Considerable light is thrown upon the burial customs of the Sumerians by the scene sculptured in the third register, or section, on the reverse of the stele of Eannatum. Portions of the scene are preserved upon the fragments C and F, which we have already noted may be connected with each other by means of the fragment G, preserved in the British Museum. In this register we have a representation of the scenes following the victory of Eannatum, when the king and his army had time to collect their dead and bury them with solemn rites and sacrifices beneath huge tells or burial-mounds. It will be remembered that a fragment of the top register portrays the collection of the dead upon the battlefield; here, on the left, we see the mounds in course of construction, under which the dead were buried.[27] The dead are quite nude, and are seen to be piled up in rows, head to head and feet to feet alternately. The two corpses at the base are sculptured lying flat upon the ground, and, as the tell rises, they appear to be arranged like the sticks of a fan. This arrangement was doubtless due to the sculptor's necessity of filling the semi-circular head of the tell, and does not represent the manner in which the corpses were actually arranged for burial. We may conclude that they were set out symmetrically in double rows, and that the position of every one was horizontal, additional rows being added until sufficient height had been attained. [Illustration: PORTION OF THE "STELE OF VULTURES," SCULPTURED WITH A SCENE REPRESENTING THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD AFTER A BATTLE.--_In the Louvre; photo, by Messrs. Mansell & Co._] Two living figures are sculptured on the fragment, engaged in the work of completing the burial. They are represented as climbing the pile of corpses, and they seem to be helping themselves up by means of a rope which they grasp in their right hands. On their heads they carry baskets piled up with earth, which they are about to throw upon the top of the mound. In the relief they appear to be climbing upon the limbs of the dead, but it is probable that they began piling earth from below and climbed the sides of the mound as it was raised. The sculptor has not seen how to represent the sides of the tell without hiding his corpses, so he has omitted the piled earth altogether, unless, indeed, what appears to be a rope which the carriers hold is really intended for the side of the mound in section. It has been suggested that the carriers are bearing offerings for the dead, but the baskets appear to be heaped with earth, not offerings, and the record in the text upon the stele, that Eannatum piled up twenty burial-mounds after his battle with the men of Umma, is sufficient justification for the view that the scene represents one of these mounds in course of construction.