[=e], which we know
from the Assyrian inscriptions to have taken place in 691 or 690 B.C., that
he does "not know the year" when it was fought: the records of Assyria had
been already lost, even in Babylonia. The early existence of an accurate
system of dating is not surprising; it was necessitated by the fact that
Babylonia was a great trading community, in which it was not only needful
that commercial and legal documents should be dated, but also that it
should be possible to refer easily to the dates of former business
transactions. The Babylonian and Assyrian kings had consequently no
difficulty in [v.03 p.0102] determining the age of their predecessors or of
past events. Nabonidus (Nabunaid), who was more of an antiquarian than a
politician, and spent his time in excavating the older temples of his
country and ascertaining the names of their builders, tells us that
Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon of Akkad, lived 3200 years before himself
(_i.e._ 3750 B.C.), and Sagarakti-suryas 800 years; and we learn from
Sennacherib that Shalmaneser I. reigned 600 years earlier, and that
Tiglath-pileser I. fought with Merodach-nadin-akhi (Marduk-nadin-akh[=e])
of Babylon 418 years before the campaign of 689 B.C.; while, according to
Tiglath-pileser I., the high-priest Samas-Hadad, son of Isme-Dagon, built
the temple of Anu and Hadad at Assur 701 years before his own time.
Shalmaneser I. in his turn states that the high-priest Samas-Hadad, the son
of Bel-kabi, governed Assur 580 years previously, and that 159 years before
this the high-priest Erisum was reigning there. The raid of the Elamite
king Kutur-Nakhkhunt[=e] is placed by Assur-bani-pal 1635 years before his
own conquest of Susa, and Khammurabi is said by Nabonidus to have preceded
Burna-buryas by 700 years.

[Sidenote: Early Sumerian period.]

V. _History_.--In the earliest period of which we have any knowledge
Babylonia was divided into several independent states, the limits of which
were defined by canals and boundary stones. Its culture may be traced back
to two main centres, Eridu in the south and Nippur in the north. But the
streams of civilization which flowed from them were in strong contrast.
El-lil, around whose sanctuary Nippur had grown up, was lord of the
ghost-land, and his gifts to mankind were the spells and incantations which
the spirits of good or evil were compelled to obey. The world which he
governed was a mountain; the creatures whom he had made lived un