[Illustration: BRICK OF SIN-GASHID, KING OF ERECH, RECORDING THE BUILDING OF HIS PALACE IN THAT CITY. _From Warka; Brit. Mus._, No. 90268; _Photo by Messrs. Mansell & Co._] If the Hittites succeeded in despoiling Babylon of her most sacred deities, it is clear that they must have raided the city, and they may even have occupied it for a time. Thus the West-Semitic Dynasty of Babylon may have been brought to an end by these Hittite conquerors, and Samsu-ditana himself may have fallen in defence of his own capital. But there is no reason for supposing that the Hittites occupied Babylon for long. Even if their success was complete, they would soon have returned to their own country, laden with heavy spoil; and they doubtless left some of their number in occupation of Khana on their withdrawal up the Euphrates. Southern Babylonia may also have suffered in the raid, but we may assume that its force was felt most in the north, and that the kings of the Sea-Country profited by the disaster. We have as yet no direct evidence of their occupation of Babylon, but, as their kingdom had been Babylon's most powerful rival prior to the Hittite raid, it may well have increased its borders after her fall. To this period we may probably assign a local dynasty of Erech, represented by the names of Sin-gashid, Sin-gamil and An-am. From bricks and foundation-records recovered at Warka, the site of the ancient city, we know that the first of these rulers restored the old temple of E-anna and built himself a new palace.[25] But the most interesting of Sin-gashid's records is a votive cone, commemorating the dedication of E-kankal to Lugal-banda and the goddess Ninsun, for, when concluding his text with a prayer for abundance, he inserts a list or tariff, stating the maximum-price which he had fixed for the chief articles of commerce during his reign,[26] Sin-gamil was An-am's immediate predecessor on the throne of Erech, and during his reign the latter dedicated on his behalf a temple to Nergal in the town of Usipara.[27] An-am was the son of a certain Bêl-shemea, and his principal work was the restoration of the wall of Erech, the foundation of which he ascribes to the semi-mythical ruler Gilgamesh.[28]