3rd millennium BC Marduk, along with the city of
Babylon, was unimportant and sparsely attested in the
3rd millennium BC. The earliest mention of Marduk comes from a fragmentary inscription, most likely dating to the
Early Dynastic II period (ED II). It is left by an unnamed ruler of the city of BAR.KI.BAR (likely Babylon) who constructed a temple for Marduk. A text from the Fara period (ED IIIa) seems to mention Marduk without the divine determinative, and a fragment of a contemporary god list from
Abu Salabikh contains dutu-ama[r], likely Marduk written with reversed sign order. A dubious reference to Marduk from the subsequent Ur III period comes from the possible personal name "
Amar-Sin is the star of Marduk", although Johandi suggests that the god
Martu who appeared together with
Enki and
Damgalnuna in the Ur III period could possibly refer instead to the similarly named Marduk who is otherwise missing in Ur III documentation, as Martu is later attested to have a different parentage (
Anu and
Urash) and Marduk is later considered the son of Enki/Ea. If so, this could be evidence that Marduk was already part of the pantheon of
Eridu during the Ur III period.
Old Babylonian period During the
First Dynasty of Babylon under the king
Sumu-la-El, Marduk appeared in oaths and several year names, namely year name 22, which recorded fashioning a throne for Marduk, and year name 24, which recorded making a statue for the goddess
Zarpanitum, his spouse. Marduk also started to appear in
theophoric names, which would become more frequent in the following decades but would remain rare, appearing in less than 1% of names, although it would grow to 1-2% under
Hammurabi. During the reigns of
Sabium,
Apil-Sin and
Sin-muballit, Marduk started to be mentioned outside of the city of Babylon and was invoked alongside local gods in cities subject to the Babylonian kings. Starting from the reign of Hammurabi, sanctuaries to Marduk were found in other cities. In the Old Babylonian Period, while Marduk is acknowledged to be the ruler of the people, there is no evidence that Hammurabi or his successors promoted Marduk at the expense of other gods.
Enlil was still recognized as the highest authority, and Marduk was far from being the pantheon head, instead appearing to be a mediator between the great gods and Hammurabi. This is also expressed in inscriptions from Hammurabi's successor
Samsu-iluna, expressing that he receives Enlil's orders through the other gods, such as
Ishtar,
Zababa, Shamash and Marduk. A key development during the Old Babylonian period was the association of Marduk with the pantheon of Eridu. Marduk was syncretized with
Asalluhi in the later half of the Old Babylonian period, and the opening of the
Code of Hammurabi identifies Ea as the father of Marduk, a genealogy that would remain canonical. God lists from the Old Babylonian period sometimes place him within the circle of Enki. TCL 15 10 lists Asalluhi and Marduk as separate gods, but close together in the list. Lambert suggests that this may be an intrusion by another scribe, and that the editor scribe did so under the belief that Marduk and Asalluhi were the same god. Johandi on the other hand suggests that Marduk and Asalluhi were not seen as the same god, but were viewed to be related to one another. The Nippur God List also lists Asalluhi and Marduk separately, with Marduk appearing seventy names before Asalluhi. In the
Weidner god list, however, it appears that Marduk and Asalluhi were viewed as the same god. According to the Marduk prophecy and inscriptions of
Agum II, the statue of Marduk and Zarpanitum were removed from Babylon by
Mursili I during his raid on Babylon (middle chronology 1595 BC), which was returned during the reign of Agum II.
Middle Babylonian period In the Kassite period, theophoric names containing Marduk grew to over 10%, and the local temple to Marduk in Nippur was firmly integrated and well established. The Kassite kings sometimes gave Marduk pompous epithets, showing Marduk's growing popularity, however Enlil still ranks as the most important Mesopotamian god, heading the list along with Anu and Ea. At least five Kassite kings bore theophoric names containing Enlil, and Kassite kings, especially
Nazi-Maruttash and
Kudur-Enlil, are known to have visited Nippur at the beginning of the year. Kurigalzu calls himself the "regent of Enlil" and
Dur-Kurigalzu's temple complex holds temples to Enlil, Ninlil and Ninurta. There are two administrative documents from Nippur from the reigns of two Kassite kings, perhaps Nazi-Maruttash and
Shagarakti-Shuriash, that mention the celebration of the
akitu festival connected to Marduk. Another text claims the late Kassite king
Adad-shuma-usur embarked on a pilgrimage from Babylon to
Borsippa and
Kutha, Marduk,
Nabu and
Nergal respectively. However, there are reasons to doubt the historicity of these texts, especially the alleged journey of Adad-shuma-usur since the trio of Marduk, Nabu and Nergal fit the ideology of the 1st millennium BC. Nonetheless, the texts could be evidence that the rise of Marduk was a gradual process that began before Nebuchadnezzar I. Similarly, in the god list
An = Anum the number 50, Enlil's number, was assigned to Marduk instead. A private document dating to the reign of
Ashur-uballit I in Assyria refers to a sanctuary of Marduk in the city of
Assur. A gate of Marduk was also attested in Assur in the 13th Century. Similar to the Neo-Assyrian period, Marduk was mentioned to receive offerings and gifts in Assur. In the Coronation text of Tukulti-Ninurta, Marduk even received the same amount of offerings as
Ashur. The statue of Marduk was carried off by
Tukulti-Ninurta I to Assyria, where it would stay until it was returned. The cult of Marduk in Assyria would remain attested in the Neo-Assyrian period. Marduk was found in Ugarit in an Akkadian hymn that may have been part of the scribal school curriculum. During the Kassite period, Nabu, previously the scribe of Marduk, came to be viewed as Marduk's son.
Second dynasty of Isin By the time of the
Babylonian Dynasty of Isin (not to be confused with the
Sumerian Dynasty of Isin), an established syncretism of Babylon and Nippur (and by extension Marduk and Enlil) was in place. The names of the city walls were switched, with Imgur-Enlil and Nimit-Enlil in Babylon while Imgur-Marduk and Nimit-Marduk were in Nippur. A first millennium bilingual hymn to Nippur links Babylon and Nippur together: Nippur is the city of Enlil, Babylon is his favorite. Nippur and Babylon, their meaning is the same. The ideology of the supremacy of Marduk is generally viewed to have been promoted by
Nebuchadnezzar I and his successors. Nebuchadnezzar's second campaign into Elam and the return of the statue of Marduk that was carried off to
Elam by either
Shutruk-Nahhunte or his son
Kutir-Nahhunte in 1155 BC is thought to be the trigger. However, there are chronological problems regarding the abduction of the statue by the Elamites, as the statue of Marduk abducted by
Tukulti-Ninurta I wasn't returned yet by the Assyrians before the Elamites sacked Babylon in 1155 BC. Johnson suggests that Tukulti-Ninurta could have taken a different statue of Marduk while the main cult statue was taken by Kuter-Nahhunte, while Bányai believes that immediately following the return of the statue of Marduk by
Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur a second invasion by Kuter-Nahhunte carried off the same statue. Nonetheless, beginning from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, acknowledgement of Marduk's supremacy over other gods was now the norm. A
kudurru dating to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar claims that Marduk, now the "king of the gods" directly dispatched Nebuchadnezzar and gave him weapons, and in the Epic of Nebuchadnezzar, it is Marduk who commanded the gods to abandon Babylonia. A kudurru from the reign of
Enlil-nadin-apli calls Marduk the "king of the gods, the lord of the lands", a title that Enlil traditionally held. Likewise, when
Simbar-shipak, the first king of the Second Dynasty of Sealand, made Enlil a replacement throne for the one made by Nebuchadnezzar, in his mind this was actually dedicated to Marduk. Other texts, such as Akkadian prayers and incantations also call Marduk the king of the gods.
1st millennium BC The earliest copy of the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, was found in the city of
Assur and dated to the 9th century, although the text could go back to the Isin II period. Dalley believes that the Enuma Elish may have been composed during the Old Babylonian Period, although other scholars consider it unlikely. The Enuma Elish describes Marduk's ascendance to kingship by defeating Tiamat. In the end, Marduk is proclaimed the ruler, declares Babylon as the city of kingship, received his fifty names (fifty being the number of Enlil), while Enlil is ignored. In Assyrian sources, most of the mentions of Marduk's power and authority came from the reigns of the
Sargonids. Generally, the
Neo-Assyrian kings cared for Babylon and the cult of Marduk.
Shalmaneser III visited multiple Babylonian sanctuaries, including that of Marduk.
Tiglath-pileser III, after conquering Babylonia, participated in the Akitu festival in Babylon, and
Sargon II made Babylon his temporary residence while
Dur-Sharrukin was under construction and took part in the Akitu. Marduk frequently appears in Assyrian royal inscriptions, before the Assyrian kings even gained control over Babylonia. In continuation from the Middle Assyrian times, an actual cult of Marduk seemed to have also existed in the Neo-Assyrian period. The Assyrian Divine Directory mentioned that a shrine to Marduk existed in the temple of
Gula in Ashur in the Neo-Assyrian period. Marduk and his son Nabu also shared a sanctuary in
Nineveh, although it seemed that Nabu was the main deity in contrast to Marduk. One exception was
Sennacherib, who after a series of revolts and the extradition of the crown prince
Assur-nadin-shumi to the Elamites (who then probably killed him), decided to destroy Babylon. The Destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE was, judging from Sennacherib's own accounts, bad by Neo-Assyrian standards. Outside of claiming to have destroyed the temples and the cult statues, there was no explicit mention of the fate of Marduk's statue, although Esarhaddon would later claim that the cult statue was taken from Babylon. Sennacherib followed with what has been called a religious reform, the infrastructure of Assur being refashioned in the model of Babylon's, and the Assyrian edition of the Enuma Elish replaced Marduk with the god Ashur (spelled as
Anshar) and Babylon with Assur (spelled as Baltil). Other texts referencing Marduk were also adapted and changed to fit Ashur instead, and a bed and throne dedicated to Marduk were rededicated to Ashur after the furniture was brought from Babylon to Assur. The Marduk Ordeal contained cultic commentaries on the Akitu festival reinterpreted to refer to instead Marduk's punishment. However, the more radical reforms were reversed under the reign of his successor
Esarhaddon, who also oversaw the reconstruction of Babylon and the eventual return of the statue of Marduk under
Šamaš-šuma-ukin. Esarhaddon also crafted a narrative justifying both Sennacherib's destruction and his rebuilding by citing Marduk's divine anger as the cause for Babylon's destruction, who originally decreed for the city to be abandoned for seventy years, but Marduk relented and allowed Esarhaddon to rebuild it.
Nabonassar claimed that Marduk proclaimed him lordship and had ordered him to "plunder his enemy's land" (referring to Assyria), who only ruled Babylonia due to divine anger. He claimed that he killed the Assyrian and laid waste to his lands by the command of Marduk and Nabu and with the weapons of Erra, which was the main trio of the First Millennium Babylonian ideology. In literary texts from the Achaemenid and Seleucid eras, Marduk is said to have commissioned Nabonassar to take revenge on the land of Akkad (Babylonia). In royal inscriptions of the
Neo-Babylonian kings, Marduk is exalted as the
king of the gods and as the source of their authority, while Enlil is hardly ever mentioned except when in relation to the city of Nippur. In a Late Babylonian god list, all the gods on the list were identified with Marduk. For example, Ninurta was Marduk of the pickaxe, Nabu was Marduk of accounting, Shamash was Marduk of justice and
Tishpak was Marduk of the troops. This "syncretistic tendency" is observed in other late texts, where the other gods appear as aspects of Marduk.
Cyrus, justifying his conquest of Babylonia, claimed that Marduk had abandoned
Nabonidus who offended Marduk by turning his back on the Esagila in the
Cyrus Cylinder. Another anti-Nabonidus text, the Verse Account, explains that Nabonidus favoured Sin over Marduk. Nabonidus' reverence for the moon god may have been because of familial roots to the city of Harran, and later he even revived the religious institutions of Ur, the main sanctuary of Sin. == Characteristics ==