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Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from Menant.
One
is almost tempted to believe in the truth of the tradition which
ascribes
to Naramsin the conquest of Egypt, or of the neighbouring
countries.
[Illustration:
096a.jpg Painting in Color of Charioteer]
Drawn
by Boudier, from a photograph published by Father
Schiel.
[Illustration:
097.jpg Page image]
Did
Sargon and Naramsin live at so early a date as that assigned to
them
by Nabonidos? The scribes who assisted the kings of the second
Babylonian
empire in their archaeological researches had perhaps
insufficient
reasons for placing the date of these kings so far back in
the
misty past: should evidence of a serious character A constrain us
to
attribute
to them a later origin, we ought not to be surprised. In the
mean
time our best course is to accept the opinion of the Chaldæans,
and
to leave Sargon and Naramsin in the century assigned to them by
Nabonidos,
although from this point they look down as from a high
eminence
upon all the rest of Chaldæan antiquity. Excavations have
brought
to light several personages of a similar date, whether a
little
earlier, or a little later: Bingani-sharali, Man-ish-turba,
and
especially Alusharshid, who lived at Kishu and Nipur, and gained
victories
over Elam.
[Illustration:
098.jpg Page image: the arms op the city and kings of
Lagash]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Lagash, now
in
the Louvre
After
this glimpse of light on these shadowy kings darkness once more
closes
in upon us, and conceals from us the majority of the sovereigns
who
ruled afterwards in Babylon. The facts and names which can be
referred
with certainty to the following centuries belong not to
Babylon,
but to the southern States, Lagash, Uruk, Uru, Nishin, and
Larsam.
The national writers had neglected these principalities;
we
possess neither a resume of their chronicles nor a list of their
dynasties,
and the inscriptions which speak of their the arms of the
city
gods and princes are still very rare and kings of Lagash. Lagash,
as
far as our evidence goes, was, perhaps, the most illustrious of
all
these cities.* It occupied the heart of the country, and its site
covered
both sides of the Shatt-el-Haî; the Tigris separated it on the
east
from Anshan, the westernmost of the Elamite districts, with which
it
carried on a perpetual frontier war.
*
We are indebted almost exclusively to the researches of M.
de
Sarzec, and his discoveries at Telloh, for what we know
of
it. The results of his excavations, acquired by the
French
government, are now in the Louvre. The description of
the
ruins, the text of the inscriptions, and an account of
the
statues and other objects found in the course of the
work,
have been published by Heuzey-Sakzec, _Découvertes en
Chaldée_.
The name of the ancient town has been read
Sirpurla,
Zirgulla, etc.
All
parts of the country were not equally fertile: the fruitful and
well-cultivated
district in the neighbourhood of the Shatt-el-Haî gave
place
to impoverished lands ending to the eastward, finally in swampy
marshes,
which with great difficulty furnished means of sustenance to a
poor
and thinly scattered population of fisher-folk.
[Illustration:
099.jpg FRAGMENT OF BAS-RELIEF BY URNINÂ, KING OF
LAGASH.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from a stone in the Louvre.
The
capital, built on the left bank of the river, stretched out to
the
north-east
and south-west a distance of some five miles. It was not so
much
a city as an agglomeration of large villages, each grouped around
a
temple
or palace--Uruazagga, Gishgalla, G-irsu, Nina, and Lagash,
which
latter imposed its name upon the whole. A branch of the river
Shatt-el-Haî
protected it on the south, and supplied the village of
Ninâ
with water; no trace of an inclosing wall has been found, and the
temples
and palaces seem to have served as refuges in case of attack.
It
had as its arms, or totem, a double-headed eagle standing on a
lion
passant,
or on two demi-lions placed back to back. Its chief god was
called
Ningirsu, that is, the lord of Girsu, where his temple stood: his
companion
Bau, and his associates Ninagal, Innanna and Ninsia, were
the
deities of the other divisions of the city. The princes were
first
called
kings, but afterwards vicegerents--_patesi_--when they came under
the
suzerainty of a more powerful king, the King of Uruk or of
Babylon.
The
earlier history of this remarkable town is made up of the
scanty
memoirs of its rulers, together with those of the princes of
Gishban--"the
land of the Bow," of which Ishin seems to have been the
principal
town. A very ancient document states, that, at the instigation
of
Inlil, the god of Nipur, the local deities, Ningirsu and Kirsig,
set
up
a boundary between the two cities. In the course of time,
Meshilim,
a
king of Kishu, which, before the rise of Agadê, was the chief town
in
those
parts, extended his dominion over Lagash and erected his stele at
its
border; Ush, vicegerent of Gishban, however, removed it, and had
to
suffer
defeat before he would recognize the new order of things. After
the
lapse of some years, of which we possess no records, we find the
mention
of a certain Urukagina, who assumes the title of king: he
restored
or enlarged several temples, and dug the canal which supplied
the
town of Nina with water. A few generations later we find the
ruling
authority
in the hands of a certain Urninâ, whose father Ninigaldun and
grandfather
Gurshar received no titles--a fact which proves that they
could
not have been reigning sovereigns. Urninâ appears to have been of
a
peaceful and devout disposition, as the inscriptions contain
frequent
references
to the edifices he had erected in honour of the gods, the
sacred
objects he had dedicated to them, and the timber for building
purposes
which he had brought from Mâgan, but there is no mention in
them
of any war. His son Akurgal was also a builder of temples, but
his
grandson Idingiranagin, who succeeded Akurgal, was a warlike and
combative
prince.
[Illustration:
101.jpg IDINGIRANAGIN HOLDING THE TOTEM OF LAGASH.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from the bas-relief F2 in the
Louvre.
It
seems probable that, about that time, the kingdom of Gishban had
become
a really powerful state. It had triumphed not only over
Babylonia
proper, but over Kish, Uru, Uruk, and Larsam, while one of its
sovereigns
had actually established his rule in some parts of Northern
Syria.
Idingiranagin vanquished the troops of Gishban, and there is now
in
the Louvre a trophy which he dedicated in the temple of Ninglrsu
on
his
return from the campaign.
*
Hilpeecht, Bab. Expcd. of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, vol.
i.,
2nd part, p. 47 sqq.
[Illustration:
102.jpg IDINGIRANAGIN IN HIS CHARIOT LEADING HIS TROOPS.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Louvre. The
attendant
standing behind the king has been obliterated, but
we
see clearly the contour of his shoulder, and his hands
holding
the reins. It is a large stele of close-grained
white
limestone, rounded at the top, and covered with scenes
and
inscriptions on both its faces. One of these faces
treats
only of religious subjects. Two warlike goddesses,
crowned
with plumed head-dresses and crescent-shaped horns,
are
placed before a heap of weapons and various other
objects,
which probably represent some of the booty
collected
in the campaign. It would appear that they
accompany
a tall figure of a god or king, possibly that of
the
deity Ningirsu, patron of Lagash and its kings. Ningirsu
raises
in one hand an ensign, of which the staff bears at
the
top the royal totem, the eagle with outspread wings
laying
hold by his talons of two half-lions back to back;
with
the other hand he brings a, club down heavily upon a
group
of prisoners, who struggle at his feet in the meshes
of
a large net.
[Illustration:
103.jpg Page image. VULTURES FEEDING UPON THE DEAD.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from the fragment of a bas-relief in
the
Louvre. This is the human sacrifice after the victory,
such
as we find it in Egypt--the offering to the national
god
of a tenth of the captives, who struggle in vain to
escape
from fate. On the other stele the battle is at its
height.
Idingiranagin, standing upright in his chariot,
which
is guided by an attendant, charges the enemy at the
head
of his troops, and the plain is covered with corpses
cut
down by his fierce blows: a flock of vultures accompany
him,
and peck at each other in their struggles over the
arms,
legs, and decapitated heads of the vanquished. Victory
once
secured, he retraces his steps to bestow funeral
honours
upon the dead.
[Illustration:
104.jpg PILING UP THE MOUND OF THE DEAD AFTER THE
BATTLE.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from the fragment of a bas-relief in
the
Louvre. The bodies raised regularly in layers form an
enormous
heap: priests or soldiers wearing loin-cloths mount
to
its top, where they pile the offerings and the earth
which
are to form the funerary mound. The sovereign,
moreover,
has, in honour of the dead, consigned to execution
some
of the prisoners, and deigns to kill with his own hand
one
of the principal chiefs of the enemy.
The
design and execution of these scenes are singularly rude; men and
beasts--indeed,
all the figures--have exaggerated proportions, uncouth
forms,
awkward positions, and an uncertain and heavy gait. The war ended
in
a treaty concluded with Enakalli, vicegerent of Grishban, by
which
Lagash
obtained considerable advantages. Idingiranagin replaced the
stele
of Meshilim, overthrown by one of Enakalli's predecessors, and
dug
a ditch from the Euphrates to the provinces of Guedln to serve
henceforth
as a boundary. He further levied a tribute of corn for the
benefit
of the goddess Nina and her consort Ningirsu, and applied
the
spoils of the campaign to the building of new sanctuaries for the
patron-gods
of his city.
[Illustration:
105.jpg KING URNINA AND HIS FAMILY.]
Drawn
by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in the Louvre. Cf.
another
bas-relief of the same king, p. 244; and for the
probable
explanation of these pierced plaques, see p. 258 of
the
present work.
His
reign was, on the whole, a glorious and successful one. He
conquered
the
mountain district of Elam, rescued Uruk and Uru, which had both
fallen
into the hands of the people of Gishban, organized an expedition
against
the town of Az and killed its vicegerent, in addition to which
he
burnt Arsua, and devastated the district of Mishime. He next
directed
an
attack against Zuran, king of Udban, and, by vanquishing this
Prince
on
the field of battle, he extended his dominion over nearly the
whole
of
Babylonia.
The
prosperity of his dynasty was subjected to numerous and strange
vicissitudes.
Whether it was that its resources were too feeble to
stand
the exigencies and strain of war for any length of time, or that
intestine
strife had been the chief cause of its decline, we cannot
say.
Its kings married many wives and became surrounded with a
numerous
progeny:
Urninâ had at least four sons. They often entrusted to their
children
or their sons-in-law the government of the small towns which
together
made up the city: these represented so many temporary fiefs, of
which
the holders were distinguished by the title of "vicegerents."
This
dismemberment
of the supreme authority in the interest of princes, who
believed
for the most part that they had stronger claims to the throne
than
its occupant, was attended with dangers to peace and to the
permanence
of the dynasty. The texts furnish us with evidence of the
existence
of at least half a dozen descendants of Akurgal--Inannatuma
I.,
Intemena, his grandson Inannatuma II, all of whom seem to have
been
vigorous
rulers who energetically maintained the supremacy of their city
over
the neighbouring estates. Inannatuma I., however, proved no match
in
the end against Urlamma, the vicegerent of Gishban, and lost part,
at
least,
of the territory acquired by Idingiranagin, but his son Intemena
defeated
Urlamma on the banks of the Lumasirta Canal, and, having killed
or
deposed him, gave the vicegerency of Gishban to a certain Hi,
priest
of
Ninab, who remained his loyal vassal to the end of his days. With
his
aid Intemena restored the stelae and walls which had been
destroyed
during
the war; he also cleared out the old canals and dug new ones, the
most
important of which was apparently an arm of the Shatt-el-Hai, and
ran
from the Euphrates to the Tigris, through the very centre of the
domains
of Ghirsu.
Other
kings and vicegerents of doubtful sequence were followed lastly
by
Urbau
and his son Gudea. These were all piously devoted to Ningirsu in
general,
and in particular to the patron of their choice from among
the
divinities of the country--Papsukal, Dunziranna, and Ninâgal.
They
restored
and enriched the temples of these gods: they dedicated to
them
statues or oblation vases for the welfare of themselves and their
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