ree of excellence to which the
goldsmith's art had already attained. A vase of calcite, also dedicated by
Entemena, has been found at Nippur.

The eighth successor of Ur-Nin[=a] was Uru-duggina, who was overthrown and
his city captured by Lugal-zaggisi, the high-priest of Gis-ukh.
Lugal-zaggisi was the founder of the first empire in Asia of which we know.
He made Erech his capital and calls himself king of Kengi. In a long
inscription which he caused to be engraved on hundreds of stone vases
dedicated to El-lil of Nippur, he declares that his kingdom extended "from
the Lower Sea of the Tigris and Euphrates," or Persian Gulf, to "the Upper
Sea" or Mediterranean. It was at this time that Erech received the name of
"the City," which it continued to bear when written ideographically.

[Sidenote: Sargon.]

_Semitic Empire of Sargon of Akkad._--The next empire founded in western
Asia was Semitic. Semitic princes had already established themselves at
Kis, and a long inscription has been discovered at Susa by J. de Morgan,
belonging to one of them, Manistusu, who like Lugal-zaggisi was a
contemporary of Uru-duggina. Another Semitic ruler of Kis of the same
period was Alusarsid (or Urumus) who "subdued Elam and Barahs[=e]." But the
fame of these early establishers of Semitic supremacy was far eclipsed by
that of Sargon of Akkad and his son, Naram-Sin. The date of Sargon is
placed by Nabonidus at 3800 B.C. He was the son of Itti-Bel, and a legend
related how he had been born in concealment and sent adrift in an ark of
bulrushes on the waters of the Euphrates. Here he had been rescued and
brought up by "Akki the husbandman"; but the day arrived at length when his
true origin became known, the crown of Babylonia was set upon his head and
he entered upon a career of foreign conquest. Four times he invaded Syria
and Palestine, and spent three years in thoroughly subduing the countries
of "the west," and in uniting them with Babylonia "into a single empire."
Images of himself were erected on the shores of the Mediterranean in token
of his victories, and cities and palaces were built at home out of the
spoils of the conquered lands. Elam and the northern part of Mesopotamia
were also subjugated, and rebellions were put down both in Kazalla and in
Babylonia itself. Contract tablets have been found dated in the years of
the campaigns against Palestine and Sarlak, king of Gutium or Kurdistan,
and copper is mentioned as being brought from