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78 data for his nine years’ reign record two military forays northward but none westward; they speak mostly of his de- fensive measures. He relied mainly on building new sections of the Wall of the West against attacking Amorites. The de- fenses, however, were moved each time ever closer to Sum- er’s heartland, and the territory controlled from Ur kept shrinking. By the time the next (and last) of the Ur III dynasty, Ibbi- Sin, ascended the throne, invaders from the west had broken through the defensive Wall and were clashing with Ur’s “For- eign Legion,” Elamite troops, in Sumerian territory. Direct- ing and prompting the Westerners on toward the cherished target was Nabu. His divine father, Marduk himself, was waiting in Harran for the recapture of Babylon. The great gods, called to an emergency council, then approved extraordinary steps that changed the future forever. THE END OF DAYS