of the countries on the right bank of the
Tigris with the Babylonians, and Shutruk-nakhunta even succeeded in
conquering Babylon itself. He deprived Zamama-shumiddin, the last but
one of the Cossaean kings, of his sceptre and his life, placed his own
son Kutur-nakhunta on the throne, and when the vanquished Babylonians
set up Bel-nadinshumu as a rival sovereign, he laid waste Karduniash
with fire and sword. After the death of Bel-nadinshumu, the Pashe
princes continued to offer resistance, but at first without success.
Shutruk-nakhunta had taken away from the temple of Esagilla the famous
statue of Bel-Merodach, whose hands had to be taken by each newly
elected king of Babylon, and had carried it off in his waggons to Elam,
together with much spoil from the cities on the Euphrates.*

* The name of the king is destroyed on the Babylonian
document, but the mention of Kutur-nakhunta as his son
obliges us, till further information comes to light, to
recognise in him the Shutruk-nakhunta of the bricks of Susa,
who also had a son Kutur-nakhunta. This would confirm the
restoration of Shutruk-nakhunta as the name of a sovereign
who boasts, in a mutilated inscription, that he had pushed
his victories as far as the Tigris, and even up to the
Euphrates.

Nebuchadrezzar I. brought the statue back to Babylon after many
vicissitudes, and at the same time recovered most of his lost provinces,
but he had to leave at Susa the bulk of the trophies which had
been collected there in course of the successful wars. One of these
represented the ancient hero Naram-sin standing, mace in hand, on the
summit of a hill, while his soldiers forced their way up the slopes,
driving before them the routed hosfcs of Susa. Shutruk-nakhunta left the
figures and names untouched, but carved in one corner of the bas-relief
a dedicatory inscription, transforming this ancient proof of Babylonian
victories over Elam into a trophy of Blamite victories over Babylon.

[Illustration: 348.jpg BAS-RELIEF OF NAKAM-SIN, TKANSPORTED TO SUSA BY
SHUTKUK-NAKHUNTA]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.

His descendants would assuredly have brought Mesopotamia into lasting
subjection, had not the feudal organisation of their empire tolerated
the existence of contemporary local dynasties, the members of which
often disputed the supreme authority with the rightful king. The dynasty
which ruled Habardip* se