[Illustration: LIMESTONE FIGURES OF EARLY SUMERIAN RULERS.--_Brit. Mus., Nos._ 22470 _and_ 90828.] On the assumption that Utug ruled in this early period, we may see in the fragments of his vase from Nippur, evidence of the struggles by which the city of Kish attained the position of supremacy it enjoyed under Mesilim. For Utug's vase was not carried to Nippur as spoil from Kish, but was deposited by Utug himself in the temple of Enlil, in commemoration of a victory he had achieved over the land of Khamazi. We here learn the name of one of the enemies with whom Kish had to fight in the early stages of its existence as an independent city-state, and we may conjecture that many more such battles had to be fought and won before its influence was felt beyond the boundaries of Akkad by the Sumerian cities in the south. The fact that after his victory Utug deposited the vase at Nippur as a thank-offering proves that in his time the shrine of Enlil was already regarded as the central sanctuary of Babylonia. Zamama, the god of Kish, had achieved the victory over Khamazi, but Enlil, as the supreme lord of the world, was entitled to some recognition and gratitude, and also probably to a share of the spoil. From one line of the inscription upon Utug's vase we may perhaps infer that his father's name was Bazuzu, but, as no title follows the name, he is not to be reckoned as a patesi of Kish. We may thus conclude that Utug did not succeed his father upon the throne. Whether he was a usurper or succeeded some other relative, and whether he followed up his military successes by founding at Kish a powerful dynasty to which Mesilim may have belonged, are among the questions which may perhaps be answered as the result of future excavation in Northern Babylonia.