The Kudurru of Kaštiliašu' is a fragment of an ancient

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

n ''narû'', or entitlement stele, recording the legal action taken by Kassite king Kaštiliašu IV ( 1232–1225 BC) over land originally granted by his forebear Kurigalzu II ( 1332–1308 BC), son of Burna-Buriaš II to Uzub-Šiḫu or -Šipak in grateful recognition of his efforts in the war against

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

under its king, Enlil-nirari. Along with the Tablet of Akaptaḫa, these are the only extant

kudurru A kudurru was a type of stone document used as a boundary stone and as a record of land grants to vassals by the Kassites and later dynasties in ancient Babylonia between the 16th and 7th centuries BC. The original kudurru would typically be stor ...

s from this king's short eight-year reign and were both recovered from

Elam Elam () was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of modern-day southern Iraq. The modern name ''Elam'' stems fr ...

ite

Susa Susa ( ) was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh River, Karkheh and Dez River, Dez Rivers in Iran. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital o ...

, where they had been taken in antiquity, during the French excavations under

Jacques de Morgan Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857 – 14 June 1924) was a French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the director of antiquities in Egypt during the 19th century, and excavated in Memphis and Dahshur, providing many dra ...

at the end of the nineteenth century and now reside in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

The stele

The surviving

fragment is a crescent-shaped cross-section with convex surface inscribed with

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

and a concave side engraved with relief images. Where the stele tapers to the top, it carries representations of the gods Sîn (crescent moon),

Šamaš Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...

(solar-disc) and

Ištar Inanna is the 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 Akkadians, Babylonians, and As ...

(eight-pointed star) in bas-relief. Beneath these a demon with a lion's head, human body and short tail brandishes a knife in one hand and a club or mace in the other. This is Ugallu, "Big Weather Beast", one of the eleven monsters who were to be conquered by Marduk in the later publication, Enûma Eliš, and who was to feature on apotropaic figurines of the first millennium BC. The seated dog figure of Gula is carved facing the demon. fig. 386 kudurru IX. The broken text recalls that Kurigalzu had awarded an individual with the Kassite name Uzub-Šiḫu (or -Šipak, a Kassite deity) a large area of 120 GUR (around 3.75 square miles) of agricultural land for services rendered during the war against Assyria. This suggests a successful outcome in this conflict in marked contrast to the account espoused by the Synchronistic History, an Assyrian polemic chronicle inscription which boasts of Kurigalzu's apparent defeat at the Battle of Sugagu, a view which was also contradicted in the Babylonian Chronicle P version of these events and also in Assyrian king Adad-nārārī I's own recollections of his father, Enlil-nirari's setbacks. The text mentions Nimgirabi-Marduk, son of Nazi-…. and Pir-Šamaš, son of Šumat-Šamaš, but their roles are uncertain. The land grant was reconfirmed by Kaštiliašu, possibly to a descendant of the original beneficiary, perhaps due to the failure to provide a sealed legal document during the earlier bequest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kudurru of Kashtiliashu Kassites Kudurru boundary stones Sculpture of the ancient Near East 13th-century BC steles Archaeological discoveries in Iran