Kassites - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Kassites were an ancient Near East

Ancient Near East

The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia , ancient Egypt, ancient Iran The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia...

ern people who gained control of Babylonia

Babylonia

Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...

after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca. 1531 BC to ca. 1155 BC (short chronology). Their language is classified as an isolate

Language isolate

A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...

, and was not Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

or Semitic

Semitic

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...

History

The original homeland of the Kassites is not well known, but appears to have been located in the Zagros Mountains

Zagros Mountains

The Zagros Mountains are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq. With a total length of 1,500 km , from northwestern Iran, and roughly correlating with Iran's western border, the Zagros range spans the whole length of the western and southwestern Iranian plateau and ends at the Strait of...

in Lorestan

Lorestan Province

Lorestan Province is a historic territory and province of western Iran, amidst the Zagros Mountains. The population of Lorestan was estimated at 1,716,527 people in 2006.Lorestan covers an area of 28,392 km²...

in what is now modern Iran, although, like the Elamites, Gutians and Manneans, they were unrelated to the later Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

/Iranic Medes

Medes

The MedesThe Medes...

and Persians

Persian people

The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...

who came to dominate the region a thousand years later. They first appeared in the annals of history in the 18th century BC

18th century BC

The 18th century BCE was the century which lasted from 1800 BCE to 1701 BCE.-Events:*1800 BCE: Iron age in India*1800 BCE: Beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age in the period system devised by Oscar Montelius....

when they attacked Babylonia

Babylonia

in the 9th year of the reign of Samsu-iluna

Samsu-Iluna

Samsu-iluna was the seventh king of the founding Amorite dynasty of Babylon, ruling from 1750 BC to 1712 BC middle chronology. He was the son and successor of Hammurabi by an unknown mother...

(reigned ca. 1749–1712 BC), the son of Hammurabi

Hammurabi

Hammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ʻAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer", from ʻAmmu, "paternal kinsman", and Rāpi, "healer"; (died c...

. Samsu-iluna repelled them, as did Abi-Eshuh

Abi-Eshuh

Abi-Eshuh was an Amorite king of Babylon who reigned from 1711-1684 BC. He was preceded by Samsu-iluna....

, but they subsequently gained control of Babylonia circa 1570 BC some 25 years after the fall 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...

to the Hittites

Hittites

The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...

in ca. 1595 BC, and went on to conquer the southern part of Mesopotamia, roughly corresponding to ancient Sumer

Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....

and known as the Dynasty of the Sealand by ca. 1460 BC. The Hittites had carried off the idol of the god 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...

, but the Kassite rulers regained possession, returned Marduk to Babylon, and made him the equal of the Kassite Shuqamuna. The circumstances of their rise to power are unknown, due to a lack of documentation from this so-called "Dark Age" period of widespread dislocation. No inscription or document in the Kassite language has been preserved, an absence that cannot be purely accidental, suggesting a severe regression of literacy in official circles. Babylon under Kassite rulers, who renamed the city Karanduniash, re-emerged as a political and military power in Mesopotamia. A newly built capital city 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...

was named in honour of Kurigalzu I

Kurigalzu I

Kurigalzu I , the seventeenth king of the Kassite dynasty that ruled over Babylon, was responsible for one of the most extensive and widespread building programs for which evidence has survived in Babylonia. The autobiography of Kurigalzu is one of the inscriptions which record that he was the son...

(ca. early 14th century BC).

Their success was built upon the relative political stability that the Kassite monarchs achieved. They ruled Babylonia practically without interruption for almost four hundred years— the longest rule by any dynasty in Babylonian history.

The transformation of southern Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

into a territorial state, rather than a network of allied or combatative city states, made Babylonia an international power, although it was often overshadowed by its northern neighbour, Assyria

Assyria

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...

and by Elam

Elam

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...

to the east. Kassite kings established trade and diplomacy with Assyria

Assyria

. (Puzur-Ashur III

Puzur-Ashur III

Puzur-Ashur III was the king of Assyria from 1503 BC to 1479 BC. According to the Assyrian King List, he was the son and successor of Ashur-nirari I and ruled for 24 years. He is also the first Assyrian king to appear in the synchronistic history, where he is described as a contemporary of...

of Assyria and Burna-Buriash I

Burnaburiash I

Burna-Buriyåš I, meaning servant of the Lord of the lands, was the first Kassite who really ruled over Babylonia, possibly the first to occupy the city of Babylon proper around 1510 BC, culminating a century of creeping encroachment by the Kassite tribes. He was the tenth king of the Babylonian...

signed a treaty agreeing the border between the two states in the mid 16th Century BC), Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

, Elam, and the Hittites

Hittites

The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...

, and the Kassite royal house intermarried with their royal families. There were foreign merchants in Babylon and other cities, and Babylonian merchants were active from Egypt (a major source of Nubia

Nubia

Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization...

n gold) to Assyria

Assyria

and Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

. Kassite weights and seals, the packet-identifying and measuring tools of commerce, have been found in as far afield as Thebes

Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others...

in Greece, in southern Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

, and even in a shipwreck off the southern coast of today's Turkey.

A further treaty between Kurigalzu I and Ashur-bel-nisheshu

Ashur-bel-nisheshu

Ashur-Bel-Nisheshu was the king of Assyria from 1407 BC to 1398 BC...

of Assyria was agreed in the mid 15th century. However, Babylonia found itself under attack and domination from Assyria

Assyria

for much of the next few centuries after the accession of Ashur-uballit I

Ashur-uballit I

Ashur-uballit I , was king of the Assyrian empire . His reign marks Assyria's independence from the kingdom of Mitanni, by defeating Shuttarna II; and the beginning of Assyria's emergence as a powerful empire...

in 1365 BC who made Assyria (along with the Hittites

Hittites

The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...

and Egyptians

Egyptians

Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...

) the major power in the Near East

Near East

The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...

. Babylon was sacked by the Assyrian

Assyria

king Ashur-uballit I

Ashur-uballit I

(1365 BC – 1330 BC)) in the 1360s after the Kassite king in Babylon who was married to the daughter of Ashur-uballit was murdered. Ashur-uballit promptly marched into Babylonia and avenged his son-in-law, deposing the king and installing 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...

of the royal Kassite line as king there. His successor Enlil-nirari

Enlil-nirari

Enlil-nirari was King of Assyria from 1330 BC to 1319 BC, or from 1317 BC to 1308 BC . He was the son of Aššur-uballiṭ I...

(1330 BC to 1319) also attacked Babylonia and his great grandson Adad-nirari 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...

(1307 to 1275 BC) annexed Bablonian territory when he became king. Tukulti-Ninurta I

Tukulti-Ninurta I

Tukulti-Ninurta I was a king of Assyria.He succeeded Shalmaneser I, his father, as king and won a major victory against the Hittites at the Battle of Nihriya in the first half of his reign...

(1244 BC -1208 BC) not content with merely dominating Babylonia went further, conquering Babylonia, deposing Kashtiliash IV and ruling there for 8 years in person from 1235 BC to 1227 BC.

The Kassite kings maintained control of their realm through a network of provinces administered by governors. Almost equal with the royal cities of Babylon and Dur-Kurigalzu, the revived city of 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...

was the most important provincial center. Nippur, the formerly great city, which had been virtually abandoned ca. 1730 BC, was rebuilt in the Kassite period, with temples meticulously re-built on their old foundations. In fact, under the Kassite government, the governor of Nippur, who took the Sumerian-derived title of Guennakku, ruled as a sort of secondary and lesser king. The prestige of Nippur was enough for a series of 13th century BC Kassite kings to reassume the title 'governor of Nippur' for themselves.

Other important centers during the Kassite period were 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...

, Sippar

Sippar

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....

and Susa

Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers....

. After the Kassite dynasty was overthrown in 1155 BC, the system of provincial administration continued and the country remained united under the succeeding rule, the Second Dynasty of Isin.

Documentation of the Kassite period depends heavily on the scattered and disarticulated tablets from Nippur, where thousands of tablets and fragments have been excavated. They include administrative and legal texts, letters, seal inscriptions, 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"...

s (land grants and administrative regulations), private votive inscriptions, and even a literary text (usually identified as a fragment of a historical epic).

"Kassite rulers in Babylon were also scrupulous to follow existing forms of expression, and the public and private patterns of behavior "and even went beyond that — as zealous neophytes do, or outsiders, who take up a superior civilization — by favoring an extremely conservative attitude, at least in palace circles." (Oppenheim

A. Leo Oppenheim

A Leo Oppenheim , one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of his generation was editor-in-charge of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute 1955-1974 and John A. Wilson Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago.Oppenheim was born in Vienna, where he received...

1964, p. 62). Over the centuries, however, the Kassites were absorbed into the Babylonian population. Eight among the last kings of the Kassite dynasty have Akkadian

Akkadian language

Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...

names, Kudur-Enlil

Kudur-Enlil

Kudur-Enlil was the twenty sixth king of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon.-Biography:He succeeded Kadašman-Enlil II and was possibly the first Kassite king to have a wholly Babylonian name, or one containing an Elamite derived word, from kudurru, which might be middle Assyrian...

's name is part Elamite and part Sumerian

Sumerian language

Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...

and Kassite princesses married into the royal family of Assyria

Assyria

.

The Book of Judges

Book of Judges

The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its title describes its contents: it contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as...

in the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...

contains a reference to what appears to be a Kassite ruler, who is named as Cushan-Rishathaim and described as ruler of "Aram Naharaim". "Cushan" is interpreted by Biblical scholars to mean "Kassite" and "Aram Naharaim" to mean northwest Mesopotamia. According to Judges, Cushan-Rishathaim conquered Israel shortly after the death of Joshua

Joshua

Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...

and held it for eight years.

The Elam

Elam

ites conquered Babylonia in the 12th century BC

12th century BC

-Overview:The 12th century BC is the period from 1200 to 1101 BC. Although many human societies were literate in this period, most individual persons mentioned in this article ought to be considered legendary rather than historical...

, thus ending the Kassite state. The last Kassite king, Enlil-nadin-ahi

Enlil-nadin-ahi

Enlil-nādin-aḫe, or Enlil-šuma-uṣur depending on the reading of –MU-ŠEŠ, ca. 1157—1155 BC , was the thirty-sixth and final king of the Kassite dynasty that had ruled over Babylon and the land known as Karduniash since perhaps around 1500 BC.-Biography:Shutruk-Nahhunte, king of Elam, had overrun...

, was taken to Susa

Susa

Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers....

and imprisoned there, where he also died.

The Kassites did briefly regain control over Babylonia with Dynasty V (1025 BC-1004 BC), however they were deposed once more, this time by an Aramean

Aramaeans

The Aramaeans, also Arameans , were a Northwest Semitic semi-nomadic and pastoralist people who originated in what is now modern Syria during the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age...

dynasty.

Kassites survived as a distinct ethnic group in the mountains of Lorestan (Luristan) long after the Kassite state collapsed.
Babylonian records describe how the Assyria

Assyria

n king Sennacherib

Sennacherib

Sennacherib |Sîn]] has replaced brothers for me"; Aramaic: ) was the son of Sargon II, whom he succeeded on the throne of Assyria .-Rise to power:...

on his eastern campaign of 702 BC subdued the Kassites in a battle near Hulwan, Iran

Hulwan, Iran

Hulwan is the name of an ancient city in the Zagros mountain range in present-day western Iran close to Kermanshah and the Diyala River. It was conquered by the Muslim Arab Armies in 638, and by Hulagu in 1257....

.

Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

and other ancient Greek writers sometimes referred to the region around Susa as "Cissia", a variant of the Kassite name. However, it is not clear if Kassites were actually living in that region so late.

Herodotus was almost certainly referring to Kassites when he described "Asiatic Ethiopians" in the Persian army that invaded Greece in 492 BC. Herodotus was presumably repeating an account that had originally used the name "Cush", or something similar, to describe the Kassites; "Cush" was also a name for Ethiopia. A similar confusion of Kassites with Ethiopians is evident in various ancient Greek accounts of the Trojan war hero Memnon

Memnon (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Memnon was an Ethiopian king and son of Tithonus and Eos. As a warrior he was considered to be almost Achilles' equal in skill. During the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troy's defense. The death of Memnon echoes that of Hector, another defender of Troy whom Achilles also...

, who was sometimes described as a "Cissian" and founder of Susa, and other times as Ethiopian. According to Herodotus, the "Asiatic Ethiopians" lived not in Cissia, but to the north, bordering on "Paricanians" who in turn bordered on the Medes

Medes

The MedesThe Medes...

.

During the later Achaemenid period, the Kassites, referred to as "Kossaei", lived in the mountains to the east of Media and were one of several "predatory" mountain tribes that regularly extracted "gifts" from the Achaemenid Persians, according to a citation of Nearchus

Nearchus

Nearchus was one of the officers, a navarch, in the army of Alexander the Great. His celebrated voyage from India to Susa after Alexander's expedition in India is preserved in Arrian's account, the Indica....

by Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

(13.3.6).

But Kassites again fought on the Persian side in the Battle of Gaugamela

Battle of Gaugamela

The Battle of Gaugamela took place in 331 BC between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. The battle, which is also called the Battle of Arbela, resulted in a massive victory for the ancient Macedonians and led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire.-Location:Darius chose a flat, open plain...

in 331 BC, in which the Persian Empire fell to Alexander the Great, according to Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...

(17.59) (who called them "Kossaei") and Curtius Rufus

Curtius Rufus

Curtius Rufus was a Roman politician mentioned by Tacitus for actions during the reigns of the emperors Tiberius and Claudius. In all probability he is to be equated with the first century Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus.-Early life:...

(4.12) (who called them "inhabitants of the Cossaean mountains"). According to Strabo's citation of Nearchus, Alexander later separately attacked the Kassites "in the winter", after which they stopped their tribute-seeking raids.

Strabo also wrote that the "Kossaei" contributed 13,000 archers to the army of Elymais

Elymais

Elymais or Elamais was a semi-independent state of the 2nd century BC to the early 3rd century AD, frequently a vassalary under Parthian control, and located at the head of the Persian Gulf in the present-day region of Khuzestan, Iran...

in a war against Susa and Babylon. This statement is hard to understand, as Babylon had lost importance under Seleucid rule by the time Elymais emerged around 160 BC. If "Babylon" is understood to mean the Seleucids, then this battle would have occurred sometime between the emergence of Elymais and Strabo's death around 25 AD. If "Elymais" is understood to mean Elam, then the battle probably occurred in the 6th century BC. Note that Susa was the capital of Elam and later of Elymais, so Strabo's statement implies that the Kassites intervened to support a particular group within Elam or Elymais against their own capital, which at that moment was apparently allied with or subject to Babylon or the Seleucids.

The latest evidence of Kassite culture is a reference by the 2nd century geographer Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

, who described "Kossaei" as living in the Susa region, adjacent to the "Elymeans". This could represent one of many cases where Ptolemy relied on out-of-date sources.

It is believed that the name of the Kassites is preserved in the name of the Kashgan River, in Lorestan.

Kassite Dynasty of Babylon

Ruler	Reigned	Comments
Agum II Agum II Agum IIInscribed A-gu-um-ka-ak-ri-me in his eponymous inscription, elsewhere unattested. was possibly a Kassite ruler who may have become the 8th or more likely the 9th king of the third Babylonian dynasty sometime after Babylonia was defeated and sacked by the Hittite king Mursilis I in 1531 BC ,... or Agum-Kakrime		Returns 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... statue to 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...
Burnaburiash I Burnaburiash I Burna-Buriyåš I, meaning servant of the Lord of the lands, was the first Kassite who really ruled over Babylonia, possibly the first to occupy the city of Babylon proper around 1510 BC, culminating a century of creeping encroachment by the Kassite tribes. He was the tenth king of the Babylonian...		Treaty with Puzur-Ashur III Puzur-Ashur III Puzur-Ashur III was the king of Assyria from 1503 BC to 1479 BC. According to the Assyrian King List, he was the son and successor of Ashur-nirari I and ruled for 24 years. He is also the first Assyrian king to appear in the synchronistic history, where he is described as a contemporary of... of Assyria Assyria 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...
Kashtiliash III
Ulamburiash Ulamburiash Ulam Buriaš was a Kassite king of Sealand, which he conquered during the second half of 16th century BC and may have also become king of Babylon, possibly preceding or succeeding his brother, Kaštiliašu III....		Conquers the first Sealand dynasty
Agum III Agum III Agum IIIInscribed mA-gu-um in the Chronicle of Early Kings. was a Kassite king of Babylon ca. mid 15th century BC. Speculatively, he might figure around the 13th position in the dynastic sequence, however, this part of the Kingslist AKingslist A, tablet BM 33332 in the British Museum...
Karaindash Karaindash Karaindaš was one of the more prominent rulers of the Kassite dynasty and reigned towards the end of the 15th century, BC. An inscription on a tablet detailing building work calls him “Mighty King, King of Babylonia, King of Sumer and Akkad, King of the Kassites, King of Karuduniaš”.Tablet A 3519,...		Treaty with Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-bel-nisheshu Ashur-Bel-Nisheshu was the king of Assyria from 1407 BC to 1398 BC... of Assyria Assyria 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...
Kadashman-harbe I Kadashman-harbe I Kadašman-Ḫarbe I was the sixteenth Kassite King of Babylon, and the kingdom contemporarily known as Kar-Duniaš, during the early fourteenth century, BCE.-His provenance:...		Campaign against the Sutû
Kurigalzu I Kurigalzu I Kurigalzu I , the seventeenth king of the Kassite dynasty that ruled over Babylon, was responsible for one of the most extensive and widespread building programs for which evidence has survived in Babylonia. The autobiography of Kurigalzu is one of the inscriptions which record that he was the son...		Founder of 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... and contemporary of Thutmose IV Thutmose IV Thutmose IV was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century BC...
Kadashman-Enlil I Kadashman-Enlil I Kadašman-Enlil ITypically rendered mka-dáš-man-dEN.LÍL in contemporary inscriptions. was a Kassite King of Babylon from ca. 1374 BC to 1360 BC , perhaps the 18th of the dynasty. He is known to have been a contemporary of Amenhotep III of Egypt, with whom he corresponded...	ca. 1374—1360 BC (short)	Contemporary of Amenophis III of the Egyptian Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh... Amarna letters Amarna letters The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom...
Burnaburiash II	ca. 1359—1333 BC (short)	Contemporary of Akhenaten Akhenaten Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC... and Ashur-uballit I Ashur-uballit I Ashur-uballit I , was king of the Assyrian empire . His reign marks Assyria's independence from the kingdom of Mitanni, by defeating Shuttarna II; and the beginning of Assyria's emergence as a powerful empire...
Kara-hardash	ca. 1333 BC (short)	Grandson of Ashur-uballit I Ashur-uballit I Ashur-uballit I , was king of the Assyrian empire . His reign marks Assyria's independence from the kingdom of Mitanni, by defeating Shuttarna II; and the beginning of Assyria's emergence as a powerful empire... of Assyria Assyria 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...
Nazi-Bugash or Shuzigash	ca. 1333 BC (short)	Usurper “son of a nobody”
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...	ca. 1332—1308 BC (short)	Son of Burnaburiash II, Lost ? Battle of Sugagi with Enlil-nirari Enlil-nirari Enlil-nirari was King of Assyria from 1330 BC to 1319 BC, or from 1317 BC to 1308 BC . He was the son of Aššur-uballiṭ I... of Assyria Assyria 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...
Nazi-Maruttash Nazi-Maruttash Nazi-Maruttaš, Maruttaš protects him, was a Kassite king of Babylon ca. 1307–1282 BC 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...	ca. 1307—1282 BC (short)	Lost territory to Adad-nirari 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... of Assyria Assyria 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...
Kadashman-Turgu Kadashman-Turgu Kadašman-Turgu, meaning he believes in Turgu, a Kassite deity, was the twenty-fourth king of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon. He succeeded his father, Nazi-Maruttaš, continuing the tradition of proclaiming himself lugal ki-šár-ra or “king of the world” and went on to reign for eighteen years...	ca. 1281—1264 BC (short)	Contemporary of Hattusili III Hattusili III Hattusili III was a king of the Hittite empire ca. 1267–1237 BC . He was the fourth and last son of Mursili II... of the Hittites Hittites The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
Kadashman-Enlil II Kadashman-Enlil II Kadašman-Enlil II was the twenty fifth king of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon.He succeeded Kadašman-Turgu as a child and political power was exercised at first by an influential vizier, Itti-Marduk-balatu, “whom the gods have caused to live far too long and in whose mouth unfavourable words never...	ca. 1263—1255 BC (short)	Contemporary of Hattusili III Hattusili III Hattusili III was a king of the Hittite empire ca. 1267–1237 BC . He was the fourth and last son of Mursili II... of the Hittites Hittites The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
Kudur-Enlil Kudur-Enlil Kudur-Enlil was the twenty sixth king of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon.-Biography:He succeeded Kadašman-Enlil II and was possibly the first Kassite king to have a wholly Babylonian name, or one containing an Elamite derived word, from kudurru, which might be middle Assyrian...	ca. 1254—1246 BC (short)	Time of 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... renaissance
Shagarakti-Shuriash Shagarakti-Shuriash Šagarakti-Šuriaš, Šuriaš gives me life, was the twenty seventh king of the Third or Kassite dynasty of Babylon and ascended the throne early in the month of Nisan...	ca. 1245—1233 BC (short)	“Non-son of Kudur-Enlil” according to Tukulti-Ninurta I Tukulti-Ninurta I Tukulti-Ninurta I was a king of Assyria.He succeeded Shalmaneser I, his father, as king and won a major victory against the Hittites at the Battle of Nihriya in the first half of his reign... of Assyria Assyria 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...
Kashtiliashu IV	ca. 1232—1225 BC (short)	Deposed by Tukulti-Ninurta I Tukulti-Ninurta I Tukulti-Ninurta I was a king of Assyria.He succeeded Shalmaneser I, his father, as king and won a major victory against the Hittites at the Battle of Nihriya in the first half of his reign... of Assyria Assyria 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...
Enlil-nadin-shumi	ca. 1224 BC (short)	Assyria Assyria 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... n vassal king
Kadashman-Harbe II	ca. 1223 BC (short)	Assyria Assyria 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... n vassal king
Adad-shuma-iddina	ca. 1222—1217 BC (short)	Assyria Assyria 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... n vassal king
Adad-shuma-usur Adad-shuma-usur Adad-šuma-uṣur, dated very tentatively ca. 1216—1187 BC , was the thirty second king of the Third or Kassite dynasty of Babylon and the country contemporarily known as Karduniaš...	ca. 1216—1187 BC (short)	Sender of rude letter to Aššur-nirari Ashur-nirari III Ashur-nirari III was king of Assyria . He was the grandson of Tukulti-Ninurta I and may have succeeded his uncle Ashur-nadin-apli on the throne. Ashur-nirari's father Ashur-nasir-pal participated in a conspiracy against Tukulti-Ninurta I which led to his murder... and Ilī-ḫaddâ Ilī-padâ Ilī-padâ or Ili-iḫaddâ, the reading of the name DINGIR.PA.DA being uncertain, was a member of a side-branch of the Assyrian royal family who served as grand vizier, or sukkallu rabi’u, of Assyria, and also as king, or šar, of the dependent state of Ḫanigalbat around 1200 BC. He was a contemporary... , the kings of Assyria Assyria 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...
Meli-Shipak II	ca. 1186—1172 BC (short)	Correspondence with Ninurta-apal-Ekur Ninurta-apal-Ekur Ninurta-apal-Ekur, 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... confirming foundation of Near East chronology Chronology of the ancient Near East The chronology of the Ancient Near East provides a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Individual inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers, taking forms like "in the year X of king Y". Thus by piecing together many...
Marduk-apla-iddina I	ca. 1171—1159 BC (short)
Zababa-shuma-iddin Zababa-shuma-iddin Zababa-šuma-iddina was the thirty-fifth and penultimate king of the Kassite dynasty of Babylon, who reigned for just one year, ca. 1158 BC...	ca. 1158 BC (short)	Defeated by Shutruk-Nahhunte of Elam Elam 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...
Enlil-nadin-ahi Enlil-nadin-ahi Enlil-nādin-aḫe, or Enlil-šuma-uṣur depending on the reading of –MU-ŠEŠ, ca. 1157—1155 BC , was the thirty-sixth and final king of the Kassite dynasty that had ruled over Babylon and the land known as Karduniash since perhaps around 1500 BC.-Biography:Shutruk-Nahhunte, king of Elam, had overrun...	ca. 1157—1155 BC (short)	Defeated by Kutir-Nahhunte II of Elam Elam 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...

Social life

In spite of the fact that some of them took Babylonian names, the Kassites retained their traditional clan and tribal structure, in contrast to the smaller family unit of the Babylonians. They were proud of their affiliation with their tribal houses, rather than their own fathers, and preserved their customs of fratriarchal property ownership and inheritance.

Language

According to Encyclopædia Iranica:

Culture

The most notable Kassite artifacts are their 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"...

stele

Stele

A stele , also stela , is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab...

s. Used for marking boundaries and making proclamations, they were also carved with a high degree of artistic skill.

External links

Daniel A. Nevez, 'Provincial administration at Kassite Nippur' abstract of a dissertation gives details of Kassite Nippur and Babylonia.
Christopher Edens, "Structure, Power and Legitimation in Kassite Babylonia"
Richard Hooker, "The Kassites: 1530-1170 The Kassite Interregnum"
David W. Koeller, "Kassite rule in Mesopotamia"
Kassites in Encyclopedia Iranica by Ran Zadok
Livius.org: Kassites/Cossaeans

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Kassite Dynasty of Babylon

Social life

Language

Culture

See also

External links