarre at Dêr ez-Zôr, and is said to have been found at Rahaba some hours to the south-east of the mouth of the Khâbûr.

[18]See below, pp. 157, 159; Hammurabi also bore the title "King of Amurru" (cf. "Letters," III., p. 195).

[19]See below, p. 190 f.

[20]The city of Zakku-Isharlim may have derived the second part of its name from the king referred to in the first deed of gift; in that case Igitlim may perhaps have been the name of another king of Khana. The canal evidently supplied one of the cities with water from the Khâbûr. The last element in its name is suggestive of Kassite influence, and the script of this document points to a period rather later than that of Hammurabi; for its publication, see Johns, "Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch.," XXIX. (1907), pp. 177 ff.

[21]They are the months Teritum, Kinunu, and Birizzarru. For other West-Semitic month-names, cf. "Letters of Hammurabi," p. xxxvi. f., n.; the majority of the "seltenere Monatsnamen," referred to by Schorr, "Urkunden," p. 577, are to be included in this category.

[22]The votive inscription of Shamshi-Adad IV. (see above,p. 129, n. 1) records its restoration.

[23]We find at Khana such personal names as Amursha-Dagan, Iazi-Dagan, Turi-Dagan, Bitti-Dagan and Iashma(?)-Dagan, in addition to the city-name Ia'mu-Dagan; cf. Unguad,op. cit.,p. 27 f.

[24]Cf. Poebel, "Historical Texts," p. 137.

[25]Cf. Breasted, "History of Egypt," pp. 215 ff.

[26]Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 304.

[27]The tradition to this effect, which was incorporated in the later augural literature (cf. Boissier, "Choix de textes," II., p. 64; and Meissner, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit.," 1907, col. 114, n. 1) may be accepted as historically accurate; cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 304.

[28]Cf. Huber, "Die Personennamen ... aus der Zeit der Könige von Ur und Nîsin" (1907),passim.It was this fact that at one time seemed to suggest the probability that the kings of Nîsin, like the bulk of their subjects, may have been Sumerians (cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 303); but we may preferably regard them as representing the first wave of the movement which was soon to flood Northern Babylonia.

[29]Cf. Hilprecht, "Math., Met., and Chron. Tablets," p. 46 f., pl. 30, No. 47.

[30]See Scheil, "Rec. de trav.," XVI., pp. 187 ff.

[31]Cf. "Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus.," XXI., pl. 20 f.

[32]In the dynastic Kings' List published by Hilprecht, "Math., Met., and Chron. Tablets," pl. 30, No. 47, Libit-Ishtar is stated to have been Ishme-Dagan's son; but on another, recently published by Poebel, he is stated to have been Idin-Dagan's son, and so the brother of Ishme-Dagan (cf. "Historical Texts," pp. 94, 137).

[33]Cf. "Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus.," XXI., pl. 22.

[34]Cf. Poebel, "Historical Texts," p. 138; he also notes the fact that Ur-Ninib successfully raided the country of Zabshali on the east of Babylonia.

[35]See "Cun. Texts," IV., pl. 22, No. 78, 395: and Ranke, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit.," 1907, col. 109 ff.

[36]Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 315 f.

[37]Cf. "Chronicles concerning Early Babylonian Kings," II., p. 14. The Ilu-shûma, the father of Irishum or Erishu, who is referred to in building-inscriptions of Shalmaneser I. and Esarhaddon (op. cit.,I., pp. 118 ff.), is probably to be regarded as a later ruler than Sumu-abum's contemporary.

[38]Since the year 1903 the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft has been conducting excavations at Shergât, the site of Ashur, the old capital of Assyria on the middle Tigris. Monographs on some of the temples of the city and its system of fortification have already been published, and during the summer of 1913 the excavations were drawing to a close. The greater part of the palace and temple-area had been uncovered, and detailed plans had been made of all existing buildings; it only remained to trench still deeper to the virgin rock, in order to complete the digging. This process bad naturally been left till last, as it involved considerable destruction to the buildings already uncovered. It was in the course of the deeper trenching that the discoveries referred to in the text were made; for brief reports of them by Andrae, see the "Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft," No. 54 (June, 1914).

[39]See Fig. 34.

[40]See Figs. 35 and 36.

[41]See p. 140, Figs. 37-39.

[42]The tradition has survived in the building-inscriptions of Shalmaneser I. and Esarhaddon, found at Shergât; cf. "Chronicles," I., pp. 120 ff.

[43]He is referred to on a small cone or cylinder, found at Shergât in 1904, and inscribed with a text of Ashir-rîm-nishêshu;op. cit.,p. 140 f.

[44]Their names have been compared with such Mitannian forms as Pindiya, Zuliya, etc.; cf. Ungnad, "Beitr. z. Assyr.," VI., No. 5, pp. 11 ff.

[45]The first witness to a loan, dated in the third year of Ammi-zaduga, bears the name Teshshub-'ari, corresponding to the later Mitannian name Ari-Teshub, meaning "Teshub has given"; cf. Ungnad, "Vorderas. Schriftdenkmäler," VII., No. 72, 1. 10.

[46]A "man of Subartu" (awîl Subarti) is mentioned on a document of the Hammurabi period (cf. Scheil, "Rec. de tray.," XX., p. 64); and a private letter of the time gives directions for the sale into slavery of certain "Shubareans" (Shubarî,) who had probably been captured in battle (cf. Meissner, "Beitr. z. Assyr.," II., p. 561 f., and Delitzsch,op. cit.IV., p. 95). On another text "a slave-girl of Shubartu" (amtum Shubaritum) is referred to (cf. "Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus.," VIII., pl. 46. Bu. 91-5-9, 2179, Obv., 1. 20), and "a Shubarean" (Shubarâ) is mentioned in an account-tablet among recipients of daily rations (cf. Ungnad, "Vorderas. Schriftdenk.," VII., p. 68, No. 184, Col. III., 1. 3, and "Beitr. z. Assyr.," VI., No. 5, p. 19, n. 2).

[47]For the purpose of interpreting lunar observations, for example, and particularly for eclipses, the face of the moon was divided into four quarters, that on the right referring to Akkad, that on the left to Elam, the upper quarter to Amurru and the lower to Subartu; and one Assyrian astrologer, when reporting to his master an observation which related to Subartu, explains that "We are Subartu"; cf. Thompson, "Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers," II., pp. xviii., lxxxv.

[48]Dilbat is now marked by the mound of Dêlem, which lies about seventeen miles to the south of the Ḳaṣr, the old citadel and centre of Babylon, and less than ten miles to the south-east of Birs Nimrûd. Many years ago Rassam procured a few tablets there by excavation (cf. "Asshur and the Land of Nimrod," p. 265), and in recent years large numbers have been obtained there, as the result of native digging, and sold in Europe; they all date from the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon.

[49]Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," pp. 226, 282.

[50]This is particularly apparent in the royal names, the foreign character of which was first pointed out by Pognon, "Journal Asiatique," 8me sér., Vol. XI., pp. 544 ff., who on this evidence alone suggested that the dynasty might be Arab or Aramean; see further, "Letters of Hammurabi," III., p. lxv., and Meyer, "Geschichte des Altertums," I., ii., p. 545.

[51]From a local date-formula on one of the tablets from Abû Habba we have recovered the name of Narâm-Sin, a governor or vassal-ruler of Sippar in Sumu-abum's reign; cf. Ungnad, "Vorderas. Schriftdenkmäler," VIII., No. 3. Another vassal-ruler of Sippar, Bunutakhtun-ila, occupied the throne in Sumu-la-ilum's reign, and to the same period are to be assigned Iluma-ila and Immerum, of whom the latter cut the Ashukhi Canal; for references, see Schorr, "Urkunden des altbabylonischen Zivil- und Processrechts," p. 611.

[52]Kish is now marked by the mounds of El-Ohêmir, or Aḥimer, which lie to the east of Babylon; cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 88 f.

[53]The text is inscribed upon a clay cone from Aḥimer, and has been published by Thureau-Dangin, "Rev. d'Assyr.," VIII. (1911), pp. 65 ff.

[54]That Sumu-abum performed the dedication in his character of suzerain is proved by a contract-tablet from Kish, which is dated by the formula for his tenth year.

[55]It is also possible that the eight years of conflict may date from Sumu-abum's accession, in which case the text would commemorate a strengthening of the wall of Kish two years before the capture of the city by Babylon; but the evidence of the date-formulæ is in favour of the tenth year.

[56]On one of the tablets from Kish Iawium is associated with Mananâ in the oath-formula, and from another we know that he survived Sumu-ditana, whom he probably succeeded on the throne; Khalium may probably be placed after the other three vassal-rulers whose names have been recovered. There appears to have been a local custom at Kish for each ruler to choose a different god with whom to be associated in the oath-formulæ; thus, while Zamama, the city-god of Kish, appears in those of Iawium's reign, his place is taken by Nannar and Sin under Mananâ and Khalium respectively. For the tablets and their dates, see Thureau-Dangin, "Rev. d'Assyr.," VIII., pp. 68 ff.; Johns, "Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch.," XXXII. (1910), p. 279 f.; and Langdon,op. cit.,XXXIII. (1911), pp. 185 ff.

[57]Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," pp. 227, 285 f.

[58]The Sumu-la-ilum Canal was first constructed in his twelfth year, and it was recut or extended twenty years afterwards.

[59]The third year of his reign was named as that in which he slew the Khalambû with the sword.

[60]That in the interval Babylon had no marked success to commemorate is suggested by the naming of years after the construction of a throne for Marduk in his temple at Babylon, and of a statue for his consort, Sarpanitum.

[61]That the two are to be identified is certain from Samsu-iluna's reference to Dûr-Zakar of Nippur as among the six fortresses built by Snmu-la-ilum and rebuilt by himself; see below,pp. 148,204.

[62]Since Gungunum's death is recorded in a local date-formula (cf. Scheil, "Rec. de tray.," XXI., p. 125) we may infer that his end was violent; Abi-sarê's accession may thus mark a break in the direct succession at Larsa.

[63]See Thureau-Dangin, "Rev. d'Assyr.," VI., p. 69 f.

[64]Ura-imitti was not the son of Itêr-pîsha, and since a date-formula of his reign refers to his restoration of the city of Nippur, we may regard its previous destruction or capture as further evidence of political trouble at Nîsin; cf. Poebel. "Historical Texts," p. 138 f.

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