by
Damien F. Mackey
“Modern historians judge that Tukulti-Ninurta’s sacking of Babylon with the carrying off
of Marduk’s statue must have been considered sacrilegious by many Assyrians”.
W. G. Lambert
“Turning Babylon into a lake – covering the civilized land with water, returning the city of Marduk to the primordial chaos – was an insult to the god. Sennacherib compounded this by ordering the statue of Marduk hauled back to Assyria”.
Susan Wise Bauer
In a recent, revised version of my article:
I have recalled what I had previously written with regard to different efforts by revisionists to sort out Assyro-Babylonian history.
And I made mention again of a suggestion of Phillip Clapham’s:
“And there have been other attempts as well to bring order to Mesopotamian history and chronology; for example, Phillip Clapham’s attempt to identify the C13th Assyrian king, Tukulti-Ninurta I, with the C8th BC king, Sennacherib.[4] Clapham soon decided that, despite some initially promising similarities, these two kings could not realistically be merged.[5]”
That was enough for me at the time to abandon any notion that Tukulti-Ninurta I may have been Sennacherib, who is also my Sargon II:
Assyrian King Sargon II, Otherwise Known As Sennacherib
Sargon II and Sennacherib: More than just an overlap
But I have since been struck by the incredible similarities - that must have impressed Clapham also - between Tukulti-Ninurta I and Sennacherib (though I would add Sargon-Sennacherib).
Here are some of these (I am using largely, for Tukulti-Ninurta I, Marc Van de Mieroop’s book, A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC):
(i) Son of Shalmaneser
Tukulti-Ninurta I (1243-07 BC, conventional dates)
Son of Shalmaneser (I)
Sargon-Sennacherib (721-05 – 704-681 BC, conventional dates)
Son of Shalmaneser (V)
(ii) Hittites and Anatolian revolt
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P. 150: “… attacked the Hittite state from the east, and vassals in the west and south-west of Anatolia rebelled”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
“Evil Hittites without respect for the command of the gods, whisperers of treachery”—these and similar reproaches were hurled by Sargon II's scribes against the peoples of Syria and Palestine who would not submit to the Assyrian yoke, or who having submitted sought relief in rebellion. Sargon's anger marked a crisis in the long but intermittent Assyrian relationship with the Anatolian peoples of North Syria and the Taurus, loosely termed “Hittites”.
(iii) Invades Babylonia, puppet king(s) installed
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P. 165: “… invaded Babylonia and deposed Kashtiliashu IV … whom he took in chains to Assur. ….
After assuming Babylonian kingship for a short time, Tukulti-Ninurta appointed a series of puppet rulers, who represented Assyrian interests for a decade.
Sargon-Sennacherib
Sennacherib likewise “placed a puppet ruler … by the name of Bel-ibni, in charge at the city of Babylon”. (Paul A. Lindberg, God's Plan of the Ages Volume 4: King Ahaz to Messiah).
“After consolidating his rule over the empire, Sargon was ready to reclaim the lost throne of Babylon. In 710 BC Sargon invaded Babylonia. The fractures and conflicting interests between the polities of the region became visible in the ensuing war when some cities and tribes quickly joined Assyria while others stayed loyal to Marduk-apla-iddina. Eventually, faced with this crumbling of support, the Chaldean abandoned Babylon and its citizens invited Sargon to enter the city (SAA 17 20-21).
….
Once again, an Assyrian king assumed the Babylonian throne. In contrast to his Assyrian predecessors, Sargon remained resident in Babylon for five years, leaving the Assyrian heartland in the hands of his crown prince Sennacherib. Sargon began the process of properly integrating Babylonia into the empire, following a very different course than his father Tiglath-pileser's laissez-faire policy. For the first time in Assyria's rule over the south, large-scale restructuring was evident. Babylonia was split into two provinces under the rule of Assyrian governors: the province of Babylon comprised the northern part of Babylonia where most of the big cities were located, the province of Gambulu consisted of the Aramaean and Chaldean tribal areas. Under the two provincial governors operated individual city governors, also directly appointed by the Assyrian king, and military commanders based in the Assyrian garrisons securing the region. There was, however, little extensive militarisation.
The Assyrian administration exerted control mainly through an elaborate intelligence system comprised of local informers and Assyrian agents.
Unlike in other provinces, the hierarchical relationships in Babylonia were not clear cut, best evidenced by the fact that Sargon frequently corresponded with and intervened at all levels and various aspects of the administration.
Sargon took the role of king of Babylon seriously. He participated in all major Babylonian festivals, such as the New Year festival (akitu TT ), and restored the region's temples, a traditional duty and privilege of the king of Babylon. Sargon profoundly shaped Babylonian politics by appointing his favoured officials as provincial and city governors and stewards over the most important temples. Their correspondence with the king survives in many cases (SAA 17). As his special envoy to the region, Sargon appointed Bel-iddina [Sennacherib’s Bel-ibni?], a scholar from his entourage whose task in Babylonia it was to oversee the operation of cults and to report directly to the king on the officials in the region. Bel-iddina was the king's eyes and ears amongst his administrators in Babylonia and he acted as an extension of the king's authority”.
(iv) Faced with a powerful Elamite-Babylonian coalition
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P. 165: “Elamite pressure and a successful Babylonian rebellion returned Babylon to Kassite control, but Elam’s raids eventually led to the collapse of the Kassite dynasty and deposed Kashtiliashu IV … whom he took in chains to Assur. ….
Sargon-Sennacherib
Sargon reacted to this provocation by marching his troops southwards and Merodach-baladan retaliated by joining forces with the king of Elam … Assyria's rival of old. Together they mustered a massive army against Sargon's forces. In 720 BC, the troops met in battle at the city of Der … in the plains east of Babylon …. Although Merodach-baladan's troops arrived too late for active combat, the Assyrian army was pushed back by his Elamite allies and he retained control of the south and the title of king of Babylon.
(v) Literary tablets seized from Babylonia’s temples
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P. 169: “Tukulti-Ninurta I, for example, after sacking Babylon, took home literary tablets as booty. He may thus have laid the foundation of a royal library in Assyria filled with Babylonian manuscripts”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
“Sargon II … or his successor [sic] Sennacherib … gave an order to a Babylonian scholar concerning … a “writing board of the temples”. …. The order to prepare a list of Babylonian temples might have had administrative reasons … but it could also concern the tablets of the Babylonian temple libraries”.
(vi) Following his father in deporting nations
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P. 172: “Under Tukulti-Ninurta this practice was extended by deporting north Syrian people to Assyria, where they were set to work on public projects and agriculture”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
“[Sargon II] conquered Samaria and destroyed the kingdom of Israel. Sargon’s inscriptions record that he deported 27,290 Israelites from their homeland and re-settled them to regions throughout the empire from Anatolia across to the Zagros Mountains. In doing so, he was simply following Assyrian political and military procedure …. https://www.ancient.eu/Sargon_II/
(vii) Building new capital city on virgin soil
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P. 172: “The military successes provided the economic resources for great building activity in Assyria. The greatest project was the construction of a new capital city by Tukulti-Ninurta, named Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, opposite Assur on the Tigris river. It was built after he had defeated Babylon, the spoils of that campaign helped provide the means. The city was founded on virgin soil and covered an enormous area, some 240 hectares, if not more”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
P. 251: “… Sargon II … decided to build an entirely new [capital city] on virgin soil, and called it Dur-Sharrukin, “Fortress of Sargon” …”.
“A massive wall of mud brick, 14 meters thick and 12 meters high, surrounds the rectangular site of the city, which covers nearly 300 hectares”.
(viii) New city did not last long
Tukulti-Ninurta I
P. 172: “The city’s life as a capital was short, however. After Tukulti-Ninurta was assassinated, it became a place of secondary status”.
Sargon-Sennacherib
“Sargon was killed in battle [sic], and Dur Sharrukin was quickly deserted”.
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Assyriologist E. A. Speiser is not the only scholar to have thought to identify the biblical Nimrod with Tukulti-Ninurta I. The conventional dating of this so-called ‘Middle’ Assyrian king to the C13th BC does, to some degree, make this a more plausible consideration – at least by contrast with any revised dating for Tukulti-Ninurta I which is always going to be far lower.
However, even a C13th BC date would be a good half a millennium or more too late for the biblical Nimrod.
I would sincerely hope that my quite different location for – and identification(s) of - Nimrod would be both archaeologically and historically more sound than is the suggestion of Speiser and others that he was Tukulti-Ninurta I. See e.g. my article:
Nimrod a "mighty man"
the author will mention as possible historical candidates for Nimrod, Tukulti-Ninurta I, but also ones that I have suggested (and combined together as the one person) in the above article: namely, Sargon of Akkad and Naram-Sin:
The name "Nimrod" could be applied as a synonym for Assyria. If there is any need to identify this legendary figure with a figure from Mesopotamian civilization, this may well be the heroic god Ninurta, who was a warrior, a hunter, and a founder of human civilization. However, the type of great hero is quite common and there may have many models, even historical kings like the Sumerian Lugal-Banda, the Akkadians Sargon of Akkad and Naram-Sin, and the Assyrian Tukulti-Ninurta I. ....
Increasing the unlikelihood (to my mind, at least) of Tukulti-Ninurta I’s being Nimrod are the striking parallels between Tukulti-Ninurta I and Sennacherib, a late (neo-) Assyrian king, that were uncovered in Part One of this present series:
And one could now add to all this the parallel run of Elamite kings for the approximate era of Tukuti-Ninurta I and those of the approximate era of Sennacherib:
C12th BC
Shutruk-Nahhunte; Kudur-Nahhunte; and Hulteludish (or Hultelutush-Insushinak)
C8th BC
Shutur-Nakhkhunte; Kutir-Nakhkhunte; and Hallushu (or Halutush-Insushinak).
But wait, there is more.
What did Tukulti-Ninurta I do when he conquered Babylon?
He installed one Enlil-nadin-shumi on the Babylonian throne.
And when Sennacherib conquered Babylon, he set up his eldest son, Ashur-nadin-shumi, as king of Babylon.
Now, this Ashur-nadin-shumi (= Enlil-nadin-shumi?) will, in turn, become a figure of great and fateful significance, as:
"Nadin" (Nadab) of Tobit is the "Holofernes" of Judith
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