to reach
some group of neighbouring islands; many days of navigation were thus
required to make a passage which one of our smallest sail-boats would
effect in a few hours, and at the end of their longest voyages they
were not very distant from their point of departure. It would be a great
mistake to suppose them capable of sailing round Arabia and of fetching
blocks of stone by sea from the Sinaitic Peninsula; such an expedition,
which would have been dangerous even for Greek or Roman Galleys, would
have been simply impossible for them. If they ever crossed the Strait
of Ormuzd, it was an exceptional thing, their ordinary voyages being
confined within the limits of the gulf. The merchants of Uru were
accustomed to visit regularly the island of Dilmun, the land of Magan,
the countries of Milukhkha and Gubin; from these places they brought
cargoes of diorite for their sculptors, building-timber for their
architects, perfumes and metals transported from Yemen by land, and
possibly pearls from the Bahrein Islands. They encountered serious
rivalry from the sailors of Dilmun and Magan, whose maritime tribes were
then as now accustomed to scour the seas. The risk was great for those
who set out on such expeditions, perhaps never to return, but the profit
was considerable.

[Illustration: 117.jpg AN ASSYRIAN KELEK LADEN WITH BUILDING-STONE.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from "Kouyunjik"
(Layard, _The Monuments of Nineveh_, 2nd series, pi. 13; cf.
Place, _Ninive et l'Assyrie_, pl. 43, No. 1.)

Uru, enriched by its commerce, was soon in a position to subjugate
the petty neighbouring states--Uruk, Larsam, Lagash, and Nipur. Its
territory formed a fairly extended sovereignty, whose lords entitled
themselves kings of Shumir and Akkad, and ruled over all Southern
Chaldaea for many centuries.

Several of these kings, the Lugalkigubnidudu and the Lugalkisalsi, of
whom some monuments have been preserved to us, seem to have extended
their influence beyond these limits prior to the time of Sargon the
Elder; and we can date the earliest of them with tolerable probability.
Urbau reigned some time about 2900 B.C. He was an energetic builder, and
material traces of his activity are to be found everywhere throughout
the country. The temple of the Sun at Larsam, the temple of Nina in
Uruk, and the temples of Inlilla and Ninlilla in Nipur were indebted
to him for their origin or restoration: he decorated or repa