Babylonians in the Middle to Late Bronze Ages

[This is a lecture written for the course 'HIST 262: History of the Ancient Near East,' taught Fall 2023 at God's Bible School and College, a regionally accredited College in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bibliographical material will be posted under Research on this site.]

Though the Old Babylonian period is dated to ca. 2004-1595 B.C. (Beaulieu 2018: 60), some date the period to the time of the Amorite chief, Sumu-abum, who founded a small kingdom at Babylon (Leick 2007: 2), giving a date for the Old Babylonian period of ca. 1894–1595 B.C. (Knott 2017), or possibly even the unification of southern Mesopotamia well into the reign of Hammurabi (van Koppen 2007: 210).

Just as the Old Assyrian period stemmed from the collapse of the Ur III Dynasty, so Babylon, being a provincial capital in southern Mesopotamia under Ur III (Roaf 1990: 192), had its beginning in the same power vacuum. If accepting the date of 2004 B.C., then the Old Babylonian period begins with a power struggle between Isin and Larsa, two powerful cities in the south vying for control over the region, Isin eventually giving way to Larsa (van de Mieroop 2015: 164).

Hammurabi.

Fortunately for Babylon, the city lay northward and out of reach of the Isin-Larsa feud (Knott 2017), allowing Babylon to wait out the reign of Rim-Sin, king of Larsa, before attempting to consolidate power. Key in all of this is Hammurabi, grandson of Sumu-abum, who, when Rim-Sin was in his old age, after a sixty year reign (van de Mieroop 2015: 164), captured Larsa and gained control of the region uniting southern Mesopotamia and much of the middle Euphrates (Leick 2007: 2).

Notably, Rim-Sin was able to create a well-ordered bureaucratic system for the administration of his small kingdom, one that, after the capture of Larsa, Hammurabi was able to retain, even to the point of relying on men at Larsa to supervise the southern regions (van de Mieroop 2015: 164). Thus, Hammurabi became the father of the first true imperial age of Babylon, and he codified his reign with the forgiveness of debts, a common practice at the time (van de Mieroop 2005: 23), for the self-proclaimed purpose of bringing safety and prosperity to his people (van de Mieroop 2005: 95).

Bureaucracy and Law.

Later in his reign, Hammurabi, in the introduction to his now famous law code, surveyed the regions in which he controlled, paying special attention to the old cities of Babylonia that were formerly in the territories of Babylon and Larsa (van de Mieroop 2005: 90). He claimed to have ruled as far north as Aššur and Nineveh, and ancient archives at Tell al-Rimah corroborate the claim (Beaulieu 2018: 86). Hammurabi also boasts of his benevolence toward the cities in which he ruled (van de Mieroop 2005: 90), for example the building of irrigation canals in the south (van de Mieroop 2005: 26) as the regulation of water is critically important for cultivation (Mauer 1983: 67).

A part of the administrative duties of the king, and a consequence of the unification of the land, was a stable, centralized government, and due to the economic system in place, and the high tax rate, the kings of Babylon would invest in grand construction projects and maintain cultic precincts; the purposeful investment into urban expansion and royal residences fell under the control and duty of the throne (Sommerfeld 1995: 919), and these furthered the position of the empire.

Perhaps Hammurabi is best known for his code of laws. While his law code does not address any types of international law (Charpin 2010: 4) and is more of a jurisprudence than a code of laws (Bahrani 2007: 158), it originally contained between 275-300 separate paragraphs (van de Mieroop 2015: 211) and at least 282 separate articles (Beaulieu 2018: 86) phrased, mostly, in a casuistic fashion, which is to say in an ‘if-then’ pattern (van de Mieroop 2015: 211). This code dates to the thirty-eighth year of his reign, and therefore was quite late (van de Mieroop 2005: 90), determining a culmination of a rather long tradition (Beaulieu 2018: 87).

Of note is the inspiration of the law codes as Hammurabi was given divine approval to establish law in the land directly from the sun god, Šamaš, as depicted at the top of the stele that houses the laws and of whom Hammurabi is seen worshiping (Beaulieu, 2018: 86). In fact, Hammurabi claims to had been chosen by the gods to destroy the wicked and ensure that the strong do not oppress the weak (van de Mieroop 2005: 96).

Of course, this was not the first code of laws in Mesopotamia. As noted above, Assyrian judicial records make reference to ‘the words upon the stele’ (Veenhof 1995: 1717), and these linguistically Akkadian laws predate Hammurabi by at least one generation (Beaulieu 2018: 87). Before that, the law code of Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Ur III Dynasty (Black and Green 1992: 73), covered criminal and civil matters and included capital punishments and fines in silver (Kriwaczek 2012: 141). Hammurabi’s code was something of an updated code that attained a canonical status and replaced Ur-Nammu’s laws which had, up to that point, continued to be copied (Beaulieu 2018: 87). Even after the time of Hammurabi, the code remained important and the stele was among the loot taken by the Elamites to Susa where it remained until modern scholars discovered it (Kriwaczekn 2012: 11).

Gradual Fall.

Hammurabi’s Babylonian Empire would be prosperous for approximately three hundred years, including five more kings before its fall; unfortunately, without Hammurabi, the empire lost its influence in the region (Khalisi 2020: 2). Already at the time of Hammurabi, evidences of plight in the kingdom exist. Rim-Sin, the last king of Larsa, attempted to correct the diminishing water supplies of his city, and although Hammurabi officially swore to fix the problem, private correspondences show that the issue had been close to disaster (van Koppen 2007: 217). The Euphrates River was the life-blood of the empire (van Koppen 2007: 212) and proper irrigation was equated with survival. Still, the city survived for quite some time likely due to whatever Hammurabi had put into place to correct the issues.

While the First Dynasty of Babylon could not keep control of the land, Hammurabi and his successors brought a uniformity of culture and administration throughout the territory, and the splendor of Babylon drew the attention of far off rulers (Leick 2007: 2). With the changing Euphrates River system, a problem that had continued since the first urbanization period (Verhoeven 1998: 198), famine plagued the region in the later years of Samsuiluna, son of Hammurabi (van Koppen 2007: 218-19), causing the decline of the empire to begin just one generation after the famous law giver (Beaulieu 2018: 60). Ultimately, the branch of the Euphrates that ran from Kish to Nippur permanently failed, causing mass starvation (van Koppen 2007: 218-19). The above mentioned Anatolians who recognized the splendor of Babylon, the Hittites, took advantage of the declining empire, and ca. 1595 B.C., the Old Babylonian empire was brought to an end; written documents from Babylon ended at this time (Khalisi 2020: 2).

Kassites.

Just as the Hittites before had conquered the Mitanni kingdom and returned to Anatolia, so the Hittites, under King Musili, returned to their homeland shortly after sacking Babylon (Kriwaczek 2012: 191), carrying with them the splendor of the city. Instead, a previously unknown group called Kassites took advantage of the power vacuum and ruled from Babylon (van de Mieroop 2015: 197).

It should be noted that the history of the Kassite period in southern Mesopotamia is not very well attested, and therefore it is difficult to apprehend the culture or politics of the period (Vermaak 2006: 521). These Kassites ruled for nearly four hundred years, making little notable progress (Kriwaczek 2012: 191). Exactly how they came to power is uncertain due to the ‘dark age’ of Babylonian history, that is, a lack of documentation, from 1595-1531 B.C., but they ruled from ca. 1531-1155 B.C., first from Babylon and later from Dur-Kurigalzu (Adamo and Al-Ansari 2020: 49).

Assimilation.

The Kassites were likely immigrants into the land (Kriwaczek 2012: 191) as they spoke a language without cognates in the area (van de Mieroop 2015: 276). As the region of Babylonia had no natural borders, nomads and immigrants were attracted to the region, some to raid and others looking to access the necessities of life (Sommerfeld 1995: 917).

Interestingly, during the early periods of Kassite rule, all Kassite kings retained Kassite names (Leick 2007: 2), an attempt to adhere to their own cultural standards. They also continued to use the Kassite language, but this language could not compete with the strong Babylonian cultural norms, and in fact no complete Kassite texts have yet been discovered (van de Mieroop 2015: 276). These new rulers respected and continued royal duties toward the Babylonian temples, and some later Kassite rulers adopted Babylonian names and titles, assimilating somewhat into the Babylonian culture rather than keeping their own (Leick 2007: 2).

Unification.

The rather long reign of the Kassites, almost five hundred years, properly unified the region and crystallized Babylonian civilization (Leick 2007: 2). Their rule now included the Persian Gulf and parts of Bahrain (Altaweel and Squitieri 2018: 22). The entire period was relatively stable, generating wealth through agriculture and prestige goods (Leick 2007: 2), and the Kassite leadership was popular among the people (Adamo and Al-Ansari 2020: 49), following the Babylonian tradition that the king’s duties included both secular and religious aspects and therefore the kings cared for the people (Sommerfeld 1995: 919).

Being a part of a military aristocracy, the Kassite kings were efficient in their rule (Adamo and Al-Ansari 2020: 49), dispersing a great majority of their kinsmen into the hinterlands where, from these small, rural settlements, they could economically support the throne through resource management (Vermaak 2006: 522-23). In fact, several hundred personnel have been listed in administrative texts as recipients of a strict ration organization, including administrative and temple personnel, troops, workers, and even artisans (Sommerfeld 1995: 919-20).

Some major changes also took place under this new empire. Regnal years, a system where the first year of rule began on New Year’s day and any time before that was considered the accession year, replaced year names, and this system continued for around a thousand years (Mieroop 2015: 127). Additionally, the worship of Marduk, which had begun in the late Old Babylonian period, became solidified during the Kassite period, never officially replacing Enlil, but the supremacy of Marduk that is attested in many Kassite period personal cylinder seals would eventually become official around the twelfth century (Oshima 2007: 349). As evidenced through the use of Kassite terminology, these people also both introduced horse breeding and significantly contributed to the innovation of war chariots to the region (Sommerfeld 1995: 925-26). Ultimately, the Kassites blended together what would eventually develop into the later Babylonian culture (Adamo and Al-Ansari 2020: 49).

Fall.

Unfortunately, during the thirteenth century B.C., conflict with the Assyrians intensified, and rather short-lived border treaties were created (Altaweel and Squitieri 2018: 22). The Kassites had made a number of treaties with Assyria, as well as with Egypt and others, and diplomatic marriages occurred (Sommerfeld 1995: 929), but Assyria grew increasingly stronger during these times (Altaweel and Squitieri 2018: 22). Eventually, Babylonia would be attacked by both Assyria and Elam (Oshima 2007: 349), leading to the downfall of Kassite rule (Sommerfeld 1995: 929).

After a relatively long period of stability under Kassite kings (Oshima 2007: 349), developing the region into a prosperous society (Sommerfeld 1995: 929), the Kassites fell. New cultural groups attempted to gain power, including the Second Sealand dynasty and the Second Isin Dynasty; Aramean peoples began to settle along the Tigris, and the Chaldeans became important in the governing of the region (Altaweel and Squitieri 2018: 26). Ultimately, it was the Elamites, the ‘new’ Babylonians, who brought the Kassites to their end, ruling for over a century before the rising Assyrians would dominate the land (Adamo and Al-Ansari 2020: 52).