Fig. 42.—Mace-head, dedicated to Ningirsu, the god of Lagash (Shirpula), by Mesilim, King of Kish, at the time of Lugal-shag-engur, patesi of Lagash.—Déc., pl 1 ter, No. 2; Cat. No 4.
The weapon itself, upon which it is engraved, IS also noteworthy. As may be inferred from its colossal size the mace was never intended for actual use in battle, but was sculptured by Mesilim's orders with the special object of being dedicated in the temple of the god. It is decorated with rudely-carved figures of lions, which run around it and form a single composition in relief. The lions are six in number, and are represented as pursuing and attacking one another. Each has seized the hind-leg and the back of the one which precedes it; they thus form an endless chain around the object, and are a most effective form of decoration. Unlike the majority of mace-heads, that of Mesilim is not perforated from top to bottom. The hole for receiving the handle of the weapon, though deep, is not continued to the top of the stone, which is carved in low relief with a representation of a lion-headed eagle with wings outspread and claws extended. Looked at from above, this fantastic animal appears as an isolated figure, but it is not to be separated from the lions running round the side of the mace-head. In fact, we may see in the whole composition a development of the symbol which formed the arms of the city of Lagash, and was the peculiar emblem of the city-god Ningirsu.[18] In the latter, the lion-headed eagle grasps two lions by the back, and in Mesilim's sacred mace we have the same motive of a lion-headed eagle above lions. It was, indeed, a peculiarly appropriate votive offering for an overlord of Lagash to make. As suzerain of Lagash, Mesilim had repaired the temple of Ningirsu, the city-god; the colossal mace-head, wrought with a design taken from the emblem of the city and its god, was thus a fitting object for his inscription. By depositing it in Ningirsu's temple, he not only sought to secure the favour of the local god by his piety, but he left in his city a permanent record of his own dominion.
Of Lugal-shag-engur we know as yet nothing beyond his name, and the fact that he was patesi of Lagash at the time of Mesilim, but the latter ruler has left a more enduring mark upon history. For a later patesi of Lagash, Entemena, when giving a historical summary of the relations which existed between his own city and the neighbouring city of Umma, begins his account with the period of Mesilim, and furnishes additional testimony to the part which this early king of Kish played in the local affairs of southern Babylonia.[19] From Mesilim's own inscription on the mace-head, we have already seen that he interested himself in the repair of temples and in fostering the local cults of cities in the south; from Entemena's record we learn that his activities also extended to adjusting the political relations between the separate states. The proximity of Umma to Lagash brought the two cities into constant rivalry, and, although they were separated by the Shatt el-Hai,[20] their respective territories were not always confined to their own sides of the stream. During the reign of Mesilim the antagonism between the cities came to a head, and, in order to prevent the outbreak of hostilities, Mesilim stepped in as arbitrator, possibly at the invitation of the two disputants. The point at issue concerned the boundary-line between the territories of Lagash and Umma, and Mesilim, as arbitrator, drew up a treaty of delimitation.
The form in which the record of the treaty is cast is of peculiar interest, for it forcibly illustrates the theocratic feeling of these early peoples. It is in accordance with their point of view that the actual patesis of Lagash and Umma are not named, and the dispute is regarded as having been adjusted by the gods. The deity who presided over the conference, and at whose invitation the treaty is stated to have been made, was Enlil, "the king of the lands." Owing to his unique position among the local gods of Babylonia, his divine authority was recognized by the lesser city-gods. Thus it was at his command that Ningirsu, the god of Lagash, and the city-god of Umma fixed the boundary. It is true that Mesilim, the King of Kish, is referred to by name, but he only acted at the word of his own goddess Kadi, and his duties were confined to making a record of the treaty which the gods themselves had drawn up. We could not have a more striking instance of the manner in which the early inhabitants of Babylonia regarded the city-gods as the actual kings and rulers of their cities. The human kings and patesis were nothing more than ministers, or agents, appointed to carry out their will. Thus, when one city made war upon another, it was because their gods were at feud; the territory of the city was the property of the city-god, and, when a treaty of delimitation was proposed, it was naturally the gods themselves who arranged it and drew up its provisions.
We are enabled to fix approximately the period of Mesilim by this reference to him upon the cone of Entemena, but we have no such means of determining the date of another early ruler of the city of Kish, whose name has been recovered during the American excavations on the site of Nippur. Three fragments of a vase of dark brown sandstone have been found there, engraved with an inscription of Utug, an early patesi of Kish. They are said to have been found in the strata beneath the chambers of the great temple of Enlil on the south-east side of the ziggurat, or temple-tower.[21] It would be rash to form any theory as to the date of the vase solely from the position in which the fragments are said to have been discovered, but the extremely archaic forms of the characters of the inscription suggest that it dates from the earliest period of Babylonian history. Moreover, Utug is termed upon it patesi, not king, of Kish, suggesting that he ruled at a time when Kish had not the power and influence it enjoyed under Mesilim. The hegemony in Sumer and Akkad constantly passed from one city to another, so that it is possible that Utug should be set after Mesilim, when the power of Kish had temporarily declined. But as the characters of Utug's inscription are far more archaic than those of Mesilim, we may provisionally set him in the period before Kish attained the rank of a kingdom in place of its patesiate. But how long an interval separated Utug from Mesilim there is no means of telling.
LIMESTONE FIGURES OF EARLY SUMERIAN RULERS.—Brit. Mus., Nos. 22470 and 90828.