by
Damien F. Mackey
“Modern historians
judge that Tukulti-Ninurta’s sacking of Babylon with the carrying off
of Marduk’s statue
must have been considered sacrilegious by many Assyrians”.
W. G. Lambert
“Turning Babylon into
a lake – covering the civilized land with water, returning the city of Marduk
to the primordial chaos – was an insult to the god. Sennacherib compounded this
by ordering the statue of Marduk hauled back to Assyria”.
Susan Wise Bauer
In
a recent, revised version of my article:
I
have recalled what I had previously written with regard to different efforts by
revisionists to sort out Assyro-Babylonian history.
And
I made mention again of a suggestion of Phillip Clapham’s:
“And
there have been other attempts as well to bring order to Mesopotamian history
and chronology; for example, Phillip Clapham’s attempt to identify the C13th
Assyrian king, Tukulti-Ninurta I, with the C8th BC king, Sennacherib.[4]
Clapham
soon decided that, despite some initially promising similarities, these two
kings could not realistically be merged.[5]”
That
was enough for me at the time to abandon any notion that Tukulti-Ninurta I may
have been Sennacherib, who is also my Sargon II:
Assyrian King
Sargon II, Otherwise Known As Sennacherib
Sargon II and
Sennacherib: More than just an overlap
But
I have since been struck by the incredible similarities - that must have impressed
Clapham also - between Tukulti-Ninurta I and Sennacherib (though I would add
Sargon-Sennacherib).
Here
are some of these (I am using largely, for Tukulti-Ninurta I, Marc Van de
Mieroop’s book, A History of the Ancient
Near East ca. 3000-323 BC):
(i)
Son of Shalmaneser
Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243-07 BC,
conventional dates)
Son
of Shalmaneser (I)
Sargon-Sennacherib (721-05 – 704-681 BC,
conventional dates)
Son
of Shalmaneser (V)
(ii)
Hittites and
Anatolian revolt
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P.
150: “… attacked the Hittite state from the east, and vassals in the west and
south-west of Anatolia rebelled”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
“Evil Hittites without respect for the command of the gods, whisperers of
treachery”—these and similar reproaches were hurled by Sargon II's scribes
against the peoples of Syria and Palestine who would not submit to the Assyrian
yoke, or who having submitted sought relief in rebellion. Sargon's anger marked
a crisis in the long but intermittent Assyrian relationship with the Anatolian
peoples of North Syria and the Taurus, loosely termed “Hittites”.
(iii)
Invades Babylonia,
puppet king(s) installed
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P.
165: “… invaded Babylonia and deposed Kashtiliashu IV … whom he took in chains
to Assur. ….
After
assuming Babylonian kingship for a short time, Tukulti-Ninurta appointed a
series of puppet rulers, who represented Assyrian interests for a decade.
Sargon-Sennacherib
Sennacherib
likewise “placed a puppet ruler … by the name of Bel-ibni, in charge at the city of Babylon”. (Paul A. Lindberg, God's
Plan of the Ages Volume 4: King Ahaz to Messiah).
“After consolidating his rule over the empire, Sargon was ready to reclaim
the lost throne of Babylon. In 710 BC Sargon invaded Babylonia. The fractures
and conflicting interests between the polities of the region became visible in
the ensuing war when some cities and tribes quickly joined Assyria while others
stayed loyal to Marduk-apla-iddina. Eventually, faced with this crumbling of
support, the Chaldean abandoned Babylon and its citizens invited Sargon to
enter the city (SAA 17 20-21).
….
Once again, an Assyrian king assumed the Babylonian throne. In contrast to
his Assyrian predecessors, Sargon remained resident in Babylon for five years,
leaving the Assyrian heartland in the hands of his crown prince
Sennacherib. Sargon began the process of properly integrating Babylonia into
the empire, following a very different course than his father Tiglath-pileser's
laissez-faire policy. For the first time in Assyria's rule over the south,
large-scale restructuring was evident. Babylonia was split into two provinces
under the rule of Assyrian governors: the province of Babylon comprised the
northern part of Babylonia where most of the big cities were located, the
province of Gambulu consisted of the Aramaean and Chaldean tribal areas. Under
the two provincial governors operated individual city governors, also directly
appointed by the Assyrian king, and military commanders based in the Assyrian
garrisons securing the region. There was, however, little extensive
militarisation.
The Assyrian administration exerted control mainly through an elaborate
intelligence system comprised of local informers and Assyrian agents.
Unlike in other provinces, the hierarchical relationships in Babylonia were
not clear cut, best evidenced by the fact that Sargon frequently corresponded
with and intervened at all levels and various aspects of the administration.
Sargon took the role of king of Babylon seriously. He participated in all
major Babylonian festivals, such as the New Year festival (akitu TT ), and
restored the region's temples, a traditional duty and privilege of the king of
Babylon. Sargon profoundly shaped Babylonian politics by appointing his
favoured officials as provincial and city governors and stewards over the most
important temples. Their correspondence with the king survives in many cases (SAA
17). As his special envoy
to the region, Sargon appointed Bel-iddina [Sennacherib’s Bel-ibni?], a scholar
from his entourage whose task in Babylonia it was to oversee the operation of
cults and to report directly to the king on the officials in the region.
Bel-iddina was the king's eyes and ears amongst his administrators in Babylonia
and he acted as an extension of the king's authority”.
(iv)
Faced with a
powerful Elamite-Babylonian coalition
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P.
165: “Elamite pressure and a successful Babylonian rebellion returned Babylon
to Kassite control, but Elam’s raids eventually led to the collapse of the
Kassite dynasty and deposed Kashtiliashu IV … whom he took in chains to Assur.
….
Sargon-Sennacherib
Sargon reacted to this provocation by marching his troops southwards and
Merodach-baladan retaliated by joining forces with the king of Elam … Assyria's rival of old. Together
they mustered a massive army against Sargon's forces. In 720 BC, the troops met
in battle at the city of Der … in the plains east of Babylon ….
Although Merodach-baladan's troops arrived too late for active combat, the
Assyrian army was pushed back by his Elamite allies and he retained control of
the south and the title of king of Babylon.
(v)
Literary tablets
seized from Babylonia’s temples
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P.
169: “Tukulti-Ninurta I, for example, after
sacking Babylon, took home literary tablets as booty. He may thus have laid the
foundation of a royal library in Assyria filled with Babylonian manuscripts”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
“Sargon
II … or his successor [sic] Sennacherib … gave an order to a Babylonian scholar
concerning … a “writing board of the temples”. …. The order to prepare a list
of Babylonian temples might have had administrative reasons … but it could also
concern the tablets of the Babylonian temple libraries”.
(vi)
Following his
father in deporting nations
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P.
172: “Under Tukulti-Ninurta this practice was extended by deporting north
Syrian people to Assyria, where they were set to work on public projects and
agriculture”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
“[Sargon
II] conquered Samaria and destroyed the kingdom
of Israel.
Sargon’s inscriptions record that he deported 27,290 Israelites from their
homeland and re-settled them to regions throughout the empire from Anatolia across to the Zagros Mountains. In doing so, he was
simply following Assyrian political and military procedure …. https://www.ancient.eu/Sargon_II/
(vii)
Building new
capital city on virgin soil
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P.
172: “The military successes provided the economic resources for great building
activity in Assyria. The greatest project was the construction of a new capital
city by Tukulti-Ninurta, named Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, opposite Assur on the
Tigris river. It was built after he had defeated Babylon, the spoils of that
campaign helped provide the means. The city was founded on virgin soil and
covered an enormous area, some 240 hectares, if not more”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
P.
251: “… Sargon II … decided to build an entirely new [capital city] on virgin
soil, and called it Dur-Sharrukin, “Fortress of Sargon” …”.
“A massive wall of mud brick, 14 meters thick and
12 meters high, surrounds the rectangular site of the city, which covers nearly
300 hectares”.
(viii)
New city did not
last long
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P.
172: “The city’s life as a capital was short, however. After Tukulti-Ninurta
was assassinated, it became a place of secondary status”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
“Sargon was killed in
battle [sic], and Dur Sharrukin was
quickly deserted”.
`````````````````
Assyriologist E. A. Speiser is
not the only scholar to have thought to identify the biblical Nimrod with
Tukulti-Ninurta I. The conventional dating of this so-called ‘Middle’ Assyrian
king to the C13th BC does, to some degree, make this a more plausible
consideration – at least by contrast with any revised dating for Tukulti-Ninurta
I which is always going to be far lower.
However, even a C13th BC date
would be a good half a millennium or more too late for the biblical Nimrod.
I would sincerely hope that my
quite different location for – and identification(s) of - Nimrod would be both
archaeologically and historically more sound than is the suggestion of Speiser
and others that he was Tukulti-Ninurta I. See e.g. my article:
Nimrod
a "mighty man"
the author will mention as
possible historical candidates for Nimrod, Tukulti-Ninurta I, but also ones
that I have suggested (and combined together as the one person) in the above
article: namely, Sargon of Akkad and Naram-Sin:
The name "Nimrod" could be applied as a synonym
for Assyria. If there is any need to identify this legendary figure with a figure
from Mesopotamian civilization, this may well be the heroic god Ninurta, who
was a warrior, a hunter, and a founder of human civilization. However, the type
of great hero is quite common and there may have many models, even historical
kings like the Sumerian Lugal-Banda, the Akkadians Sargon of Akkad and
Naram-Sin, and the Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta I. ....
Increasing the unlikelihood (to my mind, at least) of Tukulti-Ninurta I’s being Nimrod are the striking
parallels between Tukulti-Ninurta I and Sennacherib, a late (neo-) Assyrian
king, that were uncovered in Part One of this present series:
And one
could now add to all this the parallel run of Elamite kings for the approximate
era of Tukuti-Ninurta I and those of the approximate era of Sennacherib:
C12th BC
Shutruk-Nahhunte;
Kudur-Nahhunte; and Hulteludish (or Hultelutush-Insushinak)
C8th BC
Shutur-Nakhkhunte;
Kutir-Nakhkhunte; and Hallushu (or Halutush-Insushinak).
But wait, there is more.
What did Tukulti-Ninurta I
do when he conquered Babylon?
He
installed one Enlil-nadin-shumi on
the Babylonian throne.
And when Sennacherib conquered
Babylon, he set up his eldest son, Ashur-nadin-shumi, as king of Babylon.
Now, this Ashur-nadin-shumi (=
Enlil-nadin-shumi?) will, in turn, become a figure of great and fateful
significance, as:
"Nadin"
(Nadab) of Tobit is the "Holofernes" of Judith
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