Abstract
After losing the southern cities, Samsu-iluna fortified the region of Isin and Nippur, these two cities now controlling the southern border of his kingdom. He then successfully attempted to strengthen his eastern flank. We have seen that the king of Ešnunna Iluni was one of the defeated in the " great rebellion ", and we don't know what happened next in the Diyala valley. Samsu-iluna commemorated a new victory over Ešnunna in the name of his twentieth year : " Year in which King Samsu-iluna, the heroic king(ašarêdum), subdued the rebellious country(ies)(lâ šêmišu) and struck down the entire army of the country of Ešnunna. " The reality of this victory can be seen in particular in the records of a dignitary named Alammuš-naṣir, who owned an estate in Damrum, near Kiš. This batch of more than 70 tablets was unearthed before 1914 and dispersed across a dozen collections ; they include both letters and administrative texts dating from the years 15 to 21 of Samsu-iluna, which have been studied in seminar (see below). These documents show how the estate was managed and provide valuable information on various aspects of economic life : livestock, agriculture, crafts, transport... In two letters, Alammuš-naṣir asks his steward to prevent the ešnunnean slaves from leaving the house and making contact with anyone outside. Yet an administrative text mentions the " new slaves " ; it dates from the month VIII of the year 19 of the reign, thus the very year in which the victory commemorated by the following year's name took place. Clearly, these Ešnunean slaves were part of the spoils distributed by the king among his high dignitaries.
Samsu-iluna consolidated his victory by building a fortress in the Diyala valley to guard the country. This construction was celebrated in the name of the year 24 : " Year in which King Samsu-iluna, who accumulated wisdom, built the wall of Kiš, a wall whose splendor extends over foreign lands, on the bank of the Euphrates ; and in which he built Dur-Samsu-iluna, in the land of Warum, on the bank of the Turan (western branch of the Diyala). " American excavations in 1937-38 found the fortress to which Samsu-iluna had given his name, as well as the founding inscription he had had written in both Sumerian and Akkadian, on Khafajah Tell B. This small fortified town was home to a garrison. Some twenty archival documents were drawn up between the years 23 and 27 ; one of these documents provides a sort of census of the site's population, showing how certain soldiers were lodged with the inhabitants, or indicating the transfer to Ešnunna of other individuals from the region.
