CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUK. 15 



reads li-il-ku-du — lilkutu. The second inscription (stele cle Gheikh-KJidn) is, in 

 my estimation, misunderstood by Scheil. There is no question of "restoration," 1 

 but of the first erection of the image. 



To this, the already known material touching the oldest Semitic period, has 

 come now to be added PI. 1-7. The above remarks upon the texts of the kings of 

 Guti and Lullubi open the way for a better understanding of these new texts. The 

 following notes supply all that still needs to be added. 



The excavations have brought to light six inscribed objects of Sargon 1 : two 

 brick stamps of baked clay, the fragment of a third, and three door sockets. The 

 brick stamps -are made from the same mould. The inscription (PI. 3, No. 3) reads 

 as follows : 1. Shar-ga-ni-sliar-dli 2. sJiar 3. A-ga-de u 4. bdni (BA-GIM) 5. bit 

 6. ilu Bel, "Sharganisharali, king of Agade, builder 3 of the temple of Bel." Judging 

 from their appearance, these brick stamps were never practically used, but were pre- 

 sented by Sargon as temple-offerings to Bel in commemoration of his work ; or per- 

 haps they were placed in the corners of the structure erected by him, as was the ease 

 with the later clay cylinders. 4 That others which were of the same form as these 

 were used for stamping bricks can neither be proved nor denied. - 



Of greater importance are the door sockets, which contain the longest inscriptions 

 of Sargon thus far known. Two of these are exactly alike in their contents (PI. 2). 

 The inscription of the third (PI. 1) differs somewhat. PI. 2, as the more important, 

 reads as follows : 1. llu Shar-ga-ni-sliar-dli 2. mar Itti(-ti)- ila Bel 3. cla-num 4. sliar 

 5. A-ga-de ki 6. it 7. su"-u-la-ti 8. ilu Bel 9. bdni 10. U-kur 1 11. bit ilu Bel 12. in 

 Nippur ki , etc., 8 " Sharganisharali, son of Itti-Bel, the mighty king of Agade and of the 

 dominion (?) .... of Bel, builder of Ekur, temple of Bel in Nippur." From this text 

 we learn the interesting fact that Sargon's father was Itti-Bel (" With-Bel "). 9 Inas- 



1 usliziz never signifies "to restore," but "to set up ;" enuma laban, as Scheil transcribes, could never be (Gram- 

 mar !? ) the Babylonian or even Lulubitic equivalent for "alors qu' elle tornbait." 



2 The cuneiform characters have been executed in relief, and are larger at the base than at the top. My copy 

 gives the exact size of the characters at the base, while the photographic reproduction illustrates the size at the top. 



3 Banii means to build something or to build at something that already existed, i. c, to add to it or to restore it if 

 it was in ruins. All that we can say of Sargon is that he was a builder of the temple, but not its first builder. 



* " One of the cylinders from Babylon, now in the British Museum, was not found, as I was able to learn from the 

 man who discovered it, in a corner, but in a niche in the side of a long wall" (Peters). 



5 Winckler's doubts (Gesch., p. 26) are dissipated by the evidence of the phrases bani bit Bel and bani Ekur bit 

 Bel in Nippur (Plates 1-3). 



6 Briinnow, 1. c, 802 (Jensen). The significance of sidati (or plur. sulati t ) is not certain. Is i"nSb (Jer. 33, 4) 

 to be compared ? 



7 This — not E-sliar (Delitzsch, Gesch., p. 33) — was the name of the temple of Bel in Nippur. Cf. Jensen, Kos- 

 mologie, pp. 186 seq., 196 seq. 



8 For the rest, cf. pp. 10, 13, 14. 



9 Perhaps shortened from Itti-BH-balatu, "With Bel is life " (Strassmaier, Nabon. 466, 13 ; Cambys. 373, 10). Cf. 

 the similar formations Itti-Marduk (-Nabu, -Sliamasli, -Quia, etc.)-balatu in the Contract literature. 



