memorable products of the period was an exquisitely sculptured
monument celebrating one of Naram Sin's victories, which was
discovered at Susa. It is one of the most wonderful examples of
Babylonian stone work which has come to light.

A successful campaign had been waged against a mountain people. The
stele shows the warrior king leading his army up a steep incline and
round the base of a great peak surmounted by stars. His enemies flee
in confusion before him. One lies on the ground clutching a spear
which has penetrated his throat, two are falling over a cliff, while
others apparently sue for mercy. Trees have been depicted to show that
part of the conquered territory is wooded. Naram Sin is armed with
battleaxe and bow, and his helmet is decorated with horns. The whole
composition is spirited and finely grouped; and the military bearing
of the disciplined troops contrasts sharply with the despairing
attitudes of the fleeing remnants of the defending army.

During this period the Semitized mountaineers to the north-east of
Babylonia became the most aggressive opponents of the city states. The
two most prominent were the Gutium, or men of Kutu, and the Lulubu.
Naram Sin's great empire included the whole of Sumer and Akkad, Amurru
and northern Palestine, and part of Elam, and the district to the
north. He also penetrated Arabia, probably by way of the Persian Gulf,
and caused diorite to be quarried there. One of his steles, which is
now in the Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople, depicts him as a
fully bearded man with Semitic characteristics. During his lifetime he
was deified--a clear indication of the introduction of foreign ideas,
for the Sumerians were not worshippers of kings and ancestors.

Naram Sin was the last great king of his line. Soon after his death
the power of Akkad went to pieces, and the Sumerian city of Erech
again became the centre of empire. Its triumph, however, was
shortlived. After a quarter of a century had elapsed, Akkad and Sumer
were overswept by the fierce Gutium from the north-eastern mountains.
They sacked and burned many cities, including Babylon, where the
memory of the horrors perpetrated by these invaders endured until the
Grecian Age. An obscure period, like the Egyptian Hyksos Age, ensued,
but it was of comparatively brief duration.

When the mists cleared away, the city Lagash once more came to the
front, having evidently successfully withstood the onslaughts of the
Gut