The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

244 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

to the shores of the Mediterranean. This was the empire of
Sargon of Akkad, and his son Naram-Sin, whose date is fixed
by the native annalists atB.C. 3800, and whose importance for
the history of religion and culture throughout Western Asia can
hardly be overestimated.
Palestine and Syria—the land of the Amorites, as the
Babylonians called them—became a Babylonian province; and
a portion of a cadastral survey for the purposes of taxation has
come down to us, from which we learn that it had been placed
under a governor who bears the Canaanitish name of Uru-Malik
(Urimelech).^210 Naram-Sin carried his arms even into Magan,
the Sinaitic Peninsula, where he wrested from the Egyptians the
coveted mines of copper and malachite. Susa had long been a
Babylonian dependency; and as Mesopotamia, including the later
Assyria, also obeyed Babylonian rule, the whole of Western Asia
became Babylonian or, to use the words of Sargon's Annals,“all
[266] countries were formed together into one (empire).”Intercourse
was kept up between one part of the empire and the other by
means of high roads, along which the imperial post travelled
frequently. Some of the letters carried by it, with the clay seals
which served as stamps, are now in the museum of the Louvre.^211
How long the empire of Sargon lasted is still uncertain. But
from that day onward the kings who claimed supreme authority
in Babylonia itself also claimed authority in Syria; and from time
to time they succeeded in enforcing their claim. Erech and Ur
now appear upon the scene, and more than one imperial dynasty
had its capital at Ur. When the last of these fell, Babylonia passed
for a while into a state of decay and anarchy, a dynasty of South
Arabian or Canaanitish origin established itself at Babylon; while
Elamite princes seized Larsa, and compelled the southern half of
the country to pay them tribute. A deliverer finally arose, in the

(^210) Thureau-Dangin, in theRevue Sémitique.
(^211) Heuzey,“Sceaux inédits des rois d'Agadé,”in theRevue d'Assyriologie, iv.
1, pp. 1-12.