e, about 4000 B.C.
At this period there was rivalry between the two cities, in consequence
of which Mesilim, King of Kish, was called in as arbitrator. A record of
the treaty of delimitation that was drawn up on this occasion has been
preserved upon the recently discovered cone of Entemena. This document
tells us that at the command of the god Enlil, described as "the king
of the countries," Ningirsu, the chief god of Shirpurla, and the god of
Gishkhu decided to draw up a line of division between their respective
territories, and that Mesilim, King of Kish, acting under the direction
of his own god Kadi, marked out the frontier and set up a stele between
the two territories to commemorate the fixing of the boundary.
This policy of fixing the boundary by arbitration seems to have been
successful, and to have secured peace between Shirpurla and Gishkhu
for some generations. But after a period which cannot be accurately
determined a certain patesi of Gishkhu, named Ush, was filled with
ambition to extend his territory at the expense of Shirpurla. He
therefore removed the stele which Mesilim had set up, and, invading the
plain of Shirpurla, succeeded in conquering and holding a district named
Gu-edin. But Ush's successful raid was not of any permanent benefit to
his city, for he was in his turn defeated by the forces of Shirpurla,
and his successor upon the throne, a patesi named Enakalli, abandoned a
policy of aggression, and concluded with Eannadu, patesi of Shirpurla, a
solemn treaty concerning the boundary between their realms, the text of
which has been preserved to us upon the famous Stele of Vultures in the
Louvre.
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