Kaššaya or Kashshaya was a princess of

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

, daughter of

Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

. Kaššaya was the eldest daughter of king Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC). She is documented as a historical person in cuneiform economic texts. One of the preserved cuneiform texts mentions that, in her father's 31 years of reign, she received large quantities of blue wool for making ''ullâku'' robes.Wiseman 1991, p. 10.''Kashshaya'', In Leick G. (2002), ''Who's Who in the Ancient Near East,'' Routledge, London and New York. p. 91 According to another text, she gave the land to the temple of the goddess

Ishtar Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...

in the city of

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

. Kaššaya might have been the wife of

Neriglissar Neriglissar ( Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nergal-šar-uṣur'' or ''Nergal-šarra-uṣur'', meaning "Nergal, protect the king") was the fourth king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from his usurpation of the throne in 560 BC to his death in 556 ...

, who in August 560 BC, after murdering his brother-in-law

Amel-Marduk Amel-Marduk ( Babylonian cuneiform: ''Amēl-Marduk'', meaning "man of Marduk"), also known as Awil-Marduk, or in the biblical rendition of his name, Evil-Merodach (), was the third emperor of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from 562 BCE until ...

, took the throne of Babylon. It is also possible that Neriglissar was married to another of Nebuchadnezzar's daughters.

Etymology

The name Kaššaya occurs several times in Neo-Babylonian texts and is written in various ways in Akkadian: ''Kaš-šá-a'', ''Kaš-ša-a'' and ''Kaš-šá-a-a'' (as a masculine name). The Kaššaya pronunciation is suggested by the last two spellings. Johann J. Stamm originally classified Kaššaya as a name of unknown origin, but typical of the neo-Babylonian affectionate nickname given by husbands to their wives. Although the origin of the name is unclear, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD) suggests that the name may be etymologically derived from the word kaššu'' "

Kassite The Kassites () were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until (short chronology). The Kassites gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon in 1531 B ...

". If so, the name was probably given in honor of the

Kassite dynasty The Kassite dynasty, also known as the third Babylonian dynasty, was a line of kings of Kassite origin who ruled from the city of Babylon in the latter half of the second millennium BC and who belonged to the same family that ran the kingdom of ...

that reigned in Babylon centuries before her lifetime.

References

6th-century BC people 6th-century BC women Babylonian women Ancient princesses Chaldean dynasty {{Iraq-bio-stub Daughters of kings