The Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East

["CHARISMATIC KINGS wooded terrain. Victorious Akkadian standard- bearers and defeated and dying pigtailed Lullubi warriors were carved in such a way as to move the viewer's eye triumphantly upward. As in the Bas- setki statue and the Nineveh head, there is a naturalism in the representatio n of the human form that was missi ng in earlier works. This relief, apparently, exer cised a fascination on later rulers, as versions of it were carved in rock reliefs in the western Zagros at Derbend-i Gawr, at Shaikhan, and at Sar-i Pol-i Zohab, though none of them matched the guality of t he original. Like Sargon, Naram-Sin became the subject of later stories. He was portrayed as a tragic figure, the victim of his own pride, which brought about rebellion, invasion by tribes from the cast and the destruction of Agade. However, there is no evi- dence from Naram-Sin's reign to support these stories. The year-names of Naram-Sin's son a nd successor, Shar-kali-sha rri, suggest that his realm was under pressure both from the Amoritc tribes in the west and the Gutians from the eastern moun- tains. In the Sumerian King List, Shar-kali-~harri was followed by what amounts to a description of anarchy: \\\"Who was king? Who was not king? Was Igigi king? Was Nanum king? Was lmi king? Was Elulu king? The four of them were kings and reigned t hree yea rs.\\\" The last two kings of Agadc were Dudu and Shu-durul, by whose time the realm had been reduced to the region round Agade and in the Diyala plains to the north, w hi le other city states in the south, among them Lagash, had gained their independence. Above Cast copper head found in Naram-Sin's most famous monument is his Vi c- The Neo-Sumerian revival tory Stele, which was found at Susa. Like the Sar- After the collapse of the Akkadian e mpire, the the a,\u00b7ca of the lihtar Temple al gon Stele and the Law Code of Hammurab i, it had most famous member of the dynasty that ruled Nineveh, The head is hollow and been taken to Susa as booty by the Elamites. It Lagash was Gud ea. He rebu il t 15 temples in Girsu, was casl using the lost-wax record ed the victory of Naram-Sin over Satuni, the which became the administrative ce nter of the state king of the Lullubi tribe, which had inhabited the of Lagash. The most important of these was t he met hod. \u00b7rhc niurc is that of a cen tral part of western Iran. The stcle presented a temple of the city god, Ningirsu. In two long texts new approac h to the portrayal of historical even ts, inscribed on large clay cylinders, Gudea described ruler and was hrst identified as abandoning the old scheme of registers found on how it was built. First, he had a dream in wh ich the Sargon, the founder of the Early Dynastic wall plagues and on the stelae of god Ningirsu revealed to him that the temple Eanatum and Sargon, in favor of a single coherent should be rebuilt and showed him the building dynasty of Agadc, but from the composition. The stone has been damaged at the plan. Gudea purified the site, surrounded it with style It Is more likely to have base a nd at the top, but originally the re m ig ht have fires, and then, according to the inscriptions, been seven stars at the top, presumably represent- brought craftsmen a nd materials from distant lands represented his grandson ing the gods. The main focus of the relief, however, to build the temple. Naram\u2022Sin. I leighl 36.6 cm. was the figure of Naram-Sin carrying a bow and an axe and wearing a headdress with horns, like those \\\" From Elam came the Elamitcs, from Susa the worn by gods in Mesopotamia. The setting the Susians. Magan and Mcluhha collected timber earliest example in Mesopotamian art of a back- from their mountains ... Gudca brought them ground landscape being shown - was a hilly and together in his town Girsu ... Gudea, the great en-priest of Ningirsu, made a path into the Cedar mountains tbat nobody had ever entered before; he cut its cedars with great axes ... Like great snakes, ced ars were floating down the water [of the river] from the Cedar Mountain, pine rafts from the Pinc Mountain ... In the quarries, which nobody had entered before, Gudea, the great en-priest ofN ingirsu, made a path and then the stones were delivered in large blocks ... Many other precious metals were carried to the governor, the builder of the Ninnu Temple. From the copper mountain of Kimash ... go ld was delivered from its mountain as dust ... For Gudea, they mined silver from its mountains, delivered red stones from Meluhba in great amounts.\\\" 99","CITIES Nammu succeeded Utuhegal and founded the Lefr According Lo the inscription Third Dynasty of Ur, ca lling himself M ighty Man, this statue was made by Gudca, Lord of Uruk, Lord of Ur, King of Sumer and Akkad, but later dropped the title Lord of Uruk. ruler of Lagash (c. 2100 11e), for The Third Dynasty of Ur the temple of the goddess Ur- Nammu controlled Ur, Eridu and Uruk and Gcshlinanna. Cude., refurbished erected buildings at Nippur, Larsa, Kcsh, Adab and Umma. According to an inscription found at Nip- the temples 31 Cirsu .rnd 11 pur, he arbitrated in disputes between the city statues of him h,,ve been found states of Girtab, Abiak, Marad and Akshak in in excavations Jt the site. Nine northern Akkad. At Ur he appointed his daughter Enn irgalanna entu-priestess of Nanna, and one of others including this one were his sons became en-priest of lna nna at Uruk. sold on the Jrl market. tt has Another son (possibly his successor, Shulgi) had an been suggested that thb statue i, arranged marriage to a daughter of the king of Mari. There is little evidence to suggest that Ur- a forgery. Unlike the hard Nammu waged war on b is neighbors, but it seems dioritc of the excavated statues. that he gradually absorbed them into his sphere of in!lucncc by the u se of diplomatic alliances and it is made of soft calcite, .,ml religious influence. shows a ruler with a flowing vase which elsewhere In The most impressive monument of his reign was the ziggurat at Ur. Since Ubaid limes the temples of Mesopotamian ,,rt is only held lower Mesopotamia had been built on platforms, by gods. fl also differs which over the centuries bad increased .in height stylistically from the excavated unti l the p latform dwar fed t he shrine at the top. ,t.lluc,. On the ol hcr hand. the The ziggurats built by Ur-Nammu al Ur, Eridu, l:ruk and Nippur were the first certain examples of Sumerian inscription appears to t his type of structu re. The evidence for their exis- be genuine and would be very tence in the Early Dynastic period and under the difikult Lo fake. Agadc dynasty is doubtful. Statues of Gudca show him Ur-Na mmu also co nstructed other temples at Ur as well as a residence for the entu-priestess and a standing or sit ting. In one, he palace. He rebuilt the city walls and dug ca nals. rests on his knee ,1 plan uf the Fragments of a large round- topped stclc about 3 temple th,11. he is builuing. On me te rs tall have been found, on which some of Ur- some st,1tuc, Cuc.lea ha, a shaven Nammu's building projects were recorded. The top head, while vn ul hcrs like this registers on both sides of the stelc show the king one he wear, a headd rcss twice, on the right in front of the moon god Nanna, t he city god of Ur, and on the left in front of a god- covered with spirals, probably dess, probably Ningal, Nanna's consort. fn the indicating that it was m,1de out second register, on one side, the king, accompanied by a second goddess, is pouring a libation. This of fur. I Jcight (1 I cm. sce ne resemb les the most common design rou nd on The remains of t he temples have not been cylinde r sea ls of the period. The lower registers of identified in the excavations al Girsu, but diorilc the stclc arc poorly preserved but fragments show the king holding the tools needed for rebuilding statues of Gudca and other rulers of Lagash have the temple, and below that there arc traces of a survived to attest both to the wealth of the state high wa ll with ladders and workmen carrying and to the artistic ability of its craftsmen. baskets. The other side of the stele has scenes or what might have been re ligious ceremonies. The How fa r Gudca's kingdom stretched is not overa ll balanced , stati c composition lacks the known. His only claim lo military success was a dynamism of the victory stcle of Na ram-Si n, e xem- plify ing the contrast betwee n the two dynasties - victory over Anshan and Elam, and he might have th e Nco-S umcrian staid and pedantic, the Akka- exercised some influence in Ur. The dates of his dian vibrant and adventurous. reign arc al1.o un certain but he was probably a con- temporary of Utuhcgal and of Ur-Nammu. Utuhe- The Third Dynasty of Ur gal (2019- 2013 BC) was the king of Uruk who UR-NAMMU ended the rule of the Gutians. He appointed Ur- Nammu, who some scholars think may have been 21 12-2095 his son, military governor (shagin) of Ur. Ur- I I I SHULGI Ennirgalanna 2094 \u00b72047 High priestess a1Ur I I I I AMAR\u2022SIN Enrnrz1anna SHU-SIN 2046- 2038 2037-2029 High priestess at Ur I I88I-SIN 2028- 2004 JOO","CIIAl!ISM\/\\\\TIC KINGS Ur u,\u2022 The ancient city of Ur (modern Tell al-Muqayyar) was founded early in the Ubaid period. The prehis- E-1emen-nt-g1Jr toric levels are buried deep beneath the later ol Ur,Nammu deposits but have been excavated in a series of trenches, including one that was called the Flood Pit because the excavators thought they had found evidence for the Biblical Flood (though now this appears to have been a local inundation). The extraordinary wealth of the city in the Early Dynastic period was revealed in the Roya l Ceme- tery, where the rulers of Ur were buried. As the capital of the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112- 2004 sc), the city was completely rebuilt by its rulers, Ur-Nammu, Shulgi and Amar-Sin. Ur was the port city for Mesopotamian trade with the countries in the Gulf and beyond until the 18th century BC, when it came under the control of the Dynasty of the Sealand. In the second and first mil\u2022 lennia Ur remained an important center for the worship of the moon god Nanna (Sin) and the restoration of the temples of Ur was undertaken by many Babylonian kings. Ur was probably aban- doned in the 4th century BC, perhaps because of a change in the course of the rivers. u'ft The city of Ur was Abol'e The restored remains of Bdou\u2022 This decorated stone bowl was found in the ruins ofan dominated by the sacred the ziggurat dominate the precinct containing the zil!&urat Achaemenian (5th-century sc) and temple of Nann,1. The skyline at Ur. Started by . house at Ur but belongs to the late 4th millennium sc. The buildings were erected by the Ur-Nammu and completed by his motifs of the bull and an car of kings of the Third DynaMy of Ur and restored by later ruler,. The son Shulgi on the site of ,,n barley arc found on other works g1par11 included the residence of the cntu priestess and a temple earlier temple. it probably had of the period and may symbolize of Ningal. the wife of Nanna. the wealth of the land. The E-nun-mah may have been a three stages, on top of which temple and treasury, and the Height 5.5 cm. was placed the shrine. It was E-hursaq a palace. In the 6th century oc a new wall was built restored I,500 years later by around th\u00ab sacred pr\u00abcinct. Nabonidus. who had a particular reverence for the moon god. Nabonidus' ziggurat may have had as many a~ seven ,tag~\u2022\u00b7 G,paruol E-nun-mah Amar-5,n enclosure wal ol Ne!luCh3d~r II O 50m gE-hursag of Ur-Namroo and Shuig, 0 150h 2600-2400 IC 2112-2004 IC 604--562 !C Royal Tomb$ 101","CITI ES CASPIAN SEA 38\\\" r) ------ -l y I~~ oasht\u00b7e Kevlr .. -,~... 34\\\" \\\\.. I ZAGROS MTS SyrlJ!n Desert ~~ \\\") MARHAS!il Urlllompire \\\\ \\\\ c::J core payt,g bflo iax C J pariphely paying gun mids 18x ' i:=:Ja11iodm:a 30\\\" \u25a0 City state ,.. c,,nte, tor reeelpt end dlstriboUon I \u2022 ol l&X paid in INOSIOCk \/ - - - - a11C11)11t <;oa$thne The Gulf - - lnCIOnt COUl!l8 of rive< I possible lr'IC~t I courae ot river I I scale I :8 000 000 200km 0 150ml ,\/ .,\/ I I I Shu lgi the reformer royal household. Another center, Dusabara, special- The e mpire o f t he Third Ur-Na mmu was succeeded by his son Shulgi. Most ized in agri cultural products. Dynasty of Ur of the year-names of the first half of his 47-ycar Twenty-three ci1y slates in reign recorded acts of piety, as did those of his The administratio n of these taxes necessitated Sumer and A kkad formed the fath er. In about his 20th year, however, Shulgi the training of mo re scribes, leading to improve- hean of the empire of the Third embarked on a major reorganization of the Ur III ments in writing methods and the introd uction of state and expanded his empire. Like Naram-Sin, he new recording practices. Shulgi was one of the few Dynasty of Ur. These Stales were cla imed divine status and many hymns were com- ru lers who is believed to have mastered the cunei- ruled by civil and military posed in his honor. Th rough conquest and diplo- form script. He also reorganized the systems of governors appoimed by the king macy he extended his kingdom to the north and weights and measures and introduced a new and they paid the monthly bola cast of Sumer to include the region between Ashur calendar t hat was used througho ut the Ur III state. t,1x. The 90 or more settlements and Susa. He created a unified administration for Moreover, Shulgi is now thought to have been the in the region to the north and Sumer and Akkad - the core of his empire - with author of the oldest surv iv ing law code, w hich had cast were under the control of ensis (governors), w ho were often from the local previously been attributed to Ur-Nammu. ruling family, and shagins (military commanders), military offi cers who had to pay who reported directly to the king. The periphery The dispensation of justi ce was one of the prime an annual tJx in livcsloCk (the beyond was administered by military personnel. d uties of all Mesopota mian rulers. Some hint of this g 1111 mada tax). Many of these He also took d irect control of the temple lands and is found in the reforms esta blished by the last Early sculemcr11s cannot yet be introduced new systems of taxation . The bala was Dynastic ruler of Lagash, Uruinimgina, who sought ldcntlned. Beyond this region, to cor rect abuses in the traditio nal legal system. which was under the rule ofthe a tax paid by the provinces of the core of the Ur m Records of court proceedings dating to the time of king of Ur, the local states were the Dy nasty of Agade have survived, but these often allied to Ur through state, w hile the gun mada was paid in livestock by became more common in the reign of Shulgi. dynilslic marriages or treaties. the military personnel in the periphery. Although Shulgi's law code is very incomplete, its form is t he same as t he later, better preserved law To collect, process and distribute the state rev- enues he esta blished redistribution centers, such as codes of Lipit-Ishtar and Hammurabi and for the Puzrish- Dagan (Drehem, 10 kil ometers south of first time it prescribed fi xed penalties for specific Nippur), which specialized in livestock. In one crimes. year alone 28,000 cattle and 350,000 sheep passed th rough Puzrish-Dagan, coming as tax from the Shulgi continued and comp leted the constTuc- provinces before being redistributed to the maj or tion work begun by his father. A building just temples of t he !and as well as to officials and the outside the religious precinct at Ur was made from bricks bearing his name, and attached to it were 102","CHARISMATIC KINGS two smaller structures with bricks inscribed with Anatolia and the west t he name of his son, Amar-Sin. This bui lding is One of the resources that bad been desired by the thought to have been the burial place of the kings Agade kings was silver from the mines of Anatolia. of Ur, whose bodies were interred in the vaults Two fragments of an alabaster relief acquired in below, where fragments of human bones have been Nasiriyeh perhaps illustrated one of these forays. found. The contents and fittings of the buildings On one fragment naked prisoners arc being paraded had been plundered in antiquity but surviving while the other shows soldiers carrying booty, fragments indicated that the doors had been including what has been identified as a meLal covered with gold leaf, the walls decorated w ith vessel of an Anatolian Ea rly Bro nze Age 2 type. sheet gold inlaid with agate and lapis lazuli, and At Alaca Huyuk, in central Anatolia, 13 rich the ceilings adorned with tiny stars and the sun's tombs have been excavated . Although referred to rays in gold and lapis lazuli. In one room were as roya l graves, as w ith the Royal Cemetery at Ur benches and cha nnels covered in bitumen and gold their royal status has not been proved . The tombs leaf, which might have been used for libations, were large rectangular pits, up to 8 meters lo ng and s uggesting that the upper rooms served as mortu- 3.5 meters wide, that held the bodies of both men ary temples for the cult of the dead king. and women. The body was placed in the northwest Shulgi had at least twelve sons and eight corner and is thought to have been buried together daughters, one of whom became entu- priestess in w ith wooden furniture. T he finest objects found Ur. Three of the other daughters were married to there were of metal, gold, electrum, silver and rulers of the Irania n principalities Marhashi, co pper and included vessels, pins and weapons. Anshan and Bashime. Shulgi was succeeded by two Two iron daggers with gold- plated handles showed of his sons, first Amar-Sin and then Shu-Sin . From the precocity o f Anatolian metalworkers. The most early on in Shu-Sin's reign there were signs t hat all impressive objects were the so-called standards, was not well in the empire. In Sh u-Sin's fourth ending in cast bulls or geometrica l shapes. They year he built a wall between the Tigris and the were made of copper and overlaid or inlaid with Below 13lack st,,nc weight In the Euphrates to keep out the maraud ing Amoritcs, a electrum, but their function is not known . They s hape of J duc k found a l Ur. The inscription States that Shulgi Semitic tribe or group of tribes who had infiltrated had massive dowels t hat attached to some wooden \\\"establis hed lit ~weight asl 5 rninJs for Nann.1\\\", the into Mesopotamia from the so uth west. Under Shu- fra mework, perhaps a canopy over each tomb. n,oon god. Nanna'~ crescent i~ visible on the other side. Sin's son, Ibbi-Sin, the empire collapsed. In t he Probably, the tombs were roughly contemporary Length 14 cm. second year of his reign, Eshnunna rebelled and in w ith the Agade kings, but the chronology is Bollum C,ist s ilver figure of' ,, the third year lb bi-Sin lost control of Susa. The col- uncertain. Further west, the destru ctio n levels on bull i11l,1id with gold . Similar 11gures were found i11 i he rich lapse of the empire has been tra ced in the year- Early Bronze 2 sites in Anatolia have been attri- tombs at Alaca Huyuk In central Artatolia. These tombs probably names used to date documents in different cities. buted to the arrival of the Luwians and the Hit- belong lo the ldtcr 2nd millennium 111\\\\ Ihoug h some Ibbi-Sin's year-names are not found after his t hird tites, who d ominated Anatolia in the second scholars have s uggested an earlier d a te. The metalwork f'roin year at Puzrish-Dagan, fifth year at Umma, sixth millennium BC, but there has so far been no proof Alaca shows itrcat competence though techniques su, h ,,s year at Girs u and eighth year at Nippu r . In his 10th of this. gr,,n ul,uion and filigree, which were used with such skill in the year, Ishbi-Erra, one of his military commanders, In northern Mesopotamia, Mari had pro bably Roy,1I Cemetery ,H Ur, we re no t: seized control of Nip pur and northern Baby lonia, come under the rule of Lhc early Agade kings. found in the tnmbs \\\"' Alaca liuyuk. Hc1ghl 2~ cm . founding a new d y nasty with its capita l at lsin. However, apart from the discovery of two bronzes Only at Ur itself did Ibbi-Sin retain control for the dedicated by daughters of Na ram-Sin, there is little full 24 years of his reign until, in 2004 BC, the Ela- evidence to suggest interference in the a f'fairs of' mites invaded Ur, sacked and looted the city and the city by the kings of Agadc. In the time of the took away Ibbi-Sin as a captive to Anshan. Third Dynasty at Ur, the rulers of Mari took the title shaknu, the Akkadian eguivalcnt of shagi11., The rise of the Elamites but Mari did not, apparently, participate in the During the period when Susa was subservient to economic structure of the Ur m em pire. The the kings of Agadc, the kingdom of Awan had famous palace of the rulers of Mari was built over retained its independence. Awan's exact location is several centuries and some fine wall paintings have not known, but it probably lay to the north of been d ated to the period of the Third Dynasty of Susa. In about 2200 BC Puzur-Inshushinak, the Ur because of their similarity to the stclc or king of Awan, established control over Susa and, Ur- Nammu . in inscriptions found at Susa, claimed to have made The destru ction of Ebia coincided with a decline extensive conquests. Some of these inscriptions in the settlement of the Levant. Furth er south, th e were in the Linear Elamite script, a simplified sylla- Early Bronze 3 period gave way to Early Bro nze 4 bic script for writing Elamite. Very few inscrip- (c.2350- 2000), and most of t he urban centers o r the tions written in this script have been found . earlier period were abandoned. The agric ultural Seventeen came from Susa, one from the cemetery and urban way of li fe, it seems, y ielded to a pas- at Shahdad and one is said to have been fo und in toral existence t hat might have been connected Fa rs. with movements o f nomadic groups such as the Shulgi of Ur had annexed Susa and the lowlands, Amorites further to the east. Toward the end of the but the highland areas, though li nked through Egyptian Old Kingdom the Egyptians mounted royal marriages, remained indepe ndent. In the expeditions against the Asiatics and perhaps pene- reign of Ibbi-Sin, the ruler of Shimashki, who trated as fa r north as Mou nt Carmel. Their chief already controlled Anshan, seized power in Susa. interest, however, lay farther north in the Lebanon In 2004 BC Kindattu, king of Shirnashki, Susa and where Byblos acted as t heir main port fo r trade in Anshan, invaded and destroyed Ur. The Elamites resin, timber and other goods. With the end of t he were expelled from Ur in about 1995 BC, b ut the Old Kingdom in a bout 2 150 BC, con tact between Shimashki dynasty continued to rule Susa for the Levant and Egypt ceased and decline set in for another hundred years. the next 150 years. IOl","Ziggurats Ziggurats were on e of the most typical features of 1.eJr A rccon,tructcd drawing of ancient Mesopotamia. In many cities the temple of the city god contained a ziggurat, consisting of a the temple and 2i~urat at Tell .series of superimposed platforms on top of which al-Rimah. probably ancient was a temple. Temples set on platforms arc found Qatara. Thb may ha,\u00b7c been built as early as the Ubaid period at Eridu, around 5000 In the time of ShJmshi-Adad 1 BC. The first proper ziggurats were built by Ur- Nammu (2 112 2095 BC), the first king of the Third (c. 1800 sc). Unlike the earlier Dynasty of Ur, at Ur, Eridu, Uruk and Nippur. southern type. with three They were all similar in design, with a rectangular staircases, the ,iggurat was part base and three staircases, meeting at right-angles, of the temple building Jnd the that led up to the high temple. The same p lan was upper ~hrin.- wa~ probably used for the most famous ziggurat of all, that of the rcJchcd from the roof of the god Marduk at Babylon, which gave rise to the courtyard temple. story of the Tower of Babel. Begun in the I8th century BC, it was called Etemenanki, meaning \\\"the Righc A drawing of the ziggurat at Ur built by Ur-Nammu. Mad~ temple of the foundation of heaven and earth\\\". out of sun-dried mud-brick, it The exact nature of the ceremonies that took had a thick outer coJtini: of baked brick. Pam of the lower place in the high sanctuary is not known. The two stage, were preserved. The Greek historian Herodotus, who gave a detailed appearance can be reconstructed description of the ziggurat at Babylon, suggested from pictures on relief, and on that a sacred marriage between a priestess and the god (who was possibly represented in the person of seals. the king) was enacted there in a ritual designed to ensure the future prosperity of the country. 2iggums were similar in shape 10 the pyramids of Egypt such as the stepped pyramid at Saqqara (below, upper piccure), but their function was different. The pyramids were tombs with the tomb chambers concealed in the center of the monument and nu structure on the top. Ziggurat,. being made of solid brickwork with a temple on top. arc more similar t0 the temples of Central America such as the one at Chichen ltz.i (bo1tom). However. the concept of\\\" massive pyramid-sha~-d structure pos~ibly came from Egypt. 011e,-\/eaf A view of the reconstructed remain~ of the ziggurat at Ur. 104",",..,....s \\\"\\\\___. Lake Van l '-. fi\\\":, :_j U,pte '1il1rca\\\"' LakeUrm,a ) . 6 l'IO CV,Otlntll 01 :ltllrtll~ Aboue The ziggurat at the ...C on1erna1 m\u2022case Assyrian capital of POSS\u2022b<e ziggurat Dur-Sharrukin wa, one of th<\u00b7 Ur Ill (2100-2000 BCI first to be excavated. It b Olcl llabytonliln \\\\1901H700 BC) believed that a ,piral path led up eiamrte KaSSrlt. to the top and the three lower MrdCla Assyrian I1400-1100 BC, stage\u2022 were painted white, b\\\\,1ck Lale ~syoa\u2022 I ~8C1 and red. The upper stages were not preserved but, followin)? the ancient coaslhne normal color scheme, would - - anatnt course -of mer have been blue, orange, ,iivc:r sa\u2022e 1 6250 000 and gold. 150m, 'I r~ .~,~l}t _.) ~ ('\\\"\\\\ 5\\\"'\\\" & l<'tW h \u00b7-ot'U OI\\\" , ~ ~ ~ n w- :~~::~:::::::~~ ,i,~J-!)l~ \\\"\\\"'1:tr~:, ~~- Th11 Gulf Zig gurats of Mesopota mia The remains of zjggurat~ h,1w been excavated JI 16 ,itc\u2022 and others arc known from the text, (such as the one at Agadc whose location i\u2022 uncertain) or from the shape ofthe ruins. There were two main type, of ziggurat: an carly southern type, which had J rectangular platform and three staircases, and a later northern type with no staircases, in whk h the temple is often part of a larger complex. The construction of the ziggurat 31 the Elamltc site of Al-Unta>h-Napiri;ha [mid-13th century scj wa, exceptional. A square courtyard with rooms around it was nllcd in and built up to make d high ziggurat and the ,1airca.c, on the four sides were contained within the structure. 105","","","TRADE AND WARFARE (2000-1600 BC) Rival city states ho ld them back for ever . In the lc1st yea rs of the The cilv ,1.,1c, of lhl\u00b7 T he unifi cation of Sumer and Akkad, first und er T hird Dy nasty of Ur, Shu -Sin's fourth year (2034) l~in- La r,a period orthe Agade kings a nd then under th e kings of' the was na med \\\" the year w hen the w ,111 Amurru was The citic, ol' stiu1 hern Third Dy nasty of Ur, had been exceptional. built\\\". Anot he r text gave more information about Alth o ugh t here were no major geographica l thi s for t ification, which was co nstructed by dig- Me~opo1,1111i.i rnmpctcd wi1h barriers, on ly rardy did the a llu v ial plains o f c.1ch other ,1flcr the t,111 ol 1hc Mesopotamia com e under the co ntrol o f' a s ingle gi ng a dike from th e Eurlirates to t he Tigr is in th e Third DynJ,ty of Ur. l'IN, !sin ruler and even more rarely could a monarch cla im northern part of the alluvial plain. \/\\\\t first there was some a ntagonism between the city dwellers w,1, ,ucrc,~tuI ,Hlll then L,1r,,1 t hat his realm stretc hed \\\" from th e Up per to the and the nomads. Th e Amorites were accused of not Lower Sea\\\" !the Mediterra nea n to the Gui~. Yet knowing gra in, not bury in g their d ead , and be ing ,,nd nn,illy IJ,,bylon. The m,1ps many later Mesopota mian rulers strove to emulate_ genera lly unciv ilized . H owever, they could no t be ,huw11 here ,,re h,1~cd on Ihe the achievement of the Agade kings. At the end of work of Dougta, ~r.,y nc who h,l\\\\ the t hird mille nnium BC, as th e grip of' Ur loosened, orrestrain ed a nd , wi thin a few yea rs \/\\\\ moritcs had deduced frum 1hc Yl\\\"Jr\u202211,1n,c, its e m pire sp li t into several kingdo ms, wit h Ashur, med in ditfcn,nt rilk, lhc ,1rc,1' Es hnunna, Der and Susa becoming independe nt. se Lt lcd in ma n y the c ities of M eso potamia. T hey conlrolled by different cily even took over the government, and many of the ,tatcs. Those cities tor which Is hbi-Erra, a form e r orfice r of Ibbl-S in, founded rulers of the ear ly seco nd mille nnium h ad Amorite there i~ insufficient evidence tu names. ,1,ccrwin their Matu, ,ire not a new dynasty based al lsin in 20 17 nc and The Hurrians have been assoc:iatcd wi th the Included wnhin the sh.iJed .irc,1, controlled most o f what had been the core o f' the and to t h,11 extent 1hc m,1p, Ml' e mpire of Ur. For the next two centu ries the Ea rly T ransca ucas ian c ulture. Th e mentions of i,wompletc. l\u00b7vcn so, they give a Subartu in texts of the Akkadian period have vivid imprc\\\\\\\\i,,n of the conM,rnl dynasty o f lsin attempted to retain its te r r ito ry re l'e rred to a Hurria n s tate in north e rn Mesopota- Mruggle between 1hc rlv,11 ,1,11c, against e ncroachm e nt fro m the no~\u00b7th and south. mia . Moreover, a Hurrian name has been identified Ts in's principal riv a l was th e s tate o f Larsa, and the of t he time. period is c;illed t he lsin Larsa perio d . However, o n a tab let of thi s period from Nippur. During the tim e o f th e Third Dy nasty of Ur, ru le rs with Hur- there were ot her, equa lly powe rful s tates In the ria n names, s uc h as Ata l-S in, king o f Urkish a nd Near East including Yamhad (with its capital at Nawar, and Tis h-atil l, king of Karah ar, we re fou nd Ale ppo), Es hnunna, Susa and Babylo n . orin northe rn Mesopotamia and in the regions to the T he tex tual d ocu me ntation for this period is parlicularly ri ch . The arc hi ves o f Mari, containing cast the Tigris. Another (or the same) Tis h-atal, more than 20,000 tab lets, covered all aspects of ki ng o l Urk is h, le f\\\"t an inscriptio n in the Hurrian pa lace life. Record s of mer c ha nts w ho traded w ith language on a sto ne tablet commemorating the con- Assyria have been unearthed at l<a nes h, in ce n tra l struction o f a tem p le or Ncrga l. l n th e ea rly second Anatolia. A lread y more than <1,000 o f' these tablets millen ni um Hurrians (or, at least. kings with Hur- ha ve been publishe d and t w ice as man y tex ts from rian names) ruled the states around th e northe rn recen t excavatio ns have s t ill to be exa mined . fringe of Mesopo tamiil from Simurru, Tukrish and Smaller coll ect ions have been rou nd at Qat na, \/\\\\la- Sh us harril in th <.: Zagro!i mountains, to l-l assum ,1 nd la h, Terqa, Ha ri dum , Chagar Bazar, Ka ha l , Shubat- Enlil , Qatara, Nineveh , As hur, Shusharra , Susa, Urshum to the northwest of'the Euphrates. Hurrian Ans han, as well as towns in the kingd o m o f Esh- names were found among the populilt ions of Nuzi, nunna and numerous sites in Sumer and Akkad. l:ka ll.1 turn (near As ht1 r), Qa tara (Tell Rimah), Cha- These texts covered politics, administratio n, gar Baz;i r, where a t least o ne-fift h of t he people had eco no mics, re ligio us practices. th eology, trade, law Hu rrian names, a nd \/\\\\la lah, o n the Orontes in a nd scien ce. T he world tha t they h,1ve revealed orwestern Syria , whe re a lmost half t he names in extended fro m Anatolia to the Gul f', and was linke d by merchants with donkey carava ns o n expeditio ns th e texts hav e been id en tified as Hu rr ian. Hurrians to exchange goods rro m dist;int lands. To the south and west, no madic pastoralists threatened the traded on equa l terms w ith Assyrian merchants in Anatolia, and the ir de ities were adopte d by o ther settled populations wh ile to the nort h and cast the peoples. The goddess Hepa was in voked by the fierce m ounta in tribes ra ided the c ities o[ th e plains. ki ng of Y;11nhad, and the head of the Hurrian pan ~ theo n the weal11 er god Tcs hup was ad opted under th e nam e T is hpak. as the c hief god o f Gshnunna . Amorites and Hurrians The struggle for power in Mesopotamia T he popu lati on or the heartla nd s o f Mesopotamia The last ce nturies of the third mill e nnium were a time w h en new peo p les made co nta ct w ith th e r emai ned mostl y Sumer ian and Akkadian even settled regions o f the Nea r E;ist. Among t he m were t ho ug h man y o f the r u le rs had Amori te names. the Amorites {Amurru in Akkadian), who spoke a Thb was a period w h en po litica l f'o rtum:s f1u c- west Semi1i c dial ect, and th e Hurric1ns, w ho s poke a la nguage unre lated to an y k nown in the Near tuated wid ly. A chari s matic lea d er might exercise East at this time. T h e Amorites - like the later Ara- co ntro l over many ot her sta tes, but w hen he was maeans and Arabs first appeared on the fringes of s ucceeded by a less ab le rul er these vassa l sta tes t he Arabian desert. T hey were defeated by Sha r- chose ;11101 her leader. Th e chaotic s ituatio n was s u mm ed up in a letter from about 1770 IK reporting ka h-sharri (22 17 2 193 BC) in Basar (belie ved to be a s peec h c1i med at persuading the nomad ic tribes to Jebel Bishri to the west of Mari), b ut this did not orc1ck now led~c th e aut hority ofZimri-Lim Mari . IOI!","scale 1.2 300 000 TRADE \/\\\\ND W\/\\\\H l-'\/\\\\RE 0 40km scakl 1 2 300000 30ml 0 40km 30ml 32\\\" - - ts,n Cily SUlto, 1990 BC G<$U city state, t910 BC a.su CJts,n city s1ate, 1936 BC scale t 2 300 ooo C]Larsa '6\\\" c=J1s1n 0 40km 0Manana sute 1 2300 000 C J L arsa C J Marad\/Kazaltu 0 40km 30ml tocatlon of site tocatlon of Ma 30mf known known possible possibkl - - prot>able enclent cou,se ot nver - - prooaDle ancient ooursa of nvar 45\u2022 45\u2022 32\u00b7 32\u2022 c,ty state, 1879 BC Gnu \u25a1 1..n c,ty state, 1802 BC O tsln C]Lar,a DLarsa D Manana D Babylon C J Marad\/Kazallu toca11on of s.te C]Bab)1orl kllOwn poss,bla O uruk - - prooablt ancient ccx,,se ol river tocalJOn of Sito '6\\\" 45\u2022 known posslole - - probable ancient course ol river 45\u2022 '6\\\" f()')","CIT IES \\\"There is no king who can be mig hty a lone. Kings of Mesopotamia and Elamc.2000--160011e Te n o r fifteen k ings follow Hammurabi, the ma n of Babylon; as many follow Rim -S in, the ISIN LARSA URUK ma n ofLarsa, Ibal- pi-EI, the man o f Eshnunna, a nd Amut- pi-El, the ma n of Qatna, and twenty Ishbi-Erra 2017-1985 Naplanum 2025-2005 Sin-kashid kings follow Ya rim- Lim, the man o f Ya mhad.\\\" 2000 Emisum 2004-1977 Sin-eribam The struggle for control of' sou thern Meso potamia Sin-gamil was reflected in the year-names of the period. Shu-ilishu 1984-1975 Samium 1967-1942 Anam Whe n a year-na me iss ued by the ruler of one city lddin-Dagan 1974-1954 Zabaya 1941-1933 lrdanene was used in a no th er, it s ignaled the subordinat e lshme-Dagan 1953-1935 Gungunum 1932-1906 Rim-Anum sta tus of that c ity. Sim ila rl y, a king who restored a LipiHshtar 1934-1924 Nabi\u00b7ilishu temple, or appointed a priest or priestess, in Ur-Ninurta 1923-1896 Abisare 1905-1895 1802 a nother city d emons trated h is control over the 1900 Bur-Sin 1895-1874 Sumuel 1894-1866 second city. Howeve r, though this was the general Lipit-Enlil 1873-1869 Nur-Adad 1865-1850 pattern, the evidence is often incomplete and the Erra-imitti 1868-1861 Sin-iddinam 184!H843 location of some o r t h e c ities uncertain. For Enlil-bani 1860-1837 Sin-eribam 1842-1841 example, some experts have identified the city of Zambiya 1836--1834 Sin-iqisham 1840-1836 Eresh w ith the site of Abu Salabikh, w h ile others lter-pisha 1833-1831 Silli-Adad 1835 place I:resh a bout 90 kilome te rs farther south . Urdukuga 1830-1828 Warad-Sin 1834-1823 Furthermore, batlles recorded as vi ctories m ig ht, in Sin-magir 1827-1817 Rim-Sin 11822-1763 rea lity, hav e been in conclusive, or the capture of' a 1800 Damiq\u2022ilishu 1816--1794 1763 city might not have been followed by a period of 1794 Rim-Sin 111740-1736 rule, or the sovereignty claims in the royal inscrip- tions might have been exaggerated. 1700 The prosperity of the cities of th e south depend ed not o nly on their ru lers' militar y o r dip- 1600 lomatic prowess but a lso on their economic strength . T rade and industry were important, but through the Gulf w ere the sta tes of Dilmun, Magan Oelow A pol t cry v<1Sc from Lirs., less vita l to a city than an a bundant and reliable and Meluhha. Dilmun probably included the dating to early In the 2nd water supply . Most of the water came from the islands or Failaka (at the bead or the Gulf) and .Bah- millennium nc. It Is decor,1ted Euphrates, whic h flowed along inte rconnecting ra in (two days' sailing fart her down the Gu lf) as w ith incised figure, o1nd with channels, as it docs today. Over the centuries, t he well as t he eastern coast of Saudi A rabia. Maga n, smaller reliefs of a naked course of the Euphrates ha s changed great ly, but ~oddess. Inanna\/lsht,1r. The . its ancient channels ca n be partly traced from the on the ev idence of' thi rd-mil le nnium copper-work- figures arc probably ,ymbols '11 locatio ns of ancien t settl ements . ing sites, has been identified w ith Oman, w hile Meluhha was part of1hc Harappan or Indus valley the gods. The turtle and 1hc fish The rise of lsin civiliza tion. In the Early Dynastic period Dilmun may be a,sodated with the water For the first 70 years of the 20t h century 13C Is in god En~i\/Ea, the bcar<led bull dominated the so uth . fs hbi-E rra (20 17- 1985 uc) orsupplied t imber to Ur-Nanshe Lagash, an d later with the weather god Adad, and founded the d y n asty o ut of the remnants of' th e the birds with the messenger god tex ts fro m Lagas h mention the impo rt of copper ore PJpSl1kkal . Height 26.} cm. orki ngdo m Ur. La te in his reign he drove th e Ela- and expor ls o f\\\" woo l, c loth, silve r, fa t a nd resin. mites out of Ur, while his son Shu-ilishu (1984 1975 nc), w ho followe d him, recovered th e s tatue Sargo n (2334 2279 11c) boasted that s h ips of Dil- of Nanna, the chief god of Ur, which had been removed by th e Ela mites and taken to A ns han . mu n, Magan and Meluhha moored at the docks or orShu - ilishu took the title King Ur a nd cla imed Agade, a nd his so n M anis htu s hu (2269 2255 11c) a nd gra ndso n Naram-Sin (2254 22 18 Be) bo th d ivine status. As an impor1an1 re lig io us center lying between cla imed to have co nqu e red Maga n and broug ht back prec io us s ton es. The dioritc s ta1 ues of several kingdoms, Nippur was a lways the subject of contenti on. For some yea rs in t he middle o f the orManisht ushu and of Gud ca, the ruler Lagash, 19th ce ntury Nippur was los t by Isin af'ter fa lling to some u n known invaders. Jn the southeast, indica ted contact between M esopota mia an d Zabaya (194 1- 1933 BC), who described himself as an Amorite c hief, rebuilt the temple o f Sha mash a t Oman. Gudea's inscriptions also recorded copper, Larsa. In the king lists the d y nasty oCLarsa went d iorite a nd wood from Maga n as well as t im ber, back to the Th ird Dynasty of Ur, but Za baya (or gold, tin , lapis lazu li and r<.:d s to ne (probab ly car- perhaps his fa t he r) was t he first of' the dy na sty to ne lian) from Meluhha. Inscrip1i o11s Crom Ur have le ft eviden ce of their rule. Zabaya was suc- showed that trade w ith t he Gulrwas conducted by ceed ed by his broth er Gungunum (1932- 1906 11c), merchants w ho were fina nced by the Temp le of Nanna in Ur, a nd that th e tra de was mostly wi lh who exte nded the k ingdom of Larsa, campaigned Magan, w h ich also served as an e ntrepot for goods aga ins t S usa, w he re a tab le t bea ring one of his from Mc luhha . year- na mes bas been fo und , an d possibly co n- trolled Nippur. After th<.: collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur, tab lets from Ur da ti ng to the reig ns of Gu ngun um Trade in the G ulf a nd his t wo s uccesso rs (1932 1866 BC) recorded In t he e ig hth year of his reign Gun g unum cap tured bow tra d e, instead or being under cent ra lized Ur and ga ined control of the valuable trade with burea ucratic: co ntrol, as it had been earlier, was the Gu lf' that had begun in t he Ea rl y Dynastic period. Situa ted o n th e mar itime trade ro ute now in the hands of' wea lthy citize ns who received LI fixed in terest on th e ca pita l they s u ppli ed. The 110","TR\/\\\\Db \/\\\\ND W\/\\\\Rl'\/\\\\Rfi ESHNUNNA ELAM Not all the rulers are included. The 2000 order anddates of many are not lturiya Kindattu certain. The dates at the end of the llshu-iliya ldaddu columns 1nd1cate when the dynasty Nur-ahum Tan-Ruhuratir came toan end. Kirikin Ebarti Bilalama ldattu ASHUR Azuzum BABYLON lpiq-Adad I Ebarat Puzur-Ashur I 1900 Shilhaha Shalimahu Sumu-abum 1894-1881 Shiqlanum Addahushu llu-shumma Sumu-la-EI 1880-1845 Abdi-Erah Erishum I Belakum Shiruktuh Sab1um 1844- 1831 Warassa Shimut-wartash lkunum MARI lbal-pi-EI I Siwepalarhuhpak Sargon I Apil-Sin 1830-1813 lpiq\u2022Adad II Kuduzulush Puzur-Ashur II Yaggid-Lim 1800 Naram-Sin Erishum II Yahdun-Um 1700 Sin-muballit 1812- 1793 Dadusha Kuk-nashur Shamshi-Adad I c.1813-1 781 Hammurabi 1792-1750 lbal-pi-EI II lshme-Dagan Yasmah-Adad 1796- 1780 Samsu-iluna 1749-1712 1762 Zimri-Lim 1779-1757 Abi-eshuh 1711-1684 1757 Ammiditana 1683-1647 Amm1saduqa 1646-1626 1600 Samsuditana 1625-1595 1595 Aboue This fine JiabJsLer city.temple and the palace also exacted a tith e. The Turkey at the other end of the sil ver- trade route. statuette of a monkey was found merchants were known as alik Dilmun, after the Harappa n-stylc weights were used in Bahrain and in the tem ple of lshtar Kit itum, name of the main trading port, which also handled sea ls in the Ind us style ha ve been fo und in Bahrain, from the lsin Larsa period, at the transshipment of goods from fart her cast . The Failaka, Ur and Eshnunna. Also, typically Harap- NcribLum (Tell ts hchali) LO lhc importation of copper was the main concern of the pan beads dati ng to as early as th e Agade period C.:dSl of the Diy~il\\\" river. Meso potamian merchants. In one text the equiva- ha ve been d iscovered in sou thern Mesopotam ia. Monkeys were not n~tivc to the lent of more than 18 tonnes of copper were Near Bast but were common in received in Dilmun. Other imports included lux ury The c hronological relat ionship between lndia India and in Egypt. The figure items su c h as gold, lapis laz uli, bead s, ivory and and Mesopotamia is uncerta in. The end of th e Har- combines human a nd monkey \\\"fish eyes\\\", which have been identified as pearls, appan culture has been dated at between 2000 and characteristics, as might be for which the Gu lf is famous. In return, the me r- 1700 BC, but it is not yet known how the changing expected from an artist who had c han ts exported silver, oil, textiles a nd barley. patterns in the G ulf' trade from th e Mesopotamian litt le f'irst- hand knowledge of Lhe perspective related to events some 2,500 kilometers .,nlmdl. Height 8 c:m. Excavatio ns in Bahrain and Failaka have uncov- away in the Indus valley. er ed evidence of a n ouris hing ci viliza tion d urini:, Aboue l'ight I\\\\ necklace from ,1 the fi rst ce nturies of the seco nd mil lennium. Red Decl ine of lsin grave in the late Early Dy nastic Barbar potte ry, numerous burial t u mu li a nd dis- As Gungunum was encroaching on !sin from the cemetery at Kish . The lapi, tinctive stamp sea ls ch aracterized this culture. Bar- south, o ther Amoritc rulers took co ntrol or Baby- lazuli came from northern bar pottery has also been fo und in eastern Saudi lon, Kis h, Ka zallu, Marad and Malgi um in southe rn Afghanistan. The long barrel- Arabia and Qatar, perhaps demo nstrating the Mesopotami a. Even Uruk, on ly 20 kilometers rrom shaped c<1rnclii1n bci1ds and extent of ancient Dilmun . There were a bo ut Larsa, became the scat of an Amoritc dynasty tha t clrhcd c,irncll,111 hc,i<ls Ucc:ordtcd 200,000 tum uli on the isla nd of Ba hrain. as well as with white b,111d s were ty pic;il of' others on the Arabia n mai nla nd . Some recently the llarappan civilization. excavated tumuli co ntain ed , as well as the local Barbar pottery, pottery of the types fo und in the Harappan culture in the [nd us va lley. Other sites with Harappa n imports have bee n fou nd in Oman and in the United Arab Emirates. The stamp seals that were discovered had rounded or conical backs a nd were carved in a partic ula r style. Known as G ul f seals, they were ty pical of the Ba rbar cultu re but have also been found at Susa, on th e Iranian plateau a nd in southern Mesopotamia. One has even been discovered at the Harappan site or Lothal in India. The style of car v ing has also been identified on a cy linder seal from Susa a nd on sta m p seal impressions from Acem huyuk in ItI","CITI ES 1..eft A painted pottery vJse in the shape of a lion from the contro lled Nippur briefly in a bou t 1880 BC. trading colony at Kanesh In Hemmed in to the north and south, the kingdom of Turkey. Painted vessels of th is Isi n was restricted to the central area of the a lluvial sort were probably used for plain, though it managed to s urvive for more than pouring libations to the gods. a century. T he line of lshbi-Erra was ousted by a The vessel was filled through the usurper and 60 years later another king oflsin was large aperture in the h,1ck, the replaced in circumstances t hat were desc ribed in a liq uid emerging through a hole later Babylon ian chronicle. In the nose of the lion. The merchants living at Kanesh came \\\"Erra-imitti, the king, installed Enlil-bani, the from Ashu r and other cities but gardener, as substitute king on his throne. He their houses and the pollery and placed the royal tiara o n his head. Erra-imitti other equipment that they used [died] in his palace wh en h e sipped a h ot broth. were the same .,s rhosc of the Enlil- bani, who occupied the throne, did not local people. give it up [and] so became kin g.\\\" As is known from the Lale Assyrian period, if an Below A bronze figure, found al omen foretold disaster for t h e king, a su bstitu te Girsu, of Warad-Sln, king of king was a ppointed w ho was subsequently ki lled . Larsa, carrying a basket on his In t h is way the ome n proved correc t and the true head . Although his ancestors king cou ld stay on Lhe t hrone. Herc, however, it were not native to southern did no L work out as Erra-imitti had planned , for, Mesopotamia, he, like other far fro m being killed, Enlil- bani ( 1860- 1837 BC) rulers of the period, Jdopted the stayed o n th e t hro ne for 24 years and eve n had traditions of Sumer ,11id Akkad h imself deified. and restored the ancient temples, This figure Is a Imost identical to those buried as foundation deposits by the kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur almost JOO years earlier. Larsa, !sin's great rival The changing fortunes of Ashur In La rsa, Nur-Adad, a commoner, seized t h e t hrone Farther north, t he site of Ash ur lay on a rocky pro- in 1865 in Lh c wake of growing discontent, pe rh aps montory overlooking an important crossing of the fos tered by problems with the city's water supply. Tigris at the edge of the dry-farming zone. Its posi- Sin-kashid, the king of Uruk, who was ma rri ed Lo tion had always made it vulnerable to incursions t he daughter of Sumu-la-EI, king of Baby lon, and from Lhe pastoral nomads li vi ng in t he steppe. had remained independe nt of Larsa, blocked di rect Moreover, it lay on important trade routes beside passage up the Euphrates from Larsa to Nippur. the Tigris and along the line of the hills of Jebel Con trol or N ippur shifted back a nd fort h conti- Hamrin and J e bel Sinjar. But Ash ur was not a n nually from Isin to Larsa, as indicaLed by year- obvious capita l for a n empi re, as it lacked reserves name changes. Documents from Nippur were dated of cultivable land and human resources. When the with Larsa year-names in 1838, 1835, 1832 and rulers of Ashur controlled a larger empire, th e scat 1828 and Jsi n year-names in 1836, 1833, 1830 and of power moved to areas of g reater wealth, either for a few years betwee n I 8 13 and 1802. in the Habur plains (under Shamsh i-Ad ad T) or in the area around Nineveh (in th e Late Assyria n During this period Kudur-Mabuk, the ruler of period of the 9th- 7th centuries BC). Emutbal (the region cast o f the Tigris between Esh- nunna and Elam), appointed his son Warad-Sin In t he ea rl y periods, Ashu r h ad been an ouLpost (1834- 1823 BC) king of La rsa and his daughter entu- of southern influe nce, as s how n by the Early priestcss of Nanna at Ur (normally the prerogative Dynastic statues and inscri ptions of Agade kings of the king of Sumer and Akkad). Kudur-Mabuk fo und there. One of the early levels of the Ish ta r and Warad-Sin embarked on an ambitious program temple contained a n insc ri ption of Zariqum, who of restoring the temples of Ur, Larsa, Zabalam, was governor o f Ashur under Shulg i a nd Amar- Mashkan-shapir, Nippur and others. Kudur- Sin, and another an inscription of a nati vc ruler Mabuk called himself fat her of Emut bal and father ca lled Hu-s humma. Ilu-shumma also appeared in of Amurru, both of which were names of Amorite the Assyrian King List composed in the first millen - tribal groups (though h e and h is father had ElamiLe nium BC. After 29 na mes including those of kings names). His two sons, Warad-Sin and Rim-Sin, had w ho arc said to have li ved in tents, and the Amor- Akkadian names but his daughter's name was itc ancestors of Shamshi-Ad ad, cam e rulers with Sumerian . The mixture re0ccted the com posilion Akkadian names: Puzur-Ashur I, Shalimahu, Ilu- of the po pulation in Mesopotamia (as well as the shumma, Erishum I, Tkunum, Sharrum -ken [Sargon difficulty of determining ethnic background on the I] and Puzur-Ashur II. Their dates, however, a rc evidence of name alone). uncerta in . A later chronicle made Il u-shumma a contemporary oC'Sumu-a bum (c. 1894 188 1 BC) t he Rim-Sin (1 822 1763 nc), who su cceeded his first ki ng of Baby lon, a nd according to t he Assyr- brother Warad-Sin, had one of th e longest reigns in ian King List Puzur-Ash u r 11 was the king of Ashur Mesopotamian history. In 1804 Rim-Sin defea ted a before Naram-Sin of Eshnunna. From Ashur itself coali tio n army of men from Uruk, [sin, Ba by lon there has been little archcological evidence for this a nd Rapiqum, and of Sutu nomads, a nd ended the period , as it is buried deep below t he ruins of later inde pendence of Uruk. In 1794, t he 29th yea r of buildings. Some 800 ki lometers away, in central his reign, be co nquered !sin and brought to a n end Anatolia, a copy of a bui lding inscription o[ Eri- the First Dynasty oflsin. So impressed was he with shum I, and a court decision with the imprint of t his victory, th at h e ca lled the re maining years of the seal o f Sargon I were among t bc thousands of his long reign \\\"Year one: lsin conquered\\\" up to \\\"year 30: Isin conquered\\\", until La rsa itself was defeated by Hammurabi, a Baby lo nia n ki ng w hose fa me ecli psed that even of Rim-Sin. 11 2","BLACK SEA ------ TRAl) I;; ,\\\\ND WARJ1\/\\\\RI.: - ;--- - 1. 8000000 0 - - Assyrian traderOU!t -- -------,- - prooal)le rcute talcen by Assyrian motc\/lanlS lnlvellng lro,n All1u, 10 Kanesh Assyt\\\\lll uaa.ng s1410n, c.1880-1820 BC MEDITERRANEAN SEA ~'Syrian Desert I \u2022 wablnum I I Assyrl3n oadirogS1a!lons. C.1800-17\u20220 BC \u2022 addotlonalwum \u2022 w,o,,,tum 311' 38' Anatolia and the Old Assyrian tab lets found that had belonged to an Assyrian Each donkey carried a load of about 90 kilo- trade merchant colony based at the city of Kanesh. grams, made up of either 30 textiles (pieces of The tablets found at Kancsh cloth) or 10 textiles an d 130 minas (65 kilograms) of (modern Kultcpe) ln Anato lia Assyrian trade with Anatolia tin as well as 10 minas of loose tin for inciden ta l Excavations in the karum, the merchant su burb expenses and taxes on the journey. On leaving describe an extensive trading o utside the wa ll of the city of Kanesh, revealed evi- Ashur a tax of 1\/ 120 of the value of the goods was network, which s tarted al Ashur dence for trade with As hur over a period of three payable to the limmu official (after whom years and led through the Taur us generations (about sixty yea rs), from Erishum to were named in Assyria). The entry tax in Kanes h mountains to Kanesh, where an Puzur-Asbur II (c. 1880- 1820 BC), and then con- was 2\/65, paid to the local ruler. One unusually Important kamm or trading temporaneously with Shamshi-Adad and Samsu- large consignment of goods included 350 textiles iluna (c. 1800- 1740 BC). More than 10,000 tablets carried by 14 donkeys, but normally the quanti ties colony was established. There have been discovered from the earlier period but recorded were much smaller. The larger quanti ties were other ka,wns and smaller Jess than 200 from the later. might have resulted from merchants banding establishme,u s called wab'1rtum together in long carava ns. on the Anatolia n plateau and in From Ashur woollen textiles and a metal called northern Mesopotamia. Most of annakum were carried by donkey across the broad W hereas smuggling was a recognized activ ity, the ta blets were written between plains of northern Mesopotamia, th ro ugh the steep robbery did not seem to have been a problem on about 1880 and 1820 oc and a passes of the Taurus mountains, to Kanesh, and the long journeys. In the published texts (about a much smaller number between from there distributed to other trading outposts. third of those known) some 13.5 tonnes of tin and Annakum was undoubted ly tin, a vital ingredient about i800 and 1740 uc. In the of bronze, which now replaced the arsenical 17,500 textiles, roughly 800 donkey loads, were later period some additional copper used in earlier centuries. In slightly later taken from Ashur to Kanesh- probably no more settlements were classified as texts from Mari and Sippar, annakum was brought than one-tenth of the real total. In return, silver karums and fewer wabarlllms from Elam to Mari and then traded on to the west . were mentioned . Kancsh and As no evidence has been foun d for tin mining or and gold were brought back to Ashur, but as there Hanusas arc the only trading tin sources in Elam, t he Elamites probably brought was no mention of the use of donkeys as pack stations that can be located with the tin from farther east. T he goods recorded in the animals on the return journey, per haps most of confidence, The locations of Gulf trade between Dilmun and Ur did not include them were sold on arrival in Anatolia. This Assyrian other karums and wabartums anrzakum. However, texts found at Shusharra in trade was undertaken by family firms. The head of suggested on the map are not the mountains to the east of Assyria have suggested the fam ily lived in Ashur while a junior member of c ertain . that annakum was brought from the Iranian p lateau the family would act as the resident agent in the or beyond, perhaps from Afghanistan, where tin karum at Kanesh. The venture was n ormally funded ores are thought to have been exploited since the by the family, but sometimes partn erships were third millennium BC. formed to raise the necessary capital. Kanesh was the center of the trade, but there were karums at nine other cities including Hattusas 11 3","CITI ES (Boghazkoy), Alishar (possibly Ankuwa), and Toward the en d of the 19th century BC, after Acemhuyuk (Purukshanda?) as we ll as ten or m ore some 15 little-known rulers, Naram-Sin, the son of smaller Assyria n trading esta blishmcnts in Anat o\u2022 lia. T hese were self-governing settlements, subject Ipiq-Adad n, conquered Ashur and push ed west to the local princes to whom they paid ta xes. into t he Habur plains. Naram-Sin was includ ed in the Assyrian King List as if h e were a native Assyr- ian ruler. Government and trade in Anatolia Among the local populations living in Anatolia, The conqueror Shamshi-Adad Assyrians were not the only inhabitants of the According to the Assyrian King List , karum . They li ved in the n orth and center of th e \\\"Shamshi-Adad, son of Ila-kabka bi, went to part that has been excavated, separated from Baby lon in t he time of Na ram-Sin. In the limmu native Anatolians to the south by industrial of Ibni-Adad, Shamshi-Adad came u p from regions. In addition to importing and exporting Baby lon and seized Eka llatum, and resided for goods Assyria n merch a nts also engaged in local three yea rs in Ekallatum. In th e limmtt o[ tra de. Copper was an important commodity: quan- Atamar- Ishtar, Shamshi-Adad came up from tities of the order of 30,000 minas (I5 tonnes) were Eka llatum . He d eposed Erishum, son of mention ed in one of th e t exts from Kaocsh . T he Naram-Sin, from t h e throne, he s1:: ized the people w.ith w hom the Assyrians did business throne, and ruled for t hirty-t hree years. \\\" included Hattians (the indigenous inhabitants of Anatolia), Hurrians a nd Inda-Europeans, among Shamshi-Adad's origins arc uncertain, but possibly he was a n Amoritc from t h e midd le Eu phrates, for whom were Hittites who spoke a dialect later called according to texts from Mari, a n Amoritc chi ef neshili (perhaps derived from the c ity of Kanesh) called Tla-kabkabuhu was active .in t he region of and Luwians, w hose language, called luili by t he Terqa t o the west of Mari in t he time of Yaggid-Lim Hittites, was writte n in a hie roglyphi c script. a nd Yahdun-Lim. How Shamshi-Adad 's conquest of Ashur came a bout is not known, b ut he might T he An ato lian cities were rule d by princes have taken advantage of the confusion resulting whose names were normally Inda - European and from Naram-Sin's invasion . Shamshi-Adad also w ho, as in Mesopota mia, fo ug ht among the mselves. seized control of Mari, perhaps from a usurper w ho had o usted Ya hdun- Lim. Ya hdun-Lim's son Zimri - T he ea rlier city an d karum of Kanesh (le vel LI) were Lim sought refuge with his fat her- in-law Yarim- Lim, king or Yamhad, and returned to rule Mari destroy ed by fi re in about 1820. An unusual Hittite after the death of Shams hi-Adad . Sh amshi-Adad text written about 500 years later described how did not make Ashur bis capita l but resided in a city Pitkhana, king of Kussa ra, with his son Anitta, that he named Shubat-En lil, which has rece ntly conquered t he city of Nesa, which was perhaps been identified as t he site of Tell Leilan . He Kanes h, a nd adopted it as his capital. He a lso installe d his cider son, Is hmc-Daga n , at Ekallatum defeated Zalpa, Purusk handa, Shalatuwar and a nd his younger son, Yasmah-Addu, at Mari. Ha tti (perhaps Hattusas, the later Hittite capital). Pitkhana and Anitta were possibly responsible for According to his inscripti ons, Sbamshi-Adad d estroying the karum at level I I , as both were men- conquered as far as t he Mediterranean : tioned in tablets from th e later period (level Tb), and a dagger inscribed \\\"palace of Anitta, t he \\\"a stele inscribed with my great name I set up prince\\\" was found at Kancsh . in t he country of La ban !Lebanon] on the shores of the Great Sea.'' Between the time of Anitta a nd the Hittite kings He does not seem to have exercised di rec t contro l litt le is known of the situation in Anatolia. The Hit- over the west though he married his son Yasmah- t ite rulers traced their d escent bac k to Labarnas I, Addu to the king of Qa tna's daughter. A cuneiform king of Kussara (c. 1650 BC). His son, who was also text listed t he ir wedding gifts, which included [our called Laba rnas, moved the capital from Kussara to or five talents of s ilver (about 200 kilograms). Hattu sas and himse lf too k the n ame Hattusilis. His Sha mshi-Adad's rule, w hic h stretched from the grandson and successor, Mursilis, led the Hittite army through the Taurus mo untai-ns, a long the Euphra tes to the Zagros and, by a network of route trodden by the Assyria n donkey caravans a llian ces, still fart her, was, in effect, con trolled by 300 years earlier, to d estroy the remnants of Ham- his two sons, whom h e installed at Ekallatu m a nd murabi's once great kingdom of Babylon. Mari. The c ider, Jshme-Dagan , inherited his The palace at Eshnunna fat he r's ta le nt s, but the younger broth er , Yasma h- Right The merchant colony, or Es hnunna, under its governor Itu riya, ha d been Addu, seems to have been a weak, ineffectual karum, at Kanesh was siruated the first province to cast off the yoke of the Third ruler. Letters between t he t hree of them have been Dy nasty of Ur. lturi ya's son flsh u-iliya, w ho had fou nd at Mari, including this one from Yasma h- outside the walls of the city. been a scribe of Ibbi-Sin, incorporat ed the temple Addu to his father: Here, traders from Assyria lived built for th e worship of Shu-Sin (the divine king o f in ho uses of local design and Ur) into a new pa la c<.: for the r u lers of Eshnunna . \\\" I read the letter t hat [you] sent me, Dadd y, in used the local pottery. Were it The pa lace was a classic exa mple of Old Babylonian whi ch you said : How much longer must we keep you on a leading rein? You are a child, you arc not not for the thousands ofclay architecture. It included a temple with a courtyard a grown man, y ou have 110 hair on your cheek . tablets recording details or leading into a w ide anteroom a nd eel\/a (room where H ow much longer will y ou fa il to direcryour own the image of the god was placed) and displa yed the household properly? Don't you see that your own commercial dealings by the typica l Mesopotamian pa lace p lan. Along on e side brother is directing vast armies? You just direct of the oute r courtyard was a large receptio n room, your own palace and household propet ly! Tha t is Assyrians, their pre~cnce would and beyond this an inner courtyard w ith the what [youj Dadd y wrote to me. No w how can I not have been suspected so far private rooms of the ruler. This d esign was found be like a child and incapable of directi ng affairs when [yo u] Daddy promoted me? How can it from their native city. Besides in the palaces of the Late Assyria n kings, a thou- be, that though T have grow n up w ith [you] Assyrians, merc hants from other sand years later. cities of Mesopotami,1 and Anatolia also Jived in the karum. The stone fou ndat iom of the houses of the karum a nd the alleyways between them c ,111 still be seen even though they were excavated some years ago. 114","","CIT IHS 38\\\" ( The world of lhc Mari letters The clay tablets found at Mari \/ 38\\\" give a remarkably detailed Urshum >t .r picture of life In the palace and Carcoomlsh elsewhere in the 19th and 18th centuries uc, In the published ::;::\/o\/ { Nalah \u2022 texts more than 400 place names were recorded, but only a a Ebia fraction of them can be Identified with conf1dcncc, This \u2666 Ug3rl1 was the period when, from 't nothing, Sharnshl-Adad I (c, 1813 178l ) created a ; \u2022) Oa1na kingdom that included most of northern Mesopotami,1. From his \u2022 Tadmor (Palmyra) capital at Shubat-1:lnlil. he installed one of his sons at Ekallatum to rule the east and the other to rule the southwest from Mari. After Shamshi-Adad's death his kingdom collapsed, Mari was destroyed by Hammurabi in 1757 r,c \\\"\\\"\\\" little information h.i, emerged about northern Mesopotamia over the ncx1 300 years or so. place me<lllOMd In the M:lrl lexls I \u2666 probable IOcallon I x poaiblo IOcallon I \u2022 reSldence of lmf)O!tant rulOr Sutu people r--1 &Pfll0Xlma10 oxltlnt of Sh{lm!j\/,1-Adad'S l--1 kingdom (c.1813-1781 BC) aneienl coasttllltl ancient courso of rtver po.,,ble ancient course of (ivor scale t 7ooo 000 150km 0 100ml Daddy ever since I was little, now some servant or ot her has succeeded in ousting me from my Daddy's affections? So I am coming to you right now, to have it out with [you ] Daddy abou t my unhappiness .\\\" On Shamshi-Adad's eastern flank, the rulers of Eshnunna and the Elamites were active. A letter to Shamshi- Adad from his vassal at Shusharra reported the presence of an army of 12,000 troops belonging to t he Elamite r uler Shiruktuh. Dad usha, who succeeded his brother Naram-Sin as k ing of Eshnunna, claimed a victory over Ishme-Dagan as well as conquest of Arbil and of other towns in the region. After the death of his father, Shamshi- Adad, Ishme-Dagan was defeated d espite assur- ances he had given to his brother that he had the Elamitcs and t heir ally Ibal-pi-El, king of Esh- nunna, \\\"on a leash\\\". Shubat-Enlil fell to the Ela- mitcs, and the armies of Elam and Eshnunna campaigned in the land of Idamaraz (northern Syria). At t his time Zimri-Lim rega ined the throne of Mari, w hich he kept until shortly before Mari was finally destroyed by Hammurabi in 1757 BC. Mari in the reign of Zimri-Lim Paradoxically, the destruction of Mari by Ham- murabi preserved it for future archeo logists. The city was abandoned and the ruins of the palace of Zimri-Lim, encased by t he collapse of the upper storey, were saved from disturbance by later builders. T he entrance to the palace at Mari was from the north. A wide gate led through a small cou rtya rd into a second, much larger cou rtyard with a room which might have been a s hrine or a th rone room, approached by a semicircular flight 11 6","left n,,kcd clay model of a of ste ps. Wa ll paintings in t his room showed by TRADE AND WARFARE chal'iot which may have come t heir style that this part of t he palace had been I 17 from northern Sy ri~ . ll is simitu\u00b7 built before 2000 BC and had remained in use for to the chariots depicted on more th an 250 yea rs. Beneath the palace of Zimri- cylinder-sea l impressions from Lim were earlie r palaces belonging to t he Early Kanesh ,,m l probably dates to Dy nastic rul e rs of Mari. To t he west was anothe r abou t the 19th century u<:. The la rge courtyard, w hich had also been d ecorated introd uct ion of the light chariot wit h wa ll paint ings. Its cen terpiece panel showed drawn by a pair of horses the king receiving the insigni a of kings hip from the t ransformed warfare in the Nea r godd ess Ish tar, w ith, on either side, tall t rees, East. The marks on the wheels of di v ine figu res and magical beasts. On the sou t h the model may represent s pokes. s ide o [ the co urtyard were two large rooms, each F.nrlier ch,iriots drawn by asses about 25 meters long. The o uter room contained a h:,d ~olld wooden wheels. large sta tue of a goddess h olding a vase, whi c h Height 19.6 cm. rece ived wate r thro ugh a h ole in th e base of the statue. At the west end of the second room a plat- Right This silver statucllc or a form mig ht have su pported t he king's thron e, a nd woman h.is hcJd, nc;ck <rnd at the o pposite e nd ste ps led up to a small eel\/a. A breasts of gold with gold hands fa lle n statue of an earlier ruler of Mari was fo und at across her upper body . II is said the foot of th ese stairs. Aro und these official to have come f'rom a grave at chambers w e re st orerooms, worksho ps, kitchen s, 1-lasd nUglan, nol. far from Ankara in T u rkey, and may date to and liv ing rooms. abo ut 2000 nc. Height 20.1 cm. More tha n 20,000 ta b lets ha ve been found a t Mar i, of which a bo ut a qu arter ha ve been pub- lished , prov iding a detailed pictu re of life at the t ime. The settleme nts were unde r consta nt threat from unruly nomad ic tribesmen , some of whom w ere conscripted into the army, w h ile others were offered bribe or had to be kept at bay by fo rce. T he Yam ini tcs (sometimes referred to as Benjam inites, w hich literally mea ns sons o f the south) and the Su tu gave t he most t ro uble. Also prominen t we re t he Hapiru, a group of outlaws. (Whe n th e texts were first d eciphered it was suggested t hat t he Hapiru w ere ancestors of t he H ebrew s, but this suggestion was pro ba bly wrong.) Opposing armies fo ught each other freq ue ntly . Siege warfa re w as commo n a nd a rmies t en or t wen ty t hou sa nd strong wer e mention ed in th e texts . The horse-drawn chariot, w hi ch d ominated warfa re fo r the next thousand years made its appeara nce for t he first t ime in t he early second millen ni um BC. T he horse had been domest icated m ore than two t h ousand years before in Russia, and h orse bones ha ve been fo und in Ch alcolithic an d Early Bronze Age le vels in Israel and T ur key. T here w ere occasional referen ces to h orses in texts w ritten before 2000 BC but horses on ly became com mon in t he following cen turies, wh en th ey were fo und not only in the Near East bu t also in Egy pt and in Europe. Init ially, ho rses were ridden like d onkeys and w ere yok ed a n d controlled with n ose rings like oxen. However, the d e velo pmen t of th e bit (at some t ime before 1700 uc) and the int ro- duction of lig ht but strong spoked wh eels mad e the hor se-drawn chariot a formidable w eapon of w ar. Life in Zimri-Lim 's pa lace was recorded in great detail, as the kin g engaged in long correspo nd en ce with h is officials on all manner of subj ects: a lion was captured on the roof of a house and sen t in a w ooden cage to Zimri-Lim; t he ba nks of a ca nal were in need of repair; a h ord e of locusts arrived in Terqa and the local governor collected them and sent t hem to the k ing. In anothe r letter, Zimri-Lim wrote to his w ife, warning of an illness in th e fa mi ly. \\\" I have been told t hat Nanna h as an infection and th at, as she is ofte n at t he palace, it w ill infect the many women w ho are with her. Now,","CITIES give strict orders. No one is to drink from the third millennium there was a decline in urban cup she uses; no one is to sit on the scat she settlement in the Levant and Palestine, but in takes; no one is to He on the bed s he uses, lest it about 2000 BC, which has been taken to be the infect the many women w ho are with her. This beginning of the Middle Bronze period, this trend is a very contagious disease.\\\" The king had an ice house where ice brought down was reversed. According to Egyptian sources of the from the mountains was stored to be used for cool- time, in the reign of Amcnemhct I (1991- 1962 BC) ing drinks in the s ummer months. The ta blets also the Egyptian traveler Sinuhe visited Asiatic terri- recorded the food and drink that were served at tory, which was mostly populated by nomad ic the king's table and work carried out by the palace tribes. However, the Twelfth Dynasty \\\"execration servants, including weaving, carp entry and metal- texts\\\" tell a different story. These clay figurines or working. Among the professions practiced by vessels were inscribed with t he names of re bels and women were spinning, weaving, cooking, singing and playing musical instruments, but there were enemies of Egypt and were then ritually smashed. also female scribes and even a female doctor. An earlier group, dated to about 1900 BC, included Not surprisingly, religion played an important the names of Jerusalem, Ashkclon, Beth-Shan and role. Religious rituals, such as feeding the gods, Byblos. A group dated about a hundred years later recitations and incantations for festivals, and showed that almost all the major Canaanite cities appeasing the spirits of the dead, were celebrated were flourishing. (A surprising omission was the regularly. Omens were consulted before taking any city of Megiddo, but perhaps this was because decision of consequence, the mqst usual method Megiddo maintained a loyal relationship with being to sacrifice a sheep and examine its liver. Egypt.) The names of the rulers of these cities were This was a highly developed science with thou- all West Semitic. The earlier gro up listed more than sands of different features of t he liver suggesting one ruler for each city, but the later group only different prognostica tions. Model livers made of one, which might have reflected a change from tri- clay, and labeled with such predictions, that may bal organization to urban. have been used for instruction and referen ce ha ve been found at Mari. A well- preserved temple and Archcological evidence has helped to complete ziggurat at Tell al-Rimah, perhaps built under the picture. After a bout 1800 BC, almost all Middle Shamshi-Adad, gives an idea of the prominence of Bronze Age sites in the Levant- including not only religion at this time. The temple and ziggurat of the the larger towns, but also villages of less than god dominate the site while the palace nestles a hectare- were fortified. The \\\"Cyclopean\\\" be lo w . masonry, made out of huge stones 2 to J meters long and each weighing as much as a tonne, was The Levant and Palestine typical of the fortification style. Outside the wall The Mari tablets and, to a lesser extent, the tablets was a steep slope, called a glacis, made out of earth fo und at Qatna and Alalah on the Orontes have or stones and covered with a layer of smooth hard shed light on events in the west. The two main plaster. This feature was probably designed as a kingdoms were Yamhad, with its capital Aleppo, defence against the walls being undermined, but it and Qatna, but other sma ller cities such as Ugarit also offered protection against battering rams and and Hazor were also mentioned. At the end of the scaling ladders. The walls of Qatna once enclosed a square about a kilometer across and still stand between 12 and 20 meters high. Casemate walls and triple-chamber gates added extra protection. Left The Semitic rulers of lly blos had a close relationship w ith the ph,,raohs of th\\\" 12th Dy nasty of Egypt. r\\\"cd v ing p r\\\"cious gifts and ado pting the rcf1ncmcnts of Egyptian cufture. The rock -cut tombs of the ru lers were d ug into the cliffs on the shore at By blos. Three w ere found inli\\\"t with a grea t w ealth of precious objects, others hAd been robbed . This golde n pcclOr,, 1(chest ornament) came from one of the intact tombs. It is d ecorated w ith the images of the Egyp tian hawk-god Horus but d \\\" t,iils s how th~t It w~s probably mad e Joe.illy . Wid th 20.5 cm. l 18","TRADE AND WARFARE Mari The palace ofZimri-Lim was built over some 300 years. The most important rooms were on the south side of the large western courtyard (106). These were probably an antechamber (64) and the throne room itself (65). There were more than 260 ground-Ooor rooms with more rooms in the upper storey. The ruins of Mari (modern Tell Hariri) lie on the Above left The black stone statue 50m west side of the river Euphrates. The city was of lshtup-ilum, governor of founded in the early third millennium BC. In the Mari, was found in the throne 50 100 1son room (65). It had fallen down the Early Dynastic period Mari was an important city stairs at the east end of lhe room. state and was included as one of the ruling dynas- Ishtup-ilum probably ruled Mari ties in the Sumerian King List. Many fine Sumer- ian-style statues were found in the Ishtar temple. c. 2)00 ec. Height 1.52 m. The palace of the third-millennium Semitic rulers of Mari lies under the palace of the early second millennium BC, which was rebuilt according to the earlier plan and remained in use for several centuries. Benefiting from the trade that passed along the Euphrates, the rulers of Mari acquired considerable wealth. In the 19th century BC the city's Amorite rulers were expelled by Shamshi- Adad of Assyria, who installed his younger son Yasmah-Adad as king. After Shamshi-Adad died in about 1780 BC, Zimri-Lim, the son of the previous Amorite ruler, regained control of the city. Excava- tions of the palace of Zimri-Lim uncovered among the ruins extensive and informative archives of the rulers. Some 20 years later Zimri-Lim was defeated by his erstwhile ally Hammurabi, king of Babylon, who destroyed the palace and the city in 1757 BC. The site remained deserted though it was used as a cemetery in the Middle Assyrian period. Left The river val!ey near Mari. Right The body of this goddess holding a vase was found in the antechamber (64) to the throne room and its head in the courtyard. A channel led from the vase to the base of the statue to allow water to Oow out of the vase. Height 1.4 m. Below Fal!en near the southern wal! of the courtyard (106) were painted fragments of plaster which showed the ruler towering over other figures who may be leading bulls for sacrifice. The paintings probably date to the reigns of Shamshi-Adad or of Zimri-Llm. Width c. 1.35 m. 119","CITIL:S t,ji I\\\\ dioritc hcJd found in Sus,1, where it h,1cl prohJbly Exca vations a t Ebia, Shechem and Hazor ha ve hcc11 1,,ken in the 12th century un cove red tower-fortress temples (Mi gda l tem ples ) UC. This ki11d or he,1ddress WJS tha t were t he prototypes f'or the Late Bro nze Age worn by rulers or McsopotJmi,111 temples, which in turn provided the mod el for Solomon 's Te mpl e. cities between 2100 \u00b7'\\\"'I 1700 Ht'. The Leva nt w as the meetin g place fo r Egyptian liammur,ibi, king or IJ,1bylo11. and Mesopotamian influences, though eviden ce was cJrved on his 1~1w Cude correla ting the re igns o r individual rulers of Egypt stcle we,1ring an iden1lc,,I a nd Mesopotamia has so far been lacking. Inscrip- headdress, ,1nd so t his hc,1d h.1s tio ns or Middle Kingd om Egy ptia n rul ers ha ve heen identified as that of the bee n fou nd on sta tu es at Megiddo, Qatna and great Babylonian ruler. Uga rit. T he peo ple o f 13y blos too had close links l-luwcvcr, it is equally likely lhJl with t he Egyptian s, writing the Semitic names o r ii represents ,1nolhcr ruler of the th eir rulers in Egyptian hie rog ly phs and ado pting period, rcrhaps of Eshnunn,1, as th e Egyptian title \\\"governor\\\". With the collap se of several fi nely ~.irvcd statues of the Middle Kingdom at th e beginning o f the I 8th rulers from P.shnu nnt-1 were ce ntury BC, the influe nces from the north and cast taken I(> Susa. Height 15 cm. beca me more important. A century la ter northern Egy pt was ruled by the Hy k sos, described as l?i,~ht The inscrlrtlon o n 1his \\\"chie ftains of a fore ig n hill count ry\\\", who had bronze a nd go ld ngurc rewn.ls close connections with the Middle Bronze lll th.it Lu-Nanna, for his god inha bita nts of Palestin e. Perha ps th e most surp ris- Martu and for the life of ing and most enduring of the achievements of H,1mmurabi, king of Babylon, Middle Bronze Age Pa lestin e was th e inve nti on o f 1i1,1de ,, pr,,yinAstoluc of copper the alpha bet, whose use became widespread during with its !'Jee plated in gold, a nd the La te Bronze Age. dedicated it to be the scrvJnt of the god. Believed lo have been 38\\\" 40- foun d ,11. Larsa. it may date from SUBART\\\\.I \/ the end of l l,1111mur,1bi's reign (! 750 nc). llclght 19.5 cm. \\\\i ~ Chaga, Baza, 0 46' Catchem,sn ' \\\\ \\\\_ 10 Harran ) Siibar\u2022Enli 0 TUKRISH ~ 0~e11 B,ak oAIOppo \u2022]Tullul 0Shusnana 0 Et>a Emar 0 pHama 0 Tadmo, f (Palmyra) 00a1na 't HANA T I Terqaq Joadesn Man._ ,.,.. ( ' - - ,...J'-...(J ~ Hat~ SUHU I.A., \u2022 ~m':::tt:'wCode ane,en1 coulline OX1tnl OI 8abylon18n k1ngclom anc,ent COUISOOI nvo, under Hammutab, J)()S$40le ancienl - - ol IIYOI D ,msc LJ 17508C $Cale 1:4 000 000 100km 0 date of Bab)'IOnl:ln 1a1>1e1 f'1d 1780-1739 BC 70m, 1738-17208C \u2022 171~17008C uncenah IOalllon OI s110 120","TRAl)li AND WJ\\\\f\\\\FAHlo Hammurabi's kingdom Hammurabi, king of Babylon Hammurabi {1792 l7SO 11~). in the course of the second halfof The o utstanding fig ure of the early second mi llen- his reign, establbhcd control over much of Mesopotamia and nium was Hammurabi, king o f Ba bylon, w ho ruled ended the Independence of many cities. In t he prologue to his between l 792 and 1750 BC. Patient but ambi tio us, Law Code he cla imed lo have restored the temples in many cautious but resolute, he created an empire which, Mesopotamian cities. including Mari and Eshnunna, which he albei t s hort-lived, transformed the hist orical had destroyed, ,1s wdl ,1s Tuttul, Nineveh and Ashur. perspective of Mesopotamia. Baby lon became its Hammur,1bi's son Samsu-iluna political, cultural and religious center. According suppressed the rebellious Rim-Sin ll of Larsa, af1er which to Hammurabi's year-names he captured Uruk and the south of Babylonia appears 10 have been abandoned. There lsin in 1787 and ca mpaig ned aga inst Rapiqum and is lillle evidence for any occupation of Ur, Larsa, Kutalla, Malgium in 1784. A contract from 1783 suggests Uruk, Umma, Adab or Lagash (the southernmost dtic~ of that at t hat time Hammurabi may have been a Babylonia)aftcr 1719. In 1721 tablets dated to the reign of vassa l of Shams hi -Adad . lluma-ilu, king of the Scal.111<.I, For th e nex t 20 years Hammura bi devoted him- were written in Nlppur but no self (according to his year-names) to bui lding texts d~tcd to the 200 ycJrs following have been found at temples and canal::;, b ut in the 29th year of his !sin or Nippur. This lack of cvldenc~ In the 1outh may h,we reign he claimed vi ctory over an alliance or Elam, resulted from a catnstrophic alteration of the courses of the Subartu, Gutium, Eshnunna and Malgium. The rivers, from conquest by 1hc rulers of the Sealand, from fo llowing year, 1763, with tht: aid o r Mari and Esh- changes in burc,1ucratic practices, or from a combln,1tlon nunna he conquered Larsa, putting an end to the of all three. lo ng reign of Rim-Sin l. Two yea rs later h e defeated 0GodlnTepo Mari itself and destroyed it in 1757. In J755 he ' --- cap tured Es hn unna by diverting the waters a round SHIMASHKI> the city, so disposing of the last o r h is Mesopota- mian riva ls. ln the prolog ue to his Law Code, Ham- murabi listed the gods and t heir cities that supported him, from Mari and T uttul in the west, to As hu r and Nineveh o n the Tigris, and down to Ur, Eridu and Girsu in the south. property was div ided between th e sons, resulting in ever sma ller holdings or la nd . The 150 or so letters dea ling wit h Hammura b i's T he exact balance of the economy between the ad ministration or Larsa t hat have been preserved tem ple, the palace and t he private citi ze ns has so far been difficult to gauge from the avai lable show that he took great interest in the day- to-day sources. General ly, however, p alaces became more important features of Old Babylonian cities and t he running of the ca ptured state a nd de legated very power of the kings over the temples did not derive from the king's being the high priest of the city little responsib ility. Ha mmurabi is best remem- god, but from t he increased secu la r power he enjoyed . This was a lso reflected in the adoption of bered for his Law Code. Earlier codes of law mor e secular titles even though kings stil l claimed that they had been divinely ordained and were fo llowing a very simila r pattern were promulgated su pported by the god s. by Shulgi o f Ur, Lipit-Tshtar of l sin, a nd Dadusha As the power of the palace increased, so the private sector in agriculture, in indu stry and in or Eshnunna. Hammurabi defined the p urpose or commerce expand ed, as is shown by th e increasing numbers or cont racts, loa ns, and property sa les his Law Cod e as \\\" to ca u se justice to prevail in the between private indi vid ua ls in t he Isin- Larsa a nd Old Baby lonian periods. land, to destroy the wicked and the evil, t hat the Hammurabi's s uccessors strong may not oppress the weak\\\". He further Hammurabi's throne passed with o ut inciden t to his son Samsu-iluna. li owevcr, in 1742, th e ninth year ad v ised those seekin g justice to exa mine the Law of Sams u-iluna's reign, a rival from the soutb, Rim- Sin 11 of Larsa, occupied N ippur, t hough this Code and \u00a3ind the legal decision a ppropriate to the triumph was only sh ort-li ved as by the following year Samsu-iluna had reestablished his control of case. l n fact, there is little evide nce to suggest t hat t he city . Two yea rs later, in 1739, disaster st ruck southern Mesopotamia. Tablets from Nippur t he Law Code was used to red ress injustice, except showed t hat there had been an economic crisis at t hat time. Prices fo r land pl ummeted a nd the for the occas ional ment ic>n in legal documen ts of a num ber of land sales and sales of p ri estly officl:S soared. One possible cause was that Samsu-iluna stele that might have been Hammurabi's. The 282 mig ht have diverted the waters of the Euphrates south of Baby lon in order to sta rve Rim-Sin in to sections of the Law Code dealt with many subjects, surrender. Samsu-iluna's 11th year was named after the destruction of the wa lls of Uruk a nd including commercial law, fa mily law, property Larsa, and excavations at Ur showed that the city was, indeed, destroyed at th is time, Rim-Sin was law, slavery regu lati ons and fees, prices and wages, finally d efeated in 1737. Nippu r s urv ived this but as a code in itself it is neither complete nor compre hcnsi vc. \u00b7 The laws of Hamm ura bi presented an idealized view of Old Baby lonian society. A t the top was the king, who could a nd did intervene in all the affa irs of bis kingdom . Below him there were three social classes: the a.wilum (Akkadian for \\\"man\\\"), or free- man, the mushkenurn, whose exact status is uncertain but wbo was in some way a depend e nt of the state, and the wardum, or slave. Slaves coul d, however, own property in their own right and often appear to have led a better life tha n some members of the awilum class who bad to sell t hem- selves or their children into slavery to pay off their d e bts. The stan dard interest on loans was 33 per- cent for barley and 20 percent for s il ver. The awi- lum also had responsibilities to the state and may have had to pay taxes and perform m ili tary se rvice in t he royal army. On the death of an awilum, his 121","Transportation Below The same type of boat found in the Royal Cemetery at The most efficient way of transporting goods was Ur is still used by the Marsh by water, as most places in Mesopotamia could be Arab~ of southern Iraq today. reached through a network of rivers and canals. Although normally a boat for Ships also sailed down the Gulf and on the Medi- terranean and the Phoenicians may even have cir- fishing, it can also serve, as here, cumnavigated Africa. Where travel by water was for the transportation ofgoods not possible, normally donkeys or mules served as such as reeds. beasts of burden and sometimes human porters were used. After about 2000 BC the introduction of the horse enabled messengers to travel more quickly. Camels became increasingly important with the rise of the desert tribes in the first millen- nium BC. Wheeled vehicles were known in the Near East from about 3500 BC. However, in the muddy conditions of the alluvial plains sledges were often more practical and in the mountains wheeled vehicles were useless before proper roads were built (the earliest of which may have been Urartian c. 800 BC). Local journeys were often made in carts with solid wooden wheels, which are still in use in the Near East today. The Sumerians had four- wheeled battle wagons pulled by asses. 11ft The earliest evidence for Below A ~ilver boat from the water transport in Mesopotamia is this baked clay model of a King's Tomb in the Royal Cemetery at Ur (2600 2500 ac). boat found in an Ubaid grave at Cylinder seals depict the gods Eridu in southern Iraq dating to (or their statues) traveling in before 4000 BC. The model has a similar boats, either propelled socket for a mast and holes for fastening the rigging and so has by paddles or pushed along been constructed as a sailing using a pole. boat. The discovery of Ubaid pottery as far away as the modern United Arab Emirates suggests tha1 there were competent sailors at this period. Length 26 cm. 122","TRADF. AND WARFARE Top The pictographic sign for a crisis, b ut 20 years later it too was abandoned and , cart in Uruk-period tablets was li ke the cities farther south, lay d esolate for several the same a, for a sledge but with cen t uries. the addition of two circle, for the wheels. This stone plaque, According to a later tradition, the First Dynasty which shows a ruler traveling in of the Sealand controlled the south, but so far no a sledge pulled by a bull, textual or archeological evidence of their presence probably dates to about 3000 BC. in the region at that time has been found. The Amorite d ynasty o f Babylon, however, survived Below top Baked clay model of a and continued to exercise its ru le over the cities covered wagon from northern along t he Euphrates almost as fa r as Mari. Farther Syria dating to the second half of upstrea m, t he independent kingdom of Hana flour- the 3rd millennium ac. Covered ished after the d estru ction of Mari, under its capi- wagons were also used by the tal city Terqa, w hich had previously been ruled nomadic Scy1.hlans who invaded from Mari. A pottery jar fo und at Terqa during the Near East in the middle of excavation of an unpretentious house contained the 1st millennium BC. cloves, suggesting that the trad ing links of Meso- potamia were as distan t as t he Far East, since the Above Relief showing a chariot natural habitat of cloves at that time was the East brought by the Lydians to the Indies (they were in troduced into East Africa only king of Persia at Persepolis c. mu ch later). 485 ac. Chariots were used in battle a nd in processions as well The final century of Old Babylonian rule made as by messenger,. no mention of mi litary campaigns in the year- names. However, two important documen ts t he Uft A reconstruction of the Edict of Ammisaduqa and the Venus Tablets- sledge in the tomb of Queen have been attribu ted to this later period and, in Puabi in the Royal Cemetery of particular, t he reign of Ammisaduqa (1646 1626 Ur. It was drawn by a pair of 13C). The first was a royal decreee, issued in the fi rst cattle. Sledges were also used 10 year of Ammisaduqa's reign, canceling the transport heavy loads such as personal de bts of the awilum class that had built up the enormous stone winged-bulls during t he previous reign. Earlier rulers including in Assyrian palaces. Hamm urabi had issued similar decrees to assist the state's economic activity. The Venus Ta blets, which included a reference to o ne of Ammisad uqa's year-names and so were probably produced in his reign, were a collection of obser vations on the rising and setting of the planet Venus. T he sequence described in t he obser- vations could have taken place only at certa in times as it is repeated at approximately 60-year intervals. This has give n rise to systems o r d ating Ammisaduqa's reign and those of other rulers of the dynasty, with d ifferences of 60 to 120 years. The Middle Chronology (used in this book) has placed Hammura bi's reign at 1792- 1750 BC; the High Chronology, w hi ch is becoming more popu- lar, puts it at 1848- 1806; and the Low Ch ronology, w hi ch was once adopted by man y scholars work- ing in Anatolia and the Levant but has fewer followers today_, places Hammurabi's reign at 1728- 1686. Hopefully, in the future, some refer- ence will be fo und among the thousands of tablets of the period linking events to a better-dated astro- nomica l phenomenon such as an eclipse, or research in the Levant will succeed in correlating the Mesopotamian sequence with the more reliably d ated Egyptian ch ronology. The population movements in the Near East that had brought the Amorites and Hurrians into con- flict with Mesopotamia continued with t he appear- ance of new peoples, as recorded in the Old Babyloni an texts. In t he ninth year of Samsu- iluna's reign, Kassites were mentioned for t he first time, wh ile at the beginning of the 16th cen t ury BC t he Hittites made their mark in Mesopotamia. In 1595 nc the Hitti te king Mursilis marched down the Euphrates and sacked Babylon, putting an end to the First Dy nasty of Babylon and usher ing in a dark age of some 150 years for which almost no information has so far emerged . 12)","Science The invention of writing in the fourth millennium w June 1 679 Left and be\/ou, Under the later BC allowed the inhabitants of the ancient Near East November 3 677 Assyrian king, a ,cicncc for the to record their knowledge of the world around July 11 680 February 27 673 them for posterity. Among the earliest texts were May 22 678 interprcl,lllon of cclcstiai September 3 674 June 10 669 phenomen3, ~specially .olar and lists of words belonging to certain categories, such July 2 671 lunar eclipses, was developed. A as birds, or city names, or professions. They were December 17 670 prediction based on a lunar used primarily to teach apprentice scribes how to <:clipsc depended on the time of the eclipse, the day of the write, but the systematic formulation of knowledge month, the month, the put of contained in them is evidence of an early scientific approach. the moon covered by the shadow and the direction in which the The counting systems used in the earliest texts shadow moved. The visibility of contain elements of the sexagesimal system, that is the planelS, particularly Juprtcr, counting in sixties. As 60 has many divisors, the system makes many calculations quite simple. In also affected the interpretation fact, it is still used today to measure time and angles. Two kinds of mathematical text have sur- of the phenomenon. To cscaP<\u2022 vived from the early second millennium BC: table the evil foretold by an eclipse a texts and problem texts. The former include multi- plication tables as well as tables of reciprocals, a,monarch would ,ometimc, squares, square roots, cubes and even some logar- ithms to bases 2 and 16. The problem texts covered appoint a substitute king. many topics, including the solutions of linear and who was killed after 100 days. quadratic equations, and computing the areas and when the true king resumed rhc volumes of different geometric figures. The Baby- throne. If the omen referred to lonian mathematicians reached a remarkable level both Assyria and Babylonia the of achievement. Although they normally reckoned rr as 3, they knew its more accurate value of 3} substitute was crowned in (3.125, close to the true value, to three figures, 3.142). They calculated the value of 2 correct to Nineveh and thcn again, 50 days within 0.000007. One exceptional tablet listed larer, in Babylon. Pythagorean triples of numbers such that the For the total eclipse of the square of the largest number equals the sum of the moon on the evening of 22 May squares of the otber two. These went from 45, 60, 678 BC the royal astrologer 75 up to 12,709, 13,500, 18,541. One of the most reported that the month and the amazing features of Babylonian mathematics was day referred to Elam and the that, though expressed in practical terms, it was direction of the eclipse showed essentially theoretical. that it foretold bad luck for Elam In the second millennium, omens based on and Amurru and good luck to celestial phenomena were recorded and obser- Subartu (Assyria) and Akkad vations of the celestial bodies occasionally made. In the first millennium the science of astrology (Babylonia). The eclipse of 27 became extremely impotant. By 700 sc signs of the zodiac had been identified and some of them still February 673 did not affect bear the same names. Systematic records were Assyria while that of 10 June kept, and by 500 BC the Babylonians could predict the movements of the moon and the occurrence of 669 was a bad omen for Assyria. eclipses with great accuracy. The earliest surviving Clearly astrologers had to horoscope, foretelling someone's future according exercise theirjudgment in the interpretation of the eclipses, to the positions of the celestial bodies at the time of but the practice of first their birth, comes from Babylonia and is dated 29 recording tht- observations and April 410 BC. In the following half-century alma- nacs predicting the positions of the sun, moon, then applying accepted theodcs planets and stars were compiled, one of which, in order to predict the outcome dating to AD 75, is the latest cuneiform tablet to Is thc basis of modern scientific have been preserved. roethod. Another branch of Mesopotamian science for N The significance of the quadrants N which there is much evidence is medicine. Two kinds of specialist dealt with disease: the ashipu E WE w practiced magic while the asu was a physician who prescribed practical remedies. Hundreds of s s different diseases were recognized. Quadrant obscured Direction of shadow 124","2 50 9 LI.ft This clay tablet is called the Above J\\\\ detail from the Ra,S.'.lm Babylonian M,1p of the World. lt Obelisk found JI Kalhu showing Abol'e In the cuneiform ,cript, ,how, ,1 circk l.1bclcd the ocean, uut,idc of which arc wondrou, tribute being weighed in front of number:, wen.\u00b7. written u~ang region, that ,,re dc,aibcd in the A,hurnJ,irpal II (883 859 B<.). wrticJI wedges for the unit, text. In the center\\\" the known world oriented with west at thl' Modern science b ba,cd on from I to 9 and diagonal wedges top. The box in the middle top 1> inscribed with the name of ,1ccurntc: ob~crv.;ition ~nd exact for rh<: ten, up to 50; &O wa, B,1byfon, and the name, of mca,urcment. Me,opot,1m1,1n weight, were ba,cd on the Ur,,~tu. Asovria and Der arc ,cxJ~c,imJJ ,v~tc.m. Thert\u00b7 were wriltcn on ihc right-hand ,idc. 60 ,hekd, to \u00b71 minJ and 60 Su,J i> pl,1ccd Jt the bu11om. The vert1caf line, going throui:h minas tu I talent. The mina B.1bylon mu,t represent the weighed about 0.5 kg. Then: Euphratc\u2022 river. The m.ip wa, may haw been different weight ,t.rndJrd, in different l'itic, A probably compo,s-d in Jbout text of about I900 u,\u00b7 rckr, 10 700 8<, though thi, copy w.1, the mmJ of l)ifmun. wh\\\"h mad,\u00b7 later. \\\\'ve1ghcd the ,amc '\\\" the written with., vertical wedge, ,1.,nd.,rd u11it of weight u,ed in which could ,1bo rcpn:,cnt I. the IIJrappan civili7..ition of the Indus valley. Thb i~ the po,11lonal or IJL-\/ow Hvc of ,1 ,ct of 17 bronze king Scnn,1chcrib (704 68 l BL\u00b7) weight, in the form of lion,. .1nd with their weight,. The a,place-value rnmu1on. which Wd> found at Kalhu. The IJrge,t cane>! weight, identincd with wl'igh, almo.i 20 kg and \\\"Jbout ccrt,1inty bl'iong to the l.,1rly in\\\\'ented before 2000 Jnd i, 10 cm lnng: the ,mafk,t weigh\u2022 Dyna,tic period in the middle ol s1111 used today. l n present Jbuut 50 g Jnd is only 2 cm long. the }rd millennium Ill. W,\u00b711:hts Some of the lion, were 1n;aibcd were commonlv rnade 1n 1hc terminology. in the number ,hape, ofduck; Jnd 11011, or 111 Akkad1Jn and 111 ArJmalc 111.1 the ,1i10g\u2022nI I ,tand, for I00, with the nJmc nf the A\u00bbyrlan wcrL\u00b7 ,phcricJI or b.irrl'i-,h.1pcd 10, I and n the cuneiform script the same method was u,ed but with power, of &O rather thJn power, of 10 (the ~cxJgnimal ratht\u00b7r than the decimal ,ystem). The sexag<.\\\"l>tmal point w,1, 1101 written, nor were ,,\u00b7ro.., until about 300 Bl'. The number wri11cn here could be read 2 x 60 + 5 x IO., 9 x I - I79 or 4:2 x J 59 x ,,10 - 2~') or C:Vl'n 2 x r,o- + 59 >< 60 - 1~- 740, or 2'><&0'+0 \u2794 59-7.259.111.1 parucular ca,e, u would be ca,y 10 tell from the cuntL'Xl which wa, inwndcd. 125","Technology Below This gold vase from the cemetery ofMarlik, just Before the Neolithic revolution there is little southwest of the Caspian Sea, evidence for technological expertise. Flint- and dating to about 1200 BC is a fi ne obsidian-working was certainly very competent example of the goldsmith's craft. but other, more advanced skills depended on a The heads of the winged bulls settled life-style. In the course of the next 6,000 were made a, one with the rest years the inhabitants of the Near East developed of the vessel. and the cars and almost all the techniques that formed the basis of horns attached separately. civilized life before the industrial revolution: Height 18 cm. architecture, transportation, metalworking, car- pentry, potting, glassmaking, textile manufac- Abo,\u2022e Glazed w,sch, similar 10 ture and leather-working, as well as the many those found in Babylonia and processes associated with farming and food Assyria, from the 1st millennium preparation. BC. By 4000 Be faience (an .1rtificial gl.1zed material) was Of fundamental importance were irrigation and made in Mesopotamia, but gi,ize flood control, which allowed the development of was not applied to pottery until southern Mesopotamia and gave rise to a number of subsidiary technologies of water management, the 2nd millennium n,. The including canal-building, water storage, drainage and so on. probkm was to match the gla'-e to the body ~o that it did not For some crafts, such as pottery or metalwork- crack. llcight c. 8 cm. ing, it is possible to determine the processes used from surviving artifacts. A few texts give detailed Below Illustration from the walls information on the methods employed in glass of the palace of Sennacherib manufacture, perfume-making, brewing and tan- (704 681 ac) at Nineveh showing ning, while others contain a wealth of detail on the how the mas~ive stone economics of the industries. sculptures that were pl,1ccd in the doorways of Assyrian clay hollow mold palaces were transported. The statues were roughed out in the ~ quarry and placed on a va,1 sledge resting on wooden rollers. I' The sledge was pulled to the river by prisoner, and floated downstream to the city. wax model Above left The cire perdue, or perhaps originally native natural lost-wax method of casting complicated shapes in bronze, metallic copper, and soon gold or silver was invented in afterward copper was smelted the 4th millennium BC. The from ore. ln the 4th millennium gold, silver and lead also came earliest examples arc from the Nahal Mishmar hoard in into use. The properties of Palestine. First, a model was copper were much improved by made out of wax. This was alloying with other metals: lin t covered with fine clay to form a arsenic, then tin, lead and zinc mold. which was then heated so (c. 700 ac). In the 2nd that the wax melted and ran mlllennium ac iron and steel away. Molten metal was poured were manufactured but they did not become important until the lnto the clay mold which would 1st millennium ec. be broken open to release the complete object . The earliest objects were shaped by hammering but by As early as the Accramic the end of the 6th millennium Neolithic period objects were copper artifacts were cast from manufactured out of copper, molten metal. 126","Below The invention of glass in al-Rimah and dates to the 15th about 1600 BC was one of the century BC. The shape imitates greatest achkvcmcnt, ofthe Mesopotamian craftsmen. There that of pottery goblets of the ,,re a few isolated examples of period. It was moldrd on a core. glass beads from earlier times Rods of colored glass were let into the still plastic surface of but these probably arose ,is the vessel ,ind then dragged up vitrified faicnce bcJds. The and down to create the zigzag vessel shown was found at Tell pattern. Height 13.4 cm. '\\\":\u00b7\\\\__. ._'\\\\,.r. z V.-; Above The plJin, of southern ..\/ :, Mcsopot,1mia arc scarred by th<: I (. lines of canals and their ,poi! \\\"\\\" ' ,'. ' bank;. Some arc \u2022till in use today. hringing life-giving ,vatcr -~ , Above Molded relief In baked \u00b7' to the fertile field,: others have ciay from about 1900 BC ,howing long ,incc been aband<med. \u00b7\u2022 ~~ff a carpenter working with an adz, 'r Canal, had 10 be carelully like those used in the region designed ,o that they did not ,ilt \u00b7-~ ~ today. Except in unusually dry t up 100 quickly. ~ conditions the products of the l.Rft DetJil from Sennacherib's .\u00b7.\u2022\u25ba\\\\~\u2022)' - .,.....\\\" - carpenters' art have not been . \u00b7-~-\\\\ pal.1ce at Nineveh showing J preserved from the ancient Near workman using J ~hod11f. or ~. F..ast. Height 8 cm, width 7.6 cm. i -;,,-.m,~9, counterbalanced water-lifting device. to r.abe water into a Right A 9th-century Be relief canal. Thi, ,implc 1001 wa\u2022 in from Kalhu. The projecting u,c from the 3rd millennium BC banering ram of an Assyrian though it wa, seldom depicted siege engine has been caught by on monuments. a chain held by the defenders of the city. Many technical 127 advances were made in pursuance of warfare.","Everyday Life In archcological excavations the vast majority of R1ghc lmpre~slon of a shell the finds consist of the items discarded by the cylinder ,eat ofthe Akkadian people of the time- broken pieces of pottery, period (c. 2200 sc) showing an animal bones, and so on. Most of this waste has ox pulling a seeder plow. The resulted from household activities, but there are seed was fed through a funnel many aspects of the daily lives of the people that and dropped directly into the are still unknown. Often the remains of the past furrow. Height ).2 cm. can be interpreted by comparing them with con- temporary practices, with the caveat that, the daily Below Several ~uch po11ery routines of the inhabitants of the Near East have mold~ were found in the kitchen changed slowly but perceptibly over the millennia area of the palace at Mari (18th and that what is true today was not always so. century ec). Some were circul.,r with motifs ofanimals. other; Such research has been devoted to the study of shaped like fi;hcs. The excavator the elites of the ancient world the kings and suggested that they were used to nobles, priests and generals-who arc the subjects prepare dbhes for the king's of the surviving texts, whereas the lives of the table. perhaps for cheese or common people have been largely ignored. Far bre~d or ,ome delicacy. more is known about temples and palaces than about the houses that ordinary people lived in. . . .\u00b7,,I,;.,...;.,-;-:\u2022 Most ancient Near Eastern societies were domi- nated by men and only a handful of women stand \u00b7\u00b7\u00b7~--\u00b7-- - out as individuals. The lives of most women and children arc only occasionally illustrated by the \u00b7~ archcological remains. Right Sieve pot, probably from the region to the southwest of the Caspian Sea. dating to the end of the 2nd millennium Bl, Pottery ves~ds were made In a variety of differem shapes for diffcrcnt purposes ,ind are the most commonly found objects of daily life. Height c. l l cm. Abo,\u2022t' Metal vc,sels 1,11:re Right Care for the dead was an normally made by hammering important duty for the ll\\\\\u2022ing. ouc sheecs of metal. A\\\\ the This bone or ivory panel was materials and che manufacture found in the Tomb of the Lord were expensive, they were luxury items and the poorer of the GoJI> in the ccmctcrv beneath the Western Palace at people hJd to be content with Ebia and dates to about 1750 Be pottery or leather containers. The ,cene ,hows a banquet that This bronze ve\u00bbcl with a ca,t wa, probably part of the funeral bronzc ,pout ending in a lion's rites. The bone or ivory carved head looks very much like a modern kettle but was probably figures were fixed onto the not u,cd for boiling water. II b,,cking strip with bronze pegs. may have been made in western lran in early bt millennium Re. Height 4 cm. Height 20 cm. 128","l,1.1i Relief from 1hc pJIJc<.' of A,hurnasirp,11 (883 859 s,) JI Kalhu ,howing ,ervan1, preparing food for the king inside J circular camp. IJ011vm h1t This model of a hou,c m.,de of bJked clay i, sJid to have been found near Hama in western Svria and 10 da1c to 1hc 3rd millennium Bl'. \/\\\\ll,Khcd to the wall of the hou,e arc row, of bird,. It wa, probably J votive offering and so 1hc dctail, may not be accurate. Height 42 cm. 8'-loll' In 1he Ubaid period in ,ou1hcrn Mesopo1amia sickles were: made our of baked day nm flint or ob,idian as elsewhere in the Near E.Jst. As the price of met,1b dccrea,ed. flr,1 bron1,c and then iron w..:rc: more: generally u,ed for tool, and weapon,. Bouom r1sh1 Seal impression from Susa of a man climbing., ladda and carrying something on hi, back. It ha, been identified a,,, worker filli ng J grain store. In the '1th and 3rd millennia ;pcc1,1l room; resting on parallel ,leeper wall, were construc1ed for 1hc storage of grain. Later. large pit~ dug into 1hc ground were more commonly u,ed . Hdgh1 l .4 cm. 129","loVERYD\/\\\\ Y LIFE Below The women in this relief (c. 630 612 \u2022c) from the Southwest Palace a1 Nineveh are being deported after a campaign In Babylonia. One woman gives J child a drink from a ,kin bag. Ab<w,\u00b7 Spinning and weaving the fomily . Here, an Elamitc lady Below Molded relief in baked day ofa naked woman on a bed. were generally done by women accompanied by a servant with a ,n the ancient Near Ea,t. A, in Such figures have been ma11y pans of the region today, fan is making thread using a associated with a sacred marriage the manufacture oftextile, ceremony. This one wa, po,sibfy spindle. The relief. from the 8th made in Elam c. 1750 RC. within the house was an or 7th century BC was found on the Acropoli> at Susa. Length c. 12 cm. Important source of income for Height 9.3 cm. width 13 cm. Above Items like this arc either clas,ined as toys or as votive objects. The hedgehog is of limestone, and the cart from a bituminous stone. Originally there was a second animal behind the hedgehog. Length of car 6.7 cm. Left Cosmetics were worn by both men and women in the ancient Near East. This faience vessel may have contained kohl (black eye-paint). Similar vessels have been found at Hasanlu in northwest Iran dating to the early 1st millennium BC. Height c. 7 cm. t JO","PART THREE EMPIRES","ALLIES AND ENEMIES (1600~1000Bc) The r ise of Egypt Left Statue of King ldrimi, the ruler of Alal,1h, found buried in At t he beginning of the 16th ce nt ury, the Hittite the tem ple. It is made of white king Mu rsilis dest royed Ale ppo and brough t Ham- stone, with eyes and eyebrow, murabi's d ynasty in Babylon to an end. On his inlaid in black stone. The king is return to Anatolia, Mu rsilis was murdered by his seated on a raised throne 1\u00b7c.stlng on a basalt base. A long brother-in- law who seized the th ro ne. Very soon inscription covers the body of internal dissen sion and Hurrian e ncroac hm ent h ad the ruler, giving the details of his life. His family came from reduced the Hittites' realm to the neig hbor hood of Aleppo but he fled fro111 there and after many years of their ca pital. The Nea r East fell into decl ine o r, at wandering became ki ng of\\\" Alal,1h and a va,sal uftlie least, obscurity. There are almost no sources of dynasty of Millaril. information from the following century in the Near Height 1.04 m. East, a nd w hat is known has been derived from later accounts . The an cient Near East was divided between five or s ix major powers. Th e sleeping giant Egypt lay to the south west, while t he Hur- rian kingdom of M ittani controlled th e Leva n t a nd northern Mesopotamia including Assyria and t he land s t o th e cast o f the Tigris . Anatolia was rul ed by the Hittites in the center and Arzawans in the west. Th e Kassitcs were in charge or southern Mesopotam ia, a nd southwestern Ira n was ruled by the Elamites. The first power to rev ive was Egypt. While the Egy pt ian Delta was ruled by t he Asiatic dy nasty of the Hyksos, control of Upper Egy pt lay with the n ative Egyptia n 17th Dynasty. In about 1555 Kamose, the last king of the 17th Dy nasty, a ttacked the Hyksos rulers. His brother \/\\\\hmose (1 550- 1525 return journey, Tuthmosis took pa rt in an elepha n t RC), w ho replaced him, continued t he struggle a nd h unt in tbe swampy region ofNiya, perhaps on the after about twenty years su cceeded in driving the Orontcs river. The presence of elephants in Syria at Hyksos out. Ahmosc, who is reckon ed to ha ve t his time might be surprising, but elep ha nt bones been th e first k ing of the 18th Dynasty, restored da ting to before Tuthmosis' invasion have been the boundaries of Egypt both to the south a nd to found at Alalah on the Orantes a nd at Kumidu in the north, creating th e New Kingdom. the Leban on. The species that Tuthmosis h unted Und er T uthmosis I (1 504- 1492 BC), Egypt broke has been ca lled the Syrian elep hant, d istinct from out of its traditional borders. Tuthmosis' armi es both the African a nd the Ind ia n, but the pictures in cam paigned 800 kilometers south of Thebes as fa r the tomb of Rc khmirc and a tooth from a later level as Nubia a nd 1,200 kilomc t\u00b7crs n orth, as far as the at t he site o f Arslan tcpe (Malatya) h ave identified Euph rates. T he Egy ptia ns, w ho were used to the the species as the India n elephant. Whethe r these Nile Oowing from north to so uth, were amazed at elepha nts were introduced , h owever, or were t he Eup hrates, which they described as \\\"water survivors from a much earlie r time is uncerta in . that goes downstream in goi ng upstream\\\". On his (Interestingly, they received no mention in the Mari texts.) T uthmosis did not identify his en emi es but Kings of the Egyptian 1550-1525 called the area he reached Nahrin, mea ning the 18th Dynasty 1525-1504 river land . A fragn1cntary inscription that was Ahmose 1504-1492 probably from his reig n included t he n ame Mait- Amenophis I 1492- 1479 tani, the country later called Mittani, which Tuthmosis I rivaled Egypt for control of the Levant until the Tuthmosis II midd le of the 141h century BC. Tuthmos1s Ill 1479-1425 Mittani and the Hurrian dynasty Hatshepsut 1473-1458 The Assyrians called t he country of Mittani Hani- Amenophis II 1427-1401 galbat, while to the Hittites it was t he \\\"land of the Tuthmosis IV 1401 -1391 Hurrians\\\". The Hurrians had first appeared more Amenophis Ill 1391-1353 than 700 years ea rlie r, and by the ea rly second mil- Amenophis IV (Akhenaten) 1353-1335 lennium had formed numerous minor princi palities Smenkhkare 1335-1333 to th e north and east of Mesopotamia. By about Tutankhamun 1333-1323 1480 oc t hese had been un ited under Parrattarna, Aya 1323-1319 the overlord of King Idrimi. An autobiographical Haremhab 1319-1307 inscriptio n on t he statue of Idrimi found in Alala h 112","ALLIES ANO ENEMIES Right The valley of Jczrcel, known In the Bihlc as Esdraelon, provides the easiest route from the coast to the Jordan valley. It also lies on the m.iin route from north lo sou th, and so control of the v,1llcy was an important goal for the Egyptian invaJcrs. The city of Megiddo lay at the he,,d of the 1110,t important p,1ss over the Carmel range. leading from the Jczreel valley lo the coastal plain ofSharon. recounted how he and his c ider brothers had fled of Mesopotamia, b ut this Parrattarna might have from Aleppo (Halab), the home of his ancestors, to been a later ruler. take refuge wit h his mother's relatives in Emar. Thinking to himself nothing venture, nothing ~ain, Why Jd rimi had fled from Aleppo is not clear, he too k \\\" his horse, his chariot, and his g room' and but it was possibly due to an incursion by the Hur- set out to seek his fort une in Canaan . He spent ria ns, following the invasion of Tuthmosis I. The seven yea rs among the Hapiru before setting sail Egyptia n king's son Tuthmosis II (1492- 14 70 BC) for the land o[ Mukish, w here he established him- ca mpaigned in Nubia and in Palestine, but d ied self. From there, after a furt her seven years, Idrimi when his own son was stil l a child, and his widow sent an ambassador with tribute to Parrattarna, the Hatshepsut became the ruler of Egypt and pro- Hurrian king, and having swo rn a binding oath as claimed herself p haraoh. Soon after her death her a loyal vassal he became king of Alalah and ru led stepson Tuthmosis Ill (1479 1425 BC) embarked on for 30 yea rs. The d eath of a k ing called Parrallarna a series of campaig ns in the Levant, which were was also mentioned in a text from Nuzi, to the cast recorded in detail on the wa lls or the Great Temple of Amun at Thebes. Kings of Mittan! SHUTTARNA I (son of K,rta) In the 22nd year of his reign Tuthmosis invaded - - - - Blood relallonsh1p uncertain Palestine. The best rou te f'rom Egypt to the Leva nt PARRATTARNA followed the Roman Via Maris alo ng the coast, crossing Mount Carmel into the Jczrccl valley SAUSHTATAR (Esdraclon), and then either continued along the coast past Tyre and Sidon to the north or followed (son of Parsalalar) the line of t he rift valley alo ng the Jordan river, the Bega' va lley and the Orontes river. From the Jor- I d an valley a second route led northeast to Damas- I cus, where it joined the King's Highway running I north- south from the Gulf of Agaba along the edge of t he d esert. Tuthmosis followed the Via Maris, ARTATAMAI but on receiving news that the ruler of Qadesh and his allies had entered Mcgiddo in the Jczrccl I valley, Tuthmosis, according to his inscription, SHUTTARNAII went against the ad vice of his genera ls by choosing I II t he most direct but most difficult of t he three roads ARTASHUMARA TUSHRATTA I through the mountain to arrive behind the enemy I lines. T he Egyptians were victori ous in the battle I t hat fol lowed and might have ca ptured the city of ARTATAMA II Mcgiddo immediately if they had not stopped to SHATTIIVAZA loot the belongings of the defeated left on the I battlefield. In fact, it took a siege of seven months I before the city fc!J. SHUTTARNAIII I Tuthmosis co ntinued to campaign in Palestine I and the Levant for the next 20 years of his reign, SHATTUARAI I WASASHATTA I I I SHATTUARAII 133","EMPIRES scaJt 1 8000 000 200km 0 ' - - aCJ ) --;-} KIZZUWAT#A J ~H,; f IWURRU 1)0.U,, .__,_ I I MEDITERRANEAN SEA IIJl)(OXd!III&9Klenl of tffll)Ote1 t.1500 BC 0 11a111 D M\u2022IIIR o ~LJEgypl _ ___ a,,c,en1coutJ,ne ----ofn'ffl \u2022\u2022\u2022. . \u2022 POSS,cltanc,ent ccineof,.,., removing rebels a nd appointing local rulers loyal The e mpi re o f Mitta ni C1bove Washukanni bu t 11, locat ion i, half of the former Mittanian to Egypl. His greatest success came in his 33rd yea r T he hi,tory of Mlua ni is 110 1 well empire w hile the eastern half as ki ng, w hen he crossed the Eu phrates in the kno wn . The texts that have been uncertain. It is often suggested was held by the new ly co urse of his eigh th campaign. On his ret urn, he, found come mo>tly from the that it w,,s Tell al-l'akhariyeh , to Indepe ndent ru lers of the city of like his grand fa t her before him, hunted a he rd of fr inge, of the emp ire, from Ashur. After a centu ry during elephants in Niya. In these cam paigns, T uthmosis Alalah in the west and from Nuzi the wcsc of Tell Brak, but this i:, which there Is no information received g ifts (from, among othe rs, the Assy rian In the cast. The heartla11d of the argua ble . Mlllan i was the a boul Baby lonia. in the 15th and H ittite ru lers), t ribu te a nd booty, which were empire wa, probably in the principal ri val of Egy pt for century nc IC re-emerged under recorded in great d eta il. Tu thmosis also recorded upper reach es o f the Habu r control of the Levant until the the rulers of chc Kassitc d y nasty . h is interest in acquiring rare and exoti c plants and river. The capit.11 was called animals, including a foreign bird t hat laid eggs rise of the lfillite~ in the 14th 38' every d ay (pro ba bly t he domestic ch icke n). Red DHazazsos century ac. Al this cimc the j u ng le fowl was fi rst d omestica ted in the Far East as lfillites occupied the western ea rly as 6000 BC, b ut t he fi rst relia ble d iscoveri es of 6~ chicken bones in t he Near East date to t he last ce nt uries of the second mi lle nnium uc (as docs one scaJt I; 20 700 000 600ml of' the f'i rst re presen tations, a n incised draw ing on 0 4001!\\\\t an ivory comb from a tom b a t Ash ur). T uthmosis lis ted more t ha n three h un dred prin ces at t he ba ttle o f Mcgiddo and more tha n o ne h u ndred places that he had conque red. Most of t hese we re in Palestine, but only a bout half of them have been ide ntified . A lmost all Midd le Bron ze Age IIJ s ites have show n signs o f destruction at a bout t h is time, most pro bably attr ibu ta ble to th e Egyp tian in vasions, w ith later levels being assig ned to th e Late Bronze Age. Thus, by the end of Tut hmosis' reign, Palestine was d iv ided u p into small city states owing allegia nce to Egypt. Further north, in t he Le va nt, Egyptian infl ue nce was matched by t hat of the rulers of Mittani. The conflict con tin u ed in the reign of Ameno- phis II (1 427- 1401 BC), the son of Tuth mosis. In 142 1 he crossed t he Orontcs, captured N iya and 134","(\\\\l, LIES \/\\\\ND ENEMIES city menliontdIn lie Amarna1e11a,s tOOkm Qadesh and, on his return journey, in the coastal 70ml plain south of Mount Carmel, he \\\"found a mes- e w,th,uler senger of the Prince of Nahrin carrying a clay tablet at his neck and took him prisoner\\\". Amcno- \u2022 other phis listed the spoils fro m this campaign as: \\\"mar- yannu [nobles] 550, t heir w ives 240, Canaanites M city w,thEgyptian governor 640, children of princes 232, female children of princes 323, female musicians of th e princes of scale t : 2 600 000 foreign lands 270, together with ... sil ver and gold 0 ... horses 820, chariots 730, with all their weapons of war\\\". According to Amenophis' own accoun t, T he Near East ii, the time of 36\u00b7 when news of his grea t victory reached t hem, the princes of Nahrin, of Hatti and of Sangar all sent the Amarna letters tribute. Nahrin has been identified with M ittani, In the reigns of Amenophls Ill Hatti with the Hittites, and Sangar (somewhat (1391 1353 uc) and his son, the doubtfully) with Babylon. heretic pharaoh, Akhenaten The ru ler of Mittani at this time might have been (Amcnophis IV; 1353 1335 uc) Saushtata r. Two tablets found at Alalah recorded Egyptian inOuencc extended as judgments made by Saushtatar and were impressed far north as Ugarit. Letters w ith a seal inscribed \\\"Sh uttarna, son of Kirta, king written in Babylonfan cuneiform of Maitani\\\". This Shu ttarna is otherwise unknown, but using the sea l of an earlier ruler to giv<.: legiti- found at Akhcnacen's c.1pital, macy to one's own rule was a custom that was Akhetaten (modern TcU practiced by later Mitta nian rulers, as well as by al-Amarna), recorded the Idr imi's son, the ruler o f Alalah, and by Assyrian pharaoh's relations with his kings. Saush tatar arbitrated between his vassals, vassals and with the rulers of Niqmepa of Alala h and Shunashura, king of Kiz- zuwatna (Ci licia), but probably did not retain more distant, independent control over Kizzuwatna, as a ki ng of Kizzuwatna kingdoms (map bottom left). called Shunashura is known to have made a t reaty More than half of the cities w it h the Hittites that in validated an earlier t reaty mentioned in the letters can be w it h Mittani. Saushtatar's seal has been fo und on identified but the rest arc still ta blets at Nuzi and at Tell Brak, where it was used i.tnknown. on documents of two later kings of Mittani. Arta- shumara and Tushratta, the grandsons of Saushta- ANJd ~ tar's successor. The treaty between Shattiwaza and the Hittite king Suppiluliumas recorded how Slmurru e AMURRU ~ s l Saushtatar sacked Ashur and carried off a silver and gold d oor to his capital Washukan ni. Ardato 1\u2022 Arq1j0 !Oadesh The whereabouts of Washukanni is u ncerta in. Tn e Amm~ abwa Middle Assyrian texts, the town was called Ushu- 8a1roun kani, and because of the similarity of the names it has been tentative!y identified w ith the 9th- Byblos century BC tow n of Sikanu. Sikanu, as a resu lt of t he discovery of a statue of its ruler, is now known APU to to be Tell Fakhariych, near Ras al-Ain in north- east Syria. However, excavation has so fa r fa iled to Sidon Kumldu \u2022 show extensi ve settlement in the Mittanian period . Furthermore, the clay used in the ta blets of Tush- Tyre 0 0an ratta, w hich were probably produced in Washu- kanni, has been shown to be different from that e Hannaton \u2022 Ashlaroth used in Midd le Assyrian tablets from Tell Fakha- riych. Information about the Mittanians has come e Achsllaph I.:,~:t either from foreign archives- Egyptian, Hittite or Shlmron e Assyrian or from the periphery of the Mittani state, Alalah and Nuzi. Recent excavations at Tell Mogkldo \u2022 e Shunem Brak have uncovered a small temple and part of a palace containing texts that included legal deposi- Taanach\u2022 \u2022 lh-Shan tions made in the presence of the Mittanian ruler, but so far t he lack of a major native archive has Glne e serio usly limited knowledge of the Mittani kingdom . \u2022 oam-Padalia The Arnarna letters t:~- ~Shecnom\u2022 In the reign of Tuthmosis TV (1401- 1391 BC) rela- - tions between Egypt and Mittani changed from Gezer \u2022 \u2022 Aljalon conflict to peaceful alliance, which was cemented by diplomatic marriages. According to a letter C cEkron unkleniilled clllas wnh rulers written two generations later, the pharaoh had menlioned inthe Amarna lellers Jerusalem \u2022 Ashkelon Arashnl \u2022 Kellah gri'.fennl Enl$hasl e Gm e ~achls\/1 Glnllashna Gln1,klrmal e Yurza Guddashuna Halunnu e Zoar Mushlhuna Nazlba RuhlZZI Shaskhlnl Tubu Tunanad Tushuilu 36. 135","EMl'lllES -\u00b7\u00b7~ - ..- indication of the extent of Hurrian influe nce. Tn fact, Egyp tian so urces mentioned a tribe called . \u00b7-~ . Hurri who lived in Palestin e. ~-e\u2022~~~...~,, >.: _, ,....,'.~. Letters from these r ulers and governors include .. _.._ profession s of loyalty, requests for assistance and ~ accusations aga inst neighboring city r ulers. A co n~ Stant menace to the settled population were noma- '\\\"1~-- di c tribes, of whom the two main groups, t h e Sutu an d the T-lap iru, had both figured in the earlier asked Artatama, king of Mittani, seven times for Mari letters. Whether there was any con nectio n Above This painted potte,\u00b7y head the h a nd o r his daughter before Artatama between the Ha pir u and the Hebrew tribes o r lsrael of a man was found in the pJlacc responded . This alliance, perhaps made to thwart is doubtful, but very likely the IsracHtes too were Jt Dur-Kurlgalzu. the capital of growing Hi ttite and Assyria n power, brought wandering, homeless, dispossessed people. the Babylonian Kassites. Its style about a peace between the two kingdoms t hat is unlike MesopoLamian works of lasted for at least forty years during which tim e The Amarna letters also recorded diplomatic art of lhc period but Is similar to two more princesses from Mitta ni went to j o in the exchanges with t he rulers of independent coun- Egyptian figures of the 18th pharaoh 's harem. The period was documented in tries including Mitta ni, Hatti, Arzawa in the west Dynasty. He ight 4 cm. the diplomatic corres pondence of Amcnophis Ill of Asia Minor, Al ash iya (Cy prus), Assyria and Baby lon. These rulers treated with the pharaoh on Lejc One of the fellers found at (1391 1353 nc) and Amenophis rv (1 353- 1335 BC) eq ual terms, addressi ng h im as their \\\"brother \\\" l\\\\marna (ancient Akhetatcn) in (w h ereas a vassal ruler used language such as \\\"the central E!gypt. These letters, of Egypt. king, my lord , my sun god, I prostrate myself at written in Akkndian cuneiform T hree hundred and fifty letters writte n in cunei- the feet of my lord , my su n god , seven times a nd On clay tablets, were part of the seve n times\\\"). Some of the le tters were requests for diplomatic correspondence of form on clay tabl ets have been found at Tell el- Egypt's assistan ce aga inst the encroac hmen ts of the pharaoh, Most of them Mc Amarna, or Akhetatcn, which became Amcnophis neighboring states; others ch ronicled the marriages concerned with the situation in !V's capital when he changed his name to Akhe na- of the pharaohs Lo Babylonian or Mittan ian prin- Palestine. In this letter the ruler tcn and embarked on the religious reforms that cesses. Amenophis III's wedding w ith Kilu-Hepa, of Amurru tried to cxpl,1it1 why made him notorious in later Egyptian memory. daughter ofSh u t ta rna TI, the son of A rtatama T, was he hlm~elf ha,I not received the More than 300 of the letters concerned the govern- cele brated in bis 10th year (1381 BC). He also mar- pharaoh'~ envoy though he had ment of Palestine and the Levant. The regio n was ried Tatu-Hepa, the da ughter o f Tushratta (Shut- received the envoy of the Hittite divided into three provinces, each with an Egyp- tarna's son), w ho la te r ente red t he harem or king. t-le also sent 1he king d gift tian governo r: Ca naa n in the so uth, with the gover- Ame no phis IV (Akhe na ten). Often the precisely of a ship, oil and limber. nor at Gaza, Amurru on the Leva ntine coast, with detailed dowries were matched by requests for the center al Simurru, and Apu in the interior, gifts from Egypt. For instance, Tushratta, having administered from Kumidu . (T he re may also have g iven away his daughter Tatu-Hepa, suggested that been Egy ptia n garrisons in Jaffa and in Be th-S han.) the pharaoh might send him a statue or her cast in gold so that he would not miss her! Other Egyptian officials were responsible to these governors, as were the local rule rs of Twice, when Ameno phis Ill was ill, Mittania n Ashkelon, Lachis h, Jerusalem, Gezer, Sheche m, kings se nt t he statue of the goddess Ishta r of Nin- Pella, Mcgiddo, Achshaph , Shimron, Acco, Hazor, eveh to Egypt. On the first occasion , in the reign of Ty re, Sidon, Beirut, Damascus, Byblos, Qadesh, Shuttarna, t he goddess seems Lo ha ve proved an Qatna, Ugarit and other cities, all or whom were effective remedy, but the second time, in Tushrat- subject to the pharaoh. Most of these rulers had ta 's reign, it proved less successfu l, as Amenophis Semitic names, but even in Ca naa n some, su ch as III died in about I 353 BC. Some scholars have put the ruler of J erusalem, bad Hurrian n ames- an this event as ea rly as 1379, and others as late as I 340 13C. The disagreement is based on d iffere nt dating o f astronomical observations in the reigns of Tuthmosis rrr and Ramesses IT and on different esti- mates for the le ngths of the co-regen cies o f t he pharaohs. The dates or the non-Egyptian kings arc equally uncertain. As fa r as Assyrian kings arc concerned , an eclipse of the sun in 763 DC has provided a fixed point for working out the earlier reigns in conjun ction with the lengths of reign recorded in the Assyrian King List. However, two copies of t h e list give different lengths of reign for one of the kings at the beginning of the 12th century and the dates given here may be 10 years too early. The dating of the Hittite, Mitta nian, Babylonian and Elamite kings is based on the Egyptian a nd Assyrian chronologies and is there- fore even more unreliable. The Indo-Aryan connection Although most of the names of people from Alalah and at Nuzi were Hurrian, some of t hei r rulers' names were not Hurrian but had possible Indo- Aryan (Vedic Sanskrit) derivations. These incl uded : Tushratta, w hose name meant \\\" whose I 36","ALLIES AND ENEMIES Right The imprcssinn nr I he The power of the Hittites stamp seal of the Hittite king One of th e Amarna letters was written by the Hit- Muwat,11lis II, w ho fough 1 tite king Suppiluliumas to preserve the am icable Ramc~scs II at t he bauic or relatio ns between his people and th e Egyptians Qadcsh i,1 1285 oc. This ci,1y that had been established \\\"i n the reign of the pha- raoh's father\\\". (The ide ntity of the p ha raoh is not sealing was found in the citadel certain, but it was probably Ame nophis JV.) From of Hauusas, the Hittite capital. it the time of the sack ing of Baby lon in 1595 l!C to the shows the wc,1thcr god of Haui, middle of the 14th century li ttle information has emerged about the Hittites. They were mentioned the chiefgod ofthe Hittite in L:gyptian records a nd were riva ls of M ittani for pantheon, cmbrJcing the Hit1i1e the control of Kizz uwatna (Cilicia) and Ishuwa, the king. ihe hieroglyphic region aro und Hie upper Eu ph rates. Their later inscrip1inn record, 1he 11.,mc ,rnd history is preserved in the 10,000 ta blets fou nd in lilies or the ki ng, .,nd lhe S,lllle t he palace and temple archives of t heir ca pital, Hat- tusas. These contained a variety of texts, w ritten information is included in the mostly in H ittite and Akkadia n, some o f whi ch cuneiform Illllite inscription belonged to the Mesopotamian scribal tradition encircling the seal. and included word- lists, vocabu laries a nd medi cal texts as well as lists of omens and clay models o[ Diameter 5.6 cm. li vers used in making prophecies. There were also translat ions in to Hitti te (and occasional ly into Hur- Kings of Hatti ch ariot su rges forward violently\\\", Artatama ri an) of some of the Baylo n ian epics, such as the (\\\"whose abode is justice\\\") a nd Shattiwaza Epic of Gilgames h, a nd the tales of Sargon of Agade (\\\"acquiring booty\\\"). In the trea ty between Shat- and o f Naram-Sin. Other texts record ed re ligious tiwaza and t he Hittite king Suppiluliumas, the ceremonies, praye rs, hy mns and funeral practices. nam es of some of the gods invoked M itras il, Aru- Co pies of royal d ecrees an d treaties between the nasil, Indar, Nasattyana- were close to those of the Hittites and thei r neig hbors were also preserved Indo-Aryan god s Mitra (Mit hras), Varuna, Indra and, from the reign or Mursilis II (Supp iluli umas' a nd Nasatyas. Mo reover, a text d ealing with train- son), royal annals. These included details from the ing h orses, written by Kikkuli of Mittani, used reign of Suppiluliumas, documenting th e r ise of numbers that arc related to Sa nskrit. The term mar- Hittite power. yannu, refe rring to the chari ot-owning no bles of Mittani, is similar to the Sanskrit marya mea ning a Suppiluli umas I succeeded his [ath er, T udha- young man or warrior. liyas III, on the tbronc and for tb c first yea rs of his reign estab lished his power in Anatolia. The prin- T he lndo-Aryans are thought to have invaded cipal enemies of the Hittites included t he indepen- India Crom the north in the midd le of the second de nt state of Arzawa to the west, t he fierce millennium BC. Like t he later Saka (Sey thi a ns) and mountain tribes of tb e Kask as to the north and Moguls, they mig ht have come, by way o f easter n north east and the states of Kizzuwatn a to t he sout h Iran and Afg ha nistan, from the steppes of Cent ral and Ishuwa to the cast. Suppiluliumas\u00b7 victories in Asia, from where the Indo-l rania n ancestors of t h e Anatolia were followed by campaigns in the Levant Meek s and Persians might also h ave originated . and northern Mesopotamia, which resulted in the Some membe rs of the ruling dy nasty of Mit ta ni virtual extinction of Mittani. had ty pically Hurria n names, including king Shatti waza, who, before he became king, is During Am cnophis III's reign, the king or M it- believed to have been called Kili-Tcshup. The tani, Artashuma ra (a son of Shu ttarna II), had been Aryan connectio ns may thus have bee n esta blished murdered and succeeded by his brother Tush ratta. before Mittani dominated northern Mesopotamia. Tushratta's claim to the throne, however, was dis- pu ted by Artatama TI, w ho may have been a noth er TUDHALIYASIll brother. Artatama II apparently allied himself with both the Hittites and the Assyrians under Ashur- I uballit I {1363- 1328 BC). When the Hittite king Suppil uliumas I married his daughter to the k ing of' SUPPILULIUMAS I Babylon, an d Egypt became preoccupied with its own internal aff~irs following the reforms of ARNUWANDASII Zannanzas Telepinus P1yassilis MURSILIS II Amcnophis IV (Akhenatcn) and the succession of t he boy king Tutankhamun (1333- l323 HC), Tus h- killed 1n Egypt King ol Aleppo King of Carchem1sh ratta was left witho ut allies. His kingdo m qui ckly fell apart a nd he himself was mur dered , leaving MUWATALUS II HATTUSILISIll Artata ma 11 as th e rule r of a muc h reduced Mi ttan i. T ush ralta's son Shattiwaza 0 ed first to Babylon I I and then to the H ittite court, w here he signed a vassa l treaty with Suppiluliumas w hereby he was MURSILIS Ill TUDHALIYASIV to be g iven the throne of Mittani on t he death of (Urhi-Teshup) Artatama II. However, this claim was ch allenged I II by \/\\\\.rtatama's own son Shuttarna Ill, who may ha ve had Assyrian support. Tn effect, the kingd om ARNUWANDAS Ill SUPPILULIUMAS II of Mittani had been divided between the Assyrians an d the Hittites. w ho now controlled the Leva nt as far south as Qad esh on the Orantes ri ver. 137","EM P IR ES l )Tepe se-1ar 32' \u202211 Oetlut ,....23 36 scale 1 8 000 000 _, . 25 Tf!)G Galeh Bongoo~,, 0 ,so.. \\\\' 58 \u25ca ~\\\\, ~102 ?~<,s, \/ I 53 . 57 81 ~79 t HanTepe \\\\ ~ . 216 '.\\\\ k\u2022,~,, . 128 AJ-unla$h\u00b7Nap,t~ - er ~1\u20222 t\u2022S 'Y~~)' t31 )'~;C) ~ 'Y\/<'.<'..s \u2022Tepe Pomp . 147 E1am,1e SIie (he(larei) 234 227 O le$$!1\\\\an85 15km 0 8~15 ,om, f ) mo<e than 15 DOate of OCCUf)IIJOO 2000-16so ec - l6S0-1JOOBC - 1300-10008C C,nll,ycrwip,1(1,1oMn dfoOnO!eeEnlratbmu,lteeI<SbIhntaod< UntaSh\u2022Nap, Sholhak\u2022lnShoShonak other 25 1110 survty numbor CJ10w1an0aru scale 1 \u202200000 0 118","30\\\" 34' ALLIES ANO ENEMIES Bl.ACK SEA 38' [J(J (l 0 LOWER 0 Tuwona r? LAND gHubl,Ma ~I C) O~o r' O :> o() \u2022 a~ 1~d>'-I t?'vo,. ~ 01 ~ e \u2022 cap,111 (Mielus) anoen1 name unk\/loWn ,, C) ~P\\\\\\\"~,a:l&'~I o1 H1lble r\\\\111:, D al)llfoxlma1e max...,. I exlenl of Hllble rule ---1----------rI -34' scale 1\u00b77 000 000 150km l ' ,I\\\"' 0 100m. ,,.,,_ ., .....( I , \u2713 .,,..\/'-' Th e H i1tite emp ire (above) According to the Hittite account, w hen Suppilu- r ulers. Syr-ia too was brought back into the fold but The Hlultes under liumas was besieging Carchemish he received an quelling the Kaskas proved more d iffic ult. In his Sup pllullumas I and his emissary from t he w idow of t he Egy ptian p haraoh annals covering almost a quarter-cen tury, M ursilis successors dom inated the saying, \\\" My hus band has died , and I ha ve no so n. recorded 10 ca mpaigns against the Kaskas. Arrntolian pla teau arid Ihe They say that you have many sons. You might give northern Levant. The historical me one of you r so ns, and he mig ht become my hus- Assyrians and Kassites geogra phy of A natolia is still band .\\\" The iden tity of this qu een (and of t he pha- The collapse of t he k ingdom of Mittan i most poorly known. There are raoh) is uncer tain. Suggestions have incl uded benefited t he Hittites, who took control of the virtually no fixed points apart Ak henatcn's wife Nefertiti, and their d aug hters w estern part of t he Mittania n empire, and the from 1hc Hittite capital at Merytaten, t he wife of Snienkhare, and- pro ba bly Assyrians who, hav ing cast off t he Mi ttania n yoke, Hatlusas and the locations of the most likely- Ankhesenamun, t he wife of esta blished themselves on eq ual terms w ith Egypt, countries such as Arzawa and Tutankhamun. (If the woman was T utankhamun's Hatti and Babylon. Under the ruler Ash ur-u balli t 1, Ahhiyawa arc still uncertain. In widow, this would date th e ca pture o f Carchemish Assyria extend ed its control to include the rich the Levant the locations of the to 1323.) The Hi t tite king dispatched an envoy to fa rm ing lands to the no rth and east o f Ashur. This main cities, for instance the queen of Egypt and, after receiving a furt her area, often called t he Assyrian heartland , w hich Carchemish a ,1d Aleppo. arc letter from her, sent his son. He, however, was stretched from Nineveh to ArbiL remained under better known and can for the murdered on th e way and the throne of Egypt was Assyrian control until t he d emise of the Assyrian most part be identified with seized by th e aged Ay whose wife had been Nefer- empire in 612 BC. co n f i d e nce. titi's n urse. Sup pilu li umas installed two of his oth er sons as kings of Ca rchemis h and o r Aleppo, T wo missives from Ash ur-uballit in t he Amarna Elam in Inc 2nd mille n ni um and their descendants con tinued to rule in the letters recorded how he had sent a chariot w ith (left) Leva nt after t he Hit ti te kingdom in Anatolia had white horses and a lapis lazu li seal to t he pharaoh. been destroyed in about I 200 RC. In retu rn, he requested go1~1, w hich, he said, was The principal d 1ics or1hc \\\" like d ust in the land of Egypt\\\", to decorate a new Suppiluliumas himself died of a p lag ue bro ugh t palace. Accord ing to la ter ch ronicles, Ash ur-uballit cou ntry of BIMn were Susa and back by t he army from Syria, and his eldest son married his da ughter to the Kassite ki ng o f Baby- and successor Arnu wa nd as TT died s hortly after- lon, and w hen t he Baby lonians re belled against her Anshan. This dual kingdom ward. On Su ppiluliumas' d eath t he neigh boring son (or grandson) and ki lled him, the Assyrian k ing survived for some 2,000 yc,1rs peoples of Arzawa, Kizz uwatna, Mittan i and t he inter vened to depose the usur per and place I<u ri- despi te the 400 km separa ting I<askas attem pted to th row off the Hittite yoke. galzu II (1332- 1308 BC) on t he Kassite th rone. the two centers. The extent of Mursilis II, w ho succeeded his brother Arn u wan- the Elamite kingdom Is marked das, crushed Arzawa and installed loyal p u ppet Thirty-six Kassitc k ings ruled Baby lonia for 576 by bricks inscribed with the yea rs and 9 months, according to t he Babylonian names o f Elamitc rulers. As a resull of intensive archeological survey In the I960s and 1970s, 1he Suslana plai n Is one of the best-known regions In the Nc.ir East and ii is possible to reconstruct the changes In settlement patterns over thous,ind:, of years. 139","l:lMl'IRES The M iddle \/\\\\ssyrian em pire e scoJo 1 1000000 \/\\\\ tcxl from \/\\\\shur COlll,lim J list 0 150km of offerings for the A,hur I-----'-~---'---', 0 100ml Temple from 1hc prvvln,c, ,_,r 0 the Assyrl,in empire in Ihe reign Van ofTiglath- plleser I (I 114 1076 ~ BC). Th i, list is evidence of the 38' extent of territory under di reel A,syrian rule at that lime. Several centuries e,1rlier the KAOM L Urm! A,,y rian kingd om covered littk rnnrt.\u00b7. 1h.111 from A4ihu r in the KUllll>kt>ina,11 XAmasakl south to Nineveh in the north xKurdt Harran x \u2022 and A1\u00b7bll in the cast. Hy the Washukann,0 Shoou middle of the 13th century, Tllclllx under Sh,1lmancse1\u00b7 I ( 1273 1244 ut) and Tukulli- Nlnurta I Andanq,. \\\" {l 24J 1207 nc), Assyrian provinci,11 contro l had expanded as f,1r as the western Euph rates .111d Assyrian conquests ranged even beyond. The farthest buundM lcs o f 1hc Middle Assy ,\u2022i,111 e rn plr~ formed the b,1s1s for the tcrrltorl,11cl~lms of the Assyrian k ings In the 9th century BC. \u25a1 Auyrtae.1500BC -- -.... OXIOtll Of Pf'OVincial control. ~ 13th and l2lhcen1ur1tt8C D arna of e,0<:1 ptOYl00.11oon1ro1 under Toglalh<pilescr Il1114\u20221076BC) UPl'f:R pt0Vll1CO __, ,,,.,_...,_, _____,,,,, IOcallonoi l)<ovncJal capttal \u2022 l<IIOWn \u2022 l)<obable X p08sible King List. Comparisons with Assyrian kings impl y Mirizir (the equivalent of the Babyloni<111 goddess that the dynasty camt: to an end in a bout 1155 BC. Bcltu), Sah (the sun god), Shipak (or Shihu, the moon god), Shuri as h (another solar deity), Marut- But if that were so, the first Kassite king would tasb (the god of war) and Burias h (a weather god). These last three ha ve been identified w ith Ind o- have been a contemporary of Samsu-iluna (1749 Aryan gods Surya and Marutas, and with the 1712 BC), during whose reign dated ta blets slopped Greek god Boreas (god of the north wind), but as in souther\u25a1 Babylonia, where the Sea land Dynasty w ith the gods of the M ittani th ere was not neces- was recorded. Perha ps the ea rl y Kassite rulers sarily a close relationship with the lndo-Aryans. appearing in the Baby lonia n King List were ancestors who were not, in fact, kings or perhaps Texts fou nd at Sippar and Tell Muhammad from they ruled elsewhe re. Ind eed, th e origin of th e Kas- the Old Babylonian period ide ntified the I<assites as s ites is itself un certain. They received a first pri marily agri cu lt ural work ers. During the Kassite me nti o n in the re ign of Sams u- iluna, and at one time, it was thought that they were fierce uncivil- Kasslte Kings c.1415 ized barbarians who invaded from the mountains Kara-indash of Iran. More recent resea rc h, however, has indi- Kadashman-Harbe 1 1374-1360 cated a more peaceful immigra ti on from a so-far- Kurigalzu I 1359-1333 unidentified region. What happen1.:d after Babylon Kadashman-Enlil I fell to the Hittites in J595 BC is shrouded in Burna-Buriash II 1333 mystery, but from the end of the 15th until the Kara-hardash 1333 12th ce ntury IJC the rulers of Ba bylon were Kassite. Nazi-bugash 1332-1308 Kurigalzu II 1307-1282 Little is known of the language s poken by the Nazi-maruttash 1281-1264 Kassiles exce pt for a Ka ssite Babylonian vocab ul- Kadashman-Turgu 1263-1255 ary list of 48 words, a list of 19 Kassite names w ith Kadashman-Enlil II 1254-1246 the ir Babylonian equivalents, some proper names Kudur-Enlil 1245-1233 and occasiona l Kassitc words in Akkadian texts Shagarakt1-shuriash 1232-1225 (particularly techni ca l terms to do with horses). Kashliliash IV 1224-1216 Tulkulti-Ninurta 1224 Kassite civ ilization Enlil-nadin-shumi 1223-1222 The Kassite kings seem to ha ve ado pted the Baby- Kadashman-Harbe II 1221-1216 lonian way of life and built and restored the Adad-shuma-iddma 1215-1186 temples of the traditional Mesopotamian \u00b7gods. Adad-shuma-usur 1185-1 171 They also had gods o f their own.. Shuqamuna and Mehsh1pak 1170-1158 his con sort Shimaliya were t he patrons of the roya l Marduk-apla-iddina I 1157 fami ly a nd I<assite kings vyere crowned in their Zababa-shuma-iddina 1156-1154 sh rine in Baby lon. These gods also fig ured in Uga r- Enlil-nadin-ahi it ic literature. Others included Harbe, the chie f of the p a ntheon (also found among the Hurrians), 140","\/\\\\LI.JES AND ENEMll,S Abu11c Tiu; Iwisted. eroded d y nasty, the Thi rd Dynasty of Baby lon, Lhc r uling Fragmentary exa m p les have been found at other remains of' the ~iggur,1t of fa mily had Kassilc names but Kassitcs do not Kassite siLes (U r, Ni ppu r a nd Du r-Kurigalzu) and Dur-Kurig,1lzu still dominate the a ppear to have made up a n elite ad minisLra ti vc t he tec hn iq ue was ado pted a nd developed by the class or indeed a la rge clement of the populatio n. Elami tes, t he Assyrians, the Babylo nians and t he flat cou111rysldc on the outskirts Ba by lo nia an d the regio n a long the Diya la into P e r s ia n s . of modern 8aghd,1d. E,1rly weste rn Tran were t he main cente rs fo r Kassitcs. travelers thought that they were Fart her north th e population was probably a lmost Kara-inclash corres ponded w ith the Egyptian entirely Hurrian (2 per cent or t he na mes of people pharaoh , as did his successors Kad ash man-Enli l I the ruins oft he Tower ur ll,,hel, at N uzi were Kass ite but t heir relatives had Hu r- ( 1374 1360 BC) a nd Burna- Bu riash IT ( I359 1333 rian names). The Kassites had a t riba l orga nization BC). The ir' chief\\\" concerns seem to have been In fact, the ziggurat wa, built by and were gro u ped into \\\" hou ses\\\", sometimes arranged marriages and the exchange or valuable named a fter a n eponymous a ncestor, for exam ple, girts. Burna-Bur iash compla ined that the Egyptians the Kassitc king Kurigalzu in the Lhe ho use of Karziabku. The ho uses were based on had prov id ed only five carriages to accom pany his 14th century uc . It followed the male blood rc lati ves and were head ed by a \\\" lord of daugh ter Crom Babylonia to her wed di ng in Egypt; typical southern plan, wi th a the hou se\\\" (bet bili). In this respect, Lhcy were not b ut the marriage went a head and long lists of fully in tegra ted in to Ba by lon ian society, a nd the precious gifts were recorded as hav ing been triple stJircase leading up to the relation ship bet wee n these houses a nd the Kassite exc ha nged bet ween the Kassites a nd t he Egyptia ns. temple on the top. The layer, of ruling fa mily is un certain. Burna-Buriash further claimed to be th e overlord recd inserted every 7 course, of' of the Assyria ns a nd p rotested aga inst th e ir nego- bricks can be s<..-cn as horizontal T he Kassite period represen ted a continua tion o f\\\" t iating d irectly w ith Amen ophi s IV. the older Baby loni a n civilization. There were lines M the top. The lower part diffe rences from earlier pe ri od s but t hey were A lter the death o f Burna- Buriash , his son an d of the ziggurat is shown in the pro bably not att ributa ble Lo changes in e thni c successor was k illed in a re be llion , bu t t he Assyr- course ()f n;~loration. composition o[ the population. The inscrip tio ns of ian king Ash ur- u ballit I in te rvened to p lace Ku ri- the Kassite kings were written mostly in Sumerian ga lz u II (1332- 1308 RC) on the th ron e o f Babylon a nd th eir letters and contracts in Baby lo ni an . Some (as recorded in t he c hronicles mentioned earlier). or the late r Kass itc k ings ha d Babylonia n names. Kurigalz u allegedly carr ied ou t exte nsive rebu ild- ing an\u00b7d restored temples at Ur, Uruk a nd lsin, Kassitc kings th oug h wh eth er t h is was the work of Kuriga lz u I or The fi rst Kassitc king known from contemporary II is uncertain. A similar d oubt h angs over the inscri ptions was Ka ra-indash (c. 14 15 BC), w ho temple and palace at Dur- Ku riga lz u, 90 k ilometers .built a sma ll tcmpl.c d edicated to l nanna within the north o r Babylon, where a well- preserved z iggurat, sacred precin ct a t Uru k. T he outer wall of t he 57 meters high, still retains t he recd matting that templ e w as d ecorated with ba ked molded bri cks had bee n laid bet ween every seve n cou rses of deriv ed from t hose in Old Babylo nian an d Old bricks, as well as the t wisted ropes runni ng Assyria n tem ples, but w it h alternating rep resen- t hro ug h t he structure. T he pa lace, w hich lay about tation s of earth a n9 water d e ities. T he prototypes 700 meters from the ziggu ra t an d covered an area of these figu res a lso belon ged to earlier periods . roughtly 300 meters sq uare (9 hecta res), consisted of several courtyard blocks. The cen tra l block 141","E M PI RES \u2022 s.,., Pole Zohab C ] cenlralaea of Kass,1a kingOom measured a bout J40 meters squa re, w ith a court- 1 \u2022 1<8w1esite yard a bout 65 meters sq uare surro und ed by three pa rallel rows oCrooms. The palace had been re built 3,1\u2022 \u2022 inscllbecllablOthM severa l times and continued in use u nti l after th e \u2022 2 Mum, f,na W1tll numbe< four<! end of the Kassite period . - - - - an.:ien1 coa,tiine - - enc\\\"'1lCOOl$t of rNtlf Ku rigalzu II was also a successful mi litary leader. \/\\\\ ccording to a later chronicle he defeated Elam, -\u00b7 \u2022\u00b7\u00b7 \u2022 poss,'ble enc:,ent coune of rwe< Assyria a nd perha ps the Scaland (the d y nasty t hat ruled so uthern Baby lonia in the middle of the Old Ba by lon ian period). Jn his ow n insc riptio ns h e claimed to have conq uered Su~a, Elam a nd Mar- hash i, an d inscriptio ns bearing h is name ha ve been found at Susa. Kass ite cultura l ach ie ve me nts The cen t u ry from Kurigalzu II to Kash ti liash IV 32' (1 232- 1225 BC) marked t he high point of Kassitc rul e. Exca vat io ns at Ni ppu r, t he ancie nt religious center of Sumer, have re vea led J2,000 ta blets most of wh ich belonged to this period . The texts, which arc mostly economic docu ments, were dated by t he reg nal yea r o r th e king (the yea r o r his reign), not the year-n ame, as in earlier per iods. The Kassites were responsible for the standardizing of Akkadian scale I 000000 100km , a nd Sumerian texts. Th e versions of the trad itiona l 0 \\\" -\\\\\\\\ litera t u re that have bee n fo u nd in t he libra ries of TOrnl \\\\ the first mi llen n iu m we re composed , or at leas t 46\\\" The k ingdo m of the Kassites LJlcr tradi1ion cnn ncc1cd the copied, in the Kassite period , and later Baby lonian Kassitcs wilh the mount,iin) of Iran. but the extent of their rule scribes t raced t heir ancestry back to scribes li v ing Lagash w ho was respon sible fo r t he con trol of t he towMd the east is debated. Many of the ancicn1 cities of at that time. lands to t he cast . Th ese sukkalmah rul ers inte r- ll,1bylonia revived under t he Kassites. K11dmn1s, sometimes T he Kassites also introduced a new ty pe of d oc u- v ened in Mesopotamia after th e colla pse of the ca lled Ba byloni,1n boundary ment, called a kudurru, to com memorate roy al em pire of Shamshi-Adad T ( 1813 - 178 1 BC). But stones, were typical of' lhe Kassiles but continued lo be g ran ts o f land. T his was o ften an elaborately thereafter , apart from the names o f the ki ngs and a made into 1hc 1st millennium nc. Mdny were found al Susa, where ca rved sto ne mo nu me nt, abo ut o ne me ter high, few rather uninformative d ed ica tory inscri p tio ns, they hJd been wke,, by the 131amites who ltwaded illustrated w ith the sym bo ls of t he gods w ho wit- nothing is k now n about th em fo r some 400 years. Babylonia . nessed t he transaction. The ear liest exa mples dated Excavations at Haft Te pe, about J5 ki lometers Uelow Limestone kudu,.,-u or to t he 14th century BC, but th ey became common in south o f Susa, have rev ealed a city b uilt by Te pti- Mclishipak II ( 1186 1182 HC) found in Susa. Kudurrus were t he 13t h a nd 12t h centuries. Ahar, King o f Susa and Anshan, in the mi d dle of often carvcc.l wilh the symbol, and attributes of the gods. the 14th century BC, w hich has been identified Height 68 cm. The Elamitc civilization with an cie nt Ka bna k. The prin ci pal mon ume nts on Follow ing the collapse of the Third Dy nasty o f Ur th e site, w hic h covered some 30 hecta res, we re two at t he end of th e secon d mi llenni um, the rul ers o f terraces a nd a temp le w it h two brick-va ulted Elam called the mselv es sukkalmahs, or gran d tom bs . Each of t hese contained 23 skeletons, some v iziers, artcr the title of the official statio ned at laid out n eatly, others gathe red u p in piles. A stele discovered in t he ternp ie listed an d recorded the Kings of Elam IGE\u00b7HALKI duties of t he p riests and the d isbursement of food- st u ffs for sacrifices and fu neral o fferi ngs. A terrace I \u00b7 a bout 60 meters sq uare and 14 meters high h ad work rooms wh ere p recious ite ms were made for II t he cu lt. ATTAR-KITTAH PAHIR-ISHSHAN Some 600 inscri bed ta blets found at the site were mostly co ncerned w it h th e admin istration of the ----- Blood I te mple. Th e year-names on t hese tablets referred to relationship HUMBAN-NUMENA uncertain I UNTASH\u2022NAPIRISHA t he construction of the temp le and to d iplomatic m issions betwee n Elam and Babylonia. One i I inscription pe rh aps refe rring to the Kassitc k ing KIDIN-HUTRAN Kadash ma n-Enlil I was contained o n a ta blet that I bore t he seal of Tcp ti-Ahar. UNPAHASH\u00b7NAPIRISHA After t he invasion of t he I<ass itc king Ku rigalzu II a n ew dynasty seized pow er in Elam. The first HALLUDUSH-INSHUSHINAK r u ler was Igc-halki, whose inscrip tion has been I fo und at Deh -i No (perh aps a ncient Hu pshen or SHUTRUK-NAHHUNTE I Adamd un). Ige-halk i's g randso n Hum ban- numena bu il t a temp le at Liy an on the Ira nian coast of th e I Gulf, 400 kilometers southeast of Susa. II T he Elamite gods we re qu ite diffe rent from th e Mesopotamian . In t h e t hird mille nnium t he god- KUTIR-NAHHUNTE SHILHAK\u00b7INSHUSHINAK dess Pin ikir seems to hav e been t h e most im porta nt d eity; in t he second millen n iu m her place was I I HUTELUDUSH-INSHUSHINAK SHILHINA-HAMRU\u00b7LAGAMAR","ALLIES ANO ENEMIES Al-Untash-Napirisha Below Glazed pottery Forty kilometers southeast of Susa are the ruins Above The construction of the wall-plaque with the inscription. known as Choga Zanbil. The name means \\\"basket in Elamite cuneiform, \\\" ! am mound\\\" and refers to the eroded remains of the ziggurat at AI-Untash-Napirisha Untash-Napirbha\\\". lt was ,tored was most unu,ual. The first ,tagc with hundred, of other, in a ziggurat in the center of the site which, before of the plan wa, to con,1ruct a room in the ziggurat. and was excavation, looked like a recd basket turned upside down. This is the site of Al-Untash-Napir- large ,quare building about probably intended to decorate isha (sometimes called Dur-Untash-Napirisha or 100 m long with a central the facade of the ziggurat. Dur-Untash-Gal), which was the capital city of the courtyard. At a later stage the Similar wall plaques are found in Elamite king Untash-Napirisha (c. 1260-1235 BC). central courtyard was filled in Assyria and their history can be Like other rulers in the Late Bronze Ag such as and the ziggurJt built inside it. traced back to the Uruk period. the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, the Kassite king Kurigalzu and the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta 1- Untash-Napirisha left the ancient religious capi- tal of his kingdom to found a new city which was intended to replace the former capital. However, in none of these cases was the attempt altogether successful. The site chosen by Untash-Napirisha lies on the edge of low hills, about 1.5 kilometers from the River Dez. To provide water for the town, the king had a canal, some 50 kilometers long, dug from the River Karkheb north of Susa. The building of the city ceased soon after his death and later Elamitc kings ruled from Susa. Al-Untash-Napirisha was not deserted but remained a royal city until it was destroyed in about 640 BC by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. 0~ 1000 \\\\ 2000 h Above On all four side,. staircases with .Jrched doorways rl Jv were built within the structure of the ziggurat. lortificallOn wall Left The large city of AI-Unt.1sh-Napirisha covered more than 100 ha a nd was dominated by the ziggurat at the center of the religious quarter. At the base of the ziggurat wa, a curved enclosure waif and between the ziggurat and a second rect.1ngular wall were numero us temples for the worship of the Elamitc gods. A third wall surrounded the whole site. In the eastern corner of the city a large entrance gate led Lo the king's palaces and hi~ court. There were five underground vaulted chambers in the Funeral Palace, where .everal cremated bodies and one skeleton were found. It has bei:n ~uggested that these were burials of members of the Elamite royal family. Much of the area of the city within the walls was never built on. 14 3","[lMP IRES taken by the god Humban (also called Napirisha, Hattusas meaning great god) whose female co unlcrparl was Kiririsba (meaning g reat goddess), the goddess of Liyan. After these came the city god of Susa, Inshushinak (meaning lord of Susa), who by the end of the second millennium had become pre- eminent, and the sun god Nahhuntc who, like the Babylonian sun god Shamash, was also lhc god of Hattusas, now known as Bogbazkoy or Boghazkalc, justice. There were many other Elamitc gods, such was the capital of the Hittite empire. The site was as Hutran and Shimu t, whose names appeared in the names of the Elamitc kings. The Elamitcs also settled at the end of the third millennium BC and in worshiped Babylonian gods such as Adad and his the 19th century, it included a trading colony of consort Shala, Sin and Nusku, though these may Assyrian merchants. In about 1650 BC the Hittite have been identified with local deities. king Labarnas chose it as his capital and took the Humban- numena's son Untash-Napirisha res- &lou: View over Tempi~ Ill. one name Hattusilis after the city. tored many of t he temples of Elam including 20 in of the numcrou, temple$ built in The city is situated on a promontory formed by Susa, but his greatest work was the founding of an entirely new city, AI-Untash-Napirisha, situated the Upper Town. Beyond the junction of two branches of the Budakozu about 40 kilometers southeast of Susa and now Temple lll i~ 8uyukkale. the river. The eastern stream runs through a gorge known as Choga Zanbil. The city was large, wi th an citadel of Ha11usas, and beyond (boghaz in Turkish) between two steep hills called outer wa ll enclosing an area of 1,200 by 800 Buyukkaya and Buyukkale. The main citadel of the meters. ln the cast, near the entrance, are the that is the hill or Buyukkaya. In city was on the top of Buyukkale. Two kilometers remains of a large gatehouse and three palaces, one to the northeast is the grotto of Yazilikaya, which of which co nta ined steep staircases leading to the Hittite period the contains carved images of the Hittite gods. The city barrel-vaulted chambers co n ta ining the ashes from fortification syst~m ,ndudcd was destroyed and abandoned shortly after 1200 cremated burials. These might have been the Buyukkaya and the wall was BC, but was reoccupied in Phrygian times (c. 7th graves of the Elamite king and his fami ly. c.1rried acros, the gorge on a century BC), when it was called Pteria. bridge. In the center of t he city was a large rectangular enclosure which housed tr.:mples and a ziggurat. Originally, a square courtyard surrounded by rooms had been constru cted and t his had then been CTlled in and successive stages of the temple built. The ziggurat measured 67 meters sq uare at the base and st.ill stood 28 meters high, though once it had probably been more than twice as high, with five or six storeys. The inscribed baked bricks belonging to the first building mentioned only the god Inshus hinak, but in the later phase the temple at the top, reached by staircases within -::::. the structure, was oedicated to both Inshushinak and the god Napirisha. At the foot of the ziggurat were temples of numerous other gods. The whole complex may have been part of a vast funerary temple, like that built a century earlier at Haft Tepe, and was reminiscen t of the palace and zig- ,...___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ gurat at Dur-Kurigalzu, which may have performed a similar fun ction fo r the Kassite kings. Egyptian control over Canaan and also claimed to A fragment of a stone stele has been found at have destroyed the states of Qadesh and Amurru. Susa showing Untash-Napirisha with his wife Stelae of Scthos I fou nd at Beth-Shan, Tyre and Napirasu. The queen's dress and her pose were Qadesh have confirmed some of these exploits. both repeated in an extraordinary bronze-cast life- Control of Qadesh, however, d id not last. Scthos I's size statue of Napirasu that was also found at Susa. son and successor Ra messes II (1290- 1224 oc), the Even thoug h t he head was missing, the figure long-lived megalomaniac builder of Abu Simbel, weighed 1,750 ki lograms and had probably been set out to restore Egyptian fort unes in the fourth cast in two stages. A shell about 9 centimeters thick year of his reign, marching as far north as Nahr- had been cast first and then later filled up with kalb near Beirut where, like many later conquer- bronze. The technical ability of the metalworkers ors, he bad an inseription carved. of the figure was remarkable. In the following year he advanced toward The battle of Qadesh Qadesh on the Orantes in a campaign that was While Elam and Babylon fought each other, the described in detail and .illustrated on numerous fina l acts of the long struggle of Egypt to control monuments erected by the pharaoh. On the way, according to his account, two tribal chiefs the Levant were being played out. Suppiluliumas I informed him that the Hittites were far away at had brought the Levant into the Hittite sphere of Aleppo, but as he later found out this was false in fluen ce and after his death Hittite contro l of t he intelligence planted by the Hittites. Outside Leva nt rema ined firm. At the end of the 14th Qadesh he captured two Hittite sco uts who con- century a new dynasty replaced the ailing 18th fessed that the Hittite army, under Muwatallis 11, Dynasty in Egy pt. The second pharaoh of tbe 19th was concealed to the east of Qadesh . By t hen it was Dynasty, Scthos I (1306- 1290 nc), reestablished too late to retreat in safety. But, Ramesses II 144","The Great Ttmple of the weather 1\\\\1, 1.IES \/\\\\ND ENuM I ES god of Hatti (abo known\u2022\\\" the L.:Jt l'r~gment ol the rim of a weather god of heaven) wa, pottery storai:e jar found ,11 situated in the Lower Town. The Hattu,a,, giving an idea of the appearance of a fortified H 11111c citv mav have bt!en fortified and building. It ,how, how the ,\u00b7n,h extended in the reign of of the double timber bc,1m, Suppiluliumas I. Some two protruded from under the dozen temples ,verc built in the p,1rJpct. southern extensions up the hill li<'low leji Not only wa, the away from the rivers. Great Temple at Hauusas a plan: ol worship, it also played an important rok in the economy. as is cvidem from the cxtcmi vc >torerooms. &\u00b7\\\"1w Thi, rclkf figure ol a helmeted warrior wa~ originally identified a, J Hiuite king and hence the gatevvay in the city w,111 where it stood wJs called the Kin!?'s Gate. 11 is now thought that it rcprc:.cnts a god. O 100 200 300m 500 tOOOn claimed, though he was \\\"alone, not even sup- by offering thei r allegiance to Mi ttani, to Egy pt, ported by a captain, by a charioteer, by a soldier of and to Hatti in turn. Diplomati c marriages and trea- t he army, or by a shield-bearer\\\", he succeeded in ties ensured stabil ity, despite th e turbulen ce all defeating the hordes of the Hittites and t heir allies, around . In the Amarna letters there was a report including Arzawans and Lukkans from the west of that Ugarit was destroyed by fire, but whether Anatolia, Kaska tribes from the northeast, and from the attack of an enemy or natural causes was troops from Kizzuwatna, Aleppo, Ugarit an d not stated. Ugarit's prosperity was based o n trad e, Qadesh itself. Timely Egyptian reinforcements particularly trade in copper with Cyprus, but arriving from the west then allegedly forced the perfumes, grain, wood, salt and w ine were also Hittites to break off th e attack and to retrea t across exported . Agriculture and the loca l industries of the river, and on the following day Ramesses ll metalworking, textiles and the ma nu fa cture of attacked again and o bliged the Hittite king to sue purple dye from the murex shell were other for peace. sources of Ugarit's wealth . However, Ramesses' acco unt of the battle was The Mittanian kings fa iled to emu late the diplo- unreliable, and the Egyptians were almost matic s uccesses of the rulers of Ugarit in their certainly d efeated, as record ed in the Hittite attempts to play off the Hi ttites against the rising version of eve nts. The Egyptians withdrew and power of the Assyrians. Adad-nirari 1 (1 305- 1274 Amurru, Qadcsh and Apu, the district around BC) had extended the bord ers of Assy ria southeast Damascus, fell into the Hittite sphere or influence. to Lubdu and as far as the Euphrates in the south- west. He ca ptured the Mitta nian ca pital Washu- Diplomatic successes and fail ures kanni, making Shattuara I a vassal of Assyria. Throughout the period of Egyptian conflict the When Shattuara's son Wasashatta re belled and was rulers of Ugarit had survived , and indeed thri ved , refused help from t he Hittites, Mit tani was once 145","!lMPIRES again plundered a nd its king was taken capti ve to Moveme nts o f. new peoples Ashur. Assyrian expansion continued under Adad- In the ea rly decades of the 12th centu ry there were n irari's son Shalmancscr I (1273 1244 BC). He put wi d espread movements of people in the Medite rra- down a rebellion by Shattuara 11, king of Mittani, nean region . The Egyptians were threatened on and d efeated a combined force of Mittan ians a nd land and on the sea by a coalition of tribes, which Hillites, taking 14,400 prisoners and annexing they called t he \\\"sea peoples\\\". First Mernepta h Hanigalba t (as the Assy rians called Mittani). (1244- 1214 BC), and then Ramcsscs III (ll94--I 163 BC), fought them off. Some of t he t ribes such as the The Egyptia n- Hittite peace pact Meshwcsh, th e Sh ardan and th e Denycn were Perhaps as a result of the Assyrian v ictories, t he already present in the Near East, whereas others Hittite ruler Hattusilis allied himself wi th Kadash- were n ew arrivals. Ramesscs III desc ribed t heir man-Turgu, the Kassite king, a nd in 1296 BC ma de a attack in his eighth year ( l 186 BC). treaty w ith Egypt. Ra messes II was still on the \\\"The foreign countries made a conspi racy in Egyptian throne, w here he stayed for almost their isla nds. All at once the lands were a nother half-century, and both h e and Hattusilis removed and scattered in t he fray. No land had fought at Qadesh 16 years earlier . The text of could stand befo re their arms, from Hatti, Kode the Egy ptia n vers ion of the treaty was carved on [probably t h e Orantes valley j, Carcbcmish, the wa lls of the temple at Ka rn ak a nd th e Rames- Arzawa, and Alash iya [Cyprus], being cu t off at scu m temp le a nd a copy of the Hittite text was pre- one time. A camp was set up in a place in served in the archives at Hattusas. The orig inal, Amurru. They desolated the peop le, and its which was sent to Ramesses, was a silver tablet land was like that which has never come in to w ith t he impressions of the stamp sea ls of Hattusi- being. They were coming toward Egypt, while lis a nd his wife. This n onaggression pact solved the the flame was prepared before them. Their territorial dispute in the Leva n t and the good rela - league was Peleset [Palestinc j, Tjeker, ,tions were ceme nted some I 3 years later by the Shekelesh, Dcnycn, and Meshwesh, united marriage of Ha ttusilis' daughter to Ramesses fl. land s.\\\" Tudhaliyas JV, t he son of Hattusilis, con t inued Egypt resisted, but Hatti and Uga rit fell, as did orthe policy preserving cordial relat ions in t he ma ny of the cities of t he Levant an d of Greece. The Levan t, but invaded Cy prus (perha ps to com pe n- Hittite kingd om was probably destroyed by the sate for his losses in the sou theast). In a treaty made Mushki o r Ph rygians, w ho invaded and subse- with th e King of \/\\\\murru, Tudhaliyas listed the gucntly occ upied the Anatolian plateau. l n the kings w ho he considered were his equals: the kings Leva nt t he Hittite states o f Carchemish and Mal- of Egypt, Ba by lon, Assyria and Ahhiyawa, though atya su rvived as independent princi palities. the last- named was later e rased . Abhiyawa was a Egyp t's control of Palestine waned, a nd the people co untry to the west of Hatti beyond Arzawa a nd known to the Egyptians as Pclesct settled a lon g the had appeared in Hi ttite records from the tim e of Mediterranean coast to the north of Egypt, giving Supp ilu liumas I. At one time, it was identified as their name to t he country as Phil istia, or Palestine. the co untry of the Ach aeans, t hat is Mycenaean By the end of t he 12th century Egyptian control Greece, but it probably lay on the Asiatic side of was a t an end . th e Aegean Sea. Mycenaean pottery of the period The people of Philistia, or P hilistines, were not has been fou nd at numerou s sites alon g the Aegean the on ly ones moving into new regions. At almost coast of Turkey and t he Mediterranean coas t of t he exactly t he same time, the Israelites appeared in the Righi During the 60 years of excavaling the site of Ugarit, a Levan t and Palestine - a n indicatio n of the im port- records. They were first me ntioned in a v ictory considerable pan of th~ cily h~~ been investigated. The two main a nce of mari time trade in the Med iterranea n at that stele of Mernepta h . areas are the acropolis, where the main temples were situated, t ime . \\\"Can aan bas been p lundered .into every sort of and the area of the royal palace to the west. The two main gods The mate rial re mains of the Hittites have mostly woe; worshiped were Baal and his father Dagan. From the mvths, it been discovered by excavating t heir capital city Ashkelon has been overcome; seems that these two deit(es were introduced into the local Hattusas. Herc, behind strong fortified walls with a Gczer has been captured ; pantheon from t he easl. ci rc ui t of some 6 kilometers, had been the palace . Yenoam is made n on-existen t; Far nght The royal palace devdoped from a small building citadel a nd temp les of t he Hittite royal fa mily. Israel is laid waste.\\\" in the 16th century ec to a larl\\\\e and magnificent structure \\\\'1it'h About 1.5 kilometers outside the walls was the In this hierogly phic inscription \\\" Israel\\\" was pre- some 90 rooms .irranged round six large courtyards. In some of grotto, now known as Yazilkaya, where pictures of ceded by the sign for a people, not a city or a lhe courtyards there were ornamental pools of water. t he Hittite god s and goddesses were carved in the country. The de tails of t he Israelites' occupation of reign of Tudha liyas JV. Chi ef o f the d eiti es were Ca naan a re uncertain. Th e Biblical story o[ the sun goddess Arinna a nd her consort the Joshua's conquests follow ing t he Exodus from weather god of heaven, identified with the respec- Egypt has found no support o utside the scri ptures, tive Hurrian god s Hepa and Teshup. Hi ttite kings and it is possible tha t t he Israelite tribes sett led took t heir religious ac tivi t ies very seri ously and peacefully un til they were strong enough to severa l of them were pries ts before they became overthrow t he local Canaani te rulers. kings. They would even inte rrupt a military As well as the Israelites oth er Semitic people campaign if a religious festival requ ired the king's were emerging fro m the desert steppes. The Sutu presence. and the A hlamu were regarded in the Amarna T udbaliyas was s ucceeded by his two sons, le tters as barbaro us tribes on the edge of the civil- Arnuwandas JI a nd Su ppiluliumas II, during ized world . The Assyrian king Shalman eser I w hose reign disaster struck, in about 1200 BC, fought aga inst the Ahlamu, who in about 1100 BC when the Hitti te cities of Anatolia were burned were associated by contem poraries with the Ara - a nd abandoned. Th e end of t he Hittite kingdom maeans, a group of north west Semi tic people. Like was part of a mu ch wider p henomenon , the arri va l th e Amorites a t housand years ea rlier, the Ara- of new entrants into the fray - the \\\"sea peoples\\\". macans over t he next few cen turies occupied mu ch 146","A l,l. l lc:$ AN I) ENliMl l!S Ugarit The ruins of the city of Ugarit comprise the tell A bove This bronze head was 0 10 20 30m known as Ras Shamra and the harbor called Minet found with two scJI.:pans and a 50 100ft al-Beidha. The site was occupied from the Acer- set of weights to the northwc~1 of the temple area at Ugarit. T he amic Neolithic period onward. In the early second local weight system employed a millennium it was under Egyptian influence, as is shekel of 9.5 g, with 50 shekels to shown by objects bearing the names of Middle the mma. T his head weighs Egyptian pharaohs. Ugarit's period of greatest 190 g and so may have been renown was in the second half of that millennium, when it was the capital of a major trading kingdom used as a weight of 20 shekels. with commercial links throughout the eastern Height 3.8 cm. Mediterranean. The wealth of the city was princi- Right Faiencc vase with the head pally based on trade in copper from Cyprus and of a woma n dating 10 the timber from the hinterland, as well as grain, wine 14th 13th century BC. Jt wa, and salt. Ugarit also had its own industries. Metal- found at Minet al-Beidha in a working was of great importance, as was the manu- communal tomb in which at least facture of purple dye from the murex shell, the so- 28 people were buried. Similar vessels have been found in called imperial or Tyrian purple, used to color Cyprus. Height I6 cm. linen or wool. Warehouses near the harbor were stocked with all kinds of goods: one contained Left The face a nd headdress of 1,000 flasks for perfumed oil from Cyprus. this I 3th-ccnt1.1ry bron2c statuette from Minet al-Beid ha Perhaps the most significant discovery at the site are overlaid with gold foil. The have been the rich archives of cuneiform tablets. silver on the chest. arms and legs These texts, in several languages and including may ind icate armor. W hen some written in a cuneiform alphabetic script, arc found, it was iden1ified as the god Reseph but is now thought of gre~t importance for the information that they to be Baal. Height 17.9 cm. give about the Ugaritic religion and myths. This has, in turn, shed light on contemporary practices described in the Bible. Ugarit was nominally subject to Egypt but also acknowledged the authority of the Hittites. The rulers of Ugarit were adept at walking diplomatic tightropes. In about 1200 BC Ugarit was sacked, probably by the \\\"sea peoples\\\" . 100 200m 600h 200 400 Te ~ Of Baal Houseof lhe Chief Pr,es, AcrO!)Olis Sou1II Palace D construction pnases tromlheearfiest D peliOdlOlheelate con1ours al 1mintervals D ot deStlUCtion D (C 1600-c.1200 BC) D 147","lsMPIR[;S of the Levant and Mcso polamia a nd eventually their language, written in alphabt:tic script, \\\" Ashur re placed Baby lonian and Assy ria n cu neiform. To the north, Shalmancscr I defeated the kingdom of Uruadri, mentioned in inscripti ons for the C1rst time. Uruadri, later kn ow n as Urarlu, which has survived in corrupted form in the name of Mount Ararat, proved to be a constant thorn in the side of Assyria. Farther cast, on the Iranian pla- The city of Ashur was situated on a rocky spur teau, the end of' the Godin Ill culture and the intro- overlooking the Tigris river. The site, now known du cti on of the gray ware pottery of the Cro n Age r as Qalat Shergat, was occupied since at least 2400 period may mark the arrival of Iranian tribes from BC and statues of Early Dynastic style were found the north or cast. These were the ancestors of the in the Ishtar Temple. In t he early second millen- Mcdcs and th e Persians, who went on to d estroy nium t he merchants of Ashur established colonies the Assyrian and Babylonian e mpires a nd cst.1blish in Anatolia. Ashur was part of the empire of their ru le over the w ho le of the Near cast from Shamshi-Adad I (c. 1813 1781 BC) and later passed about Lhc 6th century onward. Br\/ow Llm~,tonc r~licf found in under the control of the rulers of Mittani. Assyria's m ilitary mig ht the w ell in 1hc T emple of A; hu r. Under Ashur-uballit I (1363- 1328 BC) Assyria The Assyrians under their successive rulers Adad- expanded, after the collapse of the Mittanian nirari l, Sha lrnanescr I and Tu kulli- Ninurta I 11 , how, J god c.,rrying planu, empire, and Ashur became the capital ofa kingdom (1 243- 1207) proved lo be an irresistible force. which .,re heing nibbled by 1wo that stretched from the Euphrates to the mountains Tukulti-Ninurla recounted how he personal ly of Iran. Ashurnasirpal II (883- 859 sc) chose Kalhu attacked the Kassite king Kash tiliash IV. go.its. The scJlc p,i.tcrn on the as his capital but he and later Assyrian kings god's d ress and hat may indkati: continued to restore the temples and other build- that he was a mountain deity, p.:rhJp, Ashur himsdf. Below Jrc two godd.:ss,.._ with nowing va--.c,. Height I. 36 m. \\\" r brought a bout th e d efeat of h is armies, his ings of Ashur as the religious center of the Assyr- warriors I overthrew. In the midst of thal battle ian empire. Th e Assyrian kings were buried in the my hand captured I<ashtilias h, th e I<assite king. palace at Ashur. l trod on his roya l neck w ith my feet like a The city god was also called Ashur and, since the footstoo l. I brought him st ripped and bound god's fortunes flourished as the Assyrian state before Ashur my lord. Sumer a nd Akkad to its prospered, Ashur took the place of Enlil and Mar- rarthcst border I brought under my sway. On duk in the Assyrian pantheon. The Temple of the lower sea of'the ris ing su n I established the Ashur was in the city at the end of the promon- fron ti er of my land.\\\" tory. The Assyrian king acquired his authority Tuk ul ti-Ni nurta appoin ted Enlil- nadin -s humi as from the fact that he was the priest of the god k ing of Nippur. However, acco rding to a later Ashur. In 614 and 612 BC Assyria was invaded by Babylo nian chron icle, w ithin a year the Elamitc the Mcdcs and Babylonians who captured and king I<idin-Hutran, w ho had succeeded Untash- looted the city, w hich was later aba ndoned. The Nap irisha, sacked Der, ca ptured Nippur and site was resettled in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD deposed the Assyrian puppe t. Kidin-Hu tra n when it was known as Labbana. attacked Babylonia a secon d time in the reign of --- - - -- - - - - -- - - -- - - - - -- -- - - - - -- - - Adad-shuma-iddina, d estroying Isin and Marad . corn e r of the city. However, he a bandoncd this last \/\\\\dad-shuma-iddina, who was another Assy rian project after laying the stone foundatio ns and appointee, was deposed by his nobles in 12 16. instead fou n ded a new city, which he called Kar- Tukulti-Ninurta, about 3 ki lometers north of As well as campaigni ng in Babylonia, Tuku lti - As hur on the opposite side of the Tigris river. Ninurta fought in the cast, north and west, where T here, he ror tificd an area 700 meters square and h e cla imed to have crossed t he Euphrates and erected a temp le with a ziggurat for the god Ashur. taken 28,800 Hittite prisoner~. In an cxte ns ive He also built a palace, whi ch was decorated with bu ildi ng progra m at bis capital Ashur, Tukulli- fine wa ll- paintings. Perhaps Tuku lti-Ninurta built Ninurta dug a moa t rou nd t he city, rebui lt the Is h- a new city beca use of h is unpo p ula rity in Ashur, tar temp le an d began a new palace in the northwest following territorial losses toward t he end o f his reign. In 1207 his son re belled and, with the Middle Assyrian Kings backing of t he Assy rian nobility, besieged Tukult i- Ashur-uballlt I 1363-1328 Ninurta in h is palace and killed him. Enlil-niran 1327- 1318 T h e eclipse o f Ela m Ank-den-ili 1317-1306 About forty yea rs later (c. 11 65 BC), Shu t ruk-Nah- Adad-nirari I 1305-1274 Shalmaneser I 1273-1244 b unte became k ing of Elam and, in an age of weak Tukull1-Ninurta I 1243-1207 kingd oms, inaugurated a per iod of Elamite great- Ashur-nadin-apli 1206-1203 ness. According to a stcle, he c rossed the Ulai Ashur-niran Ill 1202-1197 river, invaded Mesopotamia and captured 700 Enlil-kudurn-usur 1196-1192 tow ns, forcing Dur-Kuriga lzu , Esh nunna, Sippar, N1nurta-apil-Ekur 1191 -1179 Opis, Dur-Shar ruk in and, perhaps, Agadc t o pay a Ashur-dan I 1178-1133 heavy trib ute. Fi11ds at Susa have testified to the Ashur-resh-1sh1 1132-1115 booty of this campa ign. Th ey incl uded statues Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur 1115 from Es h nunna, the victory stelc of Nara m-Sin Mutakkil-Nusku 1115 taken from Sip par, a mon ument of th e Kassite king Tilgath-p1leser I 1114-1076 Mclisbipak from Kara-indash (perhaps modern Karind in the Zagros) and statues from Agade. In 148"]