There is thus no doubt as to the racial character of the inhabitants of this early settlement. The discovery of a brick inscribed with the name of Khaladda, patesi of Shuruppak, proved that Fâra was the site of the ancient city which later tradition regarded as the scene of the Deluge. Khaladda's inscription is not written in very archaic characters, and he probably lived in the time of the kings of Sumer and Akkad. We may thus infer that Shuruppak continued to exist as a city at that period, but the greater part of the site was never again inhabited after the destruction of the early town by fire. We have described its remains in some detail as they are our most valuable source of information concerning the earliest Sumerians in Babylonia. Until the objects that were found have been published it is difficult to determine accurately its relation in date to the earlier remains at Tello. A few fragments of sculpture in relief were discovered in the course of the excavations, and these, taken in conjunction with the cylinder-seals, the inscribed tablets, and the pottery, suggest that no long interval separated its period from that of the earliest Sumerians of history.
ABÛ HATAB after Andrae and Noeldeke
A less exhaustive examination of the neighbouring mounds of Abû Hatab was also undertaken by Drs. Andrae and Noeldeke. This site lies to the north of Fâra, and, like it, is close to the Shatt el-Kâr.[20] The southern part of the tell could not be examined because of the modern Arab graves which here lie thick around the tomb of the Imâm Sa'îd Muhammad. But the trenches cut in the higher parts of the mound, to the north and along its eastern edge, sufficed to indicate its general character.[21] Earlier remains, such as were found at Fâra, are here completely wanting, and it would appear to be not earlier than the period of the kings of Sumer and Akkad. This is indicated by bricks of Bûr-Sin I., King of Ur, which were discovered scattered in débris in the north-west part of the mound, and by the finding of case-tablets in the houses belonging to the period of the dynasties of Ur and Isin.[22] The graves also differed from those at Fâra, generally consisting of pot-burials. Here, in place of a shallow trough with a lid, the sarcophagus was formed of two great pots, deeply ribbed on the outside; these were set, one over the other, with their edges meeting, and after burial they were fixed together by means of pitch or bitumen. The skeleton is usually found within lying on its back or side in a crouching position with bent legs. The general arrangement of drinking-cups, offerings, and ornaments resembles that in the Fâra burials, so that the difference in the form of the sarcophagus is merely due to a later custom and not to any racial change. Very similar burials were found by Taylor at Mukayyar, and others have also been unearthed in the earlier strata of the mounds at Babylon.
The majority of the houses at Abû Hatab appear to have been destroyed by fire, and, in view of the complete absence of later remains, the tablets scattered on their floors indicate the period of its latest settlement. It thus represents a well-defined epoch, later than that of the mounds at Fâra, and most valuable for comparison with them. At neither Fâra nor Abû Hatab were the remains of any important building or temple disclosed, but the graves and houses of the common people have furnished information of even greater value for the archaeologist and historian. Another mound which should provide further material for the study of this earliest period is Bismâya, the site of the city at Adab, at which excavations were begun on December 25, 1903 by the University of Chicago and continued during the following year.[23] The mound of Hêtime to the west of Fâra, may, to judge from the square bricks and fragments of pot-burials that are found there, date from about the same period as Abû Hatab. But it is of small extent and height, the greater part being merely six or seven feet above the plain, while its two central mounds rise to a height of less than fourteen feet.
Such are the principal early Sumerian mounds in the region of the Shatt el-Kâr and the Shatt el-Hai. Other mounds in the same neighbourhood may well prove to be of equally early dates; but it should be noted that some of these do not cover Sumerian cities, but represent far later periods of occupation. The character of the extensive mound of Jidr to the east of Fâra and Abû Hatab is doubtful; but the use of lime-mortar in such remains as are visible upon the surface indicates a late epoch. A number of smaller tells may be definitely regarded as representing a settlement in this district during Sassanian times. Such are Dubâ'i, which, with two others, lies to the south of Fâra, and Bint el-Mderre to the east; to the same period may be assigned Menêdir, which lies to the north-east, beyond Deke, the nearest village to Fâra. This last mound, little more than a hundred yards long, covers the site of a burial-place; it has been completely burrowed through by the Arabs in their search for antiquities, and is now covered with fragments of sarcophagi. The mounds of Mjelli and Abû Khuwâsîj to the west of Fâra are probably still later, and belong to the Arab period.
It will have been noted that all the Sumerian mounds described or referred to in the preceding paragraphs cover cities which, after being burned down and destroyed in a comparatively early period, were never reoccupied, but were left deserted. Lagash, Umma, Shuruppak, Kisurra, and Adab play no part in the subsequent history of Babylonia. We may infer that they perished during the fierce struggle which took place between the Babylonian kings of the First Dynasty and the Elamite kings of Larsa. At this time city after city in Sumer was captured and retaken many times, and on Samsu-iluna's final victory over Rîm-Sin, it is probable that he decided to destroy many of the cities and make the region a desert, so as to put an end to trouble for the future. As a matter of fact, he only succeeded in shifting the area of disturbance southwards, for the Sumerian inhabitants fled to the Sea-country on the shores of the Persian Gulf; and to their influence, and to the reinforcements they brought with them, may be traced the troubles of Samsu-iluna and his son at the hands of Iluma-ilu, who had already established his independence in this region. Thus Samsu-iluna's policy of repression was scarcely a success; but the archaeologist has reason to be grateful to it. The undisturbed condition of these early cities renders their excavation a comparatively simple matter, and lends a certainty to conclusions drawn from a study of their remains, which is necessarily lacking in the case of more complicated sites.