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109 Yj A Hf mM Ey Vi sorbed the radioactive poison, and that took longer to recover; but that, too, improved with time. And so it was possible for people to slowly repopulate and reinhabit the desolated land. The first recorded administrative ruler in the devastated south was an ex-governor of Mari, a city way northwest on the Euphrates River. We learn that “he was not of Sumerian seed”; his name, Ishbi-Erra, was in fact a Semitic name. He established his headquarters in the city of Isin, and from there he oversaw the efforts to resurrect the other major cit- ies, but the process was slow, difficult, and at times chaotic. His efforts at rehabilitation were continued by several suc- cessors, also bearing Semitic names, the so-called “Dy- nasty of Isin.” All together, it took them close to a century to revive Ur, Sumer’s economic center, and ultimately Nip- pur, the land’s traditional religious heart; but by then that Destiny Had Fifty Names FIGURE 46