It has been further pointed out that in an inscription preserved in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople the name of a king of Kish is mentioned, which, to judge from the traces still visible, may probably be restored as that of Sharru-GI.[26] The fragmentary nature of the text, which was found at Abû Habba during the excavations conducted by the Turkish Government upon that site,[27] rendered any deductions that might be drawn from it uncertain; but it sufficed to corroborate the suggestion that Sharru-Gi was not a king of Akkad, but a still earlier king of Kish. Since then I have recognized a duplicate text of the Constantinople inscription, also from Abû Habba, which enables us to supplement and to some extent correct the conclusions based upon it. The duplicate consists of a cruciform stone object, inscribed on its twelve sides with a votive text recording a series of gifts to the Sun-god Shamash and his consort Aa in the city of Sippar, and the early part of its text corresponds to the fragmentary inscription at Constantinople. Unfortunately the beginning of the text is wanting, as is the case with the Constantinople text, so that we cannot decide with certainty the name of the king who had the monument engraved. But the duplicate furnishes fresh data on which to base a conclusion.
Although the king's name is wanting, it is possible to estimate the amount of text that is missing at the head of the first column, and it is now clear that the name of Sharru-Gi does not occur at the beginning of the inscription, but some lines down the column; in other words, its position suggests a name in a genealogy rather than that of the writer of the text. Moreover, in a broken passage in the second column the name Sharru-GI occurs again, and the context proves definitely that he was not the writer of the text, who speaks in the first person, though he may not improbably have been his father. But, although the monument can no longer be ascribed to Sharru-GI, the titles "the mighty king, the king of Kish," which occur in the first column of the text, are still to be taken as applying to him, while the occurrence of the name in the second column confirms its suggested restoration in the genealogy. It may therefore be regarded as certain that Sharru-GI was an early king of Kish, and, it would seem, the father of the king who had the cruciform monument inscribed and deposited as a votive offering in the temple of Shamash at Sippar. In the last chapter reference has been made to Manishtusu's activity in Sippar and his devotion to the great temple of the Sun-god in that city.[28] For various epigraphical reasons, based on a careful study of its text, I would provisionally assign the cruciform monument to Manishtusu. According to this theory, Sharru-GI would be Manishtusu's father, and the earliest king of Kish of this period whose name has yet been recovered.
The proof that Sharru-Gi, or, according to the later interpretation of the name, Sargon, was not identical with Shar-Gani-sharri, King of Akkad, nor was even a member of his dynasty, would seem to bring once more into discredit the later traditions which gathered round his name. To the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian scribes Sargon appears as a king of Agade, or Akkad, and the father of Narâm-Sin, who succeeded him upon his throne. It is clear, therefore, that the name of the earlier king of Kish has been borrowed for the king of Akkad, whose real name, Shar-Gani-sharri, has disappeared in the tradition. Are we to imagine that the great achievements, which later ages ascribed to Sargon of Akkad, were also borrowed along with his name from the historical Sargon of Kish? Or is it possible that the traditional Sargon is representative of his period, and combines in his one person the attributes of more than one king? In the cruciform monument, which we have seen may probably be assigned to Manishtusu, the king prefaces the account of his conquest of Anshan by stating that it took place at a time "when all the lands ... revolted against me," and the phrase employed recalls the similar expression in the Neo-Babylonian chronicle, which states that in Sargon's old age "all the lands revolted against him." The parallelism in the language of the early text and the late chronicle might perhaps be cited in support of the view that facts as well as names had been confused in the later tradition.
CRUCIFORM STONE OBJECT INSCRIBED ON TWELVE SIDES WITH A VOTIVE TEXT OF AN EARLY SEMITIC KINO OF KISH, RECORDING A SERIES OF GIFTS TO SHAMASH THE SUN-GOD AND HIS WIFE AA IN THE CITY OF SIPPAR.—Brit. Mus., No. 91022.
Fortunately we have not to decide the question as a point of literary criticism, nor even upon grounds of general probability, for we have the means of testing the traditions in detail by comparison with contemporary documents. Reference has already been made to tablets dated in the reigns of Shar-Gani-sharri and Narâm-Sin, and the date-formulæ occurring upon them refer, in accordance with the custom of the period, to events of public interest after which the years were named. In the case of tablets dated in Shar-Gani-sharri's reign, we find three date-formulæ which have a direct bearing upon the point at issue, and refer to incidents which correspond in a remarkable degree to achievements ascribed to Sargon in the Omen-tablet and the Neo-Babylonian Chronicle. The conquest of Amurru, the "Western Land" on the coast of Syria, is referred to in four sections of the Omens,[29] probably representing separate expeditions thither. The third section records a decisive victory for Sargon, and apparently the deportation of the king of Amurru to Akkad; while in the fourth Sargon is recorded to have set up his images in Amurru, that is to say, he carved his image upon the rocks near the Mediterranean coast, or in the Lebanon, as a lasting memorial of his conquest of the country. Now one of the tablets of accounts from Tello is dated "in the year in which Shar-Gani-sharri conquered Amurru in Basar."[30] It is therefore certain that the conquest of Amurru, ascribed by tradition to Sargon of Akkad, is to be referred to Shar-Gani-sharri and treated as historically true.
We obtain a very similar result when we employ the same method of testing Sargon's Elamite campaigns. The Omen-tablet opens with the record of Sargon's invasion of the country, followed by his conquest of the Elamites, whom he is related to have afflicted grievously by cutting off their food supplies.[31] This would appear to have been in the nature of a successful raid into Elamite territory. On the other hand, one of the early account-tablets is dated in the year when Shar-Gani-sharri overcame the expedition which Elam and Zakhara had sent against Opis and Sakli.[32] It is clear that the date, although it records a success against the Elamites, can hardly refer to the same event as the Omen-text, since the latter records an invasion of Elam by Sargon, not a raid into Babylonian territory by the Elamites. But the contemporary document at least proves that Shar-Gani-sharri was successful in his war with Elam, and it is not unlikely that the attack on Opis by the Elamites provoked his invasion of their country.[33] Such a raid as the Omens describe fully accords with the practice of this period, when the kings of Kish and Akkad used to invade Elam and return to their own country laden with spoil.[34] The date-formula which confirms a third point in the late tradition refers to the year in which Shar-Gani-sharri laid the foundations of the temple of Anunitu and the temple of Amal in Babylon,[35] proving not only that the city of Babylon was in existence at this period, but also that Sargon devoted himself to its adornment by building temples there. The late Chronicle records that Sargon removed the soil from the trenches of Babylon,[36] and a broken passage in the Omens appears to state that he increased the might of Babylon.[37] On this point the early date-formula and the late tradition confirm and supplement each other.
Thus, wherever we can test the achievements ascribed to Sargon of Akkad by comparison with contemporary records of Shar-Gani-sharri's reign, we find a complete agreement between them. Another feature in the traditional picture of Sargon admirably suits the founder of a dynasty at Akkad, whereas it would have little suitability to a king of Kish. This is the support which the goddess Ishtar is stated to have given Sargon, both in raising him to the throne and in guiding his arms to victory.[38] For Akkad, which Shar-Gani-sharri made his capital, was an important seat of her worship. When, therefore, the late tradition records that Sargon conquered Subartu and Kazallu, we may ascribe these victories to Shar-Gani-sharri, although they are unrecorded in the contemporary monuments that have as yet been recovered. At any time it may happen that the name of Kashtubila of Kazallu may be found in a text of Shar-Gani-sharri's reign, as that of Mannu-dannu of Magan has been recovered on a statue of Narâm-Sin.[39] Such an attitude of expectancy is justified by the striking instances in which the late tradition has already been confirmed by the early texts; and the parallelism in the language of Manishtusu's monument and the late Chronicle of Sargon, to which reference has been made, must be treated as fortuitous. Having regard to the insecure foundations upon which these early empires were based, Shar-Gani-sharri, like Manishtusu, may well have had to face a revolt of the confederation of cities he had subjected to his rule. In such a case the scribe of Shar-Gani-sharri would probably have employed phraseology precisely similar to that in Manishtusu's text, for conventional forms of expression constantly recur in monumental inscriptions of the same period.