Ilum-ma-ili
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The First Sealand dynasty, (URU.KÙKIWhere ŠEŠ-ḪA of King List A and ŠEŠ-KÙ-KI of King List B are read as URU.KÙ.KI) or the 2nd Dynasty 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 ...
(although it was independent of
Amorite The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied lar ...
-ruled Babylon), very speculatively c. 1732–1460 BC (
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 ...
), is an enigmatic series of kings attested to primarily in laconic references in the ''king lists A'' and ''B'', and as contemporaries recorded on the
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
n ''Synchronistic king list A.117''. Initially it was named the "Dynasty of the Country of the Sea" with Sealand later becoming customary. The dynasty, which had broken free of the short lived, and by this time crumbling
Old Babylonian Empire The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty ...
, was named for the province in the far south of
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...
, a swampy region bereft of large settlements which gradually expanded southwards with the silting up of the mouths of the
Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
and
Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...
rivers (the region known as ''mat Kaldi'' "
Chaldaea Chaldea () was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was ...
" in the
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
). Sealand pottery has been found at Girsu, Uruk, and Lagash but in no site north of that. The later kings bore pseudo- Sumerian names and harked back to the glory days of
the dynasty A dynasty is a series of rulers from one family. Dynasty may also refer to: Arts and media Film and television * ''Dynasty'' (film), a 1976 NBC television film * ''Dynasty'' (Australian TV series), a 1970 Australian TV series * ''Dynasty'' ...
of
Isin Isin (, modern Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq. Excavations have shown that it was an important city-state in the past. History of archaeological research Ishan al-Bahriyat was visited b ...
. The third king of the dynasty was even named for the ultimate king of the dynasty of Isin, Damiq-ilišu. Despite these cultural motifs, the population predominantly bore Akkadian names and wrote and spoke in the
Akkadian language Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218-280 is an extinct East Semitic language th ...
. There is circumstantial evidence that their rule extended at least briefly to
Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...
itself. In later times, a Sealand province of the
Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the List of kings of Babylon, King of B ...
also existed.


History

Traditionally, all that was known about Sealand came from a few Kings List entries and the stray chronicle mention. It has been suggested that much of the writing in this period used waxed wooden boards, as a way of explaining the paucity of standard tablets found. Recently (2009) 450 published tablets mainly from the Martin Schøyen collection, the largest privately held collection of manuscripts to be assembled during the 20th century, cover a 15 to 18 year period extending over part of each king’s reign. They seem to originate from a single cache but their provenance was lost after languishing in smaller private collections since their acquisition on the antiquities market a century earlier. Most of the tablets pertain to administration of resources. An additional 32 unpublished Sealand tablets are held in Brussels. The tablets include letters, receipts, ledgers, personnel rosters, etc., and provide year-names and references which hint at events of the period. Messengers from
Elam Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...
are provisioned,MS 2200/40 and MS 2200/455. Anzak, a god of
Dilmun Dilmun, or Telmun, ( Sumerian: , later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠), ni.tukki = DILMUNki; ar, دلمون) was an ancient East Semitic-speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the 3rd millennium BC onwards. Based on contextual evidence, it was l ...
(ancient Bahrain) appears as a theophoric element in names,MS 2200/394, 444, 321 and so on. and Nūr-Bau asks whether he should detain the boats of Ešnunna,MS 2200/3. a rare late reference to this once thriving Sumerian conurbation. In addition to normal commercial activity, two omen texts from another private collection are dated to the reign of Pešgaldarameš and a kurugu-hymn dedicated to the gods of
Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian language, Akkadian: '' ...
mentions Ayadaragalama. A variant version of the Epic of Gilgameš relocates the hero to Ur and is a piece from this period. Excavations conducted between 2013 and 2017 at
Tell Khaiber Tell Khaiber () is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). It is located thirteen kilometers west of the modern city of Nasiriyah, about 19 kilometers northwest of the ancient city of Ur in Dhiq Q ...
, around 20 km from Ur, have revealed the foundations of a large mudbrick fortress with an unusual arrangement of perimeter close-set towers. The site is dated, by an archive of 152 (after joins were made) clay cuneiform tablets found there, to Ayadaragalama. Tablets at Tell Khaiber fell into the same short time period as those published from the Schoyen Collection, that being the later part of Pešgal and early part of Ayadara reigns. Excavators were also able to develop a stratified ceramic array for Sealand allowing other sites to be identified. Sealand ceramics and faunal remains were found at the site of Tell Sakhariya, a few miles east of Ur. The home city of the Sealand Dynasty is currently unknown. A kings list fragment states that Babylon's "kingship passed to E'urukuga". Given its site being known as uru.ku this capital has been speculated as being
Lagash Lagash (cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian: ''Lagaš''), was an ancient city state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Ash Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash (modern Al-Hiba) w ...
of which little is known in this period. Nippur, and Tell Deḥaila are also in consideration. Modern thinking is that the capital was a Dūr-Enlil (or Dūr-Enlile). There was a Dūr-Enlil in Neo-Babylonian times in the general area between Uruk and Larsa as well as one in Neo-Assyrian times. It is not clear it either is the same place as the potential Sealand capital.


The King list tradition

The king list references which bear witness to the sequence of Sealand kings are summarized below: An additional king listFormed from BM 35572 and eleven other fragments. provides fragmentary readings of the earlier dynastic monarchs. The ''king list A'' totals the reigns to give a length of 368 years for this dynasty. The ''Synchronistic King List A.117'' gives the sequence from Damqi-ilišu onward, but includes an additional king between Gulkišar and Pešgaldarameš, mDIŠ-U-EN (reading unknown). This source is considered reliable in this respect because the forms of the names of Pešgaldarameš and Ayadaragalama match those on recently published contemporary economic tablets (see below).


Rulers


Ilum-ma-ilī

Ilum-ma-ilī,Tablet Ashm. 1922.353 from Larsa. or Iliman (mili-ma-an), the founder of the dynasty, is known from the account of his exploits in the ''
Chronicle of Early Kings The Chronicle of Early Kings, Chronicle 20 in Grayson’s ''Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles'' and Mesopotamian Chronicle 40 in Glassner’s ''Chroniques mésopotamiennes'' is preserved on two tablets, tablet ABM 26472 (98-5-14, 290) tablet A. ...
'' which describes his conflicts with his Amorite Babylonian contemporaries Samsu-iluna and Abi-ešuḫ. It records that he “attacked and brought about the defeat of (Samsu-iluna’s) army.” He is thought to have conquered
Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian language, Akkadian: '' ...
late in Samsu-iluna’s reign as there are legal documents from Nippur dated to his reign.Five legal tablets such as CBS 4956, published in Chiera (1914), CBS 11013, published as BE VI 2 text 68, 3N-T 87, UM 55-21-239 catalogued as SAOC 44 text 12, and OIMA 1 45, from Nippur.
Abi-eshuh Abī-Ešuḫ (variants: m''a-bi-ši'',''Chronicle of Early Kings'', (ABC 20), Tablet B, reverse, lines 8 to 10. "Abiši", m''E-bi-šum'',''Babylonian King List B'', obverse line 8. "Ebišum") was the 8th king of the 1st Dynasty of Babylon and rei ...
, the
Amorite The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied lar ...
king of Babylon, and
Samsu-iluna Samsu-iluna (Amorite: ''Shamshu''; c. 1750–1712 BC) was the seventh king of the founding Amorite dynasty of Babylon, ruling from 1750 BC to 1712 BC (middle chronology), or from 1686 to 1648 BC ( short chronology). He was the son and successor of ...
’s son and successor, “set out to conquer Ilum-ma-ilī,” by damming the
Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
, to flush him out of his swampy refuge, an endeavor which was apparently confounded by Ilum-ma-ilī’s superior use of the terrain.


Damqi-ilišu

The last surviving year-name for
Ammi-ditana Ammi-Ditana was a king of Babylon who reigned from 1683–1640s BC. He was preceded by Abi-Eshuh. Year-names survive for the first 37 years of his reign, plus fragments for a few possible additional years. His reign was a largely peaceful one; he ...
commemorates the “year in which (he) destroyed the city wall of Der/Udinim built by the army of Damqi-ilišu.Tablets MCS 2 52, YOS 13 359. In the original "MU am-mi-di-ta-na LUGAL.E BÀD.DA UDINIMki.MA (ÉREN) dam-qí-ì-lí-šu.KE4 BÍ.IN.DÙ.A BÍ.IN.GUL.LA". This is the only current contemporary indication of the spelling of his name, contrasting with that of the earlier king of Isin.


Gulkišar

Gulkišar, meaning “raider of the earth,” has left few traces of his apparently lengthy reign. He was the subject of a royal epic (Tablet HS 1885+ plus 2 recent fragment joins) concerning his enmity with
Samsu-ditāna Samsu-ditāna, inscribed phonetically in cuneiform ''sa-am-su-di-ta-na'' in the seals of his servants, the 11th and last king of the Amorite or First Dynasty of Babylon, reigned for 31 years,BM 33332 Babylonian King List A i 2.BM 38122 Babylonian ...
, the last king of the first dynasty of Babylon. The text describes Gulkišar addressing his troops and being accompanied by the god Istar.Zomer, Elyze. "Chapter 25. Enmity Against Samsu-ditāna". Law and (Dis)Order in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 59th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale Held at Ghent, Belgium, 15–19 July 2013, edited by Katrien De Graef and Anne Goddeeris, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2021, pp. 324-332 The colophon of a tablet giving a chemical recipe for glazeTablet BM 120960 thought to have been recovered from Tall 'Umar (Seleucia) on the Tigris. reads “property of a priest of Marduk in Eridu,” thought to be a quarter of Babylon rather than the city of Eridu, is dated ''mu.us-sa Gul-ki-šar lugal-e'' "year after (the one when) Gul-kisar (became?) king.” A kudurruKudurru in the University Museum, Philadelphia, BE I/1 83 15. of the period of Babylonian king Enlil-nādin-apli, c. 1103–1100 BC, records the outcome of an inquiry instigated by the king into the ownership of a plot of land claimed by a temple estate. The governors of Bit-Sin-magir and Sealand, upheld the claim based on the earlier actions of Gulkišar who had “drawn for Nanse, his divine mistress, a land boundary.” It is an early example of a ''Distanzangaben'' statement recording that 696 years had elapsed between Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur, Enlil-nādin-apli’s father, and Gulkišar.


Pešgaldarameš and Ayadaragalama

Pešgaldarameš, “son of the ibex,” and Ayadaragalama, “son of the clever stag,” were successive kings and descendants (DUMU, "sons" in its broadest meaning) of Gulkišar. Ayadaragalama’s reign seems to have been eventful, as a year-name records expelling the “massed might of two enemies,” speculated to be Elamites and
Kassites 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 ...
, the Kassites having previously deposed the
Amorites The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian language, Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic-speaking people ...
as rulers in Babylon. Another records the building of a “great ring against the Kalšu (Kassite) enemy” and a third records the “year when his land rebelled.” A year-name gives “year when Ayadaragalama was king – after Enlil established (for him?) the shepherding of the whole earth,” and a list of gods includes
Marduk Marduk (Cuneiform: dAMAR.UTU; Sumerian: ''amar utu.k'' "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) was a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of ...
and Sarpanitum, the tutelary deities of the Sealand.MS 2200/81. A neo-Babylonian official took a bronze band dedicatory inscription of ''A-ia-da-a-ra'', MAN ŠÚ “king of the world,” to
Tell en-Nasbeh Tell en-Nasbeh, likely the biblical city of Mizpah in Benjamin, is a 3.2 hectare (8 acre) tell located on a low plateau northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The site lies adjacent to an ancient roadway connecting Jerusalem with the northern ...
, probably as an antique curio, where it was discarded to be found in the 20th century.


Ea-gâmil

Ea-gâmil, the ultimate king of the dynasty, fled to
Elam Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...
ahead of an invading horde led by
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 ...
chief Ulam-Buriaš, brother of the king of Babylon Kashtiliash III, who conquered the Sealand, incorporated it into
Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...
and “made himself master of the land.” Agum III, successor to Ulam-Buriaš, is also described as attacking Sealand and destroying a temple in "Dūr-Enlil". A serpentine or
diorite Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-silic ...
mace head or possibly door knob found in Babylon, is engraved with the epithet of Ulaburariaš, “King of Sealand”. n. 182 The object was excavated at Tell Amran ibn-Ali, during the German excavations of Babylon, conducted from 1899 to 1912, and is now housed in 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 ...
.


See also

*
Tell Khaiber Tell Khaiber () is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). It is located thirteen kilometers west of the modern city of Nasiriyah, about 19 kilometers northwest of the ancient city of Ur in Dhiq Q ...
*
Chronology of the ancient Near East 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 ...
*
List of Mesopotamian dynasties The history of Mesopotamia extends from the Lower Paleolithic period until the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, after which the region came to be known as Iraq. This list covers dynasties and monarchs of Mesopotamia up u ...


Inscriptions


Notes


References


Further reading

*de Ridder, Jacob Jan. "HS 200B: A Bridal Gift (Tuppu Bibli) from the First Sealand Dynasty." Journal of Cuneiform Studies 73.1 (2021): 89-102 *Al-Zubaidi, Ahmed K. Taher, and Mohammed S. Attia. "A CYLINDER SEAL FROM TELL ABU AL-DHAHAB DATED TO THE FIRST SEALAND DYNASTY (1740–1374 BC)." IRAQ 83 (2021): 13-24 *Gabbay, Uri. "A balaĝ to Enlil from the First Sealand Dynasty." Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie 104.2 (2014): 146-170 *Calderbank, Daniel. Pottery from Tell Khaiber: a craft tradition of the first Sealand dynasty. Moonrise Press Ltd, 2021 *Calderbank, Daniel. Moulding Clay to Model Sealand Society Pottery Production and Function at Tell Khaiber, Southern Iraq. The University of Manchester (United Kingdom), 2018 *Boivin, Odette., Kār-Šamaš as a South-Western Palace Town of the Sealand I Kingdom. NABU: 162–64, 2015 *Boivin, Odette. 2015a. Kār-Šamaš as a South-Western Palace Town of theSealand I Kingdom. NABU: 162–64. *Boivin, Odette., On the Origin of the Goddess Ištar-of-the-Sealand, Ayyabītu. NABU: 24–26, 2015 *Cavigneaux, Antoine and Béatrice André-Salvini. Forthcoming. Cuneiform tablets from Qal’at Dilmun and the Sealand at the dawn of the Kassite era. In Twenty years of Bahrain Archaeology, 1986–2006. Actes du colloque international de Manama, 9–12 décembre 2007, ed. Pierre Lombard et al. Bahrain: Ministry of Culture *Dalley, Stephanie. 2013. Gods from North-eastern and North-western Arabia in Cuneiform Texts from the First Sealand Dynasty, and a Cuneiform Inscription from Tell en-Nasbeh, c. 1500 BC. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 23: 177–85 *Højlund, Fleming. 1989. Dilmun and the Sealand. Northern Akkad Project Reports 2: 9–14 *Zadok, Ran. 2014. On Population Groups in the Documents from the Time of the First Sealand Dynasty. Tel Aviv 41: 222–37


External links


The Art of Conservative Rebellion: A Short Introduction to the First Sealand Dynasty ASOR ANE Today - June 2021
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sealand Dynasty States and territories established in the 18th century BC States and territories disestablished in the 15th century BC Babylonian dynasties Chaldea