is son, Ammiditana, who succeeded him, apparently inherited a
prosperous and well-organized Empire, for during the first fifteen
years of his reign he attended chiefly to the adornment of temples and
other pious undertakings. He was a patron of the arts with
archaeological leanings, and displayed traits which suggest that he
inclined, like Sumu-la-ilu, to ancestor worship. Entemena, the pious
patesi of Lagash, whose memory is associated with the famous silver
vase decorated with the lion-headed eagle form of Nin-Girsu, had been
raised to the dignity of a god, and Ammiditana caused his statue to be
erected so that offerings might be made to it. He set up several
images of himself also, and celebrated the centenary of the accession
to the throne of his grandfather, Samsu-iluna, "the warrior lord", by
unveiling his statue with much ceremony at Kish. About the middle of
his reign he put down a Sumerian rising, and towards its close had to
capture a city which is believed to be Isin, but the reference is too
obscure to indicate what political significance attached to this
incident. His son, Ammizaduga, reigned for over twenty years quite
peacefully so far as is known, and was succeeded by Samsuditana, whose
rule extended over a quarter of a century. Like Ammiditana, these two
monarchs set up images of themselves as well as of the gods, so that
they might be worshipped, no doubt. They also promoted the interests
of agriculture and commerce, and incidentally increased the revenue
from taxation by paying much attention to the canals and extending the
cultivatable areas.

But the days of the brilliant Hammurabi Dynasty were drawing to a
close. It endured for about a century longer than the Twelfth Dynasty
of Egypt, which came to an end, according to the Berlin calculations,
in 1788 B.C. Apparently some of the Hammurabi and Amenemhet kings were
contemporaries, but there is no evidence that they came into direct
touch with one another. It was not until at about two centuries after
Hammurabi's day that Egypt first invaded Syria, with which, however,
it had for a long period previously conducted a brisk trade. Evidently
the influence of the Hittites and their Amoritic allies predominated
between Mesopotamia and the Delta frontier of Egypt, and it is
significant to find in this connection that the "Khatti" or "Hatti"
were referred to for the first time in Egypt during the Twelfth
Dynasty, and in Babylonia during the Hammurabi Dynasty