The names of the successors of Lugal-shag-engur, Mesilim's contemporary, upon the throne of Lagash have not yet been recovered, and we do not know how long an interval separated his reign from that of Ur-Ninâ, the early king of Lagash, from whose time so many inscriptions and archaeological remains have been recovered at Tello.[25] It is possible that within this period we should set another ruler of Lagash, named Badu, to whom reference appears to be made by Eannatum upon the famous Stele of the Vultures. The passage occurs in the small fragment that has been preserved of the first column of the text engraved upon the stele,[26] the following line containing the title "King of Lagash." The context of the passage is not preserved, but it is possible that the signs which precede the title are to be taken as a proper name, and in that case they would give the name of an early ruler of the city. In favour of this view we may note that in the text upon an archaic clay tablet found below the level of Ur-Ninâ s building at Tello[27] the name Badu occurs, and, although it is not there employed as that of a king or patesi, the passage may be taken as evidence of the use of Badu as a proper name in this early age. Assuming that Badu represents a royal name, it may be inferred from internal evidence furnished by Eannatum's inscription that he lived and reigned at some period before Ur-Ninâ. The introductory columns of Eannatum's text appear to give a brief historical summary concerning the relations which were maintained between Lagash and the neighbouring city of Umma in the period anterior to Eannatum's own reign. Now the second column of the text describes the attitude of Umma to Lagash in the reign of Akurgal, Ur-Ninâ's son and successor; it is thus a natural inference that Badu was a still earlier ruler who reigned at any rate before Ur-Ninâ. Whether he reigned before Lugal-shag-engur also, there are no data for deciding. It will be noted that Eannatum calls him "king" of Lagash, not "patesi," but the use of these titles by Eannatum, as applied to his predecessors, is not consistent, and, that he should describe Badu as "king," is no proof that Badu himself claimed that title. But he may have done so, and we may provisionally place him in the interval between the patesi Lugal-shag-engur and Ur-Ninâ, who in his numerous texts that have been recovered always claims the title of "king" in place of "patesi," a fact that suggests an increase in the power and importance of Lagash.[28] To the same period we may probably assign Enkhegal, another early king of Lagash, whose name has been recovered on an archaic tablet of limestone.[29]