Babylonia was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in central-southern Mesopotamia. A small Amorite-ruled state emerged in 1894 BC, which contained the minor administrative town of Babylon. It was merely a small provincial town during the Akkadian Empire but greatly expanded during the reign of Hammurabi in the first half of the 18th century BC and became a major capital city. During the reign of Hammurabi and afterwards, Babylonia was called "the country of Akkad", a deliberate archaism in reference to the previous glory of the Akkadian Empire.
Akkadian literature is the ancient literature written in the Akkadian language written in Mesopotamia during the period spanning the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age.
Tukulti-Ninurta I was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire. He is known as the first king to use the title "King of Kings".
Adad-nārārī I, rendered in all but two inscriptions ideographically as mdadad-ZAB+DAḪ, meaning “Adad (is) my helper,” was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire. He is the earliest Assyrian king whose annals survive in any detail. Adad-nārārī I achieved major military victories that further strengthened Assyria. In his inscriptions from Assur he calls himself son of Arik-den-ili, the same filiations being recorded in the Nassouhi kinglist. He is recorded as a son of lIlil-nerari in the Khorsabad kinglist and the SDAS kinglist, probably in error.
Mutakkil-Nusku, inscribed mmu-ta/tak-kil-dPA.KU, "he whom Nusku endows with confidence," was king of Assyria briefly c. 1133 BC, during a period of political decline. He reigned sufficiently long to be the recipient of a letter or letters from the Babylonian king, presumed to be Ninurta-nādin-šumi, in which he was lambasted and derided.
Ninurta-tukultī-Aššur, inscribed mdNinurta2-tukul-ti-Aš-šur, was briefly king of Assyria during 1133 BC, the 84th to appear on the Assyrian Kinglist, marked as holding the throne for his ṭuppišu, "his tablet," a period thought to correspond just to the inauguration year. He succeeded his father, the long-reigning Aššur-dān I, but the throne was very quickly usurped by his brother, Mutakkil-Nusku, and he was driven from Assur and sought refuge in the city of Sišil, on the Babylonian border, the scene of the final dénouement.
Aššur-dān I, mAš-šur-dān(kal)an, was the 83rd king of Assyria, reigning for 46 years, c. 1179 to 1134 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.
Ninurta-apal-Ekur, inscribed mdMAŠ-A-é-kur, meaning “Ninurta is the heir of the Ekur,” was a king of Assyria in the early 12th century BC who usurped the throne and styled himself king of the universe and priest of the gods Enlil and Ninurta. His reign is immensely significant to the Chronology of the ancient Near East as it overlaps the reigns of his Babylonian contemporaries Adad-šuma-uṣur and Meli-Šipak.
Enlil-kudurrī-uṣur, mdEnlil(be)-ku-dúr-uṣur,, was the 81st king of Assyria. Depending on the length of reign one gives to his successor, Ninurta-apal-Ekur, this would have been either from 1187 to 1183 BC or from 1197 to 1193 BC. The former dates are more common in recent studies.
Kaštiliašu IV was the twenty-eighth Kassite king of Babylon and the kingdom contemporarily known as Kar-Duniaš, c. 1232–1225 BC. He succeeded Šagarakti-Šuriaš, who could have been his father, ruled for eight years, and went on to wage war against Assyria resulting in the catastrophic invasion of his homeland and his abject defeat.
Nazi-Maruttaš, typically inscribed Na-zi-Ma-ru-ut-ta-aš or mNa-zi-Múru-taš, Maruttašprotects him, was a Kassite king of Babylon c. 1307–1282 BC and self-proclaimed šar kiššati, or "King of the World", according to the votive inscription pictured. He was the 23rd of the dynasty, the son and successor of Kurigalzu II, and reigned for twenty six years.
Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē, inscribed mdAMAR.UTU-na-din-MU, ca. 1099–1082 BC, was the sixth king of the Second Dynasty of Isin and the 4th Dynasty of Babylon. He is best known for his restoration of the Eganunmaḫ in Ur and the famines and droughts that accompanied his reign.
The Middle Assyrian Empire is the period in the history of Assyria between the fall of the Old Assyrian Empire in the 14th century BC and the establishment of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 10th century BC.
Enlil-nādin-šumi, inscribed mdEN.LĺL-MU-MU or mdEN.LĺL-na-din-MU, meaning “Enlil is the giver of a name,” was a king of Babylon, c. 1224 BC, following the overthrow of Kaštiliašu IV by Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria. Recorded as the 29th ruler of the Kassite dynasty, his reign was fleeting, just one year, six months, or perhaps only six months, depending on the reading of MU 1 ITI 6 in the Kinglist A, before he was swept from power by the invasion of the Elamite forces under the last king of the Igehalkid dynasty, Kidin-Hutran III.
Adad-šuma-iddina, inscribed mdIM-MU-SUM-na, and dated to around ca. 1222–1217 BC, was the 31st king of the 3rd or Kassite dynasty of Babylon and the country contemporarily known as Karduniaš. He reigned for 6 years some time during the period following the conquest of Babylonia by the Assyrian king, Tukulti-Ninurta I, and has been identified as a vassal king by several historians, a position which is not directly supported by any contemporary evidence.
Adad-šuma-uṣur, inscribed dIM-MU-ŠEŠ, meaning "O Adad, protect the name!," and dated very tentatively ca. 1216–1187 BC, was the 32nd king of the 3rd or Kassite dynasty of Babylon and the country contemporarily known as Karduniaš. His name was wholly Babylonian and not uncommon, as for example the later Assyrian King Esarhaddon had a personal exorcist, or ašipu, with the same name who was unlikely to have been related. He is best known for his rude letter to Aššur-nirari III, the most complete part of which is quoted below, and was enthroned following a revolt in the south of Mesopotamia when the north was still occupied by the forces of Assyria, and he may not have assumed authority throughout the country until around the 25th year of his 30-year reign, although the exact sequence of events and chronology remains disputed.
Ninurta-nādin-šumi, inscribed mdMAŠ-na-din-MU or dNIN.IB-SUM-MU, “Ninurta (is) giver of progeny,” c. 1132-1126 BC, was the 3rd king of the 2nd dynasty of Isin and 4th dynasty of Babylon. He reigned for seven years, contemporaneously with Aššur-reš-iši, c. 1133 to 1115 BC, the Assyrian king with whom he clashed.
Chronicle P, known as Chronicle 22 in Grayson’s Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles and Mesopotamian Chronicle 45: "Chronicle of the Kassite Kings" in Glassner's Mesopotamian Chronicles is named for T. G. Pinches, the first editor of the text. It is a chronicle of the second half of the second millennium BC or the Kassite period, written by a first millennium BC Babylonian scribe.
The tablet of Akaptaḫa, or Agaptaḫa, is an ancient Mesopotamian private commemorative inscription on stone of the donation of a 10 GUR field by Kassite king Kaštiliašu IV to a fugitive leatherworker from Assyrian-occupied Ḫanigalbat in grateful recognition of his services provisioning the Babylonian army with bridles.
The Eclectic Chronicle, referred to in earlier literature as the New Babylonian Chronicle, is an ancient Mesopotamian account of the highlights of Babylonian history during the post-Kassite era prior to the 689 BC fall of the city of Babylon. It is an important source of historiography from the period of the early iron-age dark-age with few extant sources to support its telling of events.
