of south and central Babylonia following 1720 BC, produced the conditions for the rural
character of the Kassite national state emergent later around 1500 BC.
87 RIME 42. 9. 13 (cf. 2. 5. 3 , Larsa wall name dUtu.ki.bal.e.sá.di), 2. 13. 13 (the gú ma.da made
peaceful, and enemies as the “snare of the land”), 2. 14. 10 , 3. 7. 3 (esp. ll. 47 – 54 ); Richardson,
2005 , on the unstable north-Babylonian countryside in the late seventeenth century BC.
88 See, for instance, Maeda 1992.
89 Cf. n. 8 , above.
90 This dynasty was also not rooted in any urban kingship, and the putative and unlocated
capital uru.kùkiwas probably notional.
91 The Dynastic Chronicle accorded to Simbar-Sˇipak (fl. 1025 BC) a direct link to “a soldier of
the dynasty of Damiq-ilisˇu” (fl. 1650 BC); Grayson 2000 , Chron 18. ll. v. 1 – 4 , p. 142.
92 Note the prior extensive land grant by Nebuchadnezzar I in this area, Brinkman 1968 ,
pp. 113 – 15.
93 Sassmanshausen 2001 , pp. 22 – 3 , listing one additional pı ̄h
̆a ̄ tu elı ̄tuand pı ̄h
̆a ̄t s ˇarri; Brinkman,
1968 , pp. 296 f.
94 In general, however, these cases seem to be restricted to those places on the state’s northern
fringes, along the Assyrian border.
95 ContraCAD B 295 , the passage luen é sˇaGN arkû sˇa isˇsˇakkinuis MB, not NB, in date.
96 J.A. Brinkman, “Kudurru,” in Reallexikon der AssyriologieBd. 6 , Berlin: de Gruyter, 1980 ,
p. 272.
97 Sommerfeld 1995 ; cf. Slanski 2003 , esp. p. 488 , regarding exemptions on royal estates.
98 Perhaps the elites/officers that Chronicle P refers to as the lú.rabûti.mesˇˇás kur.Akkadîki
(Grayson 2000 , pp. 170 – 7 , Chron. 22 iv 8 and passim.
99 Cf. van Driel’s, 2001 , interpretations, p. 117.
100 Nashef 1992 , pp. 151 – 9 ; thepı ̄h
̆
a ̄tuknown by this name near Nippur likely included at least
ten villages.
101 Cf. CAD M 2113 for BE 183 , which refers to a lone mis.ruof Nansˇe.
102 kisurrû, kudurru, mis.ru; rarely, pulukku; tah
̆
u ̄muwas never a Babylonian term for an intrastate
border. Areal terms like ma ̄ tu and qaqqaruwere still in use, but with little sense of territorial
fixity; cf. Cole, op. cit., Letter 27 , which may indicate someone as expelled from Nippur (ina
qaqqaren.lílki). Cameron ( 1973 ) demonstrated conclusively that Persian dah
̆h
̆yameant “people,”
not “district.”
103 Brinkman, “Kudurru,” p. 274 ; Slanski 2003 , p. 314 , sub. “Royal adjudications.”
104 Edens 1994 , pp. 209 – 24 , esp. p. 212.
105 Grayson 2000 , Chrons. 22 (iv 15 ), 176 , on people “scattered” (sapa ̄h
̆
u) from Nippur, and 24
(rev. 11 ), 182 , on seized fields.
106 Cole 1996 , pp. 13 – 16.
107 Brinkman 1968 : 132 ; Grayson 2000 , Assyrian Chronicle Fragment 4 , p. 189 , l. 11.
108 RGTC 8 , passim.
109 By M. Stolper’s count, the texts of this family entailed business (if not actual holdings) in
“about 180 villages” (“Murasˇû,” in D.O. Edzard et al.(eds), Reallexikon der AssyriologieBd.
8 , Berlin: de Gruyter, 1995 , pp. 427 – 9.
110 RGTC 8 , “Introduction,” ix–xxx; the intervening twenty years of prodigious publication of
first millennium texts (especially the energetic Zadokliteraturon geography) cannot be
incorporated here; one expects the net effect would be an increase in both the number of new
groups and attestations.
111 Cole 1996 , Ch. 2 ; one notes how little can be said about “genuine” Babylonians by this time!
112 RIMB 26. 14. 1 iii 48 ′– 49 ′, 54 ′– 55 ′; on treaties and “brotherhoods” both between tribal
leaders, and between urban officials and tribal leaders, see Cole 1996 , pp. 25 , 27 – 8 , 31 – 2 ,
50 , and Letters 7 , 13 , and 19.
113 RIMA3 102. 29 and 104. 8 ; Chaldaeans: RIMB 26. 7. 2001 , 10. 2001 – 2 ; Baba-ah
̆
e-iddina
RIMB 26. 9.
114 J. Oelsner, et al., “Neo-Babylonian Period,” in Westbrook 2003 , p. 917 , sub. 2. 1. 3. 2.
115 Cole 1996 , p. 50 ; LaBianca 1999 , pp. 19 – 29 , defines a hetarchic state as comprising “several
political centers of gravity within each kingdom.”
— The world of Babylonian countrysides —