between two dynasties.  Our information with regard to the order of succession and the history of these energetic and warlike monarchs is as yet very scanty; their names even are for the most part lost, and only approximate dates can be assigned to those of whom we catch glimpses from time to time.* Khumban-numena, the earliest of whom we have any record, exercised a doubtful authority, from Anshan to Susa, somewhere about the fourteenth century B.C., and built a temple to the god Kirisha in his capital, Liyan.**

* These names are in the majority of cases found written on stamped and baked bricks.  They were first compared with the names contained in the Annals of Sargon and his successors, and assimilated to those of the princes who were contemporary with Sennacherib and Assur-bani-pal; then they were referred to the time of the great Elamite empire, and one of them was identified with that Kudur-Nakhunta who had pillaged Uruk 1635 years before Assur-bani-pal.  Finally, they were brought down again to an intermediate period, more precisely, to the fourteenth or thirteenth century B.C.  This last date appears to be justified, at least as the highest permissible, by the mention of Durkurigalzu, in a text of Undasgal.

** Jensen was the first to recognise that Liyan was a place- name, and the inscriptions of Shilkhak-Inshusinak add that Liyan was the capital of the kingdom; perhaps it was the name of a part of Susa.  Khumban-numena has left us no monuments of his own, but he is mentioned on those of his son.

His son Undasgal carried on the works begun by his father, but that is all the information the inscriptions afford concerning him, and the mist of oblivion which for a moment lifted and allowed us to discern dimly the outlines of this sovereign, closes in again and hides everything from our view for the succeeding forty or fifty years.

[Illustration:  346.jpg BRICK BEARING THE NAME OF THE SUSIAN KING SHILKHAK-INSHUSHINAK]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Marcel
     Dieulafoy.

About the thirteenth century a gleam once more pierces the darkness, and a race of warlike and pious kings emerges into view—­Khalludush-In-shushinak, his son Shutruk-nakhunta, the latter’s two sons, Kutur-nakhunta and Shilkhak-Inshu-shinak,* and then perhaps a certain Kutir-khuban.

* The order of succession of these princes is proved by the genealogies with which their bricks are covered.  Jensen has shown that we ought to read Khalludush-Inshushinak and Shilkhak-Inshushinak, instead of the shorter forms Khalludush and Shilkhak read previously.

The inscriptions on their bricks boast of their power, their piety, and their inexhaustible wealth.  One after another they repaired and enlarged the temple built by Khumban-numena at Liyan, erected sanctuaries and palaces at Susa, fortified their royal citadel, and ruled over Habardip and the Cossaeans as well