Nazi-Maruttash
Encyclopedia
Nazi-Maruttaš, Maruttaš (a Kassite god synonymous with Ninurta
) protects him, was a Kassite
king of Babylon
ca. 1307–1282 BC (short chronology) and self-proclaimed šar kiššati, or “King of the World”. He was the twenty third of the dynasty, the son and successor of Kurigalzu II
and reigned for twenty six years. He is known to have made at least one Kudurru
boundary stone (pictured).
under Arik-den-ili
and his successor Adad-Nīrāri I
. The containment of Assyria was conducted through a strategy of flank-attacks supported by his agents, eastern hillmen such as the Gutians, in a protracted war avoiding a full frontal assault. Under Arik-den-ili, he seems to have had the upper hand, because Adad-Nīrāri, who styles himself “King of the Universe”, later recounts that “my father could not rectify the calamities inflicted by the army of the king of the Kassite land” in a contemporary Assyrian epic.
He is mentioned in the Synchronistic Chronicle
as having fought a battle with Adad-Nīrāri's forces at "Kār-Ištar of Ugarsallu". However, the Assyrians won a complete victory over the Babylonians in this battle, plundering their camp and seizing the royal standards, thereby acquiring territory from them and causing the Assyro-Babylonian boundary to be adjusted southward. The conflict is fondly remembered in the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic
, in its recounting of past Assyro-Babylonian conflicts, where he says, “And like Adad I will send a devastating flood upon your camp!”
, because a text of this period concerning ration lists and foreign prisoners of war mentions Nazi-Maruttaš in sections concerning Elamites. A historical letter detailed his campaign in Mat Namri, a Hurrian region, and possibly his conquest of its twelve cities.
A fragment of a tablet relates that “Marduk
ca[used] all the lands [to bow down] at his feet”.
for Nazi-Maruttaš. This was located in the palace area at the Kassite capital, Dur-Kurigalzu
.
Work was also undertaken at Nippur
, and excavations have yielded various tablet
s. He was also active in building as far south as Uruk
, the Eḫiliana of Nanâ, as attested to by a later inscription by Esarhaddon
. Other cities formerly abandoned such as Larsa
, Ur
, Adab
, and Isin
show evidence of revival in his reign.
There are nearly 400 economic text
s dated to years up to the twenty fourth of his reign, detailing things as mundane as the receipt of barley and malt, the issue of grain, goats, hides, sheep and oil. A tablet found in Tell Kirbasi, on the south side of the central Hor al-Hammar 30 km west of Basra, lists 47 head of cattle in the sixteenth year of Nazi-Maruttaš, showing the extent of trade.
, Nippur, Babylon, Ur, Larsa, Uruk
and Eridu
. The scholars excerpted, selected, and gave to Nazi-Maruttaš, king of the world.” This was a sort of almanac which identified which days of each month were favorable, magru, unfavorable, la magru, or downright dangerous, lemnu, for activities of interest to the king, such as those propitious for begetting children, or setting taxes. It was typically used by scribes, temple administrators, priests, cultic singers and exorcists and provided detailed instructions for ūme ṭābūti, “auspicious days”. Five extant examples have been found, including a bilingual copy in Dur-Kurigalzu, another found in the house of LÚ.NAR.GAL “cultic singers” in Aššur and a third in the house of Kiṣir-Aššur, exorcist of the temple of Aššur during the reign of Aššurbanipal
.
The prominent physician, or asû, from Nippur, Rabâ-ša-Marduk
, began his lengthy, well-attested career during Nazi-Maruttaš’ reign.
Ninurta
Ninurta in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology was the god of Lagash, identified with Ningirsu with whom he may always have been identical...
) protects him, was a Kassite
Kassites
The Kassites were an ancient Near Eastern people who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca. 1531 BC to ca. 1155 BC...
king of Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
ca. 1307–1282 BC (short chronology) and self-proclaimed šar kiššati, or “King of the World”. He was the twenty third of the dynasty, the son and successor of Kurigalzu II
Kurigalzu II
Kurigalzu II was the twenty second king of the Kassite dynasty that ruled over Babylon. In more than twelve inscriptions, Kurigalzu names Burna-Buriaš II as his father...
and reigned for twenty six years. He is known to have made at least one Kudurru
Kudurru
Kudurru was a type of stone document used as boundary stones and as records of land grants to vassals by the Kassites in ancient Babylonia between the 16th and 12th centuries BCE. The word is Akkadian for "frontier" or "boundary"...
boundary stone (pictured).
Conflict with Assyria
Nazi-Maruttaš faced a growing threat from the ascendancy of AssyriaAssyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
under Arik-den-ili
Arik-den-ili
Arik-den-ili was an Assyrian king who succeeded Enlil-nirari, his father, and was to rule for twelve years and inaugurate the tradition of annual military campaigns against Assyria’s neighbors.-Biography:Our sources are slim for his reign, less than ten inscriptions, a fragmentary chronicle...
and his successor Adad-Nīrāri I
Adad-nirari I
Adad-nirari I was a king of Assyria. He is the earliest Assyrian king whose annals survive in any detail. Adad-nirari I achieved major military victories that significantly strengthened the Assyrian kingdom and enabled Assyria to start to play a major role in Mesopotamian politics...
. The containment of Assyria was conducted through a strategy of flank-attacks supported by his agents, eastern hillmen such as the Gutians, in a protracted war avoiding a full frontal assault. Under Arik-den-ili, he seems to have had the upper hand, because Adad-Nīrāri, who styles himself “King of the Universe”, later recounts that “my father could not rectify the calamities inflicted by the army of the king of the Kassite land” in a contemporary Assyrian epic.
He is mentioned in the Synchronistic Chronicle
Babylonian Chronicles
The Babylonian Chronicles are many series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. They are thus one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography...
as having fought a battle with Adad-Nīrāri's forces at "Kār-Ištar of Ugarsallu". However, the Assyrians won a complete victory over the Babylonians in this battle, plundering their camp and seizing the royal standards, thereby acquiring territory from them and causing the Assyro-Babylonian boundary to be adjusted southward. The conflict is fondly remembered in the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic
Tukulti-Ninurta Epic
Tukulti-Ninurta Epic is an Assyrian epic, written in the Akkadian language that describes and glorifies the wars and conquests of the Assyrian King Tukulti-Ninurta I against Kashtiliash IV, King of the Kassites....
, in its recounting of past Assyro-Babylonian conflicts, where he says, “And like Adad I will send a devastating flood upon your camp!”
Other conflicts
There is evidence of a successful attack on ElamElam
Elam was an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Elam was centered in the far west and the southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province, as well as a small part of southern Iraq...
, because a text of this period concerning ration lists and foreign prisoners of war mentions Nazi-Maruttaš in sections concerning Elamites. A historical letter detailed his campaign in Mat Namri, a Hurrian region, and possibly his conquest of its twelve cities.
A fragment of a tablet relates that “Marduk
Marduk
Marduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to...
ca[used] all the lands [to bow down] at his feet”.
Building works
A shrine to Gula was uncovered in 1946 in an eroded building with a pavement of much damaged kiln-baked bricks, some inscribedMudbrick stamp
The mudbrick stamp, or brick seal of Mesopotamia are impression or stamp seals made upon bricks or mudbrick. The inscribed seal is in mirror reverse on the 'mold', mostly with cuneiform inscriptions, and the foundation mudbricks are often part of the memorializing of temples, or other structures,...
for Nazi-Maruttaš. This was located in the palace area at the Kassite capital, Dur-Kurigalzu
Dur-Kurigalzu
Dur-Kurigalzu was a city in southern Mesopotamia near the confluence of the Tigris and Diyala rivers about 30 km west of the center of Baghdad. It was founded by a Kassite king of Babylon, Kurigalzu I, some time in the 14th century BC, and was abandoned after the fall of the Kassite dynasty...
.
Work was also undertaken at Nippur
Nippur
Nippur was one of the most ancient of all the Sumerian cities. It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the "Lord Wind," ruler of the cosmos subject to An alone...
, and excavations have yielded various tablet
Clay tablet
In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age....
s. He was also active in building as far south as Uruk
Uruk
Uruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River, some 30 km east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Uruk gave its name to the Uruk...
, the Eḫiliana of Nanâ, as attested to by a later inscription by Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon , was a king of Assyria who reigned 681 – 669 BC. He was the youngest son of Sennacherib and the Aramean queen Naqi'a , Sennacherib's second wife....
. Other cities formerly abandoned such as Larsa
Larsa
Larsa was an important city of ancient Sumer, the center of the cult of the sun god Utu. It lies some 25 km southeast of Uruk in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate, near the east bank of the Shatt-en-Nil canal at the site of the modern settlement Tell as-Senkereh or Sankarah.-History:According to...
, Ur
Ur
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
, Adab
Adab
Adab or Udab was an ancient Sumerian city between Telloh and Nippur. It was located at the site of modern Bismaya or Bismya in the Wasit Governorate of Iraq.-History:...
, and Isin
Isin
Isin was an ancient city-state of lower Mesopotamia about 20 miles south of Nippur at the site of modern Ishan al-Bahriyat in Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate.-History:...
show evidence of revival in his reign.
There are nearly 400 economic text
Text corpus
In linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts...
s dated to years up to the twenty fourth of his reign, detailing things as mundane as the receipt of barley and malt, the issue of grain, goats, hides, sheep and oil. A tablet found in Tell Kirbasi, on the south side of the central Hor al-Hammar 30 km west of Basra, lists 47 head of cattle in the sixteenth year of Nazi-Maruttaš, showing the extent of trade.
The Hemerology for Nazi-Maruttaš
A single standard hemerology, or uttuku, was collated during his time. Its colophon reads, "Dies fas according to the seven a[pkallī?] originals from SipparSippar
Sippar was an ancient Near Eastern city on the east bank of the Euphrates river, located at the site of modern Tell Abu Habbah in Iraq's Babil Governorate, some 60 km north of Babylon and 30 km southeast of Baghdad....
, Nippur, Babylon, Ur, Larsa, Uruk
Uruk
Uruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River, some 30 km east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Uruk gave its name to the Uruk...
and Eridu
Eridu
Eridu is an ancient Sumerian city in what is now Tell Abu Shahrain, Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq. Eridu was considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia, and is one of the oldest cities in the world...
. The scholars excerpted, selected, and gave to Nazi-Maruttaš, king of the world.” This was a sort of almanac which identified which days of each month were favorable, magru, unfavorable, la magru, or downright dangerous, lemnu, for activities of interest to the king, such as those propitious for begetting children, or setting taxes. It was typically used by scribes, temple administrators, priests, cultic singers and exorcists and provided detailed instructions for ūme ṭābūti, “auspicious days”. Five extant examples have been found, including a bilingual copy in Dur-Kurigalzu, another found in the house of LÚ.NAR.GAL “cultic singers” in Aššur and a third in the house of Kiṣir-Aššur, exorcist of the temple of Aššur during the reign of Aššurbanipal
Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal |Ashur]] is creator of an heir"; 685 BC – c. 627 BC), also spelled Assurbanipal or Ashshurbanipal, was an Assyrian king, the son of Esarhaddon and the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire...
.
The prominent physician, or asû, from Nippur, Rabâ-ša-Marduk
Rabâ-ša-Marduk
Rabâ-ša-Marduk, “great are of Marduk”, was a prominent physician, or asû, from the city of Nippur who was posted to the Hittite court of Muwatalli II in Anatolia in the thirteenth century BC, apparently as part of a diplomatic mission of Kassite king Kadašman-Turgu .-Biography:His name was uncommon...
, began his lengthy, well-attested career during Nazi-Maruttaš’ reign.
External links
- Kudurru Image
- http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17321/17321-h/v1c.htmArticle discussing Nazimaruttaš KudurruKudurruKudurru was a type of stone document used as boundary stones and as records of land grants to vassals by the Kassites in ancient Babylonia between the 16th and 12th centuries BCE. The word is Akkadian for "frontier" or "boundary"...
, (Boundary Stone). ]
