The reign of Shulga is rightfully considered the pinnacle of the development of the revived Sumerian-Akkadian state of the Third Dynasty of Ur. However, the heirs of this great ruler had not only to face economic, social and natural problems, but also to witness the decline of the Sumerian statehood.
Amar-Suen - the successor of his father's policy
After the death of King Shulga, power over the state of Sumer and Akkad passed to his eldest son named Amar-Suen (in the old reading - Amar-Sin), who ruled from about 2046-2037 BC. e. Translated from Sumerian, the name of the new ruler meant "Immortal Sin" and was written in cuneiform signs as "damar-dsuen-na".
Seal of King Amar-Suen on clay brick.
In general, the son's policy continued the deeds of the great father. Amar-Suen built new temple and palace complexes, which, given the significant participation of the state in the economy, meant, first of all, the development of the economy. At the same time, state and private foreign trade developed - the country was provided with metals and wood so important for it, paying in full for them with products and handicraft goods. It was the needs of trade that dictated the need for the new tsar to open new state workshops. Surprisingly, in the centralized state of the Third Dynasty, both small private traders and artisans found a place for themselves, and one of the first important things of Amar-Suena was to reduce the role of officials in government. Records indicate that in the second year from the beginning of the reign of Amar-Suena, the court was restored,in which decisions were made by the elders of the city communities ("city fathers").
Military campaigns of Amar-Suena
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The rule of the kings of the Third Dynasty continued to rely more on military strength than on the economic and cultural unity of the Sumerian lands. Already two years after accession to the throne, Amar-Suen had to march against the rebellious city of Urbillum (Arbelah). The king's soldiers took the rebellious city by storm, and then destroyed it. There was also restlessness on the northern borders - in the sixth year of his rule, Amar-Suen suppressed an uprising in the Shamshur (Ashur) region. The new dependent ruler of the pacified area named Zarikum left a note in which he asked the gods for health for his master.
Cuneiform tablet of Amar-Suena (sixth year of reign).
In the south, Amar-Suen had to wage a traditional war in the flat part of the country of Elam, which was under the rule of the Sumerians. The ruler of the Elamite city Huhnur decided to test the young king's strength and lost - Huhnur was taken by storm and plundered. Archival documents indicate that, in general, the central regions of the state of the Third Dynasty of Ur were so safe that most of the city walls fell into disrepair, and farmers settled closer to the lands they cultivated. The cities quickly turned from fortresses into exclusively administrative and religious centers.
A mortgage plate and a figure of Amar-Suen.
Active hostilities and the need to quickly respond to the actions of the rebels did not fit well with the Sumerian community militia and temple squads. Even the professional soldiers of the tsarist army were attached to the ground and could not immediately stand under the standard of their master. Amar-Suen had to increase the number of foreign mercenaries who, for a fee in silver, were ready to march immediately. These same warriors provided the king with greater independence from traditional institutions such as community or priests. Elamite mercenaries were sent to serve in the north and west, and Amorite nomads from the western steppes were stationed in Elam.
The nomadic Semitic people from Western Asia, known to us as the Amorites or Amorites, called themselves Sutis. For centuries, the scattered clans of the Amorites roamed with their herds along the blooming Syrian steppe between the urban cultures of the eastern Mediterranean coast (the territory of modern Lebanon, Israel, Palestine) and Mesopotamia. For centuries, nomads and farmers traded and fought among themselves, but it was during the time of Shulga and Amar-Suen that the influence of the Amorites on political events in Sumer increased sharply.
Judging by the data we have, Amar-Suen was a very successful and energetic ruler, but not as lucky as his father - in the ninth year of his reign, he died in an accident. Most of all, the death of the king pleased the priests, who left the following record:
The beginning of the reign of Shu-Suen
The sudden death of Amar-Suen opened the way to the throne for his brother (according to other sources - a son) named Shu-Suen (in the old reading - Gimil-Sin). The heir to Amar-Suena ruled from about 2037-2028 BC. e.
As always, the power of the new king had to be asserted by force. Shu-Suen's first military venture was to save his own daughter and her husband from the rebellious subjects. We do not know the time or the reasons why the princess from the ruling Sumerian house was married to the king of a certain country Simanum, but in the third year of his reign, Shu-Suen rushed with his army to help his daughter. The rebellion was not just suppressed and forgotten, as it usually happened - this time the Sumerian army and royal mercenaries completely destroyed all the villages of Simanum, and all the inhabitants were taken to Sumer. The first concentration camp known to mankind was built in the vicinity of the holy city of Nippur. The fate of Shu-Suen's daughter and her husband is unknown to modern historians.
This was followed by a war with the city-state of Zapshali, located on the border of Sumer, Elam and the country of the Hurrians. To protect his rear from the invasion of the independent mountainous Elamite kingdom of Simashki, Shu-Suen gave his daughter (hardly the same as the queen in Simanum) to the ruler of this state. In 2031 BC. e. to confirm the marriage agreement, the embassy of the Elamite groom arrived in the capital Ur. Having solved the problem of a war on two fronts, Shu-Suen by the seventh year of his reign defeated Zapshali and annexed his lands to his kingdom. At the same time, finds in the plains of Elam indicate that the rule of the Sumerians was strong there.
Kettlebell-standard in 5 minutes of King Shu-Suen.
Divine Shu-Suen and his servants
Despite the long stay of the ancient nomadic lands of Sumer and Akkad under a single authority, the problem of unity and unification of the population was never resolved. There was no single pantheon and mythology, the competition of the priests for control over material values continued, the Sumerians and Akkadians did not merge into a single people.
To unite the inhabitants of the new Sumerian empire, Shu-Suen continued the religious policy of his successors to deify the royal person. The figure of a common divine ruler was supposed to unite not only peoples, but also social strata. As the state sector of the economy developed, more and more people lived exclusively on the royal rations. The kings of the Third Dynasty deliberately pulled dependent people from the land, at the same time, the distribution of rations became more and more uneven. Top officials sold surplus and accumulated wealth not related to land. Shu-Suen and his entourage understood the situation, but due to continuous wars, they could not go into direct conflict with the rapidly growing new nobility.
An interesting way out of the situation was found. If an official wanted to keep his place in the administration, he should have covered the costs of building a temple in honor of the divine ruler. Throughout Sumer (in Eshnunn, Lagash, Adaba), "houses of the god Shu-Suen" began to appear with similar dedicatory inscriptions:
The construction of traditional temples also continued. For example, new statues of the god Enlil and his wife Ninlil were installed, and a new temple to the god Sharu was built in the city of Umma.
Stone ring with the name of King Shu-Suen.
Economic problems and the threat of nomads
It may seem that the reign of Shu-Suen was cloudless, and in terms of power he was not inferior to the great Shulgi, but this is not so. Most of the palace employees were completely uninterested in the results of their labor for rations, and the surviving rural communities lost their best lands. In addition to the stress of the economy, from continuous wars, two new troubles arose, which were not possible to cope with.
First, the climate was changing rapidly. For long centuries, the northwestern border of Mesopotamia passed through the great steppes, where grass grew in abundance, and the cattle of nomadic peoples grazed. Now the steppe was rapidly drying up, and the Amorites who lived there fought each other for the last oases, or invaded the farmers of Sumer and Akkad. Even in the fourth year of his reign, Shu-Suen ordered to repair and expand the network of fortifications in the middle reaches of the Euphrates - captives from Simanum and tsarist workers were to work on a grandiose project. The length of the wall along the so-called "gypsum desert" was supposed to be 200 km. The problem was that the "wall that holds the tidnum" was beyond the means of the great king - he simply could not feed the builders. Realizing this problem,Shu-Suen hired warriors for silver among the very Amorites (including those from the Tidnum tribe) against whom he was going to build a grandiose wall. The new royal mercenaries were able to force their fellow tribesmen to pay tribute from the rapidly declining livestock:
Apparently, there were many casualties among the Sumerian warriors, Amorites and builders, but the great wall was nevertheless completed - the remains of this majestic structure are still visible north of modern Baghdad. But this did not seem enough to Shu-Suen - new walls were hastily erected around the country's most important cities of Ur and Uruk.
The second insoluble problem was the change in the channels of the Tigris and Euphrates. If you look at modern maps, you can see that the Sumerian settlements lie far from these great rivers, but this was not always the case - most cities were initially built on the coast and only then found themselves far from the waters that fed them. Rivers were not only a source of irrigation, but also the most important communication routes. With the change in the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates, the great river civilization lost its economic basis, and no state system for the redistribution of products could replace it.
Map of the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates. Modern channels are gray, blue - ancient.
The surviving sources do not tell us when and how exactly Shu-Suen ended his reign. The range of data is great, and the period of the reign of this king ranges from seven to twenty years. Judging by what historians know, Shu-Suen did his best to overcome the inevitable and be worthy of his predecessors.
The sons of the great Shulga ruled the new Sumerian empire in difficult conditions of global change. With great efforts, they managed to preserve the legacy of the Third Dynasty of Sumerian Lugals from the city of Ur, but it became more and more difficult to do this.
Continuation: "The Last King of Sumer".
Maxim Ferapontov