Urukagina's championship of Ningirsu's rights is reflected, not only in his reforms, but also in the buildings he erected during his reign. Thus we find it recorded that, in addition to his great temple E-ninnû, he built or restored two other temples in his honour, his palace of Tirash, and his great storehouse. Other temples were erected in honour of Bau, his wife, and of Dunshagga and Galalim, two of Ningirsu's sons, the latter of whom is first mentioned in Urukagina's texts. To Khegir, one of the seven virgin daughters of Ningirsu, he dedicated a shrine, and he built another in honour of three of her sisters, Zarzari, Impae, and Urnuntaea; a third was dedicated to Ninsar, Ningirsu's sword-bearer. It may thus be inferred that Urukagina's building operations were mainly devoted to temples and shrines of the city-god Ningirsu, and to those dedicated to members of his family and household. Like Eannatum and Entemena, he also improved the water-supply of the city, and cut a canal, or more probably improved an old one, for bringing water to the quarter of the city named Ninâ. In connection with it he constructed a reservoir, with a capacity of eighteen hundred and twenty gur, which he made, he tells us, "like the midst of the sea."[51] The small canal of Girsu he also repaired, and he revived its former name, "Ningirsu is prince in Nippur."[52] This furnishes another instance of his policy of restoring to Ningirsu honours and privileges of which he had been deprived. The reference to Nippur is of interest, for it suggests that Urukagina maintained active relations with the central cult of Sumer and the north, an inference confirmed by his rebuilding of Enlil's temple in Lagash, which had been previously built by Entemena.

Allusions to cities other than Lagash and its component parts in Urukagina's inscriptions are few, and those that do occur fail to throw much light upon the relations he maintained with other city-states. A small object of clay in the form of an olive[53] has been found, which bears the votive inscription: "Ningirsu speaks good words with Bau concerning Urukagina in the temple of Erech,"—a phrase that seems to imply a claim on the part of Lagash to suzerainty over that city. Another votive object of the same class mentions the fortification of the wall of E-babbar,[54] but the reference here is probably not to the famous temple of the Sun-god at Larsa, but to his smaller temple of this name, which stood in Lagash and was afterwards desecrated by the men of Umma. The only other foreign city mentioned in Urukagina's inscriptions is Umma itself, whose relations to Lagash in the reigns of Enannatum I. and Entemena are briefly recorded.[55] The text of the passage is broken, but we may surmise that the short summary of events was intended to introduce an account of Urukagina's own relations with that city. We may note the fact, which this reference proves, that the subsequent descent of the men of Umma upon Lagash and their capture and sack of the city were the result of friction, and possibly of active hostility, during at least a portion of Urukagina's reign.

From Urukagina's own texts we thus do not gather much information with regard to the extent of the empire of Lagash under his rule. That he did not neglect the actual defences of his city may be inferred from his repair of the wall of Girsu; it is clear, however, that his interest was not in foreign conquest, nor even in maintaining the existing limits of his dominion, but in internal reform. He devoted all his energies to purifying the administration of his own land, and to stamping out the abuses under which for so long the people had suffered. That he benefited the land as a whole, and earned the gratitude of his poorer subjects, there can be no doubt; but it is to his reforms themselves that we may trace the immediate cause of the downfall of his kingdom. For his zeal had led him to destroy the long-established methods of government, and, though he thereby put an end to corruption, he failed to provide an adequate substitute to take their place. The host of officials he abolished or dispossessed of office had belonged to a military administration, which had made the name of Lagash feared, and they had doubtless been organized with a view to ensuring the stability and protection of the state. Their disappearance mattered little in times of peace; though, even so, Urukagina must have had trouble with the various powerful sections of the population whom he had estranged. When war threatened he must have found himself without an army and without the means of raising one. To this cause we may probably trace the completeness of Umma's victory.

From what we know of the early history of Sumer, it would appear that most of its city-states were subject to alternate periods of expansion and decay; and we have already seen reason to believe that, before the reign of Urukagina, the reaction had already set in, which must inevitably have followed the conquests of the earlier patesis. The struggle for the throne, which appears to have preceded Urukagina's accession, must have weakened still further the military organization of the state; and when Urukagina himself, actuated by the best of motives, attempted to reform and remodel its entire constitution, he rendered it still more defenceless before the attack of any resolute foe. The city of Umma was not slow to take advantage of so favourable an opportunity for striking at her ancient rival. Hitherto in their wars with Lagash the men of Umma, so far as we know, had never ventured, or been allowed, to attack the city. In earlier days Umma had always been defeated, or at any rate her encroachments had been checked. It is true that in the records that have come down to us the men of Umma are represented as always taking the initiative, and provoking hostilities by crossing the frontier-ditch which marked the limit of their possessions. But they never aimed at more than the seizure of territory, and the patesi of Lagash was always strong enough to check their advance, and generally to expel them, before they reached the city itself. Indeed, Entemena had done more than this, and, by his capture and annexation of Umma, had crippled for a time the resources of this ambitious little state. At what period exactly Umma repudiated the suzerainty he had imposed is not known; but in any case we may conclude that the effects of the chastisement she had received at his hands were sufficient to prevent for a time any active encroachments on her part.

The renewed activity of Umma during Urukagina's reign doubtless followed the lines of her earlier attempts, and took the form of a raid into the territory of Lagash. The comparative success, which we may conjecture she achieved on this occasion, doubtless encouraged her to further efforts, and emboldened her patesi to attack the city of Lagash itself. The ruler of Umma, under whose leadership this final attack was delivered, bore the name of Lugal-zaggisi. From an inscription of his own, to which further reference will be made in the following chapter, we learn that his father Ukush had been patesi of Umma before him. We may thus assume that the city had for some time enjoyed a position of independence, of which she had taken advantage to husband her resources and place her army on a satisfactory footing. In any case it was strong enough to overcome any opposition that Urukagina could offer, and the city of Lagash, which had been beautified and enriched by the care of a long line of successful rulers, was laid waste and spoiled.

The document from which we learn details of the sack of Lagash is a strange one.[56] It closely resembles in shape and writing the tablets of household accounts from the archive of the patesis, which date from the reigns of Urukagina and his immediate predecessors;[57] but the text inscribed upon it consists of an indictment of the men of Umma, drawn up in a series of short sentences, which recapitulate the deeds of sacrilege committed by them. It is not a royal nor an official inscription, and, so far as one can judge from its position when discovered by Commandant Cros, it does not seem to have been stored in any regular archive or depository. For it was unearthed, at a depth of about two metres below the surface of the soil, to the north of the mound which covered the most ancient constructions at Tello,[58] and no other tablets were found near it. Both from its form and contents the document would appear to have been the work of some priest, or scribe, who had formerly been in Urukagina's service; and we may picture him, after the sack of the city, giving vent to his feelings by enumerating the sacred buildings which had been profaned by the men of Umma, and laying the weight of the great sin committed upon the head of the goddess whom they and their patesi served. That the composition was written shortly after the fall of Lagash may be held to explain the absence of any historical setting or introduction; the city's destruction and the profanation of her shrines have so recently taken place that the writer has no need to explain the circumstances. He plunges at once into his accusations against the men of Umma, and the very abruptness of his style and the absence of literary ornament render their delivery more striking. The repetition of phrases and the recurrent use of the same formulæ serve only to heighten the cumulative effect of the charges he brings against the destroyers of his city.

"The men of Umma," he exclaims, "have set fire to the Eki[kala]; they have set fire to the Antasurra; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have shed blood in the palace of Tirash; they have shed blood in the Abzu-banda; they have shed blood in the shrine of Enlil and in the shrine of the Sun-god; they have shed blood in the Akhush; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have shed blood in E-babbar; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have shed blood in the Gikana of the goddess Ninmakh of the Sacred Grove; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have shed blood in the Baga; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have set fire to the Dugru; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have shed blood in Abzu-ega; they have set fire to the temple of Gatumdug; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones, and have destroyed the statue! They have set fire to the ... of the temple E-anna of the goddess Ninni; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones, and have destroyed the statue! They have shed blood in the Shagpada; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! In the Khenda ...; they have shed blood in Kiab, the temple of Nindar; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have set fire to Kinunir, the temple of Dumuzi-abzu; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have set fire to the temple of Lugal-uru; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have shed blood in the temple E-engur, of the goddess Ninâ; they have carried away the silver and the precious stones! They have shed blood in the Sag ..., the temple of Amageshtin; the silver and precious stones of Amageshtin have they carried away! They have removed the grain from Ginarbaniru, from the field of Ningirsu, all of it that was under cultivation! The men of Umma, by the despoiling of Lagash, have committed a sin against the god Ningirsu! The power that is come unto them, from them shall be taken away! Of sin on the part of Urukagina, king of Girsu, there is none. But as for Lugal-zaggisi, patesi of Umma, may his goddess Nidaba bear this sin upon her head!"

It will be noticed that, in addition to the temples in the list, the writer mentions several buildings of a more secular character,[59] but the majority of these were attached to the great temples and were used in connection with the produce from the sacred lands. Thus the Antasurra, the palace of Tirash, the Akhush, the Baga, and the Dugru were all dedicated to the service of Ningirsu, the Abzu-banda and the Shagpada to the goddess Ninâ, and the Abzu-ega to Gatumdug. The text does not record the destruction of the king's palace, or of private dwellings, but there can be little doubt that the whole city was sacked, and the greater part of it destroyed by fire. The writer of the tablet is mainly concerned with the sacrilege committed in the temples of the gods, and with the magnitude of the offence against Ningirsu. He can find no reason for the wrongs the city has suffered in any transgression on the part of Urukagina, its king; for Ningirsu has had no cause to be angry with his representative. All he can do is to protest his belief that the city-god will one day be avenged upon the men of Umma and their goddess Nidaba. Meanwhile Lagash lay desolate, and Umma inherited the position she had held among the cities of Southern Babylonia. We know that in course of time the city rose again from her ruins, and that the temples, which had been laid waste and desecrated, were rebuilt in even greater splendour. But, as a state, Lagash appears never to have recovered from the blow dealt her by Lugal-zaggisi. At any rate, she never again enjoyed the authority which she wielded under the rule of her great patesis.

[1] See Messerschmidt, "Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmäler," I., p. v.. pl. 3, No. 4.