The Kassite dynasty, also known as the third Babylonian dynasty, was a line of kings of Kassite origin who ruled from the city of Babylon in the latter half of the second millennium BC, ruling the kingdom of Babylon between 1595 and 1155 BC, following the first Babylonian dynasty (Old Babylonian Empire; 1894-1595 BC). It was the longest known dynasty of that state, which ruled throughout the period known as "Middle Babylonian" (1595-1000 BC). In the early portion of this the First Sealand dynasty ruled in the southern part of the region.
The Kassites (kaššû in Mesopotamian and possibly the Kossaioi of later Greek sources) were a people whose origins are unknown, although it has been suggested that they originated in the Zagros Mountains.Yalçın, S., "Chapter 3 People Praying on Stone: Identity in Kassite Babylonian Seals, ca. 1415–1155 BCE", in Selves Engraved on Stone. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 42–122, 2022 It took their kings more than a century to consolidate their power in Babylon under conditions that remain unclear. Despite their external origin, the Kassite kings did not change Babylon's ancestral traditions and, on the contrary, brought order to the country after the turbulence that marked the end of the first dynasty. They undertook a great deal of construction work, notably on the great temples, they contributed to the expansion of agricultural land, and under their auspices Babylonian culture flourished and expanded throughout the Ancient Near East. The Kassite period is still very poorly known, due to the scarcity of sources relating to it, of which few are published. The economic and social aspects, in particular, are very poorly documented, with the exception of what relates to the royal donations attested by the characteristic donation stelae of the period, the kudurrus.
Historical sources
Despite its long duration, the period of the dynasty is poorly documented: sources are scarce and few of them have been published. Architectural and artistic traces of this period are also scanty; they come mainly from the site of Dur-Kurigalzu, where the only monumental complex of the Kassite period was found, consisting of a palace and several cult buildings. Other buildings were discovered at several larger Babylonian sites, such as Nippur, Ur, and Uruk. Other minor sites belonging to the Kassite kingdom have also been discovered in the Hamrin hills: Tell Mohammed, Tell Imlihiyeh and Tell Zubeidi. Further afield, at the site of Terqa in the Middle Euphrates, and on the islands of Failaka (in what is now Kuwait) and Qal'at al-Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, there are also some traces of Kassite rule. The low reliefs engraved on kudurrus and seal-cylinders are the best-known testimonies to the accomplishments of the artists of the time.
From an epigraphic standpoint, Johannes Brinkman, a leading expert on sources from the period, has estimated that approximately 12,000 texts from the period have been found, is a currently dated work, but remains fundamental for the presentation of the sources of this period. most of them belonging to the administrative archives from Nippur, of which only about 20% have been published.The publication of much of the published texts is in , the only recent publication of a corpus of sources from Nippur, which doubled the number of texts from the Kassite period published. They were found in American excavations carried out mainly during the late 19th century and are stored in Istanbul and Philadelphia. The rest come from other sites: there are forty tablets found at Dur-Kurigalzu that have been published, others from Ur, in the city of Babylon sets of private economic tablets and religious texts have been found that have not been published. In the sites of the Hamrin hills, tablets have also been found, most of them unpublished,These Hamrin mound tablets are mentioned, for example, in . and there are also tablets whose provenance is unknown (the "Peiser archive"). Most of this documentation is of an administrative and economic nature, but there are also some royal inscriptions and scholarly and religious texts.
The royal inscriptions of the Kassite kings, few in number and generally brief, provide little information about the political history of their dynasty. It is necessary to turn to the later sources, which are the historical chronicles written in the early first millennium BC, the Synchronic History and the P Chronicle, which provide information mainly about the conflicts between the Kassite kings and the Middle Assyrian Empire kings. The royal inscriptions of the latter, which are very abundant, provide essential information about the same wars. The Elamite royal inscriptions are somewhat less reliable. To these sources are also added some letters from the diplomatic correspondence of the Kassite kings with EgyptAmarna Letters, EA 1 & EA 15. and the Hittites. The former are part of the so-called Amarna Letters, found in Amarna, the ancient Akhetaten, capital of the pharaoh Akhenaten. The latter were found at Boğazköy, on the site of the ancient Hittite capital, Hattusa.
The type of textual source concerning the administrative and economic life of Kassite Babylon that has attracted the most attention of scholars is a form of royal inscription, found on stelae known as kudurrus (which the Babylonians called narû), commemorating royal donations. Some forty kudurrus are known from the Kassite period. Their texts usually consist of a brief description of the donation and any privileges, a long list of witnesses, and curses for those who did not respect the act.
Political history
Origins and conquest of Babylonia
In 1595 BC, Samsi-Ditana, king of Babylon, was defeated by Mursili I, king of the Hittites, who seized the statue of Marduk kept in the Esagila, the great temple of the city of Babylon, which he took with him. This defeat marked the end of the Babylonian Amorite dynasty, already greatly weakened by the various rivals, among them the Kassites. According to the Babylonian royal list, Agum II would have taken over Babylon after the city was sacked by the Hittites. According to the same source, Agum II would have been the tenth sovereign of the dynasty of the Kassite kings (founded by a certain Gandas), who would have reigned who knows where during the second half of the 18th century BC. Possibly the Kassites were allied with the Hittites and supported their campaign to seize power.
There are no mentions of the exact origin of the kassites in ancient texts.About the Kassite people and their history, see . The first mention of them dates from the 18th century BC in Babylon, but they are also mentioned in Syria and Upper Mesopotamia in the following centuries. However, most experts place their origin in the Zagros mountain range, where Kassites were still found during the first half of the first millennium BC. The first Kassite sovereign attested as king of Babylon seems to be Burna-Buriash I. This dynasty had as its rival that of the Sea Country, located south of Babylon around the cities of Uruk, Ur and Larsa, which was defeated in the early 15th century BC by the Kassite sovereigns Ulamburiash and Agum III. After this military victory, Babylon's preponderance in southern Mesopotamia was not challenged again and the Kassite sovereigns dominated the entire territories of Sumer and Akkadia, which became the country of Karduniash (Karduniaš; the term Kassite equivalent to Babylon), which was one of the great powers of the Middle East.
The only notable territorial gain made by Kassite rulers thereafter was the island of Bahrain, then called Dilmum, where a seal bearing the name of a Babylonian governor of the island was discovered, although nothing is known about the duration of this rule.
Diplomatic relations
The 14th and 13th centuries BC marked the heyday of Babylon's Kassite dynasty. Its kings equaled their contemporary great sovereigns of Egypt, Hati, Mitanni and Assyria, with whom they maintained diplomatic relations, in which they have the privilege of bearing the title of "great king" (šarru rabû), which involved abundant correspondence and exchanges of gifts (šulmānu).On the international relations of this period see the overviews of and . This system, attested mainly by the Amarna letters in Egypt and of Hatusa (the Hittite capital), was ensured by emissaries called mār šipri, involved important exchanges of luxury goods, which included much gold and other precious metals, in a scheme of gifts and contradons, more or less respected by some sovereigns, which sometimes took place with some minor tensions. These exchanges were made as gifts of friendship or homage when a king was enthroned. The diplomatic language was Babylonian Akkadian, in the so-called "Middle Babylonian" form, as was the case in the preceding period..
The courts of the regional powers of this period connected through dynastic marriages, and the Kassite kings took an active part in this process, establishing multi-generational ties with some courts, such as that of the Hittites (which possibly lay behind their seizure of power in the city of Babylon) and the Elamites. Burna-buriash II (ca. 1359-1333 BC) married one of his daughters to the pharaoh Akhenaten (3rd quarter of the 14th century BC)Amarna letters, EA 13 & EA 14. and another to the Hittite king Suppiluliuma II, while he himself espoused the daughter of the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I. There were also Babylonian princesses who married Elamite sovereigns. These practices were intended to strengthen the ties between the different royal houses, which in the last two cases were direct neighbors, in order to avoid political tensions. With more distant partners, such as the Hittites, they were essentially a form of prestige and influence, since the Babylonian princesses and the specialists (doctors and scribes) who were sent to the Hittite court were protagonists of Babylonian cultural influences in the Hittite kingdom..
Conflicts with Assyria and Elam
Babylon became involved in a series of conflicts with Assyria when Assyrian ruler Ashur-uballit I broke free from Mitanni rule in 1365 BC, which marked the beginning of a multi-secular confrontation between northern and southern Mesopotamia. Burna-Buriash II (r. ca. 1359-1333 BC) initially took a dim view of Assyrian independence, as he considered this region one of his vassals, but eventually married the daughter of the Assyrian king, with whom he had a son, Kara-hardash. The latter ascended the throne in 1333 BC, but was assassinated shortly thereafter and was succeeded by Nazi-Bugash. Ashur-uballit reacted to his grandson's murder and invaded Babylon to put his other grandson, Kurigalzu II (r. 1332-1308 BC) on the throne. The latter kept his allegiance to his grandfather until he died, but provoked the next Assyrian king Enlil-nirari, which led to a series of conflicts that lasted for over a century and culminated in the confrontation between Kashtiliash IV (r. 1232-1225 BC) of Babylon and Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. ca. 1243-1207 BC) of Assyria. The latter invaded and devastated Babylon, sacking the capital, from where he deported thousands of people..
The situation then became increasingly confused, as the Assyrians failed to establish a lasting domination in Babylon, despite the will of Tukulti-Ninurta, who had his victory described in a long epic text (the Epic of Tukulti-Ninurta) and proclaimed himself king of Babylon. The conflicts continued and escalated when the Elamite king Kidin-Hutran (r. 1245-1215 BC) became involved, possibly in solidarity with the Kassite kings, to whom he was linked by marriage. Kidin-Hutran devastated Nippur and made the situation difficult for the Assyrian-imposed rulers in Babylon, who were deposed one after another until 1217 BC.