Part XII

The Cassites did not remain idle during this interval. While originally perhaps serving merely as mercenaries in the army of Rim-Sin, they must soon after his death have obtained a position of mastery in the border state of Emutbal. From this point of vantage they would be apt to make incursions into the Euphrates Valley and if we wer,e better informed regarding this period, we would probably find them holding portions of the land in their control. Elam proper must also have been affected by the proximity of these warlike hordes. It does not appear to have ever actually fallen into the hands of the Cassites, though in default of documents we cannot be certain of this.

The Babylonian Chroniclers name Gandash as the first Cassite ruler who lays claim to titles emphasizing control of Babylonia. In fact he calls himself in an inscription that has been preserved in a late copy, ^[1] "King of the Four Regions, King of Sumer and Akkad, King of Babylon", from which we are permitted to conclude that he asserted his complete succession to the dynasty of Babylon, but it does not of course follow that he was the first Cassite who succeeded in gaining the supremacy over any portion of the Euphrates Valley. Predecessors of Gandash for many generations back may have had parts of Sumer or Akkad in their possession, dividing the authority with the Bulers of the "sea land".

All therefore that is to be concluded from the official recognition of Gandash as the first ruler of the Cassite dynasty is that with him the interference of the Cassites in the political fortunes of the Euphrates Valley assumes a new and more definite phase. For about forty years the rulers of the "sea land", no doubt driven back to their limited marshy district in the south, were able to maintain themselves until about 1720 B.C., when their rule was practically brought to an end by Ulamburiash, the Cassite who calls himself the brother of Kashtiliash I.

A strange issue indeed of the long continued conflicts between Sumerians and Akkadians that after such various vicissitudes in which Semitic influences steadily gained the mastery, the prize should have been snatched out of the hands of the two rivals by a foreign power, and one that represented a far lower level of culture.

The Cassites indeed brought little with them that could be regarded as an addition to the civilization which they assimilated unless it be the horse, which appears to have been introduced by them, ^[2] as better adapted than the ass for purposes of war particularly for drawing chariots across mountain regions.

Indeed many centuries lapsed before it became customary to use the horse also as a riding animal as we find it on the monuments of Assyrian kings. The Cassites appear to have adopted the civilization of Babylonia in a surprisingly short time; they retain the names of the chief deities worshipped by them ^[3] but assimilated them to figures of the Babylonian pantheon, to whom they bore a resemblance. ^[4]

A civilization having reached a certain point does not stand still ; it either moves forward or a period of decline, albeit temporary, sets in. The latter appears to have been the result of the coming of the Cassite hordes. The works of art of this period are few in number, which may of course be due to accidental preservation, but what we have is of a decidedly lower order.

The best specimens are the so-called boundary stones, large steles of hard or soft stone or of a composite material, recording gifts of lands or special deeds illustrated with symbols and representations of the gods and occasionally of rulers in whose reigns these monuments were set up. ^[5] No literary products date, so far as can be ascertained, from the five centuries of Cassite supremacy.

The old was preserved and we do not even find evidence of any adaptation of ancient hymns or rituals or myths to the changed conditions, such as happened when Babylon, with Marduk as the chief deity, took the place of Nippur and Enlil, ^[6] or as happened centuries later when the Babylonian literature was carried over to Assyria and adapted to conditions prevailing in the north.

It may be that certain divination practises were brought to Babylonia by the Cassites, ^[7] but this can certainly not be regarded as a contribution to culture, as little as can changes in military organization and warfare which they may have introduced. The ancient laws were retained by the Cassite rulers, as the business documents, which from the days of Burnaburiash (c. 1370 B.C.) become quite numerous, ^[8] show. The one important innovation in these documents is the introduction of dating according to the years of the ruling monarch, instead of according to significant events.

While continuing to recognize Babylon as the official residence, the Cassite rulers seemed bent on restoring to Nippur the prestige which this centre lost in a measure through the transfer of the headship of the pantheon to Marduk as the chief deity of Babylon. We find the Cassites displaying great zeal in restoring and improving the sanctuary of Enlil at Nippur, which, however, did not hinder them from paying their homage to the chief patron deities of other centres, to Sin or Nannar at Ur, to Shamash at Larsa, to Nana in Uruk and naturally also to Marduk in Babylon.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Winckler, Untersuchungen zur Altorientalischen Geschichte, pp. 34 and 156.

[2]:

The code of Hammurapi does not mention the horse, but we find it referred to in a business document of this period. (See Ungnad, Oriental. Litteraturzeitung, X, Sp. 638, seq.) ; it does not become common, however, until the time of Cassite control. The horse (sisu) is written ideographically "ass of the mountain," an indication of the district whence it was brought to Babylonia. See Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, I, 2, p. 651, seq.

[3]:

See Jastrow, Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, I, p. 180 and the references there given.

[4]:

Shipak is identified with Marduk,' Khala with the goddess Gula, Shukamuna, who appears to have been the head of the Cassite pantheon, with Nergal, Shuriash with Shamash, and Maruttash with Ninib.

[5]:

See the illustration and also in Chapter VII. Plates LXXIII and LXXIV.

[6]:

See p. 212, seq.

[7]:

Probably the divination through the play of oil bubbles in water, for which see p. 266 and the reference there given.

[8]:

E.g., in Nippur. See Clay, Documents from the Temple Archives Dated in the Reigns of Cassite Rulers (Philadelphia, 1906, 2 vols.), and the same author's Personal Names from Cuneiform Inscriptions of the Cassite Period (New Haven, 1912) ; in Babylon, also, business documents of the time of Burnaburiash II onwards have been found.