Ê-harsag The plantations of the sacred forest for the god On the reverse we read, 'He who in honour of Ên-Girsu has built the house of entertainment, his god is Dun Sir. For the king of Kianna, for Ên-Girsu, Entéména has made his storehouse. He has made (the image) of the goddess Nina, who knows the heart. He has made the image of the goddess Nina, who makes names glorious. He has made the park of Entéména and built a temple to the god Ellil.' In one inscription he styles himself the chosen of the goddess Nina.' He tells us he made a libation bowl and dedicated a quantity of grain in the temple of Eninnu, i.e. the temple of the number Fifty. In another he apostrophizes the goddess Gatumdug as the mother of Sirpurra, and tells us he built a temple for her. A singular proof of his widespread authority is the fact that the Americans have recently found at Niffer in Upper Babylonia an object dedicated by him to Ellil, the great god of Nippur. The name of his particular patron god is variously read as Dun Sir, Anna, and Sulgur. This and similar tablets of later kings have been found associated with the copper statuettes, already referred to, inscribed with their names, and containing dedicatory sentences. Those inscribed with Entéména's name represent his tutelary goddess with horns on her head. In addition to these we also have inscribed with his name the famous silver vase already described. There is in the Louvre an inscription which a certain Enanatuma, son of Entéména and patesi of Sirpurra, is named. If this is not a mistaken reading, which is very probable, Entéména's son, as well as his father, was called Enanatuma. This completes the names of the early rulers of Sirpurra, whom we can definitely arrange in order, and who may be thus tabulated: : We now have a break in our evidence, and can only conjecturally suggest that the next ruler was a famous personage who fills a much larger rôle than those we have hitherto considered, and of whom we have a considerable series of monuments; namely, the king whose name is read as Gudea, and also Ka-mum-ma. Hommel suggests, with his usual ingenuity, that Gudea was not in the regular succession to the throne. This he concludes from the name of his father never being mentioned in the numerous inscriptions which date from his reign, and from the absence of any reference to his ancestry. On the other hand, he is perhaps the only early king of Babylonia whose wife's name is known. It occurs along with his own on an agate seal preserved at the Hague.* This points, as Hommel has suggested, to her having been an important personage, and it seems probable that he married some princess belonging to the royal stock, perhaps a daughter or sister of Entéména, and thus acquired his rights to the throne. It is further curious that if we are to rely upon Hommel's translation, he professes himself in one of his own inscriptions—namely, on Cylinder A -to be a self-made man : 'A mother I had not, my mother was the water depth; A father had I none, my father was the water depth.'† This points to his having been a foundling on the waters, like Sargon. We also read of a certain Dunzi (i.e. 'the man who planted his eyes on me, and thus my life prolonged '), who saved him from the waters, thus answering to the Akki of the later Sargon legend.‡ Among his monuments are several large diorite statues, copper figures, &c., and his name occurs on a great number of the foundation bricks, &c., at Tell Loh. His monuments refer to the two great functions of Mesopotamian kings,-campaigns against their enemies, and the foundation of temples and cities. The greater part of them refer to the latter duties. On an inscription on one of his statues he tells us how his god En-Girsu had forcibly opened the ways for him from the Upper Sea, which probably means the Mediterranean, as far as the Lower Sea, i.e. the Persian Gulf, and that he had conquered the town of Anshan Nimaki, and had carried its spoil off to the shrine of his god, Ên-Girsu.§ Nimaki is the proto-Chaldean name for Elam, and Anshan was the name of a city of Elam. In connection with this campaign *Hommel, p. 317, note 5; Jensen, p. 65 ††*. + Ibid. we we must refer to the mention of the frontier town of Elam, Imbiki, the later Bit Imbi.* Gudea was not only a conqueror, but a great temple builder. Thus he claims to have built a temple named 'the House of Light, which illuminates the ship of Ninaki,' to the goddess Nina at Ninaki. For E-harsag, the patroness of the city of Girsu, he built a temple, raised an altar, and erected a diorite statue at Girsu. For the goddess Nana he restored her famous shrine of Eanna, and also made her a diorite statue. To Bau he built a temple at Uru Azagga, had a statue carved for her, and dedicated at her festival oxen, sheep, lambs, dates, cream, garments, and different kinds of birds. As Bau was especially worshipped at Kish, near Babylon, this seems to show that Uru Azagga is another name for Kish. To Galalim, the favourite son of the god Ên-Girsu, he also built a shrine. He also restored the famous temple of Eghud, or the Seven Spheres, at Borsippa, but his most important work was upon the temple of the Fifty (Eninnu). He first purified the city and drove out the adorers of demons, the necromancers, the prophetesses. He then tells us whence he derived the materials for building this famous shrine, consisting of cedar and other costly woods, of which he made great gates for the temple which were covered with figures, and he also brought hewn stones from Martu (i.e. the Western lands or the land of the Amorites), to build the platform for the temple, and other stones to act as sockets. He further brought copper and gold-dust apparently for its decoration, to which he also dedicated the spoil captured in his campaign in the Elamitish mountains. In this temple he placed his statue, and he made provision for a regular offering of food and drink, denouncing those who should revoke this gift. He also had a statue made of the god out of Magan stone, which he put in the temple, and to which he gave a special name, and at its dedication there seems to have been a seven days' rejoicing, during which punishments were remitted, and obedience was not exacted from slaves, who for that time were the equals of their masters and mistresses. On any one who ventured to mutilate or destroy the statue of the god, Gudea calls down the vengeance of a whole Pantheon of gods. In his inscriptions Gudea gives the names of several localities from which he got materials for the various buildings, statues, &c., which he erected. This list is most important, not only as showing how widely spread the enterprise of those early days was, but also as informing us of the localities whence * Hommel, p. 325. certain certain indispensable products of ancient culture were derived. First and foremost was the land of Magan or Maghan, already mentioned. Thence, he tells us, he brought the stone from which his statues were made, and which is a diorite or dolerite, and is the same stone used by the early Egyptian kings for their statues. From Amanum-that is, no doubt, the Amanus Mountains in Northern Syria, and which he calls the Mountain of Cedars-he obtained wooden beams of cedar and of another wood. These are described as of different lengths. From the city of Ursu (?), in the mountains of Ibla, came the woods called Zabanum and Tulubum, i.e. probably cedar and cypress wood. Amiaud would place this country near the sources of the Euphrates. From Shamamum in the mountains of Menua (i.e. Armenia), and from Kazalla, which is named among the conquests of Sargon I., and was situated on the mountains of Martu or the West-land, there came hewn blocks of Beham or Nagal stone, with which the platform of the temple was built. From Tidanum (identified by Hommel with Tidnum, the proto-Chaldean equivalent of Martu, the West') he brought Shirgal stone, i.e. alabaster, which was apparently used for doorposts, &c. From the country of Kagal-adda-ki, in the mountains of Kimash, perhaps, says Sayce, the land Mash,' or Arabia Petræa, the Mash of Gen. x. 23,-copper was brought. Kimash gave its name to copper (kémassi in Assyrian), just as Cyprus did to cuprum. From the land of Melughgha or Milukhkha -i.e., as Glaser argues, Havilah-he imported gold dust and usu wood, which Jensen identifies with some dark hard wood such as ebony. Gold dust was also brought from the mountains of Ghaghum, which was probably in Syria, since it is associated in the inscription with Khalub (? Aleppo). From the country of Gubin-which Oppert connects with the Khub of Ezekiel xxx. 5, Amiaud with a form of Coptos, the ancient Qubti, and Hommel with the Kepuna or Kepni of the Egyptian inscriptions, which seems to have represented the later Byblos-Gudea imported ghaluku trees, from which wood pillars were apparently made. From the country of Madga in the mountains of the river Gurruda or Galu-ruda (compared by Hommel with Malgu, mentioned in later inscriptions), and apparently a frontier town of Elam, he imported bitumen (?). Lastly from the mountains of Barsip, which Amiaud identifies with Tel Barsip on the Upper Euphrates, he brought nalua stones in large boats. In the inscription on the statue already referred to, he also refers to Nituk or Dilmun, i.e. the Island of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, as a place from which he got wood, and he further tells us that the wood that came came to him from there as well as from Magan, Milukhkha, and Gubi, came in large ships. From these notices it will be seen how widely the influence and enterprise of Gudea extended. He seems to have controlled the whole of Mesopotamia, and to have been the master also of Northern Syria, whence he got his supplies of wood. It is curious to notice that in the Egyptian inscriptions we have this region continually mentioned as the source of the various kinds of wood used by the Egyptian cabinet makers. Gudea left at least one son, who was called Ur Ên-Girsu, i.e. the Man of Girsu. In one inscription he calls himself patesi of Sirpurra, and in another expresses his devotion to the goddess Nina. In later Babylonian literature the name Ur En-Girsu occurs as the equivalent of farmer or rustic (ikkaru), which Hommel explains by some tradition that his reign was a peaceable one and devoted to country life.* We would suggest that Ur En-Girsu was succeeded as patesi of Sirpurra by Urbau, who may have been his brother. His name means the Man of the goddess Bau.' Hommel and others have made two persons out of him, one a patesi of Sirpurra, and the other a king of Ur. We believe them to have been the same person, and that he began his career as patesi of Sirpurra. His name was formerly read Urukh. A statue of him has been preserved and is now in the Louvre. This is inscribed, and the inscription reads, according to Amiaud, To the god Ên-Girsu, the powerful warrior of the god Ellil, Urbau, patesi of Sirpurra, the offspring of the god En-Agal ("powerful lord," a by-name of Ea), chosen by the will of the goddess Nina, endowed with power by the god En-Girsu, who has widely published the name of the goddess Bau and was endowed with intelligence by the god Enki (i.e. the god of the sea, otherwise called Ea). The submissive" incantation priest of the goddess Ninni (Ishtar), the beloved servant of the god "Lugalla Gishgallaki" (i.e. the "King of Gishgallaki or Babylon," i.e. Bel), the favourite of the goddess Duzizuab or Duziabzu.' The paragraph ends with the words I am Urbau; the god En-Girsu is my king. At this point the narrative changes to the third person, and the translation is problematical. The king apparently claims to have excavated some site, the earth of which he had extracted and measured and weighed, and then piled this earth upon it. Upon this he placed a substructure six cubits high, and upon Op. cit. p. 330. |