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Adad-apla-iddina 8th Isin King of Babylon


Preferred Parents:
Father: Kadašman-Buriaš ,   d. DECEASED

Family 1: Xx d'ASSYRIE,      
  1. Female Princess of Babylon, b. BC 1100    
Sources:
  1. Title: Wikiwand: Assur
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Assur;
    Note: Aššur (/ˈæsʊər/; Akkadian; Syriac: "ܐܫܘܪ,"‎ "Āšūr"; Old Persian "𐎠𐎰𐎢𐎼," "Aθur," Persian: "آشور‎": Āšūr; Hebrew: "אַשּׁוּר": "Aššûr," Arabic: "اشور"‎), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian Empire (2025–1750 BC), the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC), and for a time, of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–608 BC). The remains of the city lie on the western bank of the Tigris River, north of the confluence with its tributary, the Little Zab, in what is now Iraq, more precisely in the al-Shirqat District of the Saladin Governorate. Occupation of the city itself continued for approximately 4,000 years, from c. 2600 BC to the mid-14th century AD, when the forces of Timur massacred its population. The site is a World Heritage Site, having been added to that organization's list of sites in danger in 2003 following the conflict that erupted following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and as a result of a proposed dam which would flood some of the site. Assur lies 65 kilometers (40 mi) south of the site of Nimrud and 100 km (60 mi) south of Nineveh. History of research Exploration of the site of Assur began in 1898 by German archaeologists. Excavations began in 1900 by Friedrich Delitzsch, and were continued in 1903–1913 by a team from the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft led initially by Robert Koldewey and later by Walter Andrae. More than 16,000 clay tablets with cuneiform texts were discovered. Many of the objects found made their way to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. More recently, Ashur was excavated by B. Hrouda for the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Bavarian Ministry of Culture in 1990. During the same period, in 1988 and 1989, the site was being worked by R. Dittmann on behalf of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Name Main article: Name of Syria Aššur is the name of the city, of the land ruled by the city, and of its tutelary deity from which the natives took their name, as did the entire nation of Assyria which encompassed what is today northern Iraq, north east Syria and south east Turkey. Today the Assyrians are still found throughout the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and the Diaspora in the western world. Assur is also the origin of the names Syria and terms for Syriac Christians, these being originally Indo-European derivations of Assyria, and for many centuries applying only to Assyria and the Assyrians (see Etymology of Syria) before also being applied to the Levant and its inhabitants by the Seleucid Empire in the 3rd century BC. Early Bronze Age Archaeology reveals the site of the city was occupied by the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. This was still the Sumerian period, before Assyria emerged in the 25th to 21st century BC. The oldest remains of the city were discovered in the foundations of the Ishtar temple, as well as at the Old Palace. In the subsequent period, the city was ruled by kings from the Akkadian Empire. During the Third Dynasty of Ur, the city was ruled by Assyrian governors subject to the Sumerians. Old and Middle Assyrian Empire By the time the Neo-Sumerian Ur-III dynasty collapsed at the hands of the Elamites around the end of the 21st century BC according to the Middle Chronology and mid-20th century according to the Short Chronology following increasing raids by Gutians and Amorites. The native Akkadian-speaking Assyrian kings were now free while Sumer fell under the yoke of the Amorites. The Assyrian king Ushpia who reigned around the 21st century BC is credited with dedicating the first temple of the god Ashur in his home city, although this comes from a later inscription from Shalmaneser I in the 13th century. The temple likely dates to the original settlement of the site when the people of Ashur established their nation under the patronage of the city's god. Soon after in around 2000 BC, Puzur-Ashur I founded a new dynasty, with his successors such as Ilushuma, Erishum I and Sargon I leaving inscriptions regarding the building of temples to Ashur, Adad and Ishtar in the city. Prosperity and independence produced the first significant fortifications in this period. As the region enjoyed relative peace and stability, trade between Mesopotamia and Anatolia increased, and the city of Ashur greatly benefited from its strategic location. Merchants would dispatch their merchandise via caravan into Anatolia and trade primarily at Assyrian colonies in Anatolia, the primary one being at Karum Kanesh (Kültepe). With Shamshi-Adad I's (1813–1781 BC) capital at Assur, he magnified the city's power and influence beyond the Tigris river valley, establishing what some regard as the first Assyrian Empire. In this era, the Great Royal Palace was built, and the temple of Assur was expanded and enlarged with a ziggurat. However, this empire met its end when Hammurabi, the Amorite king of Babylon conquered and incorporated the city into his short lived empire following the death of Ishme-Dagan I around 1756 BC, while the next three Assyrian kings were viewed as vassals. Not long after, the native king Adasi expelled the Babylonians and Amorites from Assur and Assyria as a whole around 1720 BC, although little is known of his successors. Evidence of further building activity is known from a few centuries later, during the reign of a native king Puzur-Ashur III, when the city was refortified and the southern districts incorporated into the main city defenses. Temples to the moon god Sin (Nanna) and the sun god Shamash were built and dedicated through the 15th century BC. The city was subsequently subjugated by the king of Mitanni, Shaushtatar in the late 15th century, taking the gold and silver doors of the temple to his capital, Washukanni, as spoils. Ashur-uballit I emulated his ancestor Adasi and overthrew the Mitanni empire in 1365 BC. The Assyrians reaped the benefits of this triumph by taking control of the eastern portion of the Mitanni Empire, and later also annexing Hittite, Babylonian, Amorite and Hurrian territory. The following centuries witnessed the restoration of the old temples and palaces of Assur, and the city once more became the throne of a magnanimous empire from 1365 BC to 1076 BC. Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BC) also constructed a new temple to the goddess Ishtar. The Anu-Adad temple was established later during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1075 BC). The walled area of the city in the Middle Assyrian period made up some 1.2 square kilometers (300 acres). Neo-Assyrian Empire In the Neo-Assyrian Empire (912–605 BC), the royal residence was transferred to other Assyrian cities. Ashur-nasir-pal II (884–859 BC) moved the capital from Assur to Kalhu (Calah/Nimrud) following a series of successful campaigns and produced some of the greatest artworks in the form of colossal lamassu statues and low-relief depictions of the royal court as well as battles. With the reign of Sargon II (722–705 BC), a new capital began to rise. Dur-Sharrukin (Fortress of Sargon) on a scale set to surpass that of Ashurnasirpal's. However, he died in battle and his son and successor Sennacherib (705–682 BC) abandoned the city, choosing to magnify Niniveh as his royal capital. However, the city of Ashur remained the religious center of the empire and continued to be revered as the holy crown of the empire, due to its temple of the national god Ashur. In the reign of Sennacherib (705–682 BC), the House of the New Year, Akitu, was built, and the festivities celebrated in the city. Many of the kings were also buried beneath the Old Palace while some queens were buried in the other capitals such as the wife of Sargon, Ataliya. The city was sacked and largely destroyed during the decisive battle of Assur, a major confrontation between the Assyrian and Median armies. Achaemenid Empire After the Medes were overthrown by the Persians as the dominant force in ancient Iran, Assyria was ruled by the Persian Achaemenid Empire (as Athura) from 549 BC to 330 BC (see Achaemenid Assyria). The Assyrians of Mada (Media) and Athura (Assyria) had been responsible for gold and glazing works of the palace and for providing Lebanese cedar timber, respectively. The city and region of Ashur had once more gained a degree of militaristic and economic strength. Along with the Assyrians in Mada, a revolt took place in 520 BC but ultimately failed. Assyria seems to have recovered dramatically, and flourished during this period. It became a major agricultural and administrative center of the Achaemenid Empire, and its soldiers were a mainstay of the Persian Army. Parthian Empire The city revived during the Parthian Empire period, particularly between 150 BC and 270 AD, being resettled and becoming an administrative centre of Parthian-ruled Assuristan. Assyriologists Simo Parpola and Patricia Crone suggest Assur may have had outright independence in this period. Other polities such as Beth Garmai, Beth Nuhadra and Adiabene also flourished due to the fact that the Parthians exercised only loose or intermittent control of Assyria. New administrative buildings were erected to the north of the old city, and a palace to the south. The old temple dedicated to the national god of the Assyrians Assur (Ashur) was rebuilt, as were temples to other Assyrian gods. Assyrian Eastern Aramaic inscriptions from the remains of Ashur have yielded insight into the Parthian-era city with Assyria having its own Aramaic Syriac script, which was the same in terms of grammar and syntax as that found at Edessa and elsewhere in the state of Osroene. German archaeologist Klaus Beyer published over 600 inscriptions from Mesopotamian towns and cities including Ashur, Dura-Europos, Hatra, Gaddala, Tikrit and Tur Abdin. Given that Christianity had begun to spread amongst the Assyrians throughout the Parthian era, the original Assyrian culture and religion persisted for some time, as proven by the inscriptions that include invocations to the gods Ashur, Nergal, Sin, Ishtar an..
  2. Title: Wikiwand: Cuneiform
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cuneiform;
    Note: Cuneiform, or Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform, was one of the earliest systems of writing, invented by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia. It is distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name "cuneiform," itself simply means "wedge-shaped." Emerging in Sumer in the late fourth millennium BC (the Uruk IV period) to convey the Sumerian language, which was a language isolate, cuneiform writing began as a system of pictograms, stemming from an earlier system of shaped tokens used for accounting. In the third millennium, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use grew smaller (Hittite cuneiform). The system consists of a combination of logophonetic, consonantal alphabetic, and syllabic signs. The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Semitic Akkadian (Assyrian/Babylonian), Eblaite and Amorite languages, the language isolates Elamite, Hattic, Hurrian and Urartian, as well as Indo-European languages Hittite and Luwian; it inspired the later Semitic Ugaritic alphabet as well as Old Persian cuneiform. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–612 BC). By the second century AD, the script had become extinct, its last traces being found in Assyria and Babylonia, and all knowledge of how to read it was lost until it began to be deciphered in the 19th century. Geoffrey Sampson stated that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and, probably, [were] invented under the influence of the latter," and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia." There are many instances of Egypt-Mesopotamia relations at the time of the invention of writing, and standard reconstructions of the development of writing generally place the development of the Sumerian proto-cuneiform script before the development of Egyptian hieroglyphs, with the suggestion the former influenced the latter. Between half a million and two million cuneiform tablets are estimated to have been excavated in modern times, of which only approximately 30,000–100,000 have been read or published. The British Museum holds the largest collection (c. 130,000), followed by the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin, the Louvre, the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, the National Museum of Iraq, the Yale Babylonian Collection (c. 40,000), and Penn Museum. Most of these have "lain in these collections for a century without being translated, studied or published," as there are only a few hundred qualified cuneiformists in the world. History An ancient Mesopotamian poem gives the first known story of the invention of writing: "Because the messenger's mouth was heavy and he couldn't repeat (the message), the Lord of Kulaba patted some clay and put words on it, like a tablet. Until then, there had been no putting words on clay." — "Sumerian epic poem Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. Circa 1800 BC." The cuneiform writing system was in use for more than three millennia, through several stages of development, from the 31st century BC down to the second century AD. Ultimately, it was replaced completely by alphabetic writing (in the general sense) in the course of the Roman era, and there are no cuneiform systems in current use. It had to be deciphered as a completely unknown writing system in 19th-century Assyriology. Successful completion of its deciphering is dated to 1857. The cuneiform script underwent considerable changes over a period of more than two millennia. The image below shows the development of the sign SAĜ "head" (Borger nr. 184, U+12295 𒊕). [picture of pictograms] Stages: 1. shows the pictogram as it was drawn around 3000 BC 2. shows the rotated pictogram as written from c. 2800–2600 BC 3. shows the abstracted glyph in archaic monumental inscriptions, from c. 2600 BC 4. is the sign as written in clay, contemporary to stage 3 5. represents the late 3rd millennium BC 6. represents Old Assyrian ductus of the early 2nd millennium BC, as adopted into Hittite 7. is the simplified sign as written by Assyrian scribes in the early 1st millennium BC and until the script's extinction. Pictographic and proto-cuneiform characters See also: Kish tablet The cuneiform script was developed from pictographic proto-writing in the late 4th millennium BC, stemming from the near eastern token system used for accounting. These tokens were in use from the 9th millennium BC and remained in occasional use even late in the 2nd millennium BC. It has been suggested that the token shapes were the original basis for some of the Sumerian pictographs. Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans roughly the 35th to 32nd centuries BC. The first documents unequivocally written in Sumerian date to the 31st century BC at Jemdet Nasr. Originally, pictographs were either drawn on clay tablets in vertical columns with a sharpened reed stylus or incised in stone. This early style lacked the characteristic wedge shape of the strokes. Certain signs to indicate names of gods, countries, cities, vessels, birds, trees, etc., are known as determinatives and were the Sumerian signs of the terms in question, added as a guide for the reader. Proper names continued to be usually written in purely "logographic" fashion. The earliest known Sumerian king, whose name appears on contemporary cuneiform tablets, is Enmebaragesi of Kish. Surviving records only very gradually become less fragmentary and more complete for the following reigns, but by the end of the pre-Sargonic period, it had become standard practice for each major city-state to date documents by year-names commemorating the exploits of its "lugal" (king). From about 2900 BC, many pictographs began to lose their original function, and a given sign could have various meanings depending on context. The sign inventory was reduced from some 1,500 signs to some 600 signs, and writing became increasingly phonological. Determinative signs were re-introduced to avoid ambiguity. Cuneiform writing proper thus arises from the more primitive system of pictographs at about that time (Early Bronze Age II). Archaic cuneiform Further information: Liste der archaischen Keilschriftzeichen and Early Dynastic Cuneiform In the mid-3rd millennium BC, a new wedge-tipped stylus was introduced that was pushed into the clay, producing wedge-shaped ("cuneiform") signs; the development made writing quicker and easier. By adjusting the relative position of the stylus to the tablet, the writer could use a single tool to make a variety of impressions. The direction of writing remained to be from top-to-bottom and right-to-left, until the mid-2nd millennium BC. Cuneiform tablets could be fired in kilns to bake them hard, and so provide a permanent record, or they could be left moist and recycled if permanence was not needed. Many of the clay tablets found by archaeologists have been preserved by chance, baked when attacking armies burned the buildings in which they were kept. The script also was used widely on commemorative stelae and carved reliefs to record the achievements of the ruler in whose honor the monument had been erected. The spoken language included many homophones and near-homophones, and in the beginning, similar-sounding words such as "life" [til] and "arrow" [ti] were written with the same symbol. After the Semites conquered Southern Mesopotamia, some signs gradually changed from being pictograms to syllabograms, most likely to make things clearer in writing. In that way, the sign for the word "arrow" would become the sign for the sound "ti." Words that sounded alike would have different signs; for instance, the syllable "gu" had fourteen different symbols. When the words had a similar meaning but very different sounds they were written with the same symbol. For instance "tooth" [zu], "mouth" [ka] and "voice" [gu] were all written with the symbol for "voice." To be more accurate, scribes started adding to signs or combining two signs to define the meaning. They used either geometrical patterns or another cuneiform sign. As time went by, the cuneiform got very complex and the distinction between a pictogram and syllabogram became vague. Several symbols had too many meanings to permit clarity. Therefore, symbols were put together to indicate both the sound and the meaning of a compound. The word "Raven" [UGA] had the same logogram as the word "soap" [NAGA], the name of a city [EREŠ], and the patron goddess of Eresh [NISABA]. Two phonetic complements were used to define the word [u] in front of the symbol and [gu] behind. Finally, the symbol for "bird" [MUŠEN] was added to ensure proper interpretation. Written Sumerian was used as a scribal language until the first century AD. The spoken language died out around the 18th century BC. Akkadian cuneiform The archaic cuneiform script was adopted by the Akkadian Empire from the 23rd century BC (short chronology), and by the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (20th century BC), it had evolved into Old Assyrian cuneiform, with many modifications to Sumerian orthography. The Semitic languages employed equivalents for many signs that were distorted or abbreviated to represent new values because the syllabic nature of the script as refined by the Sumerians was not intuitive to Semitic speakers. At this stage, the former pictograms were reduced to a high level of abstraction, and were composed of only five basic wedge shapes: horizontal, vertical, two diagonals and the Winkelhaken impressed vertically by the tip of the stylus. The signs exemplary of these basic wedges are . AŠ (B001, U+12038) 𒀸: horizontal; . DIŠ (B748, U+12079) 𒁹: vertical; . GE23, DIŠ "tenû" (B575, U+12039) 𒀹: downward diagonal; . GE22 (B647, U+1203A) 𒀺: upward diagonal; . (B661, U+1230B) 𒌋: the "Winkelhaken." Signs tilted by about 45..
  3. Title: Wikiwand: Assyria
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Assyria;
    Note: Assyria (/əˈsɪəriə/), also called the Assyrian Empire, was a Mesopotamian kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant that existed as a state from perhaps as early as the 25th century BC (in the form of the Assur city-state) until its collapse between 612 BC and 609 BC – spanning the periods of the Early to Middle Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age. From the end of the seventh century BC (when the Neo-Assyrian state fell) to the mid-seventh century AD, it survived as a geopolitical entity, for the most part ruled by foreign powers such as the Parthian and early Sasanian Empires between the mid-second century BC and late third century AD, the final part of which period saw Mesopotamia become a major center of Syriac Christianity and the birthplace of the Church of the East. A largely Semitic-speaking realm, Assyria was centered on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia. The Assyrians came to rule powerful empires in several periods. Making up a substantial part of the greater Mesopotamian "cradle of civilization," which included Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, and Babylonia, Assyria reached the height of technological, scientific and cultural achievements for its time. At its peak, the Neo-Assyrian Empire of 911 to 609 BC stretched from eastern Libya and Cyprus in the East Mediterranean to Iran, and from present-day Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Transcaucasia to the Arabian Peninsula. The name "Assyria" originates with the Assyrian state's original capital, the ancient city of Aššur, which dates to c. 2600 BC – originally one of a number of Akkadian-speaking city-states in Mesopotamia. In the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Assyrian kings were pastoral leaders. From the late 24th century BC, the Assyrians became subject to Sargon of Akkad, who united all the Akkadian- and Sumerian-speaking peoples of Mesopotamia under the Akkadian Empire, which lasted from c. 2334 BC to 2154 BC. After the Assyrian Empire fell from power, the greater remaining part of Assyria formed a geopolitical region and province of other empires, although between the mid-2nd century BC and late 3rd century AD a patchwork of small independent Assyrian kingdoms arose in the form of Assur, Adiabene, Osroene, Beth Nuhadra, Beth Garmai and Hatra. The region of Assyria fell under the successive control of the Median Empire of 678 to 549 BC, the Achaemenid Empire of 550 to 330 BC, the Macedonian Empire (late 4th century BC), the Seleucid Empire of 312 to 63 BC, the Parthian Empire of 247 BC to 224 AD, the Roman Empire (from 116 to 118 AD) and the Sasanian Empire of 224 to 651 AD. The Arab Islamic conquest of the area in the mid-seventh century finally dissolved Assyria (Assuristan) as a single entity, after which the remnants of the Assyrian people (by now Christians) gradually became an ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious minority in the Assyrian homeland, surviving there to this day as an indigenous people of the region. Etymology Assyria was also sometimes known as Subartu and "Azuhinum" prior to the rise of the city-state of Ashur, after which it was Aššūrāyu, and after its fall, from 605 BC through to the late seventh century AD variously as Achaemenid Assyria, and also referenced as Atouria, Ator, Athor, and sometimes as "Syria," which etymologically derives from Assyria according to Strabo, "Syria"(Greek), "Assyria" (Latin) and Asōristān (Middle Persian). "Assyria" also can refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were (and still are) centered. The indigenous modern Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christian ethnic minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, southeast Turkey and northwest Iran are the descendants of the ancient Assyrians (see Assyrian continuity). As Babylonia is called after the city of Babylon, Assyria means "land of Asshur." Etymologically, "Assyria" is connected to the name of "Syria,"with both being ultimately derived from the Akkadian "Aššur." Theodor Nöldeke in 1881 was the first to give philological support to the assumption that Syria and Assyria have the same etymology, a suggestion going back to John Selden (1617). A 21st-century discovery of the Çineköy inscription also confirmed that Syria, being a Greek corruption of the name Assyria, is ultimately derived from the Assyrian term "Aššūrāyu." Pre-history In prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria (and Subartu) was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in what will be Assyria were the Jarmo culture c. 7100 BC, the Halaf culture c. 6100 BC, and the Hassuna culture c. 6000 BC. The Akkadian-speaking people (the earliest historically-attested Semitic-speaking people) who would eventually found Assyria appear to have entered Mesopotamia at some point during the latter 4th millennium BC (c. 3500–3000 BC), eventually intermingling with the earlier Sumerian-speaking population, who came from northern Mesopotamia, with Akkadian names appearing in written record from as early as the 29th century BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians throughout Mesopotamia, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian (a language isolate) on Akkadian, and vice versa, is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a massive scale, to syntactic, morphological, and phonological convergence. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a "sprachbund." Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as the spoken language of Mesopotamia somewhere after the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate), although Sumerian continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia until the 1st century AD, as did use of the Akkadian cuneiform. The cities of Assur, Nineveh, Gasur and Arbela together with a number of other towns and cities, existed since at least before the middle of the 3rd millennium BC (c. 2600 BC), although they appear to have been Sumerian-ruled administrative centers at this time, rather than independent states. Greco-Roman classical writers such as Julius Africanus, Marcus Velleius Paterculus and Diodorus Siculus dated the founding of Assyria to various dates between 2284 BC and 2057 BC, listing the earliest king as Belus or Ninus. According to the Biblical generations of Noah, which appears to have been largely compiled between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, the city of Aššur was allegedly founded by a biblical Ashur the son of Shem, who was deified by later generations as the city's patron god. However, the much older attested Assyrian tradition itself lists the first king of Assyria as the 25th century BC Tudiya, and an early urbanized Assyrian king named Ushpia (c. 2050 BC) as having dedicated the first temple to the god Ashur in the city in the mid-21st century BC. It is highly likely that the city was named in honor of its patron Assyrian god with the same name. History Further information: Timeline of the Assyrian Empire Early Period, 2600–2025 BC Main article: Early Period (Assyria) The city of Aššur, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, seem to have been established by 2600 BC. However it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centers. In the late 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, mentions "smiting Subartu" (Subartu being the Sumerian name for Assyria). Similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute to him. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is known. In the Assyrian King List, the earliest king recorded was Tudiya. According to Georges Roux he would have lived in the mid-25th century BC, i.e., c. 2450 BC. In archaeological reports from Ebla, it appeared that Tudiya's activities were confirmed with the discovery of a tablet where he concluded a treaty for the operation of a "karum" (trading colony) in Eblaite territory, with "king" Ibrium of Ebla (who now is known to have been the vizier of Ebla for king Ishar-Damu). Tudiya was succeeded on the list by Adamu, the first known reference to the Semitic name "Adam," and then a further thirteen rulers (Yangi, Suhlamu, Harharu, Mandaru, Imsu, Harsu, Didanu, Hanu, Zuabu, Nuabu, Abazu, Belus and Azarah). Nothing concrete is yet known about these names, although it has been noted that a much later Babylonian tablet listing the ancestral lineage of Hammurabi, the Amorite king of Babylon, seems to have copied the same names from Tudiya through Nuabu, though in a heavily corrupted form. The earliest kings, such as Tudiya, who are recorded as "kings who lived in tents," were independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers. These kings at some point became fully urbanised and founded the city state of Aššur in the mid 21st-century BC. Akkadian Empire and Neo-Sumerian Empires, 2334–2050 BC Further information: Akkadian Empire and Neo-Sumerian Empire During the Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 BC), the Assyrians, like all the Akkadian-speaking Mesopotamians (and also the Sumerians), became subject to the dynasty of the city-state of Akkad, centered in central Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding "four quarters." The region of Assyria, north of the seat of the empire in central Mesopotamia, had also been known as Subartu by the Sumerians, and the name Azuhinum in Akkadian records also seems to refer to Assyria proper. The Sumerians were eventually absorbed into the Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) population. Assyrian rulers were subject to Sargon and his successors, and the city of Ashur became a regional administrative center of the Empire, implicated by the Nuzi tablets. During this period, the Akka..
  4. Title: Wikiwand: Arameans
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Arameans;
    Note: The Arameans (Aramaic: ܐܪ̈ܡܝܐ‎, "ʼaramáyé," Arabic: آراميون‎), were an ancient Northwest Semitic Aramaic-speaking tribal confederation who emerged from the region known as Aram (in present-day Syria) in the Late Bronze Age (11th to 8th centuries BC). They established a patchwork of independent Aramaic kingdoms in the Levant and seized tracts of Anatolia as well as briefly conquering Babylonia. The Arameans never formed a unified state but had small independent kingdoms across parts of the Near East, (present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian territories, the northwestern Arabian peninsula and south-central Turkey). Their political influence was confined to a number of states such as Aram Damascus, Hamath, Palmyra, Aleppo and the partly Aramean Syro-Hittite states, which were entirely absorbed into the Neo-Assyrian Empire (935–605 BC) by the 9th century BC. In the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Aramaeans, Chaldeans, Suteans and indigenous Assyrians-Babylonians became largely indistinguishable, as these groups were culturally and ethnically absorbed into the native populace of Mesopotamia. By contrast, Imperial Aramaic came to be the "lingua franca" of the entire Near East and Asia Minor after King Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria (ruled 745–727 BC) made it one of two official languages of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire (the other being Akkadian) in the mid-8th century BC, in recognition of the mostly Aramean-speaking population in areas Assyria had conquered west of the Euphrates and the large numbers of Arameans in Mesopotamia. This empire stretched from Cyprus and the East Mediterranean in the west to Persia and Elam in the east, and from Armenia and the Caucasus in the north to Egypt, Libya and Arabia in the south. The Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330 BC) greatly spread Imperial Aramaic: north to the coast of the Black Sea and eastward to the Indus Valley. This version of Aramaic, influenced by Akkadian and later by Old Persian, later developed into the Syriac dialect of Edessa. Between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, the Arameans began to adopt Christianity in place of the polytheist Aramean religion, and the Levant became an important center of Syriac Christianity, along with the Aramean kingdom Osroene to the east from where the Syriac language and Syriac script emerged. Use of the Western Aramaic language has steadily declined in the face of Arabic since the Islamic conquest of the area in the 7th century AD, and the last vestiges of the spoken tongue in and around Maalula are in danger of extinction, although Assyrian population maintain spoken dialects of Akkadian influenced Neo-Aramaic as well as Syriac as a liturgical language. Similarly, some Jewish communities and the Mandean people also retain dialects of Aramaic. Today, an Aramean identity is mainly held by a small number of largely Arabic-speaking Syriac Christians in south-central Turkey, in Syria, and in the Aramean diaspora overseas. In 2014, Israel recognized the Aramean minority, an Arabic- and Aramaic-speaking Christian community. History Origins The toponym "A-ra-mu" appears in an inscription at the East Semitic speaking kingdom of Ebla listing geographical names, and the term "Armi," which is the Eblaite term for nearby Idlib (modern Aleppo), occurs frequently in the Ebla tablets (c. 2300 BC). One of the annals of Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2250 BC) mentions that he captured "Dubul, the ensí of 'A-ra-me'" ("Arame" is seemingly a genitive form), in the course of a campaign against Simurrum in the northern mountains. Other early references to a place or people of "Aram" have appeared at the archives of Mari (c. 1900 BC) and at Ugarit (c. 1300 BC). However, there is absolutely no historical, archaeological or linguistic evidence that the "Aramu," "Armi" or "Arame" were actually Arameans or even related to them; and the earliest "undisputed" historical attestation of Arameans as a people appears much later, in the inscriptions of Tiglath Pileser I (c. 1100 BC). Nomadic pastoralists have long played a prominent role in the history and economy of the Middle East, but their numbers seem to vary according to climatic conditions and the force of neighboring states inducing permanent settlement. The period of the Late Bronze Age seems to have coincided with increasing aridity, which weakened neighboring states and induced transhumance pastoralists to spend longer and longer periods with their flocks. Urban settlements (hitherto largely Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Ugarite inhabited) in The Levant diminished in size, until eventually fully nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate much of the region. These highly mobile, competitive tribesmen with their sudden raids continually threatened long-distance trade and interfered with the collection of taxes and tribute. The people who had long been the prominent population within what is today Syria (called the "Land of the Amurru" during their tenure) were the Amorites, a Canaanite speaking group of Semites who had appeared during the 25th century BC, destroying the hitherto dominant East Semitic speaking state of Ebla, founding the powerful state of Mari in the Levant, and during the 19th century BC founding Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia. However, they seem to have been displaced or wholly absorbed by the appearance of a people called the Ahlamu by the 13th century BC, disappearing from history. Ahlamû appears to be a generic term for a new wave of Semitic wanderers and nomads of varying origins who appeared during the 13th century BC across the Near East, Arabian Peninsula, Asia Minor, and Egypt. The presence of the Ahlamû is attested during the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC), which already ruled many of the lands in which the Ahlamû arose, in the Babylonian city of Nippur and even at Dilmun (modern Bahrain). Shalmaneser I (1274–1245 BC) is recorded as having defeated Shattuara, King of the Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries. In the following century, the Ahlamû cut the road from Babylon to Hattusas, and Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BC) conquered Mari, Hanigalbat and Rapiqum on the Euphrates and "the mountain of the Ahlamû," apparently the region of Jebel Bishri in northern Syria. The Arameans would appear to be one part of the larger generic Ahlamû group rather than synonymous with the Ahlamu. Bronze Age collapse The emergence of the Arameans occurred during the Bronze Age collapse (1200–900 BC), which saw great upheavals and mass movements of peoples across the Middle East, Asia Minor, The Caucasus, East Mediterranean, North Africa, Ancient Iran, Ancient Greece and Balkans, leading to the genesis of new peoples and polities across these regions. The first certain reference to the Arameans appears in an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BC), which refers to subjugating the "Ahlamû-Aramaeans" ("Ahlame Armaia"). Shortly after, the Ahlamû rapidly disappear from Assyrian annals, to be replaced by the Aramaeans ("Aramu," "Arimi"). This indicates that the Arameans had risen to dominance among the nomads; however, it is possible that the two peoples had nothing in common, but operated in the same area. By the late 12th century BC, the Arameans were firmly established in Syria; however, they were conquered by the Middle Assyrian Empire, as had been the Amorites and Ahlamu before them. The Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC), which had dominated the Near East and Asia Minor since the first half of the 14th century BC, began to shrink rapidly after the death of Ashur-bel-kala, its last great ruler in 1056 BC, and the Assyrian withdrawal allowed the Arameans and others to gain independence and take firm control of what was then Eber-Nari (and is today Syria) during the late 11th century BC. It is from this point that the region was called Aramea. Some of the major Aramean speaking kingdoms included: Aram-Damascus, Hamath, Bit Adini, Bit Bahiani, Bit Hadipe, Aram-Bet Rehob, Aram-Zobah, Bit-Zamani, Bit-Halupe and Aram-Ma'akah, as well as the Aramean tribal polities of the Gambulu, Litau and Puqudu. Later Biblical sources tell us that Saul, David and Solomon (late 11th to 10th centuries) fought against the small Aramean kingdoms ranged across the northern frontier of Israel: Aram-Sôvah in the Beqaa, Aram-Bêt-Rehob (Rehov) and Aram-Ma'akah around Mount Hermon, Geshur in the Hauran, and Aram-Damascus. An Aramean king's account dating at least two centuries later, the Tel Dan Stele, was discovered in northern Israel, and is famous for being perhaps the earliest non-Israelite extra-biblical historical reference to the Israelite royal dynasty, the House of David. In the early 11th century BC, much of Israel came under Aramean rule for eight years according to the Biblical Book of Judges, until Othniel defeated the forces led by Chushan-Rishathaim, the King of Aram-Naharaim. Further north, the Arameans gained possession of Neo-Hittite Hamath on the Orontes and were soon to become strong enough to dissociate with the Indo-European speaking Neo-Hittite states. During the 11th and the 10th centuries BC, the Arameans conquered Sam'al (modern Zenjirli), also known as Yaudi, the region from Arpad to Aleppo, which they renamed Bît-Agushi, and Til Barsip, which became the chief town of Bît-Adini, also known as Beth Eden. North of Sam'al was the Aramean state of Bit-Gabbari, which was sandwiched between the Syro-Hittite states of Carchemish, Gurgum, Khattina, Unqi and the Georgian state of Tabal. At the same time, Arameans moved to the east of the Euphrates, where they settled in such numbers that, for a time, the whole region became known as Aram-Naharaim or "Aram of the two rivers." Eastern Aramaean tribes spread into Babylonia and an Aramaean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name of Adad-apal-iddin. One of their earliest semi-independent kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia was Bît-Bahiâni (Tell Halaf). Neo-Assyrian Empire, 911–605 BC Assyrian annals from the..
  5. Title: Wikiwand: Eclectic Chronicle
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Eclectic_Chronicle;
    Note: The Eclectic Chronicle, referred to in earlier literature as the "New Babylonian Chronicle," is an ancient Mesopotamian account of the highlights of Babylonian history during the post-Kassite era prior to the 689 BC fall of the city of Babylon. It is an important source of historiography from the period of the early iron-age dark age with few extant sources to support its telling of events. The text Although its provenance is unknown, it is thought to originate from Babylon itself as it is written in standard Babylonian in the late cuneiform script of the region. It was acquired by the British Museum in 1898 and given the accession number 98,0711.124, subsequently the Museum reference BM 27859. Approximately two-thirds of the text has survived with the top part of the tablet broken off, losing the beginning and end of the narrative. The work is written in a single column on a small tablet in the format of an administrative or economic text, suggesting it was for private use, in marked contrast to the official histories that were typically inscribed in two or more columns on a much larger object. In many respects this chronicle shares the characteristics of "Chronicle P," as an episodic and laconic summary of the significant events of Babylonian history, but without the errors of that other work. It seems to have been a continuation, covering the post-Kassite period beginning prior to the reign of Marduk-šāpik-zēri (ca. 1082–1069 BC) through to sometime after that of Salmānu-ašarid V (727–722 BC). The narrative is divided into twenty two extant sections, each focusing on the events of the reign of a different Babylonian monarch (listed below) in chronological order with only a small number of omissions: 1. "He carried off a great booty," "he" presumably being Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē or Assyrian king Tukultī-apil-Ešarra I, both of whom successfully raided one another’s territory 2. Marduk-šāpik-zēri - prosperous reign - this section is duplicated in the "Walker Chronicle" 3. Adad-apla-iddina - Arameans and Suteans despoil the land - also duplicated in the "Walker Chronicle" (three reigns are skipped) 4. Simbar-Šipak - makes throne of Enlil at Ekur-igigal (two insignificant successors were ignored) 5. Eulmaš-šākin-šumi - event not preserved 6. 14th year of an unnamed king, probably Eulmaš-šākin-šumi, when the "Dynastic Chronicle" relates he died and was succeeded by Ninurta-kudurrῑ-uṣur I - event not preserved (next king is omitted) 7. Mār-bīti-apla-uṣur - event not preserved 8. Nabû-mukin-apli - event not preserved 9. "n"th year, presumably of Ninurta-kudurrῑ-uṣur II, although this king only served eight months - event not preserved 10. Mār-bῑti-aḫḫē-idinna - event not preserved 11. Šamaš-mudammiq - Adad-nirari II was king of Assyria 12. Nabû-šuma-ukin I - Tukulti-Ninurta II was king of Assyria 13. Nabû-apla-iddina - Aššur-nāṣir-apli II was king of Assyria 14. Marduk-zâkir-šumi I - Salmānu-ašarēdu III was king of Assyria 15. Marduk-balāssu-iqbi - event not preserved (following king omitted) 16. "For 'n' years there was no king in the land." (next three kings are omitted) 17. Erība-Marduk - Aramaeans get their comeuppance 18. Erība-Marduk is honored with a second section - event not preserved (following reign was skipped) 19. Nabû-nāṣir - event not preserved 20. ? A section which could have been occupied by any of Nabû-nāṣir’s three successors - event not preserved 21. Tukultī-apil-Ešarra III - ascended the throne (of Babylon) 22. Salmānu-ašarid V - ascended the throne (of Babylon) (lacuna) Principal publications . L. W. King (1907). "Chronicles Concerning Early Babylonian Kings, Vol. II: Texts and Translations." Luzac & Co. pp. 57–69, 147–155. . A.K. Grayson (1975). "Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. J. J. Augustin." pp. 180–183. . Jean-Jacques Glassner (2004). "Mesopotamian Chronicles. Society of Biblical Literature." pp. 184–187.
  6. Title: Livius: Eclectic chronicle
    Author: The Eclectic Chronicle (ABC 24) is one of the historiographical texts from ancient Babylonia. It deals with events between 1080 and 822 that were important from a Babylonian point of view, but the exact purpose of this text is unclear. Some lines are duplicates of the Walker Chronicle. For a very brief introduction to the literary genre of chronicles, go here. The translation on this webpage was adapted from A.K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975) and Jean-Jacques Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles (Atlanta, 2004).
    Publication: Name: https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-24-eclectic-chronicle/;
    Note: The text of this chronicle is inscribed on a tablet, BM 27859 (98-7-11, 124), the top of which is missing. There is also a large piece missing from the lower left-hand corner. The preserved portion, about two thirds of the text, measures 45 mm wide and 60 mm long. Translation obverse [Obv.1'] (...) ... [Obv.2'] ... [Obv.3'] he carried off a great booty. [Obv.4'] Marduk-šapik-zeri,note the son of Marduk-nadin-ahhe, rebuilt the wall of Babylon. He conquered the [Obv.5'] kings of the lands. During his reign, the people of the land enjoyed prosperity. [Obv.6'] He made an entente cordiale with Aššur-bêl-kala, king of Assyria.note [Obv.7'] At that time, the king went from Assyria to Sippar. [Obv.8'] Adad-apla-iddina,note descendant of Itti-Marduk-balatu, the Arameans and an usurper king rebelled against him [Obv.9'] and desecrated all the sanctuaries centers of the land. Der, Dur-Anki (Nippur). [Obv.10'] Sippar, Parsa (Dur-Kurigalzu) they demolished. The Suteans attacked and the booty of Sumer and Akkad [Obv.11'] they took home. He made frequent visits to the shrines of Marduk and appeased his heart. He totally restored his cult [Obv.12'] Simbar-šihu, son of Eriba-Sin, knight of the Sealand, [Obv.13'] made the throne of Enlil at Ekur-igigal. [Obv.14'] In the month of Nisannu of the fifth year of Eulmaš-šakin-šumi, the king.note [Obv.15'] The fourteenth year note [Obv.16'] The fourth year of Mar-biti-apla-usurnote [Obv.17'] The first year of Nabû-mukin-apli, the kingnote [Obv.18'] 'The Nth year [Edge] ... Translation of reverse [Rev.1'] The Nth year of Mar-biti-ahhe-iddinanote [Rev.2'] Adad-nirari was the king of Assyria at the time of Šamaš-mudammiq.note [Rev.3'] At the time of Nabû-šuma-ukin, Tukulti-Ninurta was the king of Assyria.note [Rev.4'] At the time of Nabû-apla-iddina, son of Nabû-šuma-ukin, Aššur-nasir-apli was the king of Assyria.note [Rev.5'] At the time of Marduk-zakir-šumi, son of Nabû-apla-iddina, and [Rev.6'] Marduk-bêl-usate, Šalmaneser was the king of Assyria.note [Rev.7'] At the time of Marduk-balassu-iqbi and Marduk-zakir-šumi [Rev.8'] For N years there was no king in the land.note [Rev.9'] Eriba-Marduk, descendant of Marduk-šakin-šumi, [Rev.10'] took the hand of Bêl and the son of Bêl (Nabû) in his second year. [Rev.11'] The Aramaeans who had taken by murder and insurrection the fields of the inhabitants of Babylon and Borsippa, [Rev.12'] Eriba-Marduk slew by the sword, and he brought about their defeat. [Rev.13'] He took the fields and orchards away from the and gave them to the [Arameans?] and Borsippeans. [Rev.14'] In that same year, he set of the throne of Bêl in Esagila and Ezida ... [Rev.15'] ... Eriba-Marduk ... to Babylon. [Rev.16'] ... Eriba-Marduk went out from ... [Rev.17'] ... Nabû-Nasir.note [Rev.18'] ... [Rev.19'] ... Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria, ascended the throne.note [Rev.20'] Šalmaneser, king of Assyria, ascended the throne.note [Rev.21] [...]
  7. Title: Wikiwand: Adad-apla-iddina
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Adad-apla-iddina;
    Note: Adad-apla-iddina, typically inscribed in cuneiform "IM-DUMU.UŠ-SUM-na," "IM-A-SUM-na or dIM-ap-lam-i-din-[nam]," meaning the storm god "Adad has given me an heir," was the 8th king of the 2nd Dynasty of Isin and the 4th Dynasty of Babylon and ruled 1067–1046 BC. He was a contemporary of the Assyrian King Aššur-bêl-kala and his reign was a golden age for scholarship. Biography Provenance The broken obelisk of Aššur-bêl-kala relates that the Assyrians raided Babylonia, early in his reign: "In that year (the eponomy of Aššur-rēm-nišēšu), in the month of Shebat, (11th month, Jan.-Feb.), the chariots and […] went from the Inner City (Assur) (and) conquered the cities of [x-x]indišulu and […]sandû, cities which are in the district of the city of Dūr-Kurigalzu. They captured Kadašman-Buriaš, the son of Itti-Marduk-Balāṭu, governor of their land." — Aššur-bêl-kala, From column iii lines 1 to 32. Depending on the exact synchronization of the Assyrian and Babylonian chronologies, this would have been shortly before, or at the very beginning of Adad-apla-iddina’s reign. His ancestor "Esagil-Šaduni" is named in the "Synchronistic History" as his "father," but he was actually "a son of a nobody," i.e., without a royal parent. This chronicle recounts that he was appointed by the Assyrian king Aššur-bêl-kala, who took his daughter for a wife and "took her with a vast dowry to Assyria," suggesting Babylon had become a vassal of Assyria. He names "Nin-Duginna" as his father in one of his own inscriptions, but this is indicative of divine provenance. Adad-apla-iddina who was "son" of Itti-Marduk-balaṭu, recorded in the Chronicle 24: 8 and also duplicated in the "Walker Chronicle" possibly meaning a descendant of the early 2nd Dynasty of Isin king, by a collateral line, or speculatively the aforementioned father of Kadašman-Buriaš. His reign apparently was marked by an invasion of Arameans led by a usurper. They demolished "Der, Dur-Anki (Nippur), Sippar, Parsa (Dur-Kurigalzu). The Suteans attacked and the booty of Sumer and Akkad they took home." These attacks were confirmed in an inscription of a later king of the following dynasty, Simbar-šihu, which relates "The throne of Ellil in the E-kur-igi-gal which Nabū-kudurri-uṣur, a former king, had fashioned – during the reign of Adad-apla-iddina, king of Bābil, hostile Arameans and Suteans, enemies of the E-kur and of Nippur, they who laid hands on the Duranki, (who) upset in Sippar, the pristine town, the seat of the high judge of the gods, their rites, (who) sacked the land of the Sumerians and the Akkadians, leveled all temples – the goods and the property of Ellil which the Arameans carried off and which the Suteans had appropriated…" — Simbar-šihu, Inscription The "Epic of the plague-god Erra," a politico-religious composition from the time of Nabu-apla-iddina, ca. 887-855, which endeavors to provide a theological explanation for the resurgence of Babylonia following years of paralysis, begins its tale of distress with the reign of Adad-apla-iddina. The god Erra, whose name means "scorched (earth)," is accompanied by Išum, "fire," and disease-causing demons called Sibitti. Period scholarship His reign was celebrated in the first millennium BCE as a golden age for scholarship and he appears twice in the "Uruk List of Sages and Scholars" alongside Šaggil-kīnam-ubbib and Esagil-kin-apli. The "Babylonian Theodicy" was attributed to the scholar Šaggil-kīnam-ubbib and believed to have been composed during his reign according to a later literary catalog. It is a dialogue where the protagonist bemoans the state of contemporary social justice and his friend reconciles this with theology. Originally with 27 stanzas each of 11 lines, an acrostic has been restored which reads, "I, Šaggil-kīnam-ubbib, the incantation priest, am adorant of the god and the king." It is extant in multiple copies from the Library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, Assur, Babylon and Sippur. His career was believed to have spanned the reigns of Nabū-kudurri-uṣur to Adad-apla-iddina, or five reigns if the latter king’s name can be restored in context. Esagil-kin-apli, the "ummânu" (chief scholar) and a "prominent citizen" of Borsippa, gathered together the many extant tablets of diagnostic omens and produced the edition that became the received text of the first millennium. In the introduction he warned, "Do not neglect your knowledge! He who does not attain(?) knowledge must not speak aloud the SA.GIG omens, nor must he pronounce out loud Alamdimmû SA.GIG (concerns) all diseases and all (forms of) distress." Referred to as SA.GIG, the omen series continued on a series of 40 tablets grouped under six chapters. He may also have been responsible for editing other physiognomic omen works including the Alamdimmû, Nigdimdimmû, Kataduggû, Šumma Sinništu, and Šumma Liptu. There is also a late copy of an astrological text originally dated to his eleventh year. Contemporary evidence He rebuilt extensively, including the Imgur-Enlil, city wall of Babylon, which had collapsed from old age according to a cylinder inscription, and the Nīmit-Marduk, rampart of the wall of Nippur, commemorated on a cone. He made a votive offering of an engraved gold belt to the statue of Nabû at the E-zida temple at Borsippa. The ramp leading up to the temple of Nin-ezena in Isin bears his inscriptions recording his repairs. In Larsa, he repaired the Ebabbar temple and in Kiš he reconstructed the Emete’ursag for Zababa. Stamped bricks witness his construction efforts in Babylon and to the great Nanna courtyard and in the pavement against the northeast face of the ziggurat at Ur. There are seven extant economic texts ranging in date from his fifth to his nineteenth year. A stone tablet records a legal transaction and is dated to his first year. A fragment of a kudurru records his gift of an estate to Mušallimu and another records a deed of land to Marduk-akhu-[ ... .]. He may well have connived to replace Aššur-bêl-kala’s son and successor, Eriba-Adad II, with his uncle, Šamši-Adad IV, who had been in exile in Babylonia. Inscriptions 1. ^ Broken Obelisk excavation ref. 11.2.467,480. 2. ^ "The Synchronistic History" (ABC 21) column 2 lines 31 to 37. 3. ^ The "Eclectic Chronicle" (ABC 24) tablet, BM 27859, lines 8 to 11. 4. ^ The "Walker Chronicle" (ABC 25), BM 27796. 5. ^ W 20030,7:17 the Seleucid "List of Sages and Scholars," recovered from Anu’s Bīt Rēš temple during the 1959/60 excavation. 6. ^ K. 10802 r 2. 7. ^ Tablets BM 41237, 46607 and 47163 and ND (Nimrud excavation numbers) 4358+4366 in the British Museum. 8. ^ Tablet K. 6156 + 6141 + 6148 + 9108. 9. ^ BM 79503 clay tablet copy of inscription by Arad-Gula during the reign of Esarhaddon. 10. ^ Brick, Bab. 59431. 11. ^ Bricks, BM 116989 and CBS 16482. 12. ^ Tablets: L74.100 (administrative, 5th year), UM 29-15-598 (legal 5th or 15th year), N 4512 (legal, 8th year), HS 156 no. 8.2.8 (economic 10th year), CBS 8074 (economic 13th year), NBC 11468 (grain account, 18th year), and NBC 11469 (grain account, 19th year). 13. ^ Stone tablet, VA 5937. 14. ^ Fragment of basalt boundary-stone, BM 90940. 15. ^ Fragment of limestone tablet, BM 103215.
  8. Title: Wikiwand: Isin
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Isin;
    Note: Isin (Sumerian: 𒉌𒋛𒅔𒆠, romanized: "I3-si-inki," modern Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq. Excavations have shown that it was an important city-state in the past. History of archaeological research Ishan al-Bahriyat was visited by Stephen Herbert Langdon for a day to conduct a sounding, while he was excavating at Kish in 1924. Most of the major archaeological work at Isin was accomplished in 11 seasons between 1973 and 1989 by a team of German archaeologists led by Barthel Hrouda. However, as was the case at many sites in Iraq, research was interrupted by the Gulf War (1990-1) and the Iraq War (2003 to 2011). Since the end of excavations, extensive looting is reported to have occurred at the site. Even when the German team began their work, the site had already been heavily looted. Isin and its environment Isin is located approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of Nippur. It is a tell, or settlement mound, about 1.5 kilomeetes (0.93 mi) across and with a maximum height of 8 meters (26 ft). History of occupation The site of Isin was occupied at least as early as the Early Dynastic period in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, and possibly as far back as the Ubaid period. While cuneiform tablets from that time were found, the first epigraphic reference to Isin was not until the Ur III period. When the deteriorating Third Dynasty of Ur (Ur III) finally collapsed at the hands of the Elamites at the end of the third millennium BC, a power vacuum was left that other city-states scrambled to fill. The last king of the Ur Dynasty, Ibbi-Sin, had not the resources nor the organized government needed to expel the Elamite invaders. One of his governmental officials, Ishbi-Erra, relocated from Ur to Isin, another city in the south of Mesopotamia, and established himself as a ruler there. One of Ishbi-Erra's year names reports his defeating Ibbi-Sin in battle. Although he is not considered part of the Third Dynasty of Ur, Ishbi-Erra did make some attempts at continuing the trappings of that dynasty, most likely to justify his rule. Ishbi-Erra had ill luck expanding his kingdom, however, for other city-states in Mesopotamia rose to power as well. Eshnunna and Ashur were developing into powerful centers. However, he did succeed in repulsing the Elamites from the Ur region. This gave the Isin dynasty control over the culturally significant cities of Ur, Uruk, and the spiritual center of Nippur. For over 100 years, Isin flourished. Remains of large buildings projects, such as temples, have been excavated. Many royal edicts and law-codes from that period have been discovered. The centralized political structure of Ur-III was largely continued, with Isin's rulers appointing governors and other local officials to carry out their will in the provinces. Lucrative trade routes to the Persian Gulf remained a crucial source of income for Isin. The exact events surrounding Isin's disintegration as a kingdom mostly are unknown, but some evidence can be pieced together. Documents indicate that access to water sources presented a huge problem for Isin. Isin also endured an internal coup of a sort when Gungunum the royally appointed governor of Larsa and Lagash province, seized the city of Ur. Ur had been the main center of the Gulf trade; thus this move economically crippled Isin. Additionally, Gungunum's two successors Abisare and Sumuel (c. 1905 BC and 1894 BC) both sought to cut Isin off from its canals by rerouting them into Larsa. At some point, Nippur was also lost. Isin would never recover. Around 1860 BC, an outsider named Enlil-bani seized the throne of Isin, ending the hereditary dynasty established by Ishbi-Erra over 150 years earlier. Although politically and economically weak, Isin maintained its independence from Larsa for at least another forty years, ultimately succumbing to Larsa's ruler Rim-Sin I. After the First Dynasty of Babylon rose to power in the early 2nd millennium and captured Larsa, much significant construction occurred at Isin. This ended with a destruction dated to around the 27th year of the reign of Samsu-iluna, son of Hammurabi, based on tablets found there. Later, the Kassites who took over in Babylon after its sack in 1531 BC, resumed building at Isin. The final significant stage of activity occurred during the Second Dynasty of Isin at the end of the 2nd millennium, most notably by king Adad-apla-iddina. Kings of Isin Main articles: Isin-Larsa period and Dynasty of Isin First Dynasty of Isin (short chronology) Ruler Reigned Notes Ishbi-Erra ca. 1953 BC – 1921 BC Contemporary of Ibbi-Suen of Ur III Shu-Ilishu ca. 1920 BC – 1911 BC Son of Ishbi-Erra Iddin-Dagan ca. 1910 BC – 1890 BC Son of Shu-ilishu Ishme-Dagan ca. 1889 BC – 1871 BC Son of Iddin-Dagan Lipit-Eshtar ca. 1870 BC – 1860 BC Contemporary of Gungunum of Larsa Ur-Ninurta ca. 1859 BC – 1832 BC Contemporary of Abisare of Larsa Bur-Suen ca. 1831 BC – 1811 BC Son of Ur-Ninurta Lipit-Enlil ca. 1810 BC – 1806 BC Son of Bur-Suen Erra-imitti or Ura-imitti ca. 1805 BC – 1799 BC Enlil-bani ca. 1798 BC – 1775 BC Contemporary of Sumu-la-El of Babylon Zambiya ca. 1774 BC – 1772 BC Contemporary of Sin-Iqisham of Larsa Iter-pisha ca. 1771 BC – 1768 BC Ur-du-kuga ca. 1767 BC – 1764 BC Suen-magir ca. 1763 BC – 1753 BC Damiq-ilishu ca. 1752 BC – 1730 BC Son of Suen-magir Culture and literature The city lay on the Isinnitum Canal, part of a set of waterways that connected the cities of Mesopotamia. The patron deity of Isin was Nintinuga (Gula) goddess of healing, and a temple to her was built there. The Isin king Enlil-bani reported building a temple to Gula named E-ni-dub-bi, a temple for Sud named E-dim-gal-an-na, a temple E-ur-gi-ra to Ninisina, as well as a temple for the god Ninbgal. Ishbi-Erra continued many of the cultic practices that had flourished in the preceding Ur III period. He continued acting out the sacred marriage ritual each year. During this ritual, the king played the part of the mortal Dumuzi, and he had sex with a priestess who represented the goddess of love and war, Inanna (also known as Ishtar). This was thought to strengthen the king's relationship to the gods, which would then bring stability and prosperity on the entire country. The Isin kings continued also the practice of appointing their daughters official priestesses of the moon god of Ur. The literature of the period also continued in the line of the Ur III traditions when the Isin dynasty was first begun. For example, the royal hymn, a genre started in the preceding millennium, was continued. Many royal hymns written for the Isin rulers mirrored the themes, structure, and language of the Ur ones. Sometimes the hymns were written in the first person of a king's voice; other times, they were pleas of ordinary citizens meant for the ears of a king (sometimes an already dead one). It was during this period that the Sumerian King List attained its final form, though it used many much earlier sources. The very compilation of the List seems to lead up to the Isin Dynasty itself, which would give it much legitimacy in the minds of the people because the dynasty would then be linked to earlier (albeit sometimes legendary) kings.
  9. Title: Livius: Walker Chronicle
    Author: The "Walker Chronicle," which is sometimes called "Chronicle 25," is one of the historiographical texts from ancient Babylonia. It deals with events during the reign of the kings of the Kassite Dynasty and the Second Dynasty of Isin, and contains several duplicate lines with the "Eclectic Chronicle." "Walker Chronicle" was published by C.B.F. Walker in G. van Driel e.a. (eds.): "Zikir Šumim: Assyriological Studies Presented to F.R. Kraus on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday" (1982). More information can be found in Jean-Jacques Glassner, "Mesopotamian Chronicles" (Atlanta, 2004).
    Publication: Name: https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/abc-25-walker-chronicle/;
    Note: [1] Tukulti-Ninurta, king of Assyria,note[King of Assyria between 1233 and 1197.] took Babylon and Sippar and controlled Karduniaš. [2] Adad-šuma-usurnote ... restored ... and rebuilt the wall of Nippur. [3] ... he firmly established. Enlil-kudurri-usur, king of Assyria,note [4] ... Adad-šuma-usur mustered his troops, attacked, and defeated him. [5] The officers of Assyria seized Enlil-kudurri-usur, their lord, and gave him to Adad-šuma-usur, [6] ... the people of Karduniaš who had fled to Assyria [7] surrendered to Adad-šuma-usur. Adad-šuma-usur, to conquer Babylon, [8] marched ... Somebody, the son of a nobody, whose name is not mentioned,note [ascended to the throne]. [9] Hearing this unexpected news, Adad-šuma-usur raised a revolt, and, enjoying eternal divine protection, he entered Babylon and [10] he became ruler of the land and established himself on his royal throne. [11] ... they killed him. [12] ... he attacked and removed the king of Mari in a rebellion. [13] ... he controlled Mari. [14] ... fear of Elam fell on him and [15] ... on the bank of the Euphrates he built a city and [16] ... of Sumer and Akkad he brought within it, [17] ... was cut off and the people became poor in deficiency and famine. [18] ... they killed him in a rebellion. [19] Enlil-nadin-apli,note son of Nebuchadnezzar, marched on Aššur to conquer it. [20] Marduk-nadin-ahhe,note brother of Nebuchadnezzar, and the nobles rebelled against him and [21] Enlil-nadin-apli returned to his land his city. They killed him with the sword. [22] Marduk-nadin-apli and the nobles rebelled against Enlil-nadin-apli [23] he returned [24] ... and defeated him. [25] He attacked and he had him killed with the sword. [26] Tiglath-pileser,note king of Assyria attacked and ... [27] Marduk-šapik-zeri,note son of Marduk-nadin-ahhe, rebuilt the wall of Babylon. [28] ... kings of the lands he defeated. During his reign, the people of the land enjoyed abundance and prosperity. [29] Adad-apla-iddina,note descendant of Itti-Marduk-balatu, the Arameans and an usurper king rebelled against him and [30] desecrated all the sanctuaries of the land. Akkad, Der, Dur-Anki (Nippur), [31] Sippar and Parsa (Dur-Kurigalzu) they demolished. [32] The Suteans attacked and took home the booty of Sumer and Akkad. [33] He repeatedly visited the shrines of Marduk and appeased the heart of Bêl and the son of Bêl. [34] ... he fully restored their cults.
  10. Title: Wikiwand: List of kings of Babylon
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_kings_of_Babylon;
    Note: The King of Babylon (Akkadian: "šar Bābili"), in some periods called the Governor or Viceroy of Babylon (Akkadian: "šakkanakki Bābili"), the King of Babylonia (Akkadian: "šar māt Bābil") or the King of Karduniash (Akkadian: "šar Karduniaš"), was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon, and its kingdom (Babylonia) which existed as an independent kingdom from approximately the 19th century BC to the 6th century BC. Although Babylon tended to control most of southern Mesopotamia during its time as independent kingdom, it experienced two major periods of ascendancy, when Babylon dominated all of Mesopotamia and lands beyond; the Old Babylonian Empire (or "First dynasty," c. 1894–1595 BC) and the Neo-Babylonian Empire (or "Eleventh dynasty," 626–539 BC). Of the eleven ancient dynasties that ruled Babylon from its foundation as an independent realm c. 1894 BC to the end of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC, few were of native Babylonian ancestry. Several dynasties were of Kassite origin and there were also Assyrian, Elamite, Chaldean and Amorite rulers. Despite this, Babylon would often fiercely attempt to assert its independence and it repeatedly clashed against the other major Akkadian-speaking Mesopotamian kingdom of its time, Assyria. The period when the Assyrians ruled as kings of Babylon (the Neo-Assyrian Empire or "Tenth dynasty," 729–626 BC) saw repeated rebellions in Babylon, eventually culminating in a successful return to independence. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the title of King of Babylon continued to be used by monarchs of the successive empires which ruled Mesopotamia and the citizens of Babylon itself continued to apply it to whoever happened to rule their homeland at the time. Revolts aimed at independence continued unsuccessfully for centuries, with Babylon revolting as late as 336 BC, more than two centuries after it had native monarchs. The last recorded rulers to be accorded the title by the Babylonians were Parthian kings in the 1st century BC, after which the Akkadian language and Babylonian culture diminished and eventually disappeared. Babylonian King List The Babylonian King List is a very specific ancient list of supposed Babylonian kings recorded in several ancient locations, and related to its predecessor, the Sumerian King List. As in the latter, contemporaneous dynasties are misleadingly listed as successive without comment. There are three versions, which are known as "King List A" (containing all the kings from the First Dynasty of Babylon to the Neo-Assyrian king Kandalanu), "King List B" (containing only the two first dynasties), and "King List C" (containing the first seven kings of the Second Dynasty of Isin). A fourth version was written in Greek by Berossus. The "Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Age" is a continuation that mentions all the Seleucid kings from Alexander the Great to Demetrius II Nicator. List of kings First dynasty (1894–1595 BC) Main article: First Babylonian dynasty Also called the "Amorite dynasty." The dates used follow the "middle chronology" (reign of Hammurabi 1792–1750 BC), the chronology most commonly encountered in literature, including many current textbooks on the archaeology and history of the ancient Near East. No. Image King Reign Succession Notes Ref 1 Sumu-abum Šumu-abum c. 1894–1881 BC (13 years) Liberated Babylon from the control of Kazallu The first king of Babylon, Sumu-abum freed a small region centered on Babylon, previously under the control of the city state Kazallu. He did not title himself as King of Babylon (and neither did his first three successors), suggesting that the city wasn't very important at the time. 2 Sumu-la-El Šumu-la-El c. 1881–1845 BC (36 years) Unknown Sumu-la-El's year names reference the construction of a great city wall in Babylon. 3 Sabium Sabūm c. 1845–1831 BC (14 years) Unknown Sabium's year names reference wars with Larsa and building projects in various cities in the region surrounding Babylon. 4 Apil-Sin Apil-Sîn c. 1831–1813 BC (18 years) Unknown Apil-Sin's year names reference several building projects in Babylon, including temples and a new city wall. 5 Sin-Muballit Sîn-Muballit c. 1813–1792 BC (21 years) Son of Apil-Sin The first ruler to actually title himself King of Babylon, began expanding the territory of his previously minor empire. 6 Hammurabi Ḫammu-rāpi c. 1792–1750 BC (42 years) Son of Sin-Muballit Hammurabi massively expanded Babylon's territory, founding the Old Babylonian Empire and bringing most of Mesopotamia under his control. He is also famous for the Code of Hammurabi, one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. 7 Samsu-iluna Šamšu-iluna c. 1750–1712 BC (38 years) Son of Hammurabi Samsu-iluna campaigned victoriously against several of Babylon's rebellious vassals in the wake of Hammurabi's death and though he was unable to keep the entirety of his father's empire together, he successfully retained control of the empire's heartlands in southern Mesopotamia. 8 Abi-Eshuh Abī-Ešuḫ c. 1712–1684 BC (28 years) Son of Samsu-iluna Babylonia experienced severe Elamite raids during Abu-Eshuh's reign. 9 Ammi-Ditana Ammi-ditāna c. 1684–1647 BC (47 years) Son of Abi-Eshuh Largely peaceful reign; Ammi-Ditana was primarily engaged in building projects such as enriching and enlarging the temples. 10 Ammi-Saduqa Ammi-Saduqa c. 1647–1626 BC (21 years) Unknown Largely peaceful reign; Ammi-Saduqa was primarily engaged in building projects such as enriching and enlarging the temples. 11 Samsu-Ditana Šamšu-ditāna c. 1626–1595 BC (31 years) Great-great-grandson of Hammurabi The Old Babylonian Empire came to a sudden end during Samsu-Ditana's reign as the Hittites, for reasons unknown, sacked and destroyed the city. Babylon was sacked and destroyed by the Hittites in c. 1595 BC. The city and its kingdom was not firmly re-established until c. 1530 BC, by the Kassite king Agum II. Second dynasty (1732–1460 BC) Main article: Sealand Dynasty Also called the "Sealand dynasty." These rulers might only have ruled Babylonia itself for the briefest of periods, being based in formerly Sumerian regions south of it. Nevertheless, it is often traditionally numbered the Second Dynasty of Babylon, and so it is listed here. Little is known of these rulers. They were counted as kings of Babylon in later king lists, succeeding the Amorite dynasty despite overlapping reigns. No. Image King Reign Succession Notes Ref 12 Ilum-ma-ili Ilum-ma-ilī c. 1732 BC (60 years) Unknown 13 Itti-ili-nibi Itti-ili-nībī (56 years) Unknown 14 Damqi-ilishu Damqi-ilišu (36 years) Unknown 15 Ishkibal Iškibal (15 years) Unknown 16 Shushushi Šušši (24 years) Brother of Ishkibal 17 Gulkishar Gulkišar (55 years) Unknown 18 mDIŠ+U-EN mDIŠ-U-EN Unknown Unknown 19 Peshgaldaramesh Pešgaldarameš (50 years) Son of Gulkishar 20 Ayadaragalama Ayadaragalama (28 years) Son of Peshgaldaramesh 21 Akurduana Akurduana (26 years) Unknown 22 Melamkurkurra Melamkurkurra (7 years) Unknown 23 Ea-gamil Ea-gamil c. 1460 BC (9 years) Unknown Third dynasty (1530–1155 BC) Main article: Kassites Also called the "Kassite dynasty." No. Image King Reign Succession Notes Ref 32 Agum II Kakrime Agum-Kakrime c. 1530 BC Re-established Babylon Established the long-lived Kassite dynasty as the rulers of Babylon. Portrays himself as the legitimate ruler and caring “shepherd” of both the Kassites and the Akkadians. 33 Burnaburiash I Burna-Buriaš c. 1515 BC Son of Agum II It is possible that Burnaburiash I, and not Agum II, was the actual first Kassite ruler to hold Babylon. Engaged in diplomacy with the Assyrian king Puzur-Ashur III. 34 Kashtiliash III Kaštiliašu c. 1500 BC Son of Burnaburiash I Only known from the Assyrian Synchronistic King List. 35 Ulamburiash Ulam-Buriaš c. 1480 BC Son of Burnaburiash I Conquered the Sealand Dynasty, establishing the Kassites as rulers of all of southern Mesopotamia. 36 Agum III Agum c. 1470 BC Son of Kashtiliash III The only Babylonian reference to Agum III is from an expedition he led against "the Sealand." 37 Karaindash Karaindaš c. 1410 BC Unknown One of the Kassite dynasty's more prominent rulers, Karaindash, Karaindash refurbished a temple at Uruk and engaged in diplomacy with Assyria and Egypt. 38 Kadashman-harbe I Kadašman-Ḫarbe c. 1400 BC Unknown Campaigned against the against the Sutû and possibly against Elam. 39 Kurigalzu I Kuri-Galzu c. 1375 BC Son of Kadashman-harbe I Kurigalzu I was responsible for one of the most extensive and widespread building programs for which evidence has survived in Babylonia. 40 Kadashman-Enlil I Kadašman-Enlil c. 1374–1360 BC (14 years) Son of Kurigalzu I Contemporary of Amenhotep III in Egypt, who he corresponded with. 41 Burnaburiash II Burna-Buriaš c. 1359–1333 BC (26 years) Son of Kadashman-Enlil I Contemporary of Akhenaten in Egypt, who he famously corresponded with in the Amarna letters. 42 Kara-hardash Kara-ḫardaš c. 1333 BC Son of Burnaburiash Next to nothing is known of Kara-hardash's brief reign. 43 Nazi-Bugash Nazi-Bugaš or Šuzigaš c. 1333 BC Overthrew Kara-hardash, unrelated to previous kings Next to nothing is known of Nazi-Bugash's brief reign. 44 Kurigalzu II the Younger Kuri-Galzu c. 1332–1308 BC (24 years) Son of Burnaburiash II, appointed king by the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I Because he shares his name with a predecessor who reigned just forty years prior, it is difficult to distinguish documents from their reigns since the Babylonians themselves did not use regnal numbers. 45 Nazi-Maruttash Nazi-Maruttaš c. 1307–1282 BC (25 years) Son of Kurigalzu II Warred against the Assyrians and the Elamites. 46 Kadashman-Turgu Kadašman-Turgu c. 1281–1264 BC (17 years) Son of Nazi-Maruttash Contemporary of the Hittite king Ḫattušili III, with whom he concluded a formal treaty of friendship and mutual assist The contemporary name of this ..
  11. Title: Wikiwand: Babylon
    Author: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Publication: Name: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Babylon;
    Note: Babylon was the capital city of Babylonia, a kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia, between the 18th and 6th centuries BC. It was built along the left and right banks of the Euphrates river with steep embankments to contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon was originally a small Akkadian town dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c. 2300 BC. The town became part of a small independent city-state with the rise of the First Babylonian dynasty in the 19th century BC. The Amorite king Hammurabi created a short-lived empire in the 18th century BC. He built Babylon into a major city and declared himself its king. Southern Mesopotamia became known as Babylonia and Babylon eclipsed Nippur as its holy city. The empire waned under Hammurabi's son Samsu-iluna and Babylon spent long periods under Assyrian, Kassite and Elamite domination. After being destroyed and then rebuilt by the Assyrians, Babylon became the capital of the short-lived Neo-Babylonian Empire from 609 to 539 BC. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. After the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the city came under the rule of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid empires. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world c. 1770 – c. 1670 BC, and again c. 612 – c. 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. Estimates for the maximum extent of its area range from 890[3] to 900 hectares (2,200 acres). The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (53 mi) south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The main sources of information about Babylon—excavation of the site itself, references in cuneiform texts found elsewhere in Mesopotamia, references in the Bible, descriptions in classical writing (especially by Herodotus), and second-hand descriptions (citing the work of Ctesias and Berossus)—present an incomplete and sometimes contradictory picture of the ancient city, even at its peak in the sixth century BC. Name The spelling "Babylon" is the Latin representation of Greek "Babulṓn" (Βαβυλών), derived from the native (Babylonian) "Bābilim," meaning "gate of the god(s)." The cuneiform spelling was 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 KA2.DIG̃IR.RAKI. This would correspond to the Sumerian phrase "kan diĝirak," "gate of the god." The 𒆍 KA2 is the ideograph for "gate," 𒀭 DIG̃IR is "god," and the 𒊏, "ra" is phonetic. The final 𒆠 KI is the determiner for a place name. Archibald Sayce, writing in the 1870s, postulated that the Semitic name was a loan-translation of the original Sumerian name. However, the "gate of god" interpretation is increasingly viewed as a Semitic folk etymology to explain an unknown original non-Semitic placename. I.J. Gelb in 1955 argued that the original name was "Babil" or "Babilla," of unknown meaning and origin, as there were other similarly-named places in Sumer, and there are no other examples of Sumerian place-names being replaced with Akkadian translations. He deduced that it later transformed into Akkadian "Bāb-ili(m)." The Sumerian name "Ka-dig̃irra" was loan translation of the Semitic folk etymology, and not the original name. The re-translation of the Semitic name into Sumerian would have taken place at the time of the "Neo-Sumerian" Third Dynasty of Ur. ("Bab-Il"). In the Hebrew Bible, the name appears as "Babel" (Hebrew: בָּבֶל,‎" Bavel," Tib. בָּבֶל, "Bāḇel"; Classical Syriac: ܒܒܠ,‎ "Bāwēl," Aramaic: בבל,‎" Babel; in Arabic: بَابِل‎ Bābil), interpreted in the Book of Genesis to mean "confusion," from the verb "bilbél" (בלבל, "to confuse"). The modern English verb, "to babble" ("to speak meaningless words"), popularly is thought to derive from this name, but there is no direct connection. Ancient records in some situations use "Babylon" as a name for other cities, including cities like Borsippa within Babylon's sphere of influence, and Nineveh for a short period after the Assyrian sack of Babylon. Geography The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (53 mi) south of Baghdad, comprising a large tell of broken mud-brick buildings and debris. The site at Babylon consists of a number of mounds covering an area of about 2 by 1 kilometer (1.24 mi × 0.62 mi), oriented north to south, along the Euphrates to the west. Originally, the river roughly bisected the city, but the course of the river has since shifted so that most of the remains of the former western part of the city are now inundated. Some portions of the city wall to the west of the river also remain. Only a small portion of the ancient city (3% of the area within the inner walls; 1.5% of the area within the outer walls; 0.1% at the depth of Middle and Old Babylon) has been excavated. Known remains include: . Kasr – also called Palace or Castle, it is the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki and lies in the center of the site. . Amran Ibn Ali – the highest of the mounds at 25 meters (82 ft) to the south. It is the site of Esagila, a temple of Marduk which also contained shrines to Ea and Nabu. . Homera – a reddish-colored mound on the west side. Most of the Hellenistic remains are here. . Babil – a mound about 22 meters (72 ft) high at the northern end of the site. Its bricks have been subject to looting since ancient times. It held a palace built by Nebuchadnezzar. Archaeologists have recovered few artifacts predating the Neo-Babylonian period. The water table in the region has risen greatly over the centuries, and artifacts from the time before the Neo-Babylonian Empire are unavailable to current standard archaeological methods. Additionally, the Neo-Babylonians conducted significant rebuilding projects in the city, which destroyed or obscured much of the earlier record. Babylon was pillaged numerous times after revolting against foreign rule, most notably by the Hittites and Elamites in the 2nd millennium, then by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Achaemenid Empire in the 1st millennium. Much of the western half of the city is now beneath the river, and other parts of the site have been mined for commercial building materials. Only the Koldewey expedition recovered artifacts from the Old Babylonian period. These included 967 clay tablets, stored in private houses, with Sumerian literature and lexical documents. Nearby ancient settlements are Kish, Borsippa, Dilbat, and Kutha. Marad and Sippar were 60 kilometers (37 mi) in either direction along the Euphrates. Sources Historical knowledge of early Babylon must be pieced together from epigraphic remains found elsewhere, such as at Uruk, Nippur, and Haradum. Information on the Neo-Babylonian city is available from archaeological excavations and from classical sources. Babylon was described, perhaps even visited, by a number of classical historians including Ctesias, Herodotus, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Strabo, and Cleitarchus. These reports are of variable accuracy and some of the content was politically motivated, but these still provide useful information. Early references References to the city of Babylon can be found in Akkadian and Sumerian literature from the late third millennium BC. One of the earliest is a tablet describing the Akkadian king Šar-kali-šarri laying the foundations in Babylon of new temples for Annūnı̄tum and Ilaba. Babylon also appears in the administrative records of the Third Dynasty of Ur, which collected in-kind tax payments and appointed an ensi as local governor. The so-called Weidner Chronicle (also known as ABC 19) states that Sargon of Akkad (c. 23d century BC in the short chronology) had built Babylon "in front of Akkad" (ABC 19:51). A later chronicle states that Sargon "dug up the dirt of the pit of Babylon, and made a counterpart of Babylon next to Akkad." (ABC 20:18–19). Van de Mieroop has suggested that those sources may refer to the much later Assyrian king Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire rather than Sargon of Akkad. Classical dating Ctesias, quoted by Diodorus Siculus and in George Syncellus's "Chronographia," claimed to have access to manuscripts from Babylonian archives that date the founding of Babylon to 2286 BC, under the reign of its first king, Belus. A similar figure is found in the writings of Berossus, who according to Pliny, stated that astronomical observations commenced at Babylon 490 years before the Greek era of Phoroneus, indicating 2243 BC. Stephanus of Byzantium wrote that Babylon was built 1002 years before the date given by Hellanicus of Lesbos for the siege of Troy (1229 BC), which would date Babylon's foundation to 2231 BC. All of these dates place Babylon's foundation in the 23rd century BC; however, cuneiform records have not been found to correspond with these classical (post-cuneiform) accounts. History By around the 19th century BC, much of southern Mesopotamia was occupied by Amorites, nomadic tribes from the northern Levant who were Northwest Semitic speakers, unlike the native Akkadians of southern Mesopotamia and Assyria, who spoke East Semitic. The Amorites at first did not practice agriculture like more advanced Mesopotamians, preferring a semi-nomadic lifestyle, herding sheep. Over time, Amorite grain merchants rose to prominence and established their own independent dynasties in several south Mesopotamian city-states, most notably Isin, Larsa, Eshnunna, Lagash, and later, founding Babylon as a state. Old Babylonian period According to a Babylonian date list, Amorite rule in Babylon began (c. 19th or 18th century BC) with a chieftain named Sumu-abum, who declared independence from the neighboring city-state of Kazallu. Sumu-la-El, whose dates may be concurrent with those of Sumu-abum, is usually given as the progenitor of the First Babylonian dynasty. Both are credited with building the walls of Babylon. In any case, the records describe Sumu-la-El's military successes establishing a ..
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