In the history of Assyria, the eponym dating system was a calendar system for Assyria, for a period of over one thousand years. Every year was associated with the name, an eponym, of the Limmu, the official who led that year's New Year festival. [1]
The dating system is thought to have originated in the ancient city of Assur, and remained the official dating system in Assyria until the end of the Assyrian Empire in the seventh century BC. The names of the limmu who became eponyms were originally chosen by lot sortition, until the first millennium it became a fixed rotation of officers headed by the king who constituted the limmu. The earliest known attestations of a year eponyms are at Karum-Kanesh, and became used in other Assyrian colonies in Anatolia. Its spread was due to Shamshi-Adad I's unification of northern Mesopotamia. [2]
A number of Old Assyrian limmu lists have been combined into the so-called Revised Eponym List (REL), which spans a period of 255 years in the early second millennium BCE (1972-1718 BCE in the Middle Chronology dating system). [3] The central figure of this period was Šamšī-Adad I who conquered Aššur in the year REL 165, and reigned Assyria until his death in REL 197. In the Middle Chronology system his reign corresponds to the years 1808-1776 BCE.
The absolute chronology of this period has long been controversial. That the Middle Chronology is indeed correct, and not one of the rival absolute chronologies, is supported by a combined dendrochronological (tree-ring) and radiocarbon (14C) data analysis, which narrows down the year Šamšī-Adad died to between 1776 and 1768 BCE. In addition, it is known that in the year after his birth (ca. REL 127) a partial solar eclipse was observed, and this fits in with an eclipse on August 5, 1845, BCE. [4] [5]
With the establishment of eponym lists, succinct statements about events were sometimes added in order to keep track of the sequence. The most well-known limmu lists run from 911 through to 631 BC, and have been dated with the aid of the Canon of Ptolemaeus, which coincides with dates from the Canon between 747 and 631 BC. According to one limmu list, a solar eclipse occurred in the tenth reigning year of the Assyrian king Aššur-dan II, in the month of Sivan (May–June on the Gregorian calendar), by Bur-Sagale. Using the Canon of Kings the tenth year can be dated to 763 BC, and modern astronomy dating has backed the Assyrian eclipse up as June 15, 763 BC. Other events can be dated from this establishment of fact, such as the taking of the Egyptian city of Thebes by the Assyrians in 664 BC, and to be able to determine the date of the minting of ancient coins. [6]
Out of 19 surviving clay tablets with limmus, they between them show ten manuscripts that contain lists of years identified by the eponym with a summary note about what happened that year, most often military campaigns. Thus, such lists provide historians a way of dating long stretches of the Neo-Assyrian history, and give us in details military exploits and which were considered the most important. Such a translation can be found below (With BC added).
Year | Limmu | Event |
---|---|---|
719 BC | Sargon, King [of Assyria] | [-ent]ered |
718 BC | Zer-ibni, governor of Ra[sappa] | [to Ta]bal |
717 BC | Tab-shar-Assur, chamberlain | [Dur-Sharru]kin was founded. |
716 BC | Tab-sil-Eshara, governor of the citadel | [to] Mecca |
715 BC | Taklal-ana-beli, governor of Nasibina | [ ] governors appointed |
714 BC | Ishtar-duri, governor of Arrapha | [to Ur]artu, Musasir, Haldia |
713 BC | Assur-bani, governor of Kalhu | [the] nobles in Ellipi, he entered the new house, to Musasir in the land |
712 BC | Sharru-emuranni, governor of Zamua | in the land |
711 BC | Ninurta-alik-pani, governor of Si'mme | [to] Marqasa |
710 BC | Shamash-belu-usur, governor of Arzuhina | to Bit-zeri, the king stayed at Kish |
709 BC | Mannu-ki-Assur-le'i, governor of Tille | Sargon took the hands of Bel |
708 BC | Shamash-upahhir, governor of Habruri | Kummuhi conquered and a governor was appointed |
707 BC | Sha-Assur-dubbu, governor of Tushan | the king returned from Babylon, the vizier and nobles, the booty of Dur-Jakin was destroyed, on the 22nd of Teshrit, the gods of Dur-Sharrukin entered the temples |
706 BC | Mutakkil-Assur, governor of Guzana | the king stayed in the land, the nobles [ ]. on the 6th of Ayar, Dur-Sharrukin was completed |
705 BC | Nashur-Bel, governor of Amidu | the king [ ] against Qurdi the Kullumean, the king was killed, the camp of the king of Assyria [ ]. on the 12th of Ab, Sennacherib [became] king |
Shalmaneser I was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire. Son of Adad-nirari I, he succeeded his father as king in 1265 BC.
Salmānu-ašarēd II, inscribed mdSILIM-ma-nu-MAŠ/SAG, meaning " Being peaceful is foremost," was the king of Assyria 1030–1019 BC, the 93rd to appear on the Khorsabad copy of the Assyrian Kinglist, although he has been apparently carelessly omitted altogether on the Nassouhi copy.
A calendar era is the period of time elapsed since one epoch of a calendar and, if it exists, before the next one. For example, it is the year 2024 as per the Gregorian calendar, which numbers its years in the Western Christian era.
Shamshi-Adad, ruled c. 1808–1776 BC, was an Amorite warlord and conqueror who had conquered lands across much of Syria, Anatolia, and Upper Mesopotamia.
The Amorite name Ila-kabkabu appears twice in the Assyrian King List:
In the history of Assyria, Limmu was an Assyrian eponym. At the beginning of the reign of an Assyrian king, the limmu, an appointed royal official, would preside over the New Year festival at the capital. Each year a new limmu would be chosen. Although picked by lot, there was most likely a limited group, such as the men of the most prominent families or perhaps members of the city assembly. The Assyrians used the name of the limmu for that year to designate the year on official documents. Lists of limmus have been found accounting for every year between 892 BC and 648 BC.
Ashur-dan III was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 773 BC to his death in 755 BC. Ashur-dan was a son of Adad-nirari III and succeeded his brother Shalmaneser IV as king. He ruled during a period of Assyrian decline from which few sources survive. As such his reign, other than broad political developments, is poorly known. At this time, the Assyrian officials were becoming increasingly powerful relative to the king and at the same time, Assyria's enemies were growing more dangerous. Ashur-dan's reign was a particularly difficult one as he was faced with two outbreaks of plague and five of his eighteen years as king were devoted to putting down revolts.
Aššur-nērārī IV, inscribed maš-šur-ERIM.GABA, "(the god) Aššur is my help," was the king of Assyria, the 94th to appear on the Assyrian Kinglist, ruling 1019/18–1013 BC. His short six-year reign was marked by confusion and a dearth of contemporary inscriptions.
Šamši-Adad IV, inscribed mdšam-ši-dIM, was the king of Assyria, 1054/3–1050 BC, the 91st to be listed on the Assyrian Kinglist. He was a son of Tukultī-apil-Ešarra I, the third to have taken the throne, after his brothers Ašarēd-apil-Ekur and Ashur-bel-kala, and he usurped the kingship from the latter’s son, the short-reigning Erība-Adad II. It is quite probable that he was fairly elderly when he seized the throne.
Erība-Adad II, inscribed mSU-dIM, “Adad has replaced,” was the king of Assyria 1056/55–1054 BC, the 94th to appear on the Assyrian Kinglist. He was the son of Aššur-bēl-kala whom he briefly succeeded and was deposed by his uncle Šamši-Adad IV.
Aššūr-bēl-kala, inscribed maš-šur-EN-ka-la and meaning “Aššur is lord of all,” was the king of Assyria 1074/3–1056 BC, the 89th to appear on the Assyrian Kinglist. He was the son of Tukultī-apil-Ešarra I, succeeded his brother Ašarēd-apil-Ekur who had briefly preceded him, and he ruled for 18 years He was the last king of the Middle Assyrian Empire, and his later reign was preoccupied with a revolution against his rule led by one Tukulti-Mer, which, by the end of his reign, allowed hordes of Arameans to press in on Assyria's western borders. He is perhaps best known for his zoological collection.
Aššur-rēša-iši I, inscribed maš-šur-SAG-i-ši and meaning “Aššur has lifted my head,” ruled 1132–1115 BC, son of Mutakkil-Nusku, was a king of Assyria, the 86th to appear on the Assyrian King List and ruled for 18 years. The Synchronistic King List and its fragmentary copies give him as a contemporary of the Babylonian kings Ninurta-nādin-šumi, Nebuchadnezzar I and Enlil-nādin-apli, although the last of these is unlikely per the commonly accepted chronology.
Aššur-dān I, mAš-šur-dān(kal)an, was the 83rd king of Assyria, reigning for 46 years, c. 1178 to 1133 BC, and the son of Ninurta-apal-Ekur, where one of the three variant copies of the Assyrian King List shows a difference. The Synchronistic King List and a fragmentary copy give his Babylonian contemporaries as Zababa-šum-iddina, c. 1158 BC, and Enlil-nādin-aḫe, c. 1157—1155 BC, the last of the kings of the Kassite dynasty, but it is probable he was contemporary with two more preceding and two following these monarchs, if the length of his reign is correct.
Eriba-Adad, inscribed mSU-dIM or mSU-d10, was king of Assyria from c. 1390 BC to 1364 BC. His father had been the earlier king Aššur-bel-nišešu, an affiliation attested in brick inscriptions, king-lists and a tablet although a single king list gives his father as Aššur-rā’im-nišēšu, probably in error. He succeeded his nephew, Aššur-nādin-aḫḫe II, being succeeded himself by the rather more prominent king Aššur-uballiṭ I, who was his son. He was the 72nd on the Assyrian King List and ruled for 27 years.
The Assyrian eclipse, also known as the Bur-Sagale eclipse, is a solar eclipse recorded in Assyrian eponym lists that most likely dates to the tenth year of the reign of king Ashur-dan III. The eclipse is identified with the one that occurred on 15 June 763 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar.
Erishum I or Erišu(m) Ic. 1974–1935 BCE, son of Ilu-shuma, was the thirty-third ruler of Assyria to appear on the Assyrian King List. He reigned for forty years. One of two copies of the Assyrian King List which include him gives his reign length as only 30 years, but this contrasts with a complete list of his limmu, some 40, which are extant from tablets recovered at Karum Kanesh. He had titled himself both as, "Ashur is king, Erishum is vice-regent" and the, “Išši’ak Aššur”ki, at a time when Assur was controlled by an oligarchy of the patriarchs of the prominent families and subject to the “judgment of the city”, or dīn alim. According to Veenhof, Erishum I’s reign marks the period when the institution of the annually appointed limmu (eponym) was introduced. The Assyrian King List observes of his immediate predecessors, “in all six kings known from bricks, whose limmu have not been marked/found”.
Erishum I or Erišum II, the son and successor of Naram-Sin, was the king of the city-state Assur from c. 1828/1818 BC to 1809 BC. Like his predecessors, he bore the titles “Išši’ak Aššur” and “ensí”. The length of Erishum II's reign is uncertain, however; based on various excavated "limmu" (eponym) lists, Naram-Sin's and Erishum II's reigns had a combined length of 64 years.
Naram-Sin, or Narām-Sîn or –Suen, inscribed in cuneiform on contemporary seal impressions as dna-ra-am-dEN.ZU, had been the "waklum" or "Išši’ak Aššur" of the city-state Assur, listed as the 37th king of Assyria on the later Assyrian King Lists, where he is inscribed mna-ram-dEN.ZU, or a fragmentary list where he appears as -d30. He was named for the illustrious Naram-Sin of Akkad and took the divine determinative in his name Naram-Sin should not be confused with the Naram-Sin who had ruled Eshnunna for around twelve years It is probable that Naram-Sin of Assur was, however, contemporaneous with the earlier part of Ebiq-Adad II’s reign Naram-Sin of Assyria was the son and successor of the short-reigning Puzur-Ashur II, filiation preserved in his seal impression on the envelopes of the waklum-letters to his expat Anatolian-based traders at the karum Kanesh and in the later Assyrian King Lists.
The chronology of the ancient Near East is a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Historical inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers: "in the year X of king Y". Comparing many records pieces together a relative chronology relating dates in cities over a wide area.
Aššūr-dugul, inscribed maš-šur-du-gul, “Look to Aššur!”, was the king of Assyria probably during the 18th century BC, a period of confusion in Assyrian history. Reigning for six years, he was the 44th ruler to be listed on the Assyrian Kinglist, and was designated by the list as a usurper succeeding the dynasty founded by Shamshi-Adad I.