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Seven years alter the Evil Wind had desolated Sumer, life began to stir again in the land. But instead of an empire ruling others, Sumer itself was now an occupied land, with a semblance of order maintained by Elamite troops in the south and Gutian soldiers in the north. Isin, a city never a capital before, was selected as a temporary administrative center, and a former governor of Mari was brought over to rule the land. Documents from that time recorded a com- plaint that one "who is not of Sumerian seed" was given the reins over Sumer. As his Semitic name—Ishbi-Erra—attested, he was a follower of Nergal, and his appointment must have been part of the arrangement between Nergal and Ninurta. Some scholars call the decades that followed the demise of Ur a Dark Age in Mesopotamian history. Little is known of those trying times except for what is gleaned from the yearly date formulas. Im- proving security, restoring here and there. Ishbi-Erra—seeking to solidify his secular authority—dismissed the foreign garrison that patrolled Ur and, by extending his reign to that city, laid claim to being a successor to the kings of Ur; but only a few other resettle cities acknowledged his supremacy, and at Larsa a powerful loca! chief posed, at times, a challenge. A year or two later Ishbi-Erra sought to add the central religious au- thority to his powers by assuming the guardianship of Nippur, raising there the sacred emblems of Enlil and Ninurta. But the permission for that came from Ninurta alone, and the great gods of Nippur remaine aloof and alienated. Seeking other support. Ishhi-Erra appointed priests and priestesses to restore the worship of Nannar. Ningal. an Inanna. But it seems that the hearts of the people belonged elsewhere: as numerous Shurpu ("Purification") texts suggest, it was Enki an Marduk—using Enki's immense scientific knowledge ("magical powers" in the eyes of the people)—who cured the afflicted, purifie the waters, and made the soil grow edible vegetation again. For the next half-century, embracing the reign of two successors of Ishbi-Erra at Isin, normalcy gradually returned to the land; agri- culture and industry revived, internal and external trade resumed 343 EPILOGUE