2S 8 BABYLONIAN ARCHAEOLOGY 



The principal source of our new information is an early Babylonian tablet inscribed 

 in the Sumerian language with a list of kings arranged in successive dynasties. 1 The 

 text resembles other documents of its class in giving the length of each king's reign, the 

 number of kings of which each dynasty was composed, and the total length of its dura- 

 tion; in two places, with regard to founders of dynasties, notes are added as to their 

 former occupations before they secured the throne. The figures given throughout the 

 text are consistent with the totals, except in the case of the second dynasty, that of Kish. 

 Here, though the separate reigns of its eight rulers amount to 192 years, the duration 

 of the dynasty is stated to have been 586 years; moreover, out of the 192 years of its 

 existence, the founder of the dynasty, a female wine-seller named Ku-Bau, is stated to 

 have occupied the throne for no less a period than 100 years. Scheil 2 and Sayce, 3 by 

 theories of hiatus and the like, would explain and retain the figures; Peiser boldly emends 

 them to what he considers the scribe meant to write. 4 Kugler, noting that many of 

 the figures in the list are multiples of 3 or 6, considers the whole of them artificial; and 

 he suggests the chronology is here mixed up with mystical speculations with regard to 

 numbers in the manner of Berossus. 5 But he has overlooked the fact that certain 

 numbers with their square roots, on which he bases his argument, really occur on a frag- 

 ment of quite a different tablet, with which the Arab merchant in Bagdad, the former 

 owner of the inscription, had ingeniously attempted to fill in a missing portion of the 

 original text. To Thureau-Dangin, who discusses the missing names of one of the 

 later dynasties, the difficulties in the first half of the text appear inexplicable, and he 

 makes no attempt to disentangle or assimilate its data. 6 



In the chart given above, the known succession of rulers in the South Babylonian 

 city of Lagash has been used as the canon, according to which the new dynasties have 

 been arranged. A fixed point of contact between the dynastic list and the Lagash suc- 

 cession is afforded by the name of Lugal-zaggisi, who was already known as the con- 

 temporary and conqueror of Urukagina and in the list is counted as forming the first 

 " Dynasty of Erech," between the dynasties of Kish and Akkad. It is remarkable 

 that among the kings of Opis and Kish, in the first two dynasties of the list, none of the 

 names are included which we know were borne by kings of these two cities during the 

 earlier period of Lagash. It is true that Mesilim and other early kings of Kish are 

 certainly to be placed before the Dynasty of Opis, but this is impossible with the ruler of 

 Kish and Zuzu of Opis, who were defeated by Eannatum. For Feiser's suggestion that 

 Eannatum preceded the Dynasty of Opis 7 entirely ignores the evidence from Lagash as 

 to the comparatively short period between Eannatum and Urukagina, based on direct 

 succession and on the names of contemporary personages mentioned in official docu- 

 ments. 8 The hundred years assigned to the reign of Ku-Bau in the list and the strange 

 figure for the duration of her dynasty suggest the possibility that a period of confusion 

 intervened between the dynasties of Opis and Kish; and to such a period it seems not 

 improbable that we may assign Eannatum's contemporaries. From the time of Ur- 

 Nina to that of Urukagina the activity of these two northern cities was not felt at Lagash 

 except during Eannatum's reign, and none of the recently discovered northern kings 

 succeeded in emulating Mesilim's example by establishing a dual empire. A 

 comparatively successful attempt was made from the south under Lugal-zaggisi, but it 

 was reserved for the Dynasty of Akkad to secure a real hegemony throughout Babylonia. 



The important part played by Agade, or Akkad, at this period has long been rec- 

 ognised, and the list affords valuable information as to the kings who composed the 



1 Sec Scheil, Comptcs rendus de V Academic des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, 1911 (October), 

 pp. 606 ff. 



2 Ibid., p. 612. 



3 Proc. of the Soc. of Bibl. Arch., xxxiv (1912), pp. 165 ff. 



4 Oriental! stische Literaturzeitung, 1912, No. 3 (March), Col. 108 ff. 

 6 Zeilschrift fur Assyrioloeie, xxvii (1912), pp. 242 ff. 



6 Revue dAssyriologie, ix (1912), No. II, p. 37. 



7 Orient. Literaturzeit. (1912), Col. 113. 



8 Cf. King, Hist, of Sumer and Akkad, pp. 157 ff., 168 ff. 



