Reign of Ishbi-Erra Ishbi-Erra (
fl. c. 2018-1985 BCE in Middle Chronology or 1953—1920 BCE by the
short chronology) was the founder of the Dynasty of Isin. Ishbi-Erra of the First Dynasty of Isin was preceded by
Ibbi-Sin of the Third Dynasty of Ur in ancient
Lower Mesopotamia, and then succeeded by
Šu-ilišu. According to the
Weld-Blundell Prism, Ishbi-Erra reigned for 33 years and this is corroborated by the number of his extant year-names. While in many ways this dynasty emulated that of the preceding one, its language was Akkadian as the
Sumerian language had become moribund in the latter stages of the Third Dynasty of Ur. At the outset of his career, Ishbi-Erra was an official working for Ibbi-Sin, the last king of the Third Dynasty of Ur. Ishbi-Erra was described as a man of
Mari, either his origin or the city for which he was assigned. His progress was witnessed in correspondence with the king and between Ibbi-Sin and the governor of
Kazallu (Puzur-Numushda, latterly renamed Puzur-Šulgi.) These are literary letters, copied in antiquity as scribal exercises and whose authenticity is unknown. Charged with acquiring grain in Isin and Kazallu, Ishbi-Erra complained that he could not ship the 72,000 GUR he had bought for 20 talents of silver—apparently an exorbitant price—and now kept secure in Isin to other conurbations due to the incursions of the
Amorites (“Martu”) and requested Ibbi-Sin supply 600 boats to transport it while also requesting governorship of Isin and
Nippur. Although Ibbi-Sin baulked at promoting him, Ishbi-Erra had apparently succeeded in wrestling control over Isin by Ibbi-Sin's 8th year, when he began assigning his own regnal year-names, and thereafter an uneasy chill descended on their relationship. Ibbi-Sin bitterly lambasted Ishbi-Erra as “not of Sumerian seed” in his letter to Puzur-Šulgi and opined that: “
Enlil has stirred up the Amorites out of their land, and they will strike the
Elamites and capture Ishbi-Erra.” Curiously, Puzur-Šulgi seems to have originally been one of Ishbi-Erra's own messengers and indicates the extent to which loyalties were in flux during the waning years of the Ur III regime. While there was no outright conflict, Ishbi-Erra continued to extend his influence as Ibbi-Sin's steadily declined over the next 12 years or so, until Ur was finally conquered by Kindattu of Elam. Ishbi-Erra went on to win decisive victories against: the Amorites in his 8th year and the Elamites in his 16th years. Some years later, Ishbi-Erra ousted the Elamite garrison from
Ur, thereby asserting suzerainty over
Sumer and
Akkad, celebrated in one of his later 27th year-name, although this specific epithet was not used by this dynasty until the reign of
Iddin-Dagan. He appointed his daughter, En-bara-zi, to succeed that of Ibbi-Sin's as Egisitu-priestess of An, celebrated in his 22nd year-name. He founded fortresses and installed city walls, but only one royal inscription is extant.
Reign of Shu-Ilishu Shu-Ilishu (
fl. c. 1920—1900 BCE by the short chronology) was the 2nd ruler of the Dynasty of Isin. He reigned for 10 years (according to his extant year-names and a single copy of the
SKL, which differs from the 20 years recorded by others.) Šu-ilišu was preceded by
Išbi-erra.
Iddin-Dagān then succeeded Šu-ilišu. Šu-ilišu is best known for his retrieval of the cultic idol of
Nanna from the
Elamites and its return to the city-state
Ur. Šu-ilišu's inscriptions gave him the titles: “Mighty Man” — “King of Ur” — “God of His Nation” — “Beloved of the gods:
Anu,
Enlil, and Nanna” — “King of the Land of
Sumer and
Akkad” — “Beloved of the god Enlil and the goddess
Ninisina” — “Lord of his Land”, but not “King of Isin” (a title which was not claimed by a ruler of this city-state until the later reign of
Išme-Dagān.) Šu-ilišu did, however; rebuild the walls of his capital city: Isin. He was a great benefactor of the city-state Ur (beginning the restoration which was to continue through his successors: Iddin-Dagān and Išme-Dagan.) Šu-ilišu built a monumental gateway and recovered an idol representing Ur's patron deity (Nanna, god of the moon) which had been expropriated by the Elamites when they sacked the city-state, but; whether he obtained it either through diplomacy or conflict is unknown. An inscription tells of the city-state's resettlement: “He established for him when he established in Ur the people scattered as far as Anšan in their abode.” was composed in honor of Šu-ilišu, together with an adab of An and perhaps a 3rd addressed to himself. The archive of a craft workshop (or giš-kin-ti) from the city-state Isin has been uncovered with 920 texts dating from Išbi-Erra year 4 through to Šu-ilišu year 3 — a period of 33 years. The tablets are records of receipts and disbursements of the: leather goods, furniture, baskets, mats, and felt goods that were manufactured along with their raw materials. A 2nd archive (of receipt of cereal and issue of bread from a bakery, possibly connected to the temple of Enlil in Nippur) includes an accounting record of expenditures of bread for the provision of the king and includes entries dated to his 2nd through 9th years which was used by Steele to determine the sequence of most of this king's year-names. (dated to
c. 1950 BC.) Iddin-Dagan (
fl. c. 1900—1879 BCE by the short chronology) was the 3rd king of the Dynasty of Isin. Iddin-Dagān was preceded by his father
Šu-ilišu.
Išme-Dagān (to be confused with neither
Išme-Dagān I nor
Išme-Dagān II of the
Old Assyrian Empire) then succeeded Iddin-Dagān. Iddin-Dagān reigned for 21 years (according to the
SKL.) He is best known for his participation in the sacred marriage rite and the risqué hymn that described it. His titles included: "Mighty King", "
King of Isin", "King of
Ur", "King of the Land of
Sumer and
Akkad". The 1st year name recorded on a receipt for flour and dates reads: “Year Iddin-Dagān (was) king and (his) daughter Matum-Niatum (“the land which belongs to us”) was taken in marriage by the king of
Anshan.” Vallat suggests it was to Imazu (son of
Kindattu, who was the groom and possibly the king of the region of
Shimashki) as he was described as the King of Anshan in a seal inscription, although elsewhere unattested. Kindattu had been driven away from the
city-state of Ur by
Išbi-Erra (the founder of the First Dynasty of Isin), however; relations had apparently thawed sufficiently for Tan-Ruhurarter (the 8th king to wed the daughter of
Bilalama, the
énsí of
Eshnunna.) There is only 1 contemporary monumental text extant for this king and another 2 known from later copies. A fragment of a stone statue has a votive inscription which invokes
Ninisina and
Damu to curse those who foster evil intent against it. 2 later clay tablet copies of an inscription recording an unspecified object fashioned for the god
Nanna were found by the British
archaeologist Sir Charles Leonard Woolley in a scribal school house in the city-state of Ur. A tablet from the Enunmaḫ at the city-state of Ur dated to the 14th year of
Gungunum (
fl. c. 1868 BCE —
c. 1841 BCE) of
Larsa, after his conquest of the city, bears the seal impression of a servant of his. A tablet described Iddin-Dagān's fashioning of two copper festival statues for
Ninlil, which were not delivered to
Nippur until 170 years later by
Enlil-bāni.
Belles-lettres preserve the correspondence from Iddin-Dagān to his general Sîn-illat about Kakkulātum and the state of his troops, and from his general describing an ambush by the Martu (
Amorites). The continued fecundity of the land was ensured by the annual performance of the sacred marriage ritual in which the king impersonated
Dumuzi-
Ama-ušumgal-ana and a priestess substituted for the part of
Inanna. According to the
šir-namursaḡa, the hymn composed describing it in 10 sections (
Kiruḡu), this ceremony seems to have entailed the procession of: male prostitutes, wise women, drummers, priestesses and priests bloodletting with swords, to the accompaniment of music, followed by offerings and sacrifices for the goddess
Inanna, or Ninegala.
Reign of Ishme-Dagan Ishme-Dagan (
fl. c. 1879—1859 BCE by the short chronology) was the 4th king of the Dynasty of Isin, according to the
SKL. Also according to the
SKL: he was both the son and successor of
Iddin-Dagān.
Lipit-Ištar then succeeded Išme-Dagān. Išme-Dagān was one of the kings to restore the
Ekur.
Reign of Lipit-Ishtar " (dated to ) Lipit-Ishtar (
fl. c. 1859—1848 BCE by the short chronology) was the 5th king of the Dynasty of Isin, according to the
SKL. Also according to the
SKL: he was the successor of
Išme-Dagān.
Ur-Ninurta then succeeded Lipit-Ištar. Some documents and royal inscriptions from his time have survived, however; Lipit-Ištar is mostly known due to the
Sumerian language hymns that were written in his honor, as well as a
legal code written in his name (preceding the famed
Code of Hammurabi by about 100 years)—which were used for school instruction for hundreds of years after Lipit-Ištar's death. The annals of Lipit-Ištar's reign recorded that he also repulsed the
Amorites.
Reign of Ur-Ninurta Ur-Ninurta (
fl. c. 1848—1820 BCE by the short chronology) was the 6th king of the Dynasty of Isin. A usurper, Ur-Ninurta seized the throne on the fall of
Lipit-Ištar and held it until his violent death some 28 years later. He called himself “son of Iškur,” the southern storm-god synonymous with
Adad, in his
adab to Iškur. His name was wholly
Sumerian, in marked contrast to the
Amorite names of his five predecessors. There are only two extant inscriptions, one of which is stamped on bricks in 13 lines of Sumerian from the cities of
Nippur, Isin,
Uruk and Išān Ḥāfudh, a small site southeast of Tell Drehem, which gives his standard inscription describing him as an “
Išippum priest with clean hands for
Eridu, favorite
en priest of Uruk” and there is a copy of an inscription relating to the erection of a statue of the king with a votive goat. He was contemporary with
Gungunum, c. 1868 – 1841 BCE (short), and his successor
Abī-sarē, c. 1841 – 1830 BCE (short), the resurgent kings of
Larsa. His reign marks the beginning of a decline in Isin's fortunes coinciding with a rise in those of Larsa. Gungunum had wrestled
Ur from Isin's control by his 10th year and it is possible this was the cause of Lipit-Ištar's overthrow. Indeed, Ur-Ninurta made a dedicatory gift to the temple of Ningal in Ur during the 9th year of Gungunum. However, Ur-Ninurta continued to mention Ur in his titles ("herdsman of Ur") as did his successors in Isin. Gungunum went on to expand his kingdom, perhaps taking
Nippur late in his reign. His death allowed Ur-Ninurta to launch a temporary counter-offensive, recapturing Nippur and several other cities on the Kishkattum canal. His year-name “year (Ur-Ninurta) set for
Enlil free (of forced labor) for ever the citizens of Nippur and released (the arrears of) the taxes which they were bearing on their necks” may mark this point. His offensive was stopped at
Adab, modern Bismaya, where Abī-sarē “defeated the army of Isin with his weapon,” in the 9th year-name of his reign. It may be that this battle was where he was killed, as a year A of Halium of the kingdom of Mananâ, reads “the year Ur-Ninurta was slain” and Manabalte’el of
Kisurra’s year G, “the year Ur-Ninurta was killed.” There is a year name “year following the year that king Ur-Ninurta made emerge large a.gàrs from the water.” Marten Stol suggests that it indicates he succeeded in converting swamp or similar into cultivatable land. A curious legal case arose came to his attention which he ordered by heard by the Assembly of Nippur. Lu-Inanna, a
nišakku priest was murdered by Nanna-sig, Ku-Enlilla (a barber) and Enlil-ennam (an orchard-keeper) who then confessed to his estranged wife, Nin-dada, who remained suspiciously silent on the matter. Nine persons, with occupations ranging from bird-catcher to potter, presented the prosecution's case. Two others sprang to the defense of the widow, as she had not actually participated in the murder, but the assembly concluded she must have been “involved” with one of the murders and consequently in cahoots with them. All four were condemned to execution in front of the victim's chair. The
Instructions of Ur-Ninurta and Counsels of Wisdom is a Sumerian courtly composition which extols the virtues of the king, the reestablisher of order, justice and cultic practices after the flood in emulation of the older role models Gilgamesh and Ziusudra. The
SKL gives his reign for 28 years. He was succeeded by his son,
Būr-Sīn.
Reign of Bur-Suen Bur-Suen (
fl. c. 1820—1799 BCE by the short chronology) was the 7th king of the Dynasty of Isin and ruled for 21 years according to the
SKL, 22 years according to the
Ur-Isin king list. His reign was characterized by an ebb and flow in hegemony over the religious centers of
Nippur and
Ur. The titles “shepherd who makes Nippur content,” "mighty farmer of Ur," “who restores the designs for
Eridu” and “
en priest for the
mes, for Uruk” were used by Bur-Suen in his standard brick inscriptions in Nippur and Isin, although it seems unlikely that his rule stretched to Ur or Eridu at this time as the only inscriptions with an archaeological provenance come from the two northerly cities. A solitary tablet from Ur is dated to his first year, but this is thought to correspond to Abē-sarē's year 11, for which several tablets attest to his reign over Ur. He was contemporary with the tail end of the reign of
Abī-sarē, ca, 1841 to 1830 BCE (short) and that of
Sūmú-El, c. 1830 to 1801 BCE (short), the kings of
Larsa. This latter king's year-names record victories over Akusum,
Kazallu,
Uruk (which had seceded from Isin), Lugal-Sîn, Ka-ida, Sabum,
Kiš, and village of Nanna-isa, relentlessly edging north and feverish activity digging canals or filling them in, possibly to counter the measures taken by Bur-Suen to contain him. Only nine of Bur-Suen's own year-names are known and the sequence is uncertain. He seized control of
Kisurra for a time as two year-names are found among tablets from this city, possibly following the departure of
Sumu-abum the king of
Babylon who “returned to his city.” The occupation was brief, however, as Sumu-El was to conquer it during his fourth year. Other year-names record Bur-Suen's construction of fortifications, walls on the bank of the Eurphrates and a canal. A year-name of Sumu-El records “Year after the year Sumu-El has opened the palace (?) of Nippur,” whose place in this king's sequence is unknown. and an agate plate was dedicated by the
lukur priestess and his “traveling companion,” i.e. concubine, Nanāia Ibsa. A certain individual by the name of Enlil-ennam dedicated a dog figurine to the goddess
Ninisina for the life of the king. There are around five extant seals and seal impressions of his servants and scribes, three of which were excavated in Ur suggesting a fleeting late reoccupancy of this city at the end of his reign and the beginning of his successor's as coincidentally no texts from Ur bear Sumu-El's years 19 to 22 which correspond with this period. and the
Ur-Isin king list match on his name and reign, was the 8th king of the 1st dynasty of
Isin and ruled for five years, ca. 1810 BCE – 1806 BCE (short chronology) or 1873–1869 BCE (middle chronology). He was the son of Būr-Sîn. There are no inscriptions known for this king. His brief reign ended a period of relative stability and he was succeeded by
Erra-Imittī whose filiation is unknown, as the
SKL omits this information from this point on. Both he and his successor were conspicuous in the absence of royal hymns or dedicatory prayers and Hallo speculates this may have been due to the distractions afforded by the commencement of conflict with
Larsa. The archives of the temple of
Ninurta, the
é-šu-me-ša4, in
Nippur, extended over more than seventy-five years, from year 1 of Lipit-Enlil of Isin (1810) to year 28 of
Rim-Sin I (1730) and were inadvertently preserved when they were used as infill for the temple of
Inanna in the Parthian period. The 420 fragments show a thriving temple economy absorbing much of the available wealth. The year-names following his accession year all somewhat monotonously commemorate generous gifts to the temple of
Enlil.
Reign of Erra-imitti Erra-imitti (
fl. c. 1794—1786 BCE) was king of
Isin, modern Ishan al-Bahriyat, and according to the
SKL ruled for eight years. He succeeded
Lipit-Enlil, with whom his relationship is uncertain and was a contemporary and rival of
Sūmû-El and
Nūr-Adad of the parallel dynasty of
Larsa. He is best known for the legendary tale of his demise, Shaffer's “gastronomic mishap”. He seems to have recovered control of
Nippur from Larsa early in his reign but perhaps lost it again, as its recovery is celebrated again by his successor. The later regnal year-names offer some glimmer of events, for example “the year following the year Erra-imitti seized
Kisurra" (the modern site of Abū-Ḥaṭab) for the date of a receipt for a bridal gift and “the year Erra-imitti destroyed the city wall of Kazallu,” a city allied with Larsa and antagonistic to Isin and its ally,
Babylon. His conquest of Kisurra would have been a significant escalation of hostilities against Isin's rival Larsa. A haematite
cylinder seal of his servant and scribe Iliška-uṭul, son of Sîn-ennam, has come to light from this city, suggesting prolonged occupation. The latest attested year-name gives the year he built the city wall of
gan-x-Erra-Imittī, perhaps an eponymous new town. When the omens predicted impending doom for a monarch, it was customary to appoint a substitute as a "statue though animate", a scape-goat who stood in the place of the king but did not exercise power for a hundred days to deflect the disaster, at the end of which the proxy and his spouse would be ritually slaughtered and the king would resume his throne.
Reign of Enlil-bani of
Enlil-Bani Enlil-bani (
fl. c. 1786—1762 BCE by the short chronology) was the 10th king of the Dynasty of
Isin and reigned 24 years according to the
Ur-Isin kinglist. He is best known for the legendary and perhaps apocryphal manner of his ascendancy. A certain
Ikūn-pî-Ištar is recorded as having ruled for 6 months or a year, between the reigns of Erra-imittī and Enlil-bani according to two variant copies of a chronicle. Another chronicle which might have shed further light on his origins is too broken to translate. Hegemony over Nippur was fleeting, with control of the city passing back and forth between Isin and
Larsa several times.
Uruk, too, seceded during his reign and, as his power crumbled, he may have had the
Chronicle of Early Kings redacted to provide a more legendary tale of his accession than the rather mundane act of usurpation that it may well have been. The colophon of a medical text, “when a man's brain contains fire,” from the
Library of Ashurbanipal reads: “Proven and tested salves and poultices, fit for use, according to the old sages from before the flood from Šuruppak, which Enlil-muballiṭ, sage (apkallu) of Nippur, left (to posterity) in the second year of Enlil-bāni.” Enlil-bani found it necessary to "build anew the wall of Isin which had become dilapidated," which he recorded on
commemorative cones. He named the wall
Enlil-bāni-išdam-kīn, “Enlil-bāni is firm as to foundation.” In practice, the walls of major cities were probably under continuous repair. He was a prodigious builder, responsible for the construction of the
é-ur-gi7-ra, “the dog house,” temple of Ninisina, a palace, also the
é-ní-dúb-bu, “house of relaxation,” for the goddess
Nintinugga, “lady who revives the dead,” the
é-dim-gal-an-na, “house - great mast of heaven,” for the tutelary deity of Šuruppak, the goddess
Sud, and finally, the
é-ki-ág-gá-ni for Ninibgal, the “lady with patient mercy who loves ex-votos, who heeds prayers and entreaties, his shining mother.” Two large copper statues were taken to Nippur for dedication to Ningal, which
Iddin-Dagān had fashioned 117 years earlier but had been unable to deliver, “on account of this, the goddess Ninlil had the god
Enlil lengthen the life span of Enlil-Bāni.” There are perhaps two hymns addressed to this monarch.
Reign of Zambiya Zambiya (
fl. c. 1762—1759 BCE by the short chronology) was the 11th king of the Dynasty of Isin. He is best known for his defeat at the hands of
Sin-iqišam, king of
Larsa. According to the
SKL, Zambiya reigned for 3 years. He was a contemporary of Sin-iqišam king of Larsa, whose fifth and final year-name celebrates his victory over Zambiya: “year the army of (the land of)
Elam (and Zambiya, (the king of Isin,)) was/were defeated by arms,” suggesting a confederation between Isin and Elam against Larsa. The city of Nippur was hotly contested between the city-states. If Zambiya survived this battle, he may have possibly gone on to be contemporary with Sin-iqišam's successors,
Ṣilli-Adad and
Warad-Sin.
Reign of Iter-pisha Iter-pisha (
fl. c. 1759—1755 BCE by the short chronology) was the 12th king of the Dynasty of Isin. The
SKL tells us that "the divine Iter-pisha ruled for 4 years." The
Ur-Isin King List which was written in the 4th year of the reign of
Damiq-ilišu gives a reign of just 3 years. Two of his year-names refer to his provision of a copper Lilis for
Utu and
Inanna respectively, where Lilissu is a kettledrum used in temple rituals. He is perhaps best known for the literary work generally known as the
letter from Nabi-Enlil to Iter-pisha formerly designated
letter from Iter-pisha to a deity, when its contents were less well understood. It is extant in seven fragmentary manuscripts and seems to be a petition to the king from a subject who has fallen on hard times. It is a 24-line composition that had become a
belle letter used in scribal education during the subsequent Old Babylonian period.
Reign of Ur-du-kuga Ur-du-kuga (
fl. c. 1755—1751 BCE by the short chronology) was the 13th king of the Dynasty of Isin and reigned for 4 years according to the
SKL, 3 years according to the
Ur-Isin kinglist. commemorating the construction of the deity's temple, the Etuškigara, or the house “well founded residence,” an event also celebrated in a year-name. The inscription describes him as the “shepherd who brings everything for Nippur, the supreme farmer of the gods
An and
Enlil, provider of the Ekur…” This heaps profuse declarations of his care for Nippur's sanctuaries, the Ekur for Enlil, the Ešumeša for
Ninurta and the Egalmaḫ for
Gula, Ninurta's divine wife. A piece of brick from Isin, bears his titulary but the event it marked has not been preserved. A cone shaft memorializes the building of a temple of
Lulal of the cultic city of Dul-edena, northeast of Nippur on the
Iturungal canal. The digging of the Imgur-Ninisin canal was celebrated in another year-name.
Reign of Sîn-māgir bearing the
Sumerian King List in which Sîn-māgir appears as the last ruler, was probably made during his reign or soon after. Suen-magir (
fl. c. 1751—1740 BCE by the short chronology) was the 14th king of the Dynasty of Isin and he reigned for 11 years. His reign falls over the last six years of
Warad-Sin and the first five of
Rim-Sin I, the sons of
Kudur-Mabuk and successive kings of
Larsa, and wholly within the reign of the
Babylonian monarch
Apil-Sin. There are currently six extant royal inscriptions, including brick palace inscriptions, seals for his devoted servants, such as Iddin-damu, his “chief builder,” and Imgur-Sîn, his administrator, and a cone which records the construction of a storehouse for the goddess Aktuppītum of Kiritab in his honor commissioned by Nupṭuptum, the
lukur priestess or concubine, “his beloved traveling escort, mother of his first-born.” An inscription marks the construction of a defensive wall, called
Dūr-Suen-magir, “Suen-magir makes the foundation of his land firm,” at Dunnum, a city northeast of
Nippur. Control of Nippur itself however may have shifted to Larsa, under the rule of Warad-Sîn and his father, Kudur-Mabuk, the power behind the throne, as his sixth year-name celebrates that he “had (14 copper statues brought into Nippur and) 3 thrones adorned with gold brought into the temples of
Nanna,
Ningal and
Utu.” Larsa was to retain Nippur until year nine of Rīm-Sîn when it was lost to
Damiq-ilišu. One of the cones bearing this inscription was found in the ruins of the temple of
Ninurta, the
é-ḫur-sag-tí-la, in Babylon, and is thought likely to have been an ancient museum piece. The city of Dunnum, the celebration of whose original foundation may have been the purpose of the
Dynasty of Dunnum myth, was taken by Rim-Sin the year before he conquered Isin and so it is conjectured that the cone was taken from Larsa as booty by
Ḫammu-rapī. Two legal tablets offered for private sale, recording sales of a storehouse and palm grove, give a year-name elsewhere unattested, “year Suen-magir the king dug the Ninkarrak canal.” Another year-name marks "(Suen-magir) built on the bank of the Iturungal canal (the old wadi) a great fortification (called)
Suen-magir-madana-dagal-dagal (Suen-magir broadens his country)." A province in the south and a town in eastern Babylonia near Tuplias are both called
Bīt-Suen-magir and some historians have speculated one or other were named in his honor.
Reign of Damiq-ilishu Damiq-ilishu (
fl. c. 1740—1717 BCE by the short chronology) was the 15th and final king of the Dynasty of Isin. He succeeded his father
Sîn-māgir and reigned for 23 years. Some variant king lists provide a shorter reign, but it is thought that these were under preparation during his rule. He was defeated first by
Sîn-muballiṭ of
Babylon (c. 1748 – 1729 BCE ) and then later by
Rīm-Sîn I of
Larsa, (c. 1758 – 1699 BCE). His standard inscription characterizes him as the "farmer who piles up the produce (of the land) in granaries." Four royal inscriptions are extant including cones celebrating the building of the wall of Isin, naming him as “Damiq-ilišu is the favorite of the god
Ninurta” also recollected in a year-name and “suitable for the office of
en priest befitting the goddess
Inanna.” Construction of a storehouse
e-me-sikil, “house with pure
mes (rites?)”, for the god Mardu, son of the god
An. A cone records the construction of a temple, the
é-ki-tuš-bi-du10, “House – its residence is good,” possibly for the deity
Nergal of Uṣarpara. There is also a palace inscription and a copy of a dedication to Nergal of
Apiak on a votive lion sculpture. , after the loss of his father's kingdom. An outline of the political events can be gleaned from an examination of the year names of the rival kingdoms. Rīm-Sîn's year 14 (c. 1744 BCE ) records "Year the armies of
Uruk, Isin, Babylon, Sutum, Rapiqum, and of Irdanene, the king of Uruk, were smitten with weapons". This victory over a grand coalition seems to have awakened in Rīm-Sîn imperial ambitions. Damiq-ilišu's year 13 (c. 1739 BCE ) records the “Year in which (Damiq-ilišu) built the great city wall of Isin (called) 'Damiq-ilišu-hegal’ (Damiq-ilišu is abundance)". The holy city of
Nippur seems to have been wrestled from the control of Larsa around 1749 BCE by Damiq-ilishu who held it until Rīm-Sîn reclaimed it around 1737 BCE, the year he "destroyed Uruk", based upon the dating of documents found there. Sin-muballit's year 13 (c. 1735 BCE) is called “Year the troops and the army of Larsa were smitten by weapons.” Rīm-Sîn's year 25 (c. 1733 BCE) is named “Year the righteous shepherd Rim-Sin with the powerful help of An,
Enlil, and
Enki seized the
city of Damiq-ilišu, brought its inhabitants who had helped Isin as prisoners to Larsa, and established his triumph greater than before.” This setback seems to have crippled the tottering Isin state enabling Sîn-muballiṭ of Babylon to pillage the city in 1732 BCE, during his year 16. Rīm-Sîn's year 29 (1729) recalls "Year in which Rīm-Sîn the righteous shepherd with the help of the mighty strength of An, Enlil, and Enki seized in one day Dunnum the largest city of Isin and submitted to his orders all the drafted soldiers but he did not remove the population from its dwelling place". His year 30 (c. 1728 BCE) reads “Year Rīm-Sîn the true shepherd with the strong weapon of An, Enlil, and Enki seized Isin, the royal capital and the various villages, but spared the life of its inhabitants, and made great for ever the fame of his kingship.” The event was considered so significant that from then on every year-name of Rīm-Sîn was named after it: the first year after the sack of Isin until “Year 31 after he seized Isin.” also called the
Esagila Chronicle, is an apocryphal historiographical or supposititious letter composed in the name of Damiq-ilišu who addresses
Apil-Sîn of Babylon (c. 1767 - 1749 BCE) discussing the merits of offerings made to
Marduk on their donors. There is also a
belle letter from Damiq-ilishu to the god Nuska. He seems to have become something of a folk-hero, because later kings hark back to him and describe themselves as his successor. The
Sealand Dynasty seems to have considered itself the inheritor of the neo-Sumerian beacon and the 3rd king,
Damqi-ilišu, even took his name. The founder of the 2nd Sealand Dynasty,
Simbar-Šipak (c. 1025-1008 BCE), was described as “soldier of the dynasty of Damiq-ilišu,” in a historical chronicle.
Timeline of rulers • These epithets or names are not included in all versions of the
SKL. ==See also==