Book Description

When Tukulti-Ninurta I had abducted Kashtiliash in fetters to Ashur the way was open once again for direct Assyrian control of Babylonian affairs. Resistance, however, continued and Babylon itself was surrounded, the city-wall being breached by siege-apparatus. Entry was resolutely opposed until the troops had robbed the temples and city treasury. Yet the greatest blow to Babylonian morale was the removal of the statue of Marduk to Ashur as a mark of the complete subjugation of the country to Assyria. According to the Chronicle P ‘Tukulti-Ninurta installed his governors in the land of Babylon and for seven years he gave orders to Babylonia (Karduniash)’. This source lists as the next ruler Adad-shuma-usur whom the Babylonian nobles ‘seated on his father's throne’ after a country-wide rising against their Assyrian overlords. On the other hand, the King List A follows Kashtiliash by three names; Enlil-nādin-shumi, to whom a reign of ‘1 year 6 months’ is ascribed; Kadashman-Kharbe (one year six months) and Adad-shuma-iddina (six years). From this it has been assumed that these were vassal-kings who followed an Assyrian interregnum of seven years for which Tukulti-Ninurta's name was not given for political reasons. However, if the chronological entries are to be interpreted as ‘1 year (that is of) 6 months (only)’ then these rulers comprised the seven years of Tukulti-Ninurta on whose behalf they exercised power. On this theory the Babylonian chronicler, not wishing to acknowledge the Assyrian domination, entered the names of his puppet rulers, much as was later done for Kandalanu and other Babylonians who held similar positions under northern masters.