A History of Sumer and Akkad: An account of the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric times to the foundation of the Babylonian monarchyKing, L. W. (Leonard William)
History
A History of Sumer and Akkad: An account of the early races of Babylonia from prehistoric times to the foundation of the Babylonian monarchy
King, L. W. (Leonard William)
Akkadians; Babylonia -- History; Sumerians
It may be admitted that this explanation is one that at first sight
seems to commend itself, for it appears to succeed in reconciling the
later tradition with the early monuments. But difficulties in the way
of its acceptance were at once pointed out.[23] The occurrence of the
proper name Sharru-Gi-ili, "Sharru-Gi is my god," on the Obelisk of
Manishtusu clearly proves that a king bearing the name of Sharru-Gi,
and presumably identical with the Sharru-Gi of the new stele, preceded
Manishtusu, king of Kish, for the deification of a king could obviously
only take place during his lifetime or after his death.[24] Similar
evidence has already been cited to prove that Urumush of Kish was
anterior to Shar-Gani-sharri and Narâm-Sin, though his reign may not
have been separated from theirs by any long interval.[25] Granting
these conclusions, if Narâm-Sin had been the son of Sharru-Gi, as
suggested by Père Scheil, Urumush would have been separated from
Manishtusu by the Dynasty of Akkad, a combination that is scarcely
probable. Moreover, the context of the passage on the tablet from
Tello, on which the names of Sharru-Gi and Narâm-Sin are mentioned,
though of doubtful interpretation, does not necessarily imply that
they were living at the same time; they may have been separated by
several generations. These reasons in themselves make it probable
that Sharru-Gi was not the founder of Narâm-Sin's dynasty, but was a
predecessor of Manishtusu and Urumush upon the throne of Kish.
It has been further pointed out that in an inscription preserved in the
Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople the name of a king of Kish is
mentioned, which, to judge from the traces still visible, may probably
be restored as that of Sharru-GI.[26] The fragmentary nature of the
text, which was found at Abû Habba during the excavations conducted
by the Turkish Government upon that site,[27] rendered any deductions
that might be drawn from it uncertain; but it sufficed to corroborate
the suggestion that Sharru-Gi was not a king of Akkad, but a still
earlier king of Kish. Since then I have recognized a duplicate text of
the Constantinople inscription, also from Abû Habba, which enables us
to supplement and to some extent correct the conclusions based upon
it. The duplicate consists of a cruciform stone object, inscribed on
its twelve sides with a votive text recording a series of gifts to
the Sun-god Shamash and his consort Aa in the city of Sippar, and the
early part of its text corresponds to the fragmentary inscription at
Constantinople. Unfortunately the beginning of the text is wanting, as
is the case with the Constantinople text, so that we cannot decide with
certainty the name of the king who had the monument engraved. But the
duplicate furnishes fresh data on which to base a conclusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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