We have assumed that both inscriptions were the work of Karibu-sha-Shushinak.  But it is also possible that the second one in proto-Elamite characters was added at a later period.  From its position on the stone it is clear that it was written after and not before Karibu-sha-Shushinak’s inscription in Semitic Babylonian.  See the photographic reproduction.

Karibu-sha-Shushinak, whose recently discovered bilingual inscription has been referred to above, was one of the earlier of the subject princes of Elam, and he probably reigned at Susa not later than B.C. 3000.  He styles himself “patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,” but we do not know at present to what contemporary king in Babylonia he owed allegiance.  The longest of his inscriptions that have been recovered is engraved upon a stele of limestone and records the building of the Gate of Shushinak at Susa and the cutting of a canal; it also recounts the offerings which Karibu-sha-Shushinak dedicated on the completion of the work.  It may here be quoted as an example of the class of votive inscriptions from which the names of these early Elamite rulers have been recovered.  The inscription runs as follows:  “For the god Shushinak, his lord, Karibu-sha-Shushinak, the son of Shimbi-ish-khuk, patesi of Susa, governor of the land of Elam,—­when he set the (door) of his Gate in place,... in the Gate of the god Shushinak, his lord, and when he had opened the canal of Sidur, he set up in face thereof his canopy, and he set planks of cedar-wood for its gate.  A sheep in the interior thereof, and sheep without, he appointed (for sacrifice) to him each day.  On days of festival he caused the people to sing songs in the Gate of the god Shushinak.  And twenty measures of fine oil he dedicated to make his gate beautiful.  Four _magi_ of silver he dedicated; a censer of silver and gold he dedicated for a sweet odour; a,sword he dedicated; an axe with four blades he dedicated, and he dedicated silver in addition for the mounting thereof....  A righteous judgment he judged in the city!  As for the man who shall transgress his judgment or shall remove his gift, may the gods Shushinak and Shamash, Bel and Ea, Ninni and Sin, Mnkharsag and Nati—­may all the gods uproot his foundation, and his seed may they destroy!”

It will be seen that Karibu-sha-Shushinak takes a delight in enumerating the details of the offerings he has ordained in honour of his city-god Shushinak, and this religious temper is peculiarly characteristic of the princes of Elam throughout the whole course of their history.  Another interesting point to notice in the inscription is that, although the writer invokes Shushinak, his own god, and puts his name at the head of the list of deities whose vengeance he implores upon the impious, he also calls upon the gods of the Babylonians.  As he wrote the inscription itself in Babylonian, in the belief that it might be recovered by some future Semitic inhabitant of his