Time and Again: Marduk's Travels

This article edits two previously unpublished Kassite period texts from Nippur. Their contents raise three points about cultic practice and ideological transmission in Babylonia under Kassite rule. First, they demonstrate that, by the thirteenth century, akītu celebrations connected to Marduk and the city of Babylon were being held at Nippur, and therefore contain the earliest, explicit references to the akītu festival of Marduk from a southern Mesopotamian city that is not Babylon. This discovery forces reappraisals of some aspects of the development of the elevated Marduk ideology and the proposed Babylon +Nippur/Marduk+Enlil pairing. Second, one of the texts, CBS 10616, presents clear evidence of rituals and celebrations that have been hinted at in later scholarly works, such as Astrolabe B, OECT 11: 69+70 and the Nippur Compendium, but whose practice heretofore has never been directly attested. Third, these texts and associated issues ostensibly alter current views on the adoption of Nippur cultic ideology by institutions in Babylon and Ashur throughout the second and early first millennium. They are particularly germane to the mechanisms, timing, and sources by which Babylonian intellectual and religious thought found its way into the written record of Assyria.

Studia Orientalia, 2004

Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2016

in Orientalia 90/1 (2021), pp. 21-51, 2021

Marduk-apla-iddina II, king of Babylonia in two periods (721-710, 703), is an important figure in ancient Near Eastern history generally and Babylonian-Assyrian relations especially. However, this ruler is characterized almost exclusively from external sources. By contrast, this paper is focused on how Marduk-apla-iddina II presented himself, in words and images. The aim of this paper is to describe how Marduk-apla-iddina II portrays himself (textually and visually) in the light of how others (in antiquity) portray him. In terms of material, the most important sources are the ones in which Marduk-apla-iddina II appears in first person. Other sources (both contemporary and later) are used to contextualize these narrations 1. Basic philological method is employed in the analysis. In contrast to what arguably is the main study on Marduk-apla-iddina II and his reign by J. A. Brinkman 2 , this paper centres on the ideological aspect rather than on the (usually highlighted) historical-chronological aspect. Historical background Marduk-apla-iddina II was leader of the Chaldean tribe of Bit-Yakin and a descendant of an earlier king of Babylonia, Eriba-Marduk (c. 770-760). On a southern campaign (c. 729), the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III (744-727) exacts tribute from Marduk-apla-iddina II. When there was trouble in Assyria at the death of Shalmaneser V (726-722), Marduk-apla-iddina II stepped in and took control of the whole of Babylonia. The new Assyrian king Sargon II (721-705) unsuccesfully tried to retake Babylonia (which was supported by Elam) early in his reign. When Assyrian forces succeeded in retaking control over southern Mesopotamia in 710 bce 3 , Marduk-apla-iddina II fled 1 For a detailed catalogue of texts which mention Marduk-apla-iddina II, see Brinkman 1964, 41-53. 2 Brinkman 1964. A brief biography of the said king can be found in the relevant PNAentry (Baker 2001, 705-711). 3 As noted by Brinkman (1964, 20, n. 102), some texts (e.g. ISKh 2.3: 327) hint that Marduk-apla-iddina II now started to deliver tribute to Sargon II.

RAHAVARD A Quarterly Bilingual Journal of Iranian Stduies , 2019

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name for the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. (Cf. Isaiah 45:1-4)

The Gresham Publishing company

The most widespread, and therefore the most ancient folk myths, such as, for instance, the Dragon Myth, or the myth of the culture hero. Nor, perhaps, is it necessary that we should concern ourselves greatly regarding the origin of the idea of the dragon, which in one country symbolized fiery drought and in another overwhelming river floods. The student will find footing on surer ground by following the process which exalts the dragon of the folk tale into the symbol of evil and primordial chaos. The Babylonian Creation Myth, for instance, can be shown to be a localized and glorified legend in which the hero and his tribe are displaced by the war god and his fellow deities whose welfare depends on his prowess. Merodach kills the dragon, Tiamat, as the heroes of Eur-Asian folk stories kill grisly hags, by casting his weapon down her throat. He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart, He overcame her and cut off her life; He cast down her body and stood upon it ... And with merciless club he smashed her skull. He cut through the channels of her blood, And he made the north wind to bear it away into secret places. Afterwards He divided the flesh of the Ku-pu and devised a plan Mr. L.W. King, from whose scholarly Seven Tablets of Creation these lines are quoted, notes that "Ku-pu" is a word of uncertain meaning. Jensen suggests "trunk, body". Apparently Merodach obtained special knowledge after dividing, and perhaps eating, the "Ku-pu". His "cunning plan" is set forth in detail: he cut up the dragon's body: He split her up like a flat fish into two halves. He formed the heavens with one half and the earth with the other, and then set the universe in order. His powerr and wisdom as the Demiurge were derived fromm the fierce and powerful Great Mother, Tiamat. Magic and religion were never separated in Babylonia; not only the priests but also the gods performed magical ceremonies. Ea, Merodach's father, overcame Apsu, the husband of the dragon Tiamat, by means of spells: he was "the great magician of the gods". Merodach's division of the "Ku-pu" was evidently an act of contagious magic; by eating or otherwise disposing of the vital part of the fierce and wise mother dragon, he became endowed with her attributes, and was able to proceed with the work of creation. Primitive peoples in our own day, like the Abipones of Paraguay, eat the flesh of fierce and cunning animals so that their strength, courage, and wisdom may be increased. Ancient Babylonia has made stronger appeal to the imagination of Christendom than even Ancient Egypt, because of its association with the captivity of the Hebrews, whose sorrows are enshrined in the familiar psalm: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows.... In sacred literature proud Babylon became the city of the anti-Christ, the symbol of wickedness and cruelty and human vanity. Early Christians who suffered persecution compared their worldly state to that of the oppressed and disconsolate Hebrews, and, like them, they sighed for Jerusalem--the new Jerusalem. When St. John the Divine had visions of the ultimate triumph of Christianity, he referred to its enemies--the unbelievers and persecutors--as the citizens of the earthly Babylon, the doom of which he pronounced in stately and memorable phrases: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, And is become the habitation of devils, And the hold of every foul spirit, And a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.... For her sins have reached unto heaven And God hath remembered her iniquities.... The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, For no man buyeth their merchandise any more. for nearly two thousand years has the haunting memory of the once-powerful city pervaded Christian literature, while its broken walls and ruined temples and palaces lay buried deep in desert sand. The history of the ancient land of which it was the capital survived in but meagre and fragmentary form, mingled with accumulated myths and legends. A slim volume contained all that could be derived from references in the Old Testament and the compilations of classical writers. It is only within the past half-century that the wonderful story of early Eastern civilization has been gradually pieced together by excavators and linguists, who have thrust open the door of the past and probed the hidden secrets of long ages. We now know more about "the land of Babel" than did not only the Greeks and Romans, but even the Hebrew writers who foretold its destruction. Glimpses are being afforded us of its life and manners and customs for some thirty centuries before the captives of Judah uttered lamentations on the banks of its reedy canals. The sites of some of the ancient cities of Babylonia and Assyria were identified by European officials and travellers in the East early in the nineteenth century, and a few relics found their way to Europe. But before Sir A.H. Layard set to work as an excavator in the "forties", "a case scarcely three feet square", as he himself wrote, "enclosed all that remained not only of the great city of Nineveh, but of Babylon itself" Table of Contents Preface Introduction I The Races and Early Civilization of Babylonia II The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep III Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities IV Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts V Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar VI Wars of the City States of Sumer and Akkad VII Creation Legend: Merodach the Dragon Slayer VIII Deified Heroes: Etana and Gilgamesh IX Deluge Legend, the Island of the Blessed, and Hades X Buildings and Laws and Customs of Babylon XI The Golden Age of Babylonia XII Rise of the Hittites, Mitannians, Kassites, Hyksos, and Assyrians XIII Astrology and Astronomy XIV Ashur the National God of Assyria XV Conflicts for Trade and Supremacy XVI Race Movements that Shattered Empires XVII The Hebrews in Assyrian History XVII The Age of Semiramis XIX Assyria's Age of Splendour XX The Last Days of Assyria and Babylonia Index List of Figures 1. TEMPTATION OF THE EA-BANI 2. BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA I.1. EXAMPLES OF RACIAL TYPES I.2. STATUE OF A ROYAL PERSONAGE OR OFFICIAL OF NON-SEMITIC ORIGIN III.1. WORSHIP OF THE MOON GOD III.2. WINGED MAN-HEADED LION IV.1. TWO FIGURES OF DEMONS IV.2. WINGED HUMAN-HEADED COW (?) V.1. ISHTAR IN HADES V.2. Female figure in adoration before a goddess V.3. The winged Ishtar above the rising sun god, the river god, and other deities V.4. Gilgamesh in conflict with bulls (see page 176) V.5. PLAQUE OF UR-NINA VI.1. SILVER VASE DEDICATED TO THE GOD NIN-GIRSU BY ENTEMENA VI.2. STELE OF NARAM SIN VII.1. STATUE OF GUDEA VII.2. "THE SEVEN TABLETS OF CREATION" VII.3. MERODACH SETS FORTH TO ATTACK TIAMAT VIII.1. THE SLAYING OF THE BULL OF ISHTAR IX.1. THE BABYLONIAN DELUGE IX.2. SLIPPER-SHAPED COFFIN MADE OF GLAZED EARTHENWARE IX.3. STELE OF HAMMURABI, WITH "CODE OF LAWS" X.1. THE BABYLONIAN MARRIAGE MARKET XI.1. HAMMURABI RECEIVING THE "CODE OF LAWS" FROM THE SUN GOD XI.2. THE HORSE IN WARFARE XII.1. LETTER FROM TUSHRATTA, KING OF MITANNI, TO AMENHOTEP III, KING OF EGYPT XII.2. THE GOD NINIP AND ANOTHER DEITY XIII.1. SYMBOLS OF DEITIES AS ASTRONOMICAL SIGNS XIII.2. ASHUR SYMBOLS XIV.1. WINGED DEITIES KNEELING BESIDE A SACRED TREE XIV.2. EAGLE-HEADED WINGED DEITY (ASHUR) XVI.1. ASSYRIAN KING HUNTING LIONS XVI.2. TYRIAN GALLEY PUTTING OUT TO SEA XVII.1. STATUE OF ASHUR-NATSIR-PAL, WITH INSCRIPTIONS XVII.2. DETAILS FROM SECOND SIDE OF BLACK OBELISK OF SHALMANESER III XVIII.1. THE SHEPHERD FINDS THE BABE SEMIRAMIS XIX.1. STATUE OF NEBO XIX.2. TIGLATH-PLESSER IV IN HIS CHARIOT XIX.3. COLOSSAL WINGED AND HUMAN-HEADED BULL AND MYTHOLOGICAL BEING XIX.4. ASSAULT ON THE CITY OF ALAMMU (? JERUSALEM) BY THE ASSYRIANS UNDER SENNACHERIB XX.1. ASHUR-BANI-PAL RECLINING IN A BOWER XX.2. PERSIANS BRINGING CHARIOTS, RINGS, AND WREATHS This book takes a look at the ancient history of the land that is now part of Iraq and the Middle East. Also it looks at the myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria, and how these ancient tales reflect the beliefs and development of these early civilizations.

2008

Nouvelles Assyriologiques Bréves et Utilitaires, 2016

This paper deals with the chronologically mistaken approach on the theft of the Marduk statue by the Assyrians and the Elamites. The prevailing view, that Kutir-Naḫḫunte III. took the statue to Elam during the same campaign in Babylonia, which led to the demise of the Kassite dynasty, leads to unacceptable contradictions and to a neglect of most if not even of all traditions concerning this event. I added here a couple of notices to the official publication, which I have left out in NABU on grounds of brevity.

This is a chapter from Part 3 of 'The Sacred History of Being' (forthcoming 2015). It looks at the names of the gods listed as aspects of Marduk in the Enuma Elish (the liturgy of the Babylonian New Year Festival), and their associated properties and attributes, as an aggregation of the characteristics understood to be necessary for the proper exercise of Mesopotamian kingship.

Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel, 2018

This issue of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel edited by Yoram Cohen, as guest-editor, is dedicated to the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (602– 562 b.c.e). It contains seven papers that deal with the man and his deeds as documented in contemporaneous records, monuments, inscriptions and archaeological remains, and as reflected in later sources. The papers are concerned with the actuality and the aftermath of Nebuchadnezzar’s campaigns to the West and the political, social and ideological structuring of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The following introductory paragraphs highlight some of their shared issues. Ran Zadok brings forth evidence regarding foreigners in the Neo-Babylonian Empire, dealing with diverse population groups, such as the Assyrians in the southern alluvium and deportees from the Phoenician cities. He illuminates the role of each community in the imperial economy. Michael Jursa and Shai Gordin complement Zadok’s paper by offering us a micro-historical study of a priestly family in Uruk. They demonstrate the steps undertaken by the imperial administration in order to consolidate and strengthen the Neo-Babylonian Empire once its borders were established. Two studies focus on the military activities of Nebuchadnezzar along the Southern Levantine coast and his interaction with the Egyptians. Dan Master reconstructs the economic and social status of the mercantile city of Ashkelon prior to its destruction by the Babylonians. Dan’el Kahn interprets a variety of Egyptian and other sources to clarify several issues regarding the military maneuvers of the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Rocío Da Riva revisits the monuments of Nebuchadnezzar in Lebanon and offers a novel analysis of their function by looking closely at the way they were produced: The execution of the monuments involved not only material aspects, but also ritual procedures that endowed them with special significance. Jonathan Ben-Dov argues for an afterlife and reinterpretation of the image of Nebuchadnezzar – including its plastic representation in the Lebanon monuments – as propagated throughout the empire. Ben-Dov engages not only with Neo-Babylonian and later cuneiform texts about the king and his dynasty, but also with Aramaic and Hebrew sources. David Vanderhooft likewise considers the image of the Babylonian king, addressing how it was reflected in the Hebrew Bible. He demonstrates how, in quite different ways, Jeremiah and Habakkuk viewed the role of Nebuchadnezzar as the executioner of God’s intentions. Each paper of this issue treats one or several aspects of Nebuchadnezzar’s impact on the ancient Near East from the beginning of his reign and beyond. When considered together they are to be viewed as a substantial contribution to our understanding of a watershed event in the history of ancient Israel and a renewed appreciation of one of the momentous periods in the ancient Near East. These papers were delivered at a symposium entitled, “Nebuchadnezzar: History, Archaeology and Memory,” held at Tel Aviv University on 27 April 2017, under the auspices of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology and the Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. The symposium was organized by Yoram Cohen and Oded Lipschits. We wish to thank the Thyssen Foundation, the Office of the Rector, Tel Aviv University, and the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology for their generous support, which enabled us to host our international guests at Tel Aviv. I sincerely thank the editorial board for accepting the papers for publication in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel. The assistance and devoted care of Phillip Michael Lasater during the production of the issue is greatly appreciated.

RAI 55, 2014

Corrupting the Image 2 Hybrids, Hades, and the Mt Hermon Connection, 2021

we will consider the meaning or etymology of Og’s name. We know that he was an Amorite king. The Amorites’ god was MARTU, who was Enlil, or son of Enlil. He was a survivor of the Rephaim; Rephaim means healers and Ninurta (et al.) was known as “Lord Healer.” According to Ugaritic texts, a king of the dead, associated with the god Milcom, was also associated with Bashan. Thus, Og was king of the Bashan, that is, king of the snake-dragons. His land was at the base of Mt. Hermon where the angels came down in the days of Noah. This survey brings us to the question: What does “Og” actually mean?