The new information, which has been discussed in this chapter, has enabled us to carry further than was previously possible the process of reconstructing the chronology; and we have at last been able to connect the earlier epochs in the country's history with those which followed the rise of Babylon to power. On the one hand we have obtained definite proof of the overlapping of further dynasties with that of the West Semitic kings of Babylon. On the other hand, the consequent reduction in date is more than compensated by new evidence pointing to the probability of a period of independent rule in Babylonia on the part of some of the Sea-Country kings. The general effect of the new discoveries is thus of no revolutionary character. It has resulted, rather, in local rearrangements, which to a considerable extent are found to counterbalance one another in their relation to the chronological scheme as a whole. Perhaps the most valuable result of the regrouping is that we are furnished with the material for a more detailed picture of the gradual rise of Babylon to power. We shall see that the coming of the Western Semites effected other cities than Babylon, and that the triumph of the invaders marked only the closing stage of a long and varied struggle. [Footnote 1: Cf. "Sumer and Akkad," p. 64.] [Footnote 2: The new discoveries, in their general effect, do not involve any drastic changes in the accepted chronological scheme, as the local rearrangements largely counterbalance one another; see below, p. 117 f.] [Footnote 3: Cf. "Letters of Hammurabi," III., pp. lxviii, 236 f.] [Footnote 4: See "Chronicles concerning Early Babylonian Kings," I., p. 68 f.; 11., p. 17 f.] [Footnote 5: Cf. Thureau-Dangin, "Inscriptions de Sumener et d'Akkad," p. 300, n. 3; and "Sum. und Akkad. Königsinschriften," p. 210 f., note _k._] [Footnote 6: Cf. "Letters of Hammurabi," III., pp. xxvi ff.] [Footnote 7: Their votive inscriptions are collected by Thureau-Dangin, "Königsinschriften," pp. 206 ff.]