That monuments of such great interest to the early history of Chaldaea should have been found at Susa in Persia was sufficiently startling, but an easy explanation was at first forthcoming from the fact that Naram-Sin’s stele of victory had been used by the later Elamite king, Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, for an inscription of his own; this he had engraved in seven long lines along the great cone in front of Naram-Sin, which is probably intended to represent the peak of the mountain.  From the fact that it had been used in this way by Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, it seemed permissible to infer that it had been captured in the course of a campaign and brought to Susa as a trophy of war.  But we shall see later on that the existence of early Babylonian inscriptions and monuments in the mound of the acropolis at Susa is not to be explained in this way, but was due to the wide extension of both Sumerian and Semitic influence throughout Western Asia from the very earliest periods.  This subject will be treated more fully in the chapter dealing with the early history of Blam.

The upper surface of the tell of the acropolis at Susa for a depth of nearly two metres contains remains of the buildings and antiquities of the Achaemenian kings and others of both later and earlier dates.  In these upper strata of the mound are found remains of the Arab, Sassanian, Parthian, Seleucian, and Persian periods, mixed indiscriminately with one another and with Elamite objects and materials of all ages, from that of the earliest patesis down to that of the Susian kings of the seventh century B.C.

[Illustration:  160.jpg BABIL.]

     The most northern of the mounds which now mark the site of
     the ancient city of Babylon; used for centuries as a quarry
     for building materials.

The reason of this mixture of the remains of many races and periods is that the later builders on the mound made use of the earlier building materials which they found preserved within it.  Along the skirts of the mound may still be seen the foundations of the wall which formed the principal defence of the acropolis in the time of Xerxes, and in many places not only are the foundations preserved but large pieces of the wall itself still rise above the surface of the soil.

[Illustration:  160a.jpg “STELE OF VICTORY”]

[Illustration:  160a-text.jpg TEXT FOR “STELE OF VICTORY”]

     Stele of Naram-Sin, an early Semitic King of Agade in
     Babylonia, who reigned about B. C. 3750.  From the photograph
     by Messrs. Mansell & Co.

The plan of the wall is quite irregular, following the contours of the mound, and, though it is probable that the wall was strengthened and defended at intervals by towers, no trace of these now remains.  The wall is very thick and built of unburnt bricks, and the system of fortification seems to have been extremely simple at this period.

[Illustration:  161.jpg ROUGHLY HEWN SCULPTURE OF A LION STANDING OVER A FALLEN MAN, FOUND AT BABYLON.]