Part VI

The upshot of the activity of three rulers of unusual aggressiveness, Sargon, Rimush and Manishtusu, was a most striking advance of Semitic influence throughout the Euphrates Valley an influence that became a permanent factor in the further development of political affairs. The Semitic rulers of Akkad and Kish took up the policy of extending in all directions their dominions left them as a legacy by Lugalzaggisi, but this ambition overvaulting itself became a source of weakness instead of strength.

Manishtusu succeeds in keeping Elam under subjection and gives evidence of his control by dedicating a statue of himself to an Elamite god Naruti, ^[1] but under his successor, Sharganisharri, we find the Elamites strong enough to make an invasion of the Euphrates Valley, advancing as far as Opis, not far from Akkad, where they received a check. Uruk heads a coalition of Sumerian forces which was likewise repulsed.

Under Naram-Sin, the son of Sharganisharri, this disturbed condition reaches its climax, for he speaks of combinations of nine rulers and even of seventeen kings against him. No doubt he exaggerates when he declares that he faced an army of 90,000 men drawn up against him, and yet triumphal monuments of his reign, including one found far up in the north, not far from the source of the Tigris, ^[2] leave no doubt of his far surpassing his father in military expeditions in all directions against Elam in the east, against Subartu in the north, and the mountainous borders in the northeast, as well as against regions lying far to northwest and southwest.

He thus merited, by his achievements, the proud title of "King of the Four Quarters", which was equivalent to "King of the Universe", borne later by the Assyrian monarchs. Naram-Sin appears indeed to have surpassed all of his predecessors in opening up new fields of conquest, particularly to the northeast and to the southwest. His father had crossed arms with a strong mountainous group known as the Guti, and succeeded in capturing their king, Sharlak.

It was left to the son, however, to follow up this movement by more systematic endeavors and on a larger scale to bring various of the groups in these distant, forbidding regions, so difficult of access, to subjection. On a monument, noteworthy also as one of the finest specimens of the older Babylonian art, Naram-Sin gives a vivid picture of his triumph over the Lulubseans and other peoples in the Zagros range. ^[3]

No less significant was his expedition to Magan, a distant land whence diorite was brought in large quantities for the manufacture of statues and large vessels. Occurring frequently by the side of Melucha, Magan and Melucha are probably designations of districts along the eastern coast of Arabia and the western coast of Africa. To have proceeded to such distant climes was an achievement hitherto without parallel. We thus obtain a view of the strength unfolded at this early period by the Semitic settlements of the Euphrates Valley which makes the achievements of the Sumerians, even of a Lugalzaggisi, dwindle into comparative insignificance.

It would seem, however, that a decline began soon after the death of Naram-Sin, who appears to have been succeeded by a second Sharganisharri, of whom we, to be sure, know nothing. A period of internal disturbances sets in, marked by a succession of four rulers within three years, so that, as the recently discovered list of dynasties puts it, one could not tell "who was king and who was not king". ^[4]

It is Uruk, the Sumerian centre which Lugalzaggisi raised to its highest glory, that succeeds in overthrowing the dynasty of Akkad after an existence of 197 years. We may fix this event approximately in the year 2475 B.C.

The overthrow of so powerful a dynasty as that of Akkad must have affected the entire country ; it was a signal for the older, once independent centres, to assert themselves. Among these centres we find Lagash profiting to a special degree by the growing weakness of Akkad, for there must have been preliminary symptoms of decay before the final catastrophe set in.

Among the most remarkable monuments found at Lagash are nine diorite statues of a ruler, ^[5] Gudea, who, although he still retains the title of patesi, appears to have been entirely independent. Inscriptions in large numbers on the statues in question, on two large clay barrels and on votive objects confirm the power wielded by Gudea, whose emissaries are sent to the north and south to obtain wood and stone for his buildings and works of art with which he embellishes his seat of residence.

He does not, indeed, lay claim to the control of lands outside of his district, but it is significant that he has access to them. The only war in which he engages is a conflict against Elam which ends in victory and a large booty for Gudea. This booty is promptly dedicated to his god, Ningirsu, and deposited in the temple, E-Ninnu, at Lagash, to the enlargement of which he devoted his chief energy.

Gudea 's date can be approximately fixed at c. 2450 B.C. With him Lagash rises to new splendor, though the way is paved in a measure by his predecessor, Ur-Bau, from whose reign we have a number of monuments testifying to the growing power of the district ruled by Ur-Bau while still owing nominal allegiance to Akkad. Whether Uruk at the time that it became the heir of Akkad succeeded in securing control of Lagash is uncertain, but with the coming of an invasion from the north, the glory of Lagash vanishes again as suddenly as it reached its climax under Gudea.

The regions to the north and particularly those groups in the mountainous district of the upper section of the Tigris not only regained their independence as the dynasty of Akkad approached its close, but one of these groups, the Guti, took their revenge for the humiliation inflicted upon them by Sharganisharri and Naram-Sin by making an incursion into the Euphrates Valley. For a period of about fifty years a Guti dynasty actually occupied the throne, presumably choosing Uruk as the seat of residence.

Such, then, was the sad result of the conflict between Sumerians and Semites for control on the one hand and of the ambitious efforts on the other, inaugurated by Lugalzaggisi and continued by Sargon, Sharganisharri and Naram-Sin to pass beyond the natural confines of the Euphrates Valley. The terror aroused by this northern foe, sweeping down upon the cultivated cities of the plain from their mountain homes with all the violence of an elemental force, must have been extreme. Utuchegal, who succeeds in driving the Guti out of the country, ^[6] gives us a vivid picture of the ravages committed.

He calls the Guti "the dragon of the mountains, the enemy of the gods", and describes how they tore the wives away from their husbands, robbing parents of their children and spreading devastation on all sides. Such invasions of semi-barbarous groups from the northwest and northeast were destined to repeat themselves frequently in the course of Babylonian-Assyrian history and inflicted a serious check to the advance of the Euphratean culture, though on the other hand they lead fierce tribes to take on at least a veneer of culture through contact with a higher civilization. ^[7]

Tribute was no doubt exacted from the conquered groups, and relationships were maintained with Magan and Melucha to the extent of procuring stones and metals from these rich districts; but the control over such sections as Subartu and the more distant settlements of the Amorites could at most have been nominal. The more direct result was the check given to the advance of the Semites, and another period of 250 years elapsed before the latter were strong enough again to risk a passage of arms with the Sumerians.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The bust of the statue was found at Suaa. See Plate XXIII Fig. 2.

[2]:

At Pir Hussein. See Plate L, Fig. 2, and King, History of Sumer aiuL Akkad, p. 244.

[3]:

See Plate L, Fig. 1. The monument was found at Susa, whither it was carried as a trophy in the eleventh century, as the others mentioned above p. 113.

[4]:

See Poebel's ingenious interpretation of the text (Oriental. Litteraturzeitung, XV, Sp. 481).

[5]:

Above, p. 41. See Plate XIII and Plate XII, Fig. 2.

[6]:

See the important inscription of this ruler published with a translation and commentary by Thureau-Dangin in the Revue d'Assyriologie, IX, pp. 114-120.

[7]:

We have an Akkadian inscription of Lasirab, King of the Guti (Thureau-Dangin, Sumerisch-Akkadiscke Konigsinschriften, p. 170), of Erridupizir, who calls himself "King of Guti, King of the four quarters" (Hilprecht, Earliest Version of the Deluge, p. 20, seq.) and of Anubanini, King of the Lulubi (Thureau- Dangin, l.c ,p. 172).