as over Anshan and Elam.  They vigorously contested the possession of the countries on the right bank of the Tigris with the Babylonians, and Shutruk-nakhunta even succeeded in conquering Babylon itself.  He deprived Zamama-shumiddin, the last but one of the Cossaean kings, of his sceptre and his life, placed his own son Kutur-nakhunta on the throne, and when the vanquished Babylonians set up Bel-nadinshumu as a rival sovereign, he laid waste Karduniash with fire and sword.  After the death of Bel-nadinshumu, the Pashe princes continued to offer resistance, but at first without success.  Shutruk-nakhunta had taken away from the temple of Esagilla the famous statue of Bel-Merodach, whose hands had to be taken by each newly elected king of Babylon, and had carried it off in his waggons to Elam, together with much spoil from the cities on the Euphrates.*

* The name of the king is destroyed on the Babylonian document, but the mention of Kutur-nakhunta as his son obliges us, till further information comes to light, to recognise in him the Shutruk-nakhunta of the bricks of Susa, who also had a son Kutur-nakhunta.  This would confirm the restoration of Shutruk-nakhunta as the name of a sovereign who boasts, in a mutilated inscription, that he had pushed his victories as far as the Tigris, and even up to the Euphrates.

Nebuchadrezzar I. brought the statue back to Babylon after many vicissitudes, and at the same time recovered most of his lost provinces, but he had to leave at Susa the bulk of the trophies which had been collected there in course of the successful wars.  One of these represented the ancient hero Naram-sin standing, mace in hand, on the summit of a hill, while his soldiers forced their way up the slopes, driving before them the routed hosfcs of Susa.  Shutruk-nakhunta left the figures and names untouched, but carved in one corner of the bas-relief a dedicatory inscription, transforming this ancient proof of Babylonian victories over Elam into a trophy of Blamite victories over Babylon.

[Illustration:  348.jpg BAS-RELIEF OF NAKAM-SIN, TKANSPORTED TO SUSA BY SHUTKUK-NAKHUNTA]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. de Morgan.

His descendants would assuredly have brought Mesopotamia into lasting subjection, had not the feudal organisation of their empire tolerated the existence of contemporary local dynasties, the members of which often disputed the supreme authority with the rightful king.  The dynasty which ruled Habardip* seems to have had its seat of government at Tarrisha in the, valley of Malamir.**

     * The prince represented on the bas-reliefs gives himself
     the title Apirra, the name of Apir, Apirti, or Habardip.

** Tarrisha is the name of a town, doubtless the capital of the fief of Malamir; it is probably represented by the considerable ruins which Layard identified as the remains of the Sassanid city of Aidej.

Three hundred figures carved singly or in groups on the rocks of Kul-Firaun portray its princes and their ministers in every posture of adoration, but most of them have no accompanying inscription.  One large bas relief, however, forms an exception, and from its legend we learn the name of Khanni, son of Takhkhi-khikhutur.*