His followers in this instance are armed with a long lance and a battle-axe, but are protected by no shields, though their heads are covered with the same conical-shaped helmets, and they are clad in the familiar “kaunakes” skirts. Perhaps we are to see in these troops a detachment of the king’s personal bodyguard. What strikes one at once about this sculpture is the extraordinary disparity between the crudeness of the art on the one hand, and the elaborate equipment and arrangement of Eannatum’s army on the other, from which it is clear that the energy of the Sumerians at this time was spent in the battle-field rather than in the pursuit of the peaceful arts. [Illustration: FIG. 27.—Musée du Louvre. A, B. (Cf. Cat., pp. 105, 107.) C. (Cf. Cat., p. 123; _Déc. en Chald._, Plate 5, bis.)] Another fragment of this remarkable sculpture is reproduced in Fig. 27, A. We have here a veritable heap of corpses piled on top of each other. They are entirely naked, and their heads are shaven in apparent contradistinction to the troops of Eannatum. The bodies are extended and are arranged so that the head of each lies in contiguity with the feet of his next door neighbour; two figures clad in short archaically-fringed skirts are ascending this heap by means of a rope; the free hand of each is engaged in balancing a basket on the head which may contain offerings for the fallen, but more probably earth wherewith to bury their corpses. It is a matter of dispute as to whether these superimposed corpses represent the fallen warriors of Eannatum’s army, or the smitten foes of Lagash; but the fact that the bodies are naked, and the further fact that in none of the Babylonian or Assyrian battle-scenes is there a single example of a warrior of the victor’s army being represented as killed, and lastly the improbability of the artist having accentuated the losses of Eannatum in such a conspicuous manner, and especially upon a stele of victory, all militate against the former and for the latter view. In that case we have a striking testimony to the clemency exhibited by the Sumerians of the earliest times, the enemy being apparently allowed sometimes the privilege of burying their dead.