Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING 19 CENTURY : ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 381
about the downfall of the dynasty of Ur, and apparently
led to the rise of the dynasty of (N)isin, to which Ur-
Ninib belongs, whose pavement covered the layer of debris
with the numerous broken vases. If the text of a votive
inscription of Enannatuma, son of Ishme-Dagan, king of
(N)isin, king of Shumer and Akkad, published many years
ago by Rawlinson, 1 is entirely correct, the last representative
of the dynasty of Ur would have been Gungunu,
since he no longer has the proud title of his immediate
predecessors, 2 "king of the four quarters of the earth," nor
the less significant one borne by his first two ancestors, 3
but is styled only " king of Ur." In this case Ishme-
Dagan should have been the founder of the new dynasty,
who allowed Gungunu to lead the life of the shadow of a
king until his death, 4 under the control of one of his own
sons, whom he invested with the highest religious office
in the temple of Sin at Ur. If, however, Gungunu, " king
1
Comp. i R. 2, no. vi, I, and 36, no. 2.
2 Bur-Sin I, Gimil-Sin, Ine-Sin.
3
Ur-Gur and Dungi. The latter was the first to adopt the more comprehensive
title in connection with his successful wars some time between the
x + 2 1st and x + 29th years of his long government. Comp. Thureau-
Dangin in Comptes Rendus, 1902, pp. 84, seqq.
4
Comp. the date of a tablet mentioned by Scheil in Maspero's Recueil,
vol. xxi (1899), p. 125: mu Gu-un-gu-nu ba-til, "the year when G.
died." If the former view, set forth above, be correct, this tablet would belong
to the government of Ishme-Dagan or his successor, and its peculiar date
would thus find an easy explanation. In the other case the date would appear
somewhat strange, as it was not customary to call a year after the death
of an actual ruler, but rather after his successor's accession to the throne.
There exist a few other tablets which are dated according to the reigns ot
kings of the dynasty of (N)isin. Among the results of the third Philadelphia
2xpedition I remember distinctly to have seen one dated in the reign of Ur-
Ninib, and Scheil (in Recueil, vol. xxiii, 1901, pp. 93, seq.) mentions another
from Sippara which bears the name of King Damiq-ilishu, a second member
of the same dynasty (comp. next page below), whom Scheil, however,
wrongly identified with his namesake of the second dynasty of Babylon.