Nabû-mukin-apli, typically inscribed ^dAG-DU-A, “ Nabû (is) establisher of a legitimate heir,” ruled 974–939 BC, founded

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 ...

’s 8th dynasty, the so-called ''Dynasty of E'', and ruled for thirty-six years.''Babylonian King List A'', tablet BM 33332 iii 15 in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. The ''Synchronistic Kinglist'' records him as a contemporary of the

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 ...

n king Tiglath-Pileser II.The ''Synchronistic Kinglist'' A.117, KAV 216 (Ass. 14616c), iii 9 ( İstanbul Arkeoloji Műzeleri) and also fragments KAV 10 (VAT 11261, in the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin) ii 3 KAV 182 (Ass. 13956dh) iii 6. His reign was plagued by

Aramean The Arameans, or Aramaeans (; ; , ), were a tribal Semitic people in the ancient Near East, first documented in historical sources from the late 12th century BCE. Their homeland, often referred to as the land of Aram, originally covered ce ...

invasions, resulting in Babylon being cut off from its agricultural hinterland for several years and consequently being unable to celebrate the new year festival.

Biography

His reign falls in the midst of the Babylonian dark age and consequently his ancient sources are meager. He is mentioned in the ''

Eclectic Chronicle The Eclectic Chronicle, referred to in earlier literature as the ''New Babylonian Chronicle'', is an ancient Mesopotamian account of the highlights of Babylonian history during the post- Kassite era prior to the 689 BC fall of the city of Babylon. ...

''''Chronicle 24'', tablet BM 27859, lines 17 and 18. but without any surviving historical information. The '' Religious Chronicle''The ''Religious Chronicle'' (ABC 17), tablet BM 35968, iii 1 – iv 10. provides the most detail about his reign. The

Akitu Akitu or Akitum () () is a spring festival and New Year's celebration, held on the first day of the Assyrian and Babylonian Nisan in ancient Mesopotamia and in Assyrian communities around the world, to celebrate the sowing of barley. Akit ...

festival, or New Year’s festival of

Marduk Marduk (; cuneiform: Dingir, ᵈAMAR.UTU; Sumerian language, Sumerian: "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) is a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of Babylon who eventually rose to prominence in the 1st millennium BC. In B ...

and Nabû, was interrupted several times, indeed for a stretch of nine straight years, because the “ Aramaeans were belligerent.” Nabu's shrine is in the neighboring city of

Borsippa Borsippa (Sumerian language, Sumerian: BAD.SI.(A).AB.BAKI or Birs Nimrud, having been identified with Nimrod) is an archeological site in Babylon Governorate, Iraq, built on both sides of a lake about southwest of Babylon on the east bank of th ...

and the festival seemed to involve the transport of cultic idols to the city of Babylon. The Kaldu (

Chaldea Chaldea () refers to a region probably located in the marshy land of southern Mesopotamia. It is mentioned, with varying meaning, in Neo-Assyrian cuneiform, the Hebrew Bible, and in classical Greek texts. The Hebrew Bible uses the term (''Ka� ...

ns) migrated into Babylonia, and settled in the far southeast of Babylonia just after his reign. A

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 ...

or boundary stone from Sippar (pictured), in southern Iraq, records a legal settlement, in his 25th year, of a feud over an estate in the district of the city of Sha-mamitu. It had formerly been the property of Arad-Sibitti, a provincial governor, and his cash-strapped Kassite family, the bīt-Abi-Rattaš, but had passed through marriage to the family of Buruša, a bow-maker. To complicate things, Arad-Sibitti had inadvertently killed Buruša’s slave with an arrow during the earlier reign of Ninurta-kudurri-uṣur I, 983–981 BC. Buruša had to pay 887 shekels to secure his title against the various

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the pers ...

s imposed by Arad-Sibitti’s creditors. The king’s three sons are listed as witnesses to the settlement. A recently identified kudurru from the east of the Tigris in the Diyala region on the Mingatu-karītu canal is dated to his 16th year and details the sales of two plots of land. There is another kudurru fragmentKudurru CBS 13873
( University Museum Philadelphia). but it is badly damaged and gives no useful information concerning his reign. A single unpublished economic text in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland, is dated to his reign. His younger son, Rīmūt-ilī, acted as ''šatam ekurrāti'', overseer of the temples. He was succeeded by his other sons, firstly Ninurta-kudurri-uṣur II, for 8 months, and then Mar-biti-aḫḫe-idinna for an as yet undetermined period.

Inscriptions

References

{{Babylonian kings 10th-century BC kings of Babylon