A Short Introduction to the Kassite Conquest (Illustrated) by R. Campbell Thompson

Author:R. Campbell Thompson [Thompson, R. Campbell]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Didactic Press
Published: 2014-07-08T04:00:00+00:00

THE KASSITE DYNASTY

Towards the end of their dynasty the Semites lost their strength. As we have seen, the Kassites had been peacefully penetrating the land, and were now to control Babylonia for nearly six centuries. Out of the thirty-six kings, which is the number the royal list gives for the Kassite occupation, lasting 576 years 9 months, we now know the names of thirty-five.

About 1746 BC Gandash, or Gaddash, or, as he calls himself in his own semi-illiterate (Sumerian) inscriptions, “Gande”, was the first chief of the Kassites to conquer Babylon. A neo-Babylonian copy of one of his inscriptions commemorates his restoration of the temple of Enlil, which was probably damaged in the conquest of Babylon, as the text itself appears to say. Two inferences are clear: the first is that Babylon fell to the Kassites under his leadership, and the second that he did what every wise conqueror of these lands has done—he placated the gods, or, what is far more important, the hierarchy. His door-sockets in Nippur, stolen from dead kings, and miserably inscribed with his dedication to Enlil, not even in his own language, show that he also added Nippur to his rule. Safely on the throne for sixteen years, the barbarian king imitated his predecessors of another race, and called himself 'king of the Four Regions, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of Babylon.'

What little we know of the fall of the Sea-country dynasty is drawn from scattered sources. The Kassites held the reins of power round about Babylon, but the kings of the Sea-country were not prepared to relinquish their dominion without astruggle. The next king, Agum I, “the former, his son” (c. 1730-09), was followed by Kashtiliash (c.1700-1687), the son of Burna­Burarash and brother of Ula-Buriash, who does not appear to have ruled in Mesopotamia. He was on the throne when Ea-gamil, the last king of the Sea-country, made a last desperate throw for the destruction of the invader, and set out against Elam as the easier way of embarrassing the Kassites than by a direct attack against northern Mesopotamia. Ea-gamil was met by Ulam-Buriash, who promptly put him to flight, pursued him and conquered part of his Sea-lands, which he brought under his control. Thus the Sea-land dynasty ended in 1703. The very mace-head which he dedicated to one of the gods in Babylon shows how proud he was to call himself “King of the Sea-land”, and from his inscription we may infer that he adopted the worship of the local gods, Anu, Enlil, Ea, Marduk and Ninmakh. Kashtiliash appears to have extended his rule north-westwards as well as south, for we find one of the West Semitic tablets from the middle Euphrates district dated in his name.

There is another small flicker in the Sea-lands. Agum I, or perhaps II (1561-37), captured the capital city Dur-Ea (or Enlil) and razed to the ground E-malga-uruna, the temple to Ea (or Enlil). But the Sea-land kings have come to an end in 1703 with Ea-gamil,

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