But it was not from the Sea-Country that the West-Semitic Dynasty of Babylon received its death-blow. In the late chronicle, which has thrown so much light on the earlier conflicts of this troubled period, we read of another invasion, which not only brought disaster to Babylon but probably put an end to her first dynasty. The chronicler states that during the reign of Samsu-ditana, the last king of the dynasty, "men of the land of Khatti marched against the land of Akkad," in other words, that Hittites from Anatolia[22] marched down the Euphrates and invaded Babylonia from the north-west. The chronicle does not record the result of the invasion,[23] but we may probably connect it with the fact that the Kassite king Agum-kakrime brought back to Babylon from Khanî, the old Khana on the middle Euphrates,[24] the cult-images of Marduk and Sarpanitum and installed them once more with great pomp and ceremony within their shrines in E-sagila. We may legitimately conclude that they were carried off by the Hittites during their invasion in Samsu-ditana's reign.
BRICK OF SIN-GASHID, KING OF ERECH, RECORDING THE BUILDING OF HIS PALACE IN THAT CITY.
From Warka; Brit. Mus., No. 90268; Photo by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
If the Hittites succeeded in despoiling Babylon of her most sacred deities, it is clear that they must have raided the city, and they may even have occupied it for a time. Thus the West-Semitic Dynasty of Babylon may have been brought to an end by these Hittite conquerors, and Samsu-ditana himself may have fallen in defence of his own capital. But there is no reason for supposing that the Hittites occupied Babylon for long. Even if their success was complete, they would soon have returned to their own country, laden with heavy spoil; and they doubtless left some of their number in occupation of Khana on their withdrawal up the Euphrates. Southern Babylonia may also have suffered in the raid, but we may assume that its force was felt most in the north, and that the kings of the Sea-Country profited by the disaster. We have as yet no direct evidence of their occupation of Babylon, but, as their kingdom had been Babylon's most powerful rival prior to the Hittite raid, it may well have increased its borders after her fall.
To this period we may probably assign a local dynasty of Erech, represented by the names of Sin-gashid, Sin-gamil and An-am. From bricks and foundation-records recovered at Warka, the site of the ancient city, we know that the first of these rulers restored the old temple of E-anna and built himself a new palace.[25] But the most interesting of Sin-gashid's records is a votive cone, commemorating the dedication of E-kankal to Lugal-banda and the goddess Ninsun, for, when concluding his text with a prayer for abundance, he inserts a list or tariff, stating the maximum-price which he had fixed for the chief articles of commerce during his reign,[26] Sin-gamil was An-am's immediate predecessor on the throne of Erech, and during his reign the latter dedicated on his behalf a temple to Nergal in the town of Usipara.[27] An-am was the son of a certain Bêl-shemea, and his principal work was the restoration of the wall of Erech, the foundation of which he ascribes to the semi-mythical ruler Gilgamesh.[28]
Doubtless other local kingdoms arose during the period following Babylon's temporary disappearance as a political force, but we have recovered no traces of them,[29] and the only fact of which we are certain is the continued succession of the Sea-Country kings. To one of these rulers, Gulkishar, reference is made upon a boundary stone of the twelfth century, drawn up in the reign of Enlil-nadin-apli, an early king of the Fourth Dynasty. On it he is given the title of King of the Sea-Country, which is also the late chronicler's designation for E-gamil, the last member of the dynasty, in the account he has left us of the Kassite invasion. Such evidence seems to show that the administrative centre of their rule was established at those periods in the south; but the inclusion of the dynasty in the Kings' List is best explained on the assumption that at least some of its later members imposed their suzerainty over a wider area.[30] They were evidently the only stable line of rulers in a period after the most powerful administration the country had yet known had been suddenly shattered. The land had suffered much, not only from the Hittite raid, but also during the continuous conflicts of more than a century that preceded the final fall of Babylon. It must have been then that many of the old Sumerian cities of Southern and Central Babylonia were deserted, after being burned down and destroyed; and they were never afterwards re-occupied. Lagash, Umma, Shuruppak, Kisurra and Adab play no part in the subsequent history of Babylonia.
Of the fortunes of Babylon at this time we know nothing, but the fact that the Kassites should have made the city their capital shows that the economic forces, which had originally raised her to that position, were still in operation. The Sumerian elements in the population of Southern Babylonia may now have enjoyed a last period of influence, and their racial survival in the Sea-Country may in part explain its continual striving for independence. But in Babylonia as a whole the effects of three centuries of West-Semitic rule were permanent. When, after the Kassite conquest, Babylon emerges once more into view, it is apparent that the traditions inherited from her first empire have undergone small change.