During the following half-century our knowledge of Babylonian affairs is a blank, and we have not as yet recovered even the names of the last members of the Eighth Dynasty. This epoch corresponds to a period of weakness and inaction in the northern kingdom, such as more than once before had followed a forward movement on her part. The expansion of Assyria, in fact, took place in a series of successive waves, and when one had spent itself, a recoil preceded the next advance. The principal cause of her contraction, after the brilliant reigns of Shalmaneser III. and his father, may undoubtedly be traced to the rise of a new power in the mountains of Armenia. From their capital on the shore of Lake Van, the Urartians marched southward and menaced the northern frontier of Assyria itself. Her kings could no longer dream of further adventures in the West, which would leave their home territory at the mercy of this new foe. Urartu became now the principal drag on Assyria's ambitions, a part which was afterwards so effectively played by Elam in alliance with Babylon. It is to this period we may probably assign an interesting provincial monument, discovered in Babylon,[32] which illustrates the independent position enjoyed by the rulers of local districts at a time when the central control of either kingdom, and particularly of Assyria, was relaxed. The monument commemorates the principal achievements of Shamash-rêsh-usur, governor of the lands of Sukhi and Mari on the middle Euphrates.[33] He may have owed his appointment to Assyria, but he speaks like a reigning monarch and dates the record in his thirteenth year. [Illustration: FIG. 64. BAS-RELIEF OF SHAMASH-RÊSH-USUR, GOVERNOR OF THE LANDS OF SUKHI AND MARI. The scene represents Shamash-rêsh-usur standing before the god Adad and the goddess Ishtar. The stone was set up in Gabbari-ibni, a city he had founded, and it commemorates his achievements, the one of which he was most proud being the introduction of honey-bees into the land of Sukhi. (After a photo, by Weissbach.)]