Closely associated with Eannatum's success against the Elamites were his conquest of Shakh, of a city the reading of the name for which is unknown, and probably also of a land or district which bore the name of Sunanam. The conquest of this last place is only mentioned in a broken passage upon the Stele of the Vultures,[38] between the names of Elam and Shakh, and that of the unknown city, so that little can be inferred with regard to it. Shakh, on the other hand, whenever it is referred to in the inscriptions of Eannatum, follows immediately after the name of Elam, and it was not improbably a district on the Elamite frontier which Eannatum ravaged during his pursuit of the invaders. The city with the unknown name[39] was evidently a place of some importance, for not only was it governed by a patesi, but when its conquest is mentioned in the lists details are usually given. The interpretation of a phrase recording its patesi's action with regard to the emblem of the city is not quite certain, but it would appear that on the approach of Eannatum he planted it before the city-gate. The context would seem to imply that this was intended as an act of defiance, not of submission, for Eannatum states that he conquered the city and heaped up burial-mounds. The site of the city, like its name, is unknown, but since the records referring to it always follow those concerning Elam, we may provisionally regard it as having lain in the direction of the Elamite frontier. The remaining group of Eannatum's conquests comprise the victories he achieved over Az, Mishime, and Arua. The first of these places was a city ruled by a patesi, whom Eannatum slew when he captured and destroyed it. It was formerly regarded as situated in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf, but the grounds on which this view was held have proved inadequate.[40] Moreover, Eannatum's references to Mishime and Arua do not assist us much in determining their positions, for he merely states that he destroyed and annihilated them. In a passage upon the Stele of the Vultures, however, a reference to the land of Sumer follows closely upon a record of the conquest of Arua,[41] which perhaps is an indication that all three places should be sought in Southern Babylonia. We are thus without data for settling definitely the region in which this group of cities lay, and we are equally without information as to the period of his reign in which Eannatum captured or destroyed them. The fact that they are mentioned last in the lists is no proof that they were among his most recent conquests; it may merely be due to their relatively small importance. In support of this suggestion we may note that in the longest of his foundation-inscriptions Eannatum refers to them once only, while his successes against Elam and the northern cities are celebrated in two or three separate passages.