-reliefs of which are as yet unpublished.

During the years immediately following the ephemeral victories and
reverses of Assurirba, both the country and its rulers are plunged in
the obscurity of oblivion. Two figures at length, though at what date
is uncertain, emerge from the darkness--a certain Irbaramman and an
Assur-nadinakhe II., whom we find engaged in building palaces and making
a necropolis. They were followed towards 950 by a Tiglath-pileser II.,
of whom nothing is known but his name.* He in his turn was succeeded
about the year 935 by one Assurdan II., who appears to have concentrated
his energies upon public works, for we hear of him digging a canal to
supply his capital with water, restoring the temples and fortifying
towns. Kamman-nirari III., who followed him in 912, stands out more
distinctly from the mists which envelop the history of this period;
he repaired the gate of the Tigris and the adjoining wall at Assur, he
enlarged its principal sanctuary, reduced several rebellious provinces
to obedience, and waged a successful warfare against the neighbouring
inhabitants of Karduniash. Since the extinction of the race of
Nebuchadrezzar I., Babylon had been a prey to civil discord and foreign
invasion. The Aramaean tribes mingled with, or contiguous to the
remnants of the Cossoans bordering on the Persian gulf, constituted
possibly, even at this period, the powerful nation of the Kalda.**

* Our only knowledge of Tiglath-pileser II. is from a brick,
on which he is mentioned as being the grandfather of Ramman-
nirari II.

** The names Chaldaea and Chaldaeans being ordinarily used to
designate the territory and people of Babylon, I shall
employ the term Kaldu or Kalda in treating of the Aramaean
tribes who constituted the actual Chaldaean nation.

It has been supposed, not without probability, that a certain
Simashshikhu, Prince of the Country of the Sea, who immediately followed
the last scion of the line of Pashe,* was one of their chiefs. He
endeavoured to establish order in the city, and rebuilt the temple of
the Sun destroyed by the nomads at Sippar, but at the end of eighteen
years he was assassinated. His son Eamukinshurnu remained at the head of
affairs some three to six months; Kashshu-nadinakhe ruled three or
six years, at the expiration of which a man of the house of Bazi,
Eulbar-shakinshumi by name, seized upon the crown.** His dynasty
consisted of three memb