Page:History of Early Iran.pdf/40

24 So far we have been dealing with legends, or with shadowy figures who stand on the borderline between legend and history. Discoveries of recent years have transferred several other supposedly legendary characters to the realm of actual history, and some lucky chance may do the same for the individuals mentioned above. For the present we can only quote the statements about them as they have come down to us, and indicate possible solutions.

Fortunately for the historian, from this time forward contemporary royal inscriptions verify and supplement the traditions or separate from them the actual events. Our most complete records for a short time emanate from the Babylonian city-state Lagash, where a dynasty was begun by Ur-Nanshe. Although the founder brought down objects from the mountains, he may have had no significant contacts with the Elamites. One of his successors, Eannatum, was a far more energetic ruler, or so his inscriptions would have us believe. These tell us that he vanquished the marvelous mountain Elam and heaped up mounds of the slain; he defeated the ishakku's, or princes, of two Elamite cities; when Elam and all the other coun-