MARBLE GATE-SOCKET BEARING AN INSCRIPTION OF ENTEMENA, PATESI OF SHIRPURLA.—Brit. Mus., No. 90932; photo, by Messrs. Mansell & Co.
Entemena now proceeded to annex Umma, and he incorporated it within the state of Lagash and reorganized its administration under officers appointed by himself. As the new patesi of Umma he did not appoint any native of that city, but transferred thither an official of his own, who held a post of considerable importance in another town under the suzerainty of Lagash. The name of the official was Ili, and at the time of the annexation of Umma he was acting as sangu, or priest, of the town, the name of which has been provisionally read as Ninab or Ninni-esh. Though the reading of the name of the place is still uncertain, it would appear to have been situated in Southern Babylonia, and to have been a place of some importance. A small tablet in the Louvre mentions together certain men of Erech, of Adab and of Ninni-esh,[11] and, when Lugal-zaggisi enumerates the benefits he had conferred on the cities of Southern Babylonia over which he ruled, he mentions Umma and Ninni-esh together, after referring to Erech, Ur, and Larsa.[12] We may, therefore, conclude with some probability that the city in which Ili was at this time acting as priest was situated not far from Umma. It was under the control of Lagash, and doubtless formed part of the empire which Eannatum had bequeathed to his successors upon the throne. Ili is described as the priest, not the patesi, of the city, and it is possible that his office included the control of its secular administration. But in view of the importance of the place, it is unlikely that it was without a patesi.
The installation of Ili in the patesiate of Umma was accompanied by some degree of ceremonial. It would appear that his appointment did not take place immediately after the capture of the town, but that a short interval elapsed between the close of the war and the inauguration of the new government. Meanwhile, Entemena himself had returned to Lagash, and it was to that city that he summoned Ili into his presence. He then set out with Ili from Girsu, and, when Umma was reached, he formally installed him at the head of the government, and conferred on him the title of patesi. At the same time he dictated his own terms to the people of Umma, and commissioned Ili to see that they were duly carried out. In the first place he restored to Lagash the territory to which she had always laid claim, and the ancient frontier-ditches, which had been filled up or had fallen in, he caused to be repaired. In addition to reasserting the traditional rights of Lagash, he annexed new land in the district of Karkar, since its inhabitants had taken part in the recent rebellion, and had probably furnished an important contingent for the army of Urlumma. He gave directions to Ili to extend the two principal frontier-ditches, dedicated to Ningirsu and Ninâ respectively, within the territory of Karkar; and, with the large supply of forced labour which he exacted from his newly annexed subjects, he strengthened the defences of his own territory, and restored and extended the system of canals between the Euphrates and the Tigris. But Entemena did not content himself with exacting land and labour only from the conquered city. He imposed a heavy tribute in corn, and it was probably one of Ili's most important duties as patesi to superintend its collection and ensure its punctual transfer into the granaries of Lagash.
In order to commemorate the conquest and annexation of Umma, Entemena caused a record of his victory to be drawn up, which he doubtless had engraved upon a stone stele similar to those prepared in earlier times by Mesilim and Eannatum. This stele, like the earlier ones, was probably set up upon the frontier to serve as a memorial of his achievements. Fortunately for us, he did not confine the records to his own victories, but prefaced them with an epitomized account of the relations which had existed between Lagash and Umma from the time of Mesilim until his own day. Other copies of the inscription were probably engraved upon stone and set up in the cities of Umma and Lagash, and, in order to increase still further the chances in favour of the preservation of his record, he had copies inscribed upon small cones of clay. These last were of the nature of foundation-memorials, and we may conclude that he had them buried beneath the buildings he erected or repaired upon the frontier-canals, and also perhaps in the foundations of temples within the city of Lagash itself. Entemena's foresight in multiplying the number of his texts, and in burying them in the structure of his buildings, was in accordance with the practice of the period; and in his case the custom has been fully justified. So far as we know, his great stone stelæ have perished; but one of the small clay cones [13] has been recovered, and is among the most valuable of the records we possess of the early history of Sumer.
It is possible that the concluding paragraphs of the text were given in a fuller form upon the stone stelæ than we find them upon the cone; but, so far as the historical portion of the record is concerned, we have doubtless recovered the greater part, if not the whole, of Entemena's record. The stelæ may have been engraved with elaborate curses, intended to preserve the frontier-ditch from violation, and, though these have been omitted in the shorter version of the text, their place is taken by the brief invocation and prayer with which the record concludes. Entemena here prays that if ever in time to come the men of Umma should break across the boundary-ditch of Ningirsu or the boundary-ditch of Ninâ, in order to lay violent hands upon the territory of Lagash, whether they be men of the city of Umma itself or people from the lands round about, then may Enlil destroy them, and may Ningirsu cast over them his net, and set his hand and foot upon them. And, should the warriors of his own city be called upon to defend it, he prays that their hearts may be full of ardour and courage. It was not many years before Lagash was in sore need of the help which is here invoked for her by Entemena.
Apart from the cone recording the conquest of Umma, the inscriptions of Entemena do not throw much light upon the military achievements of his reign. Three fragments of a limestone vase have been found at Nippur in the strata beneath the temple of Enlil on the south-east side of the ziggurat, or temple-tower, bearing on their outer surface a votive inscription of Entemena.[14] From these we gather that the vase was dedicated to Enlil as a thank-offering after some victory. The fragmentary character of the inscription prevents us from identifying the enemy who was subdued on this occasion; but we shall probably be right in taking the passage as referring, not to the conquest of Umma, but to the subjugation of some other district. In fact, we may regard the vase as evidence that Entemena attempted to retain his hold upon the empire which Eannatum had founded, and did not shrink from the necessity of undertaking military expeditions to attain this object. In further support of this view we may perhaps cite a reference to one of the cities conquered by Eannatum, which occurs upon a votive text drawn up in Entemena's reign, though not by the patesi himself. The text in question is stamped upon the perforated relief of Dudu, chief priest of Ningirsu,[15] which at one time formed the support of a colossal ceremonial mace-head dedicated in the temple of Ningirsu at Lagash.
The material of which the block is composed is dark in colour, comparatively light in weight, and liable to crack; it consists of a mixture of clay and bitumen, and may have been formed by nature or produced artificially.[16] While this substance was still in a pliant state the block was formed from it, and the designs with the inscription were impressed by means of a stamp. According to the inscription, this bituminous substance was brought by Dudu to Lagash from one of the cities which had been conquered by Eannatum and incorporated within his empire. The fact that Dudu should have caused the substance to be procured from the city in question suggests that friendly relations existed between it and Lagash at the time; it is quite possible that it had not, meanwhile, secured its independence, but still continued to acknowledge the suzerainty of the latter city. The only other references to a foreign city in the texts of Entemena occur upon his two principal building inscriptions,[17] which include among the list of his buildings the erection of a great laver for the god Enki, described as "King of Eridu." We may perhaps see in this record a further indication that at least the southern portion of Eannatum's empire still remained in his nephew's possession.