Page 116 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

iLlam lor the political dominance of southern Mesopotamia was
something he had seen for himself in his boyhood. It is quite

likely, as has been suggested, that the transfer of Ur from the
Amorite sphere of influence under the king of Larsa to that of the

Elamite protege, the king of Isin, had determined Abraham’s
father to migrate north. But the struggles of Amorite and Elam­
ite had continued.

The new confederacy of Babylon held the northern part of

lower Mesopotamia under king Sumu-la-El, who had seized
power after the death of Sumu-abum, and this confederacy was
Amorite. But to the south Elamite influence was waxing. We

do not know the precise details, though Abraham undoubtedly
did. (But we do know, as Abraham did not, that thirty years

from now the king of Elam will not only dominate Isin but will
also establish his son as ruler of the former Amorite stronghold of
Larsa.) It need not surprise us, then, if a king of Elam, dominant

on the lower Euphrates, extends his conquests over the
Amorite tribes of the desert as far as the Jordan valley. And the

latest research into the complicated chronology of just this
period even appears to show a gap of twenty years between the

reigns of Sumu-abum and of his successor Sumu-la-El in Babylon,
a gap which may well denote a period when Elam was dominant

over the whole of Mesopotamia south of present-day Baghdad.
There may well have been a brief Elamite empire stretching
almost to the Mediterranean coast where the Egyptian-domi­

nated cities lay. For Egypt at this time had no interest in the
hinterland of Syria and Palestine. Even in the coastal towns

Egypt’s interest was purely commercial, but the towns there
were undoubtedly strong enough to discourage attack from the
Elamite confederacy, at the end of very long lines of communi­

cation, even without military aid from Egypt. Sesostris III of
Egypt was anyway at this time engaged in the deep south, in

protracted campaigns against the Negro tribes of the Sudan.
But after Abraham’s success against the withdrawing army

of Elam, we hear nothing further of Elamite adventures in
Palestine. It is the end of the seventy years of this chapter. In the