The reasons for his Babylonian war are not totally clear. It may have been the
traditional good relations between Babylonians and Hittites (see Bryce in this volume),
that worried the Assyrian king and led to his unprovoked invasion into Babylonia.
But we also know that Tukulti-Ninurta was anxious to win a place in Assyrian
collective memory (Galter 1988 ) and that his military actions formed only part of a
larger cultural conflict (Machinist 1984 / 85 ). He was the first Assyrian king who tried
to build an empire based equally on Assyrian and Babylonian traditions. He had a
new capital built: Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, and his war against Kashtiliash, culminating
in the destruction of Babylon, may well have served his aim of becoming supreme
ruler of Mesopotamia.
The various stages of this war are the topic of the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic, a lengthy
heroic tale that praises Tukulti-Ninurta as conqueror of Babylon, peacemaker and
righteous king. The epic states that Kashtiliash violated several times the old bilateral
treaty that was signed by Adad-nirari I ( 1307 – 1275 ) of Assyria and Nazimaruttash
of Babylon ( 1316 – 1291 ). For this reason he was punished by the Sun-god Shamash,
guardian of law and justice. The Babylonian gods left their cities and went to Assyria.
Tukulti-Ninurta sent a letter with the declaration of war to Kashtiliash and marched
into Babylonia. He fought two victorious battles, captured the Kassite king alive and
conquered Babylon around 1215 BCE. He sacked the city and returned home with
the statue of Marduk, Babylonian captives, and rich booty, part of which was used
for decorating the Assyrian temples. Among the spoils taken from Babylon were also
numerous cuneiform tablets covering all fields of science and literature (Machinist
1976 ; Brinkman 1990 : 89 – 94 ). The destruction of Babylon, the slaughter among its
population, and the deportation of the Marduk statue are also related in the Babylonian
‘Chronicle P’. The deportation of thousands of Kassites to Assyria and their corvée
work in Assyrian building operations is evident from Assyrian administrative
documents too.
During the following years, Tukulti-Ninurta’s dream of a combined Assyro-
Babylonian monarchy crumbled. Although he called himself ‘King of Babylonia’ or
‘King of Sumer and Akkad’, Babylonia was ruled by Assyrian governors for a few
years only. In the south, Adad-shuma-usur ( 1218 – 1139 ) organised the Babylonian
resistance and soon held major cities such as Nippur and Uruk. Assyrian control over
Babylonia diminished further, and Elamite attacks on Nippur and Der got no military
response from the Assyrian army, which left Babylonia soon afterwards. In 1197 BCE
Tukulti-Ninurta I is said to have been killed by his son and Assyria experienced a
time of internal crisis (Galter 1988 ).
According to the Synchronistic History, the relationship between Assyria and
Babylonia remained problematic. While Ellil-kudurri-usur ( 1186 – 1182 ) fought against
Babylonia he was deprived of his power by Ninurta-apil-ekur ( 1181 – 1169 ) from a
side branch of the Assyrian royal family, but the border conflict continued. Assyria
gained large territories in the south. Not even Nebukadnezar I ( 1125 – 1104 ) was able
to push the border back north although the Babylonian campaign of Tiglath-pileser
I ( 1114 – 1076 ) ended with a defeat because Assyrian troops had to fight an Aramaic
invasion at home (Llop 2003 ).
With Ashur-bel-kala ( 1073 – 1056 ) a new era of bilateral contacts began. He signed
a treaty with Marduk-shapik-zeri of Babylon and renewed it with Adad-apla-iddina,
— Hannes D. Galter —