Who Were the Babylonians? (Archaeology and Biblical Studies)

160 Pages·2005·1.29 MB·English

by  Bill T. Arnold

WHO WERE THE BABYLONIANS?
Archaeology and Biblical Studies
Andrew G. Vaughn,
Editor
Number 10
WHO WERE THE BABYLONIANS?
W W B ?
HO ERE THE ABYLONIANS
by
Bill T. Arnold
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2005
WHO WERE THE BABYLONIANS?
Copyright © 2004 by the Society of Biblical Literature
This edition published under license from the Society of Biblical Literature
by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved.No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
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in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical Literature, 825 Houston Mill
Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA.
Unless otherwise noted, all biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version
Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches
of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arnold, Bill T.
Who were the Babylonians? / by Bill T. Arnold.
p. cm. — (Archaeology and biblical studies / Society of Biblical Literature ; no. 10)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 90-04-13071-3 (cloth binding : alk. paper)
1. Babylonia—History. I. Title. II. Series: Archaeology and biblical studies ; no. 10.
DS73.2 .A73 2004
935'.02—dc22 2004022884
ISSN 1570-5986
Printed in The Netherlands
on acid-free paper.
CONTENTS
PREFACE............................................................................................................vii
ABBREVIATIONS..................................................................................................ix
1. THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE..........................................................................1
1.1. The Stage: The Geography of Babylonia 1
1.2. The Players: Ethnicity and the Identity of
the Babylonians 6
1.3. Significance of the Babylonians for History
and Biblical Studies 9
1.4. Sources for the Study of the Babylonians 12
2. BABYLONIA BEFORE THE BABYLONIANS: THE THIRD MILLENNIUM B.C.E. ........17
2.1. The First Historical Periods of Babylonia 17
2.2. The First Empires of Babylonia 22
2.2.1. Old Akkadian Period 23
2.2.2. Neo-Sumerian Period 27
2.3. The City of Babylon 32
3. THE OLD BABYLONIAN PERIOD—A NEW WORLD POWER............................35
3.1. Arrival of the Amorites in Mesopotamia 35
3.2. The Isin-Larsa Period and the Rise of Babylon 38
3.3. Hammurapi’s Empire 40
3.4. Hammurapi’s Dynasty 46
3.5. Old Babylonian Literature, Culture, and Legacy 47
4. THE MIDDLE BABYLONIAN PERIOD..............................................................61
4.1. The Fall of Babylon 61
4.2. The Kassite Dynasty 62
4.3. The Age of Internationalism 66
4.4. Cultural Developments in Kassite Babylonia 68
5. THE EARLY NEO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD ........................................................75
5.1. “Sea Peoples” and the Collapse of Bronze Age Culture 75
5.2. “Babylonia for the Babylonians” 78
vi CONTENTS
5.3. Cultural Features of the Early Neo-Babylonian Period 81
6. THE NEO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD ..................................................................87
6.1. Chaldeans, Arameans, and the Emergence
of a New Babylonia 87
6.2. Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar: Innovations
and Legacy 91
6.3. Nebuchadnezzar’s Successors 99
FOR FURTHER READING ..................................................................................107
NOTES............................................................................................................113
INDEX OF BIBLICAL REFERENCES ......................................................................137
INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORITIES ....................................................................139
INDEX OF SUBJECTS ........................................................................................143
PREFACE
When ancient classical historians such as Herodotus and Berossus
mention the Babylonians, or when authors of the Bible speak of the Baby-
lonians, to what or whom do they refer? My task in this volume is to trace
briefly the geopolitical realities behind these literary references in light of
the most recent Assyriological data and, more broadly, to present a com-
pendium of our knowledge of the ancient Babylonians—in short, to answer
the question, Who were the Babylonians?
The history of Babylonia has often been written by archaeologists for
archaeologists or by philologists for philologists. Specialists, writing mostly
for each other, have investigated all areas of Mesopotamia’s material culture
or impressive cuneiform documentary evidence. While these approaches
have their distinct contributions (indeed, I am indebted to them, as the
notes will show), my objective is to provide a more general survey for stu-
dents of history, archaeology, philology, and the Bible. Consequently, my
approach will be broader and at the same time more specifically focused
on Babylonia and the Babylonians rather than on ancient Mesopotamia
per se.
Chronological precision is still impossible for most of Babylonian his-
tory prior to the first millennium B.C.E. For the earliest periods, and
especially for the troublesome Old Babylonian chronology, I have contin-
ued to follow the so-called “Middle Chronology,” which has given us the
familiar dates for Hammurapi, 1792–1750 B.C.E.1 However, despite its wide
acceptance in the secondary literature, the Middle Chronology is far from
certain and has come under recent scrutiny.2 The reader should be aware
that the chronological schema used here for the third and second millen-
nia B.C.E. are extremely tentative. Greater precision is possible for the first
millennium B.C.E., although the complexities of the use of a lunar calendar
in Mesopotamia and the Levant resulted in intercalary months, which was
handled differently in each culture.3 Thus, we are seldom in a position to
speak with certainty on chronological issues, even for the later periods.
I am grateful to Andrew Gilmore, my research assistant, for his invalu-
able help with a number of points, as well as to Andrew Vaughn and Bob
Buller for their patient guidance. Iam also grateful to Sujatha Pichamuthu
for her help with the maps.
vii
viii PREFACE
As I finished the manuscript for this book, the politics of the Middle
East were ever-present in the daily news. Since the 1980s, much archaeo-
logical excavation shifted focus from southern Mesopotamia to Syria in the
northwest, largely because of the political situation in Iraq. Now, as Iraq
itself struggles to emerge from postwar devastation, it can only be hoped
that opportunities for further research of Iraq’s heritage will become a real-
ity and will contribute to the reconstruction of that great land. It is the
earnest hope of all students of Iraq’s cultural past that the people of Iraq
will enjoy a future as bright and peaceful as that past was glorious.
ABBREVIATIONS
AB Anchor Bible
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary.Edited by David Noel Freedman.
6 vols. New York:Doubleday, 1992.
ABRL Anchor Bible Reference Library
ADAJ Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan
AfO Archiv für Orientforschung
Ag. Ap. Josephus, Against Apion
AHw Akkadisches Handwörterbuch. Wolfram von Soden. 3 vols.
Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz, 1965–81.
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.
Edited by James B. Pritchard. 3d ed. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1969.
Ant. Josephus, Antiquities
AnOr Analecta orientalia
AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament
AOS American Oriental Series
AS Assyriological Studies
BaghM Baghdader Mitteilungen
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BMes Bibliotheca mesopotamica
BO Bibliotheca orientalis
BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissen-
schaft
CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the
University of Chicago. Edited by A. Leo Oppenheim et al.
Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1956–.
CAH The Cambridge Ancient History.Edited by I. E. S. Edwards
and John Boardman. 14 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1970–.
CANE Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. Edited by J. Sasson.
4 vols. New York:Scribner, 1995.
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
ix
x ABBREVIATIONS
COS The Context of Scripture. Edited by William W. Hallo and
K. L. Younger. 3 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1997–2002.
DDD Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Edited by
Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der
Horst. Leiden:Brill, 1995.
ErIsr Eretz-Israel
HSM Harvard Semitic Monographs
HSS Harvard Semitic Studies
IDBSup Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: Supplementary Vol-
ume. Edited by Keith Crim. Nashville:Abingdon, 1976.
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies
JEOL Jaarbericht van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Gezelschap
(Genootschap) Ex oriente lux
JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement
Series
LAPO Littératures anciennes du Proche-Orient
MDOG Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft
NABU Nouvelles assyriologiques breves et utilitaires
NCB New Century Bible
OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis
OEANE The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East.
Edited by Eric M. Meyers. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997.
OIP Oriental Institute Publications
OLA Orientalia lovaniensia analecta
Or Orientalia (NS)
OTL Old Testament Library
PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly
PSD The Sumerian Dictionary of the University Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania. Edited by Åke W. Sjöberg et al.
Philadelphia:Babylonian Section of the University Museum,
1984–.
RHR Revue de l’histoire des religions
RIM The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Project. Toronto
RIME The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods
RlA Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen
Archäologie. Edited by Erich Ebeling et al. Berlin: de
Gruyter, 1928–.
SBLWAW Society of Biblical Literature Writings from the Ancient
World