Eulmash-shakin-shumi

Eulmaš-šākin-šumi, ^mÉ-ul-maš-šākin-šumi,^{[i 1]} ca. 1004 – 987 BC, was the founder of the 6^th Dynasty of Babylon, known as the Bῑt-Bazi Dynasty, after the Kassite tribal group from which its leaders were drawn. The Dynastic Chronicle^{[i 2]} tells us that he ruled for fourteen years, the King List A,^{[i 1]} seventeen years.

Biography

A small settlement near the Tigris in the 23^rd century had been adopted by a minor Kassite clan by the 14^th century, the name being co-opted as the ancestor figure for the tribe. In the midst of the turmoil inflicted by the Aramean migrations and the famines that drove them, Eulmaš-šākin-šumi seems to have seized the throne and possibly moved his capital to Kar-Marduk, a hitherto unknown location presumed to be less vulnerable to invasions of semi-nomads than Babylon.^[1]

An earlier character called Eulmaš-šākin-šumi, son of Bazi, appears as a witness on a kudurru^{[i 3]} recording a land grant^[2] of twenty GUR arable land to Adad-zêr-ikîša, where he is called (amêlu)šaq-šup-par ša mâtâti, “officer of the lands” and also another^{[i 4]} confirming ownership of seven GUR of arable land to a certain Iqīša-Ninurta, where he is described as a sak-ru-maš, “chariot officer.”^[3] He may also appear on another small broken kudurru,^{[i 5]} if his name has been deciphered correctly, but these three are dated to the tenth (first kudurru) and thirteenth (second and third kudurrus) years of the reign of Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē,^[4] ca 1079 and 1076 BC respectively, too early to be this monarch if the chronology and sequence of kings currently favored is followed, but quite possibly an ancestor.

The Assyrian King List^{[i 6]} has him contemporary with Šulmanu-ašaredu II, an unlikely pairing. The Religious Chronicle^{[i 7]} mentions the “goddesses, the troops” in his fourteenth year but the context is lost. The Eclectic Chronicle^{[i 8]} records that “(Marduk stayed) on the dais (in) the fifth year of Eulmaš-šakin-šumi, the king. The fourteenth year …,” which seem to refer to interruptions in the Akitu festival.^[5] The Sun God Tablet^{[i 9]} of Nabu-apla-iddina relates that Ekur-šum-ušabši, the priest and seer appointed during the time of Simbar-šipak, complained that due to the “stress and famine under Kaššu-nādin-aḫi,” an intermediate monarch, "the temple offerings of Šamaš (had) ceased," prompting Eulmaš-šākin-šumi to divert flour and sesame wine from that allocated to the god Bel and a garden in the new city district of Babylon for ongoing provisions.^[2]

There is an inscribed Lorestān bronze sword and fifteen inscribed arrowheads, somewhat inappropriately inscribed with the title šar kiššati, "king of the world," probably for use as votive offerings at temples rather than as offensive weapons.^[6] The Dynastic Chronicle reports that “he was buried in the palace of Kar-Marduk.”^{[i 2]} He was succeeded by Ninurta-kuddurī-uṣur and later Širikti-Šuqamuna, both “sons of Bazi.”

Inscriptions

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Babylonian King List A, BM 33332, iii 10.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dynastic Chronicle v 9.
3. ↑ BM 90840 i 29.
4. ↑ Kudurru IM 90585, ii 10.
5. ↑ Kudurru from the Museum of Warwick, ii 12,
6. ↑ Assyrian King List A.117, Assur 14616c, iii 5 and also fragment (KAV 182) iii 2.
7. ↑ Religious Chronicle ii 26-29 (restored).
8. ↑ Chronicle 24: BM 27859, 14–15.
9. ↑ The Sun God Tablet, BM 91000 i 24 – ii 17.

References