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270 was in punishment for this, the text states, that Marduk instigated rebellions against Sargon and also inflicted upon him a_ "restless- ness" (some take the term to mean "insomnia") which led to his death. We read further in the enigmatic text that during the Gutian oc- cupation that followed Naram-Sin's reign, the divine object lay un- touched "beside the dam-works for the waters" because "they knew not how to carry out the rules regarding the divine artifact." It was at that time Marduk's contention that the object had to re- main in its assigned place, "without being opened up," and "not being offered to any god," until "the gods who brought the de- struction shall make restitution." But when Inanna seized the opportunity to reinstitute kingship in Erech, her chosen king, Utu- Hegal, "seized the Shuhadaku in its place of resting; into his hand he took it"—although "the end of the restitution has not yet oc- curred." Unauthorized, Uthu-Hegal "raised the weapon against the city he was besieging." As soon as he had done that, he fell dead. "The river carried off his sunken body." Ninurta's absences from Sumerand Inanna's abortive attempt to recapture the kingship for Erech indicated to Enlil that the matter of the divine governing of Sumer could no longer be left open-ended; and the most suitable candidate for the task was Nannar/Sin. Throughout the turbulent times he was overshadowed by more aggressive contenders for the supremacy, including his own daughter Inanna. Now he was finally given the opportunity to as- sume the status befitting him as the firstborn (on Earth) of Enlil. The era that followed—let us call it the Era of Nannar—was one of for the own rah. His first order of business was to make his city, Ur, a great me- tropolis and the capital of a vast empire. Appointing a new line of tulers, known by scholars as the Third Dynasty of Ur, Nannar achieved for this capital and for Sumerian civilization unprece- dented peaks of material and cultural advancements. From an im- mense ziggurat that dominated the walled city (Fig. 90)—a ziggurat whose crumbled remains, after more than four thousand years, still rise awesomely from the Mesopotamian plain—Nannar and his spouse Ningal took an active part in the affairs of state. Attended by a hierarchy of priests and functionaries (headed by the king, Fig. 91), they guided the city's agriculture to become the granary of Sumer; directed its sheep breeding to make Ur the wool and gar- THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN contenders the most glorious in Sumerian annals; it was also Sumer's last hur- as