KUDUR-ENLIL
I
Reign
: c. 1254 - 1246 BC
Preceded
by : Kadashman-EnlilI
II / Kadašman-Enlil II
Succeeded
by : Shagarakti-Shuriash
/ Šagarakti-Šuriaš
Regnal
titles of Kudur-Enlil I : King of Babylon
House
: Kassite
Kudur-Enlil,
rendered in cuneiform as Ku-dur dEN.LÍL (c. 1254–1246
BC short chronology), “son of Enlil,” was the 26th king
of the 3rd or Kassite dynasty of Babylon. He reigned into his ninth
year, as attested in contemporary economic tablets. His relationship
with his predecessor and successor is uncertain and does not appear
in contemporary inscriptions. The personal name “Marduk is
king of the gods” first appears during his reign marking the
deity’s ascendancy to the head of the pantheon.
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. Although
the Babylonian King List A records him as son of Kadašman-Enlil,
it is a late source and no contemporary inscriptions exist which
support this contention. It has been suggested that he may in fact
have been the brother of Kadašman-Enlil, as his predecessor
ascended the throne as a child and ruled perhaps nine years.
A
daughter of Babylon was married into the Hittite royal family, possibly
to Tudhaliya IV, a younger son of Hattušili III who went on
to succeed him. This would have been a daughter or sister of Kudur-Enlil
and the news elicited contempt from Ramesses II, king of Egypt,
who apparently no longer regarded Babylon significant. Pudu-Hepa,
the Hittite queen, replied in a letter, ‘If you say ‘‘the
king of Babylon is not a Great King’’, then you do not
know the status of Babylon’.
Nippur
renaissance :
Nippur experienced explosive growth under Kudur-Enlil and his successor,
with the city expanding almost to its Ur III extent. Kudur-Enlil
extensively refurbished the Enlil Temple in Nippur, with its baked-brick
bench or socle lining the base of all except the northeast outer
walls. The later period of construction is witnessed by his stamped
brick inscriptions which describe him as a benefactor of the temple.
A brick of Kudur-Enlil bearing a twelve-line Sumerian inscription
which was found inside the temple states that he built the supporting
wall with bitumen and baked bricks. It was customary for the king
to travel to Nippur at the 'beginning of the year' for the Akitu
spring festival and there is an example of a record of the 'return
of the crown prince' in the third year of Kudur-Enlil.
His
name appears on various votive and civic monument inscriptions,
as well as on numerous economic texts, such as a legal text about
the escape and capture of a slave and a note of payment for mat-makers.
The extent to which the number of texts extant reflects the degree
of economic activity is disputed, possibly more due to fortuitous
discovery of archives, however, more than 270 have been recovered,
70 recently published from an archive from Dur-Enlile, dated for
a reign of only nine years.
Other
Babylonian centers :
Excavations at `Aqar-Quf, ancient Dur-Kurigalzu revealed in level
II inscriptions of the time of Kudur-Enlil and the later king Kaštiliašu
IV, showing that this city continued to be occupied by Kassite kings
long after its foundation by Kurigalzu I. There are one or two administrative
records amongst a cache of 64 from the palace dated to him. A private
archive from Babylon of seven clay tablets in a pot includes legal
texts dated to his reign.
A
Kudurru stone, found at Larsa, recorded a land grant and tax exemptions,
or zakûtu.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudur-Enlil