Nar-Malka, or "royal canal," which ran from the
Tigris to the Euphrates, passing Sippar on the way. The
digging of this canal is mentioned in a contract.

Their efforts in this direction were not unsuccessful. Samsuiluna,
the son of Khammurabi, added to the existing system two or three
fresh canals, one at least of which still bore his name nearly fifteen
centuries later; it is mentioned in the documents of the second Assyrian
empire in the time of Assurbanipal, and it is possible that traces of
it may still be found at the present day. Abieshukh,* Ammisatana,**
Ammizadugga,*** and Samsusatana,**** all either continued to elaborate
the network planned by their ancestors, or applied themselves to the
better distribution of the overflow in those districts where cultivation
was still open to improvement.

* Abishukh (the Hebrew Abishua) is the form of the name
which we find in contemporary contracts. The official lists
contain the variant Ebishu, Ebishum.

** Ammiditana is only a possible reading: others prefer
Ammisatana. The Nar-Ammisatana is mentioned in a Sippar
contract. Another contract is dated "the year in which
Ammisatana, the king, repaired the canal of Samsuiluna."

*** This was, at first, read Ammididugga. Ammizadugga is
mentioned in the date of a contract as having executed
certain works--of what nature it is not easy to say--on the
banks of the Tigris; another contract is dated "the year in
which Ammizadugga, the king, by supreme command of Sha-mash,
his master, [dug] the Ndr-Ammizadugga-nulchus-nishi (canal
of Ammizadugga), prosperity of men." In the Minaean
inscriptions of Southern Arabia the name is found under the
form of Ammi-Zaduq.

**** Sometimes erroneously read Samdiusatana; but, as a
matter of fact, we have contracts of that time, in which a
royal name is plainly written as Samsusatana.

We should know nothing of these kings had not the scribes of those times
been in the habit of dating the contracts of private individuals by
reference to important national events. They appear to have chosen
by preference incidents in the religious life of the country; as, for
instance, the restoration of a temple, the annual enthronisation of one
of the great divinities, such as Shamash, Merodach, Ishtar, or Nana,
as the eponymous god of the current year, the celebration of a solemn
festival, or the cons