Karaindaš was one of the more prominent rulers of the

Kassite The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology). They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon ...

dynasty and reigned towards the end of the 15th century BC. An inscription on a tablet detailing building work calls him “Mighty King, King of

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

ia, King of

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...

and Akkad, King of the Kassites, King of

Karduniaš Karduniaš, also transcribed Kurduniash, Karduniash, Karaduniše, ) is a Kassites, Kassite term used for the kingdom centered on Babylonia and founded by the Kassite dynasty. It is used in the 1350-1335 BC Amarna letters Text corpus, correspondence ...

,”Tablet A 3519, in the collection of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago
CDLI
a late Babylonian copy of a monumental inscription. inscribed '' ka- ru-du-ni- ia- aš'', probably the

Kassite language Kassite (also Cassite) was a language spoken by the Kassites in Mesopotamia from approximately the 18th to the 7th century BC. From the 16th to 12th centuries BC, kings of Kassite origin ruled in Babylon until they were overthrown by the Ela ...

designation for their kingdom and the earliest extant attestation of this name.

Eanna of Inanna

Karaindaš’ own eleven-line Sumerian inscriptions N. 2.1.For example BM 90287, 11-line brick inscription in the British Museum
CDLI
adorn bricks from the Temple dedicated to the goddess

Inanna Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...

, in

Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...

, where he commissioned the spectacular façade pictured. It is 205 cm high and would originally have been constructed from around five hundred pre-formed baked bricks, which were set in recessed socles, depicting both male and female deities holding water jugs. The bearded males wear horned flat caps and double streams of water flow symmetrically to frame the niches. Apart from the simple dedication, there are no significant texts adorning the façades. The temple to Inanna was originally located in a courtyard of the Eanna, or “House of Heaven”, precinct of Uruk and stood until the

Seleucid era The Seleucid era ("SE") or (literally "year of the Greeks" or "Greek year"), sometimes denoted "AG," was a system of numbering years in use by the Seleucid Empire and other countries among the ancient Hellenistic civilizations. It is sometimes r ...

. It was a rectangular building with a long

cella A cella (from Latin for small chamber) or naos (from the Ancient Greek, Greek ναός, "temple") is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek temple, Greek or Roman temple in classical antiquity. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extende ...

and ante-cella surrounded by corridors and the elaborately decorated external wall with corner bulwarks. The inner sanctuary had the cult image at the end, instead of the usual siting in the middle of a long wall. It was excavated during the 1928/29 season by a team led by Director Julius Jordan under the auspices of the Deutsche Orient Gesellschaft and Deutsche Not-Gemeinschaft. A section of the outer wall has been reassembled and moved to the Vorderasiatisches wing of the

Pergamon Museum The Pergamon Museum (; ) is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of German Emperor Wilhelm II according to plans by Alfred Messel and Ludwig Hoffmann in Stripped Class ...

in Berlin. Parts of the façade were in the

Iraq Museum The Iraq Museum ( ar, المتحف العراقي) is the national museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad. It is sometimes informally called the National Museum of Iraq, a recent phenomenon influenced by other nations' naming of their national museum ...

in Baghdad, but were stolen during the looting of the museum after the American occupation of Baghdad during the second Gulf War and have since disappeared.

Diplomatic Relations

He concluded a boundary treaty (''riksu'') with Aššur-bêl-nišešu of Assyria (1407-1399;

short chronology The chronology of the ancient Near East is a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Historical inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers: "in the year X of king Y". Com ...

), “together with an oath (''māmītu'')” according to the ''Synchronistic Chronicle''."Synchronistic Chronicle"
(ABC 21), tablet A, K4401a, lines 1 through 4. According to Sassmannshausen, it is ''very'' likely that Karaindaš was the Babylonian king who sent precious gifts, including lapis lazuli, to pharaoh

Thutmosis III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 28 ...

during his 8th campaign, the attack on the

Mitanni Mitanni (; Hittite cuneiform ; ''Mittani'' '), c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat (''Hanikalbat'', ''Khanigalbat'', cuneiform ') in Assyrian records, or ''Naharin'' in ...

, according to the annals of Thutmosis III. This was conducted in the 33rd of his reign or around 1447 BC according to the Low Chronology of Ancient Egypt, suggesting Karaindaš had a very long reign if this chronology coincides with that of the short chronology used for the Near East, but there are chronological difficulties trying to correlate Tuthmosis and Karaindaš.

Burna-Buriash II Burna-Buriaš II, rendered in cuneiform as ''Bur-na-'' or ''Bur-ra-Bu-ri-ia-aš'' in royal inscriptions and letters, and meaning ''servant'' or ''protégé of the Lord of the lands'' in the Kassite language, where Buriaš (, dbu-ri-ia-aš₂) is a ...

, in his

Amarna correspondence The Amarna letters (; sometimes referred to as the Amarna correspondence or Amarna tablets, and cited with the abbreviation EA, for "El Amarna") are an archive, written on clay tablets, primarily consisting of diplomatic correspondence between ...

with Pharaoh

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...

, in the tablet designated EA 10,El Amarna tablet EA 10 (BM 029786, in the British Museum)
CDLIORACC Transliteration
lines 8 to 10. describes him as the first to enter into friendly relations with Egypt, “Since the time of Karaindaš, since messengers of your ancestors have come regularly to my ancestors, up to the present they (the ancestors of the two lands) have been good friends.” The ''Annals of Tuthmosis'', inscribed on the inside walls of the corridor which surrounds the granite holy of holies of the Great Temple of Amun at

Karnak The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construct ...

, record the ''tribute'' of Babylon, and include a lapis lazuli ram's head amongst the inventory.

Other sources

A brown agate cylinder seal (pictured), which is in the

University Museum A university museum is a repository of collections run by a university, typically founded to aid teaching and research within the institution of higher learning. The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in England is an early example, o ...

in Philadelphia, is inscribed “Oh huqamuna lord who advances in brilliance by your fullness … your light is indeed favourable: Izkur-Marduk, ''son of Karaindaš'', who prays to you and reveres you.”CBS 1108 brown agate seal bearing 7 line Sumerian inscription, University Museum, Philadelphia. Shuqamuna was a Kassite male god symbolized by a bird on a perch often accompanied by his consort, Shumaliya, associated with the investiture of kings. Izkur-Marduk's name is wholly Babylonian and translates as “he has invoked Marduk”. His renown was apparently so great, that

Shutruk-Nahhunte Šutruk-Nakhunte was king of Elam from about 1184 to 1155 BC (middle chronology), and the second king of the Shutrukid Dynasty. Elam amassed an empire that included most of Mesopotamia and western Iran. Under his command, Elam defeated the Ka ...

who would go on to ransack Babylon around 250 years later, boasted “I destroyed Karaindaš”, i.e. Babylonia.

Inscriptions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karaindash 15th-century BC Babylonian kings Kassite kings 15th-century BC people