The function of the Kudurru is first and foremost administrative, yet it is also
religious and historical. It is an administrative document turned into a monument.
It records a transaction and guarantees that transaction through the existence of this
permanent record. Under Kassite rule the transfer of land changed. The artefacts,
which began to appear at that time, may have been first introduced by the Kassites
but they continued to be used until the Neo-Babylonian period (seventh century BC).
The iconography of Kudurrus is distinctive to this particular type of artefact.
Scholars, therefore, speak of Kudurru iconography as a genre that can be catalogued
and analysed on its own terms. While some of the iconography and symbols on
Kudurrus appear elsewhere on Mesopotamian images, nowhere do we see quite the
same combination of symbols, and no group of artefacts bears the same accumulation
of symbols. Some of the abstract symbols, furthermore, are known only from the
iconography of Kudurrus. If we examine one such monument closely we see that a
large part of the iconography is made up of these abstract deity symbols.
The Kudurru of Nebuchadnezzar I ( 1125 – 1104 BC) was found in the temple of
the god Shamash at Sippar in 1882 by Abd al Ahad Thoma. It is currently in the
British Museum (Figure 10. 4 ). It is a limestone boulder, 65 cm in height bearing
an inscription on the back, and six registers of divine symbols appear on the front.
The inscription records that Nebuchadnezzar I granted freedom and tax exemption
to the region from the province of Namar to the villages of Bit-Karziabku as a reward
for the bravery of its chief, Sitti-Marduk, during a campaign against Elam (Foster
1993 : 297 – 298 ; Frame 1995 : 33 – 345 ).
The Kudurru is covered with closely placed deity symbols in each register carved
on the surface. At the top register we see the star of Ishtar (goddess of love and war),
the crescent of Sin (moon god), and the sun-disc of Shamash (sun god/god of justice).
Below, there are altars with horned crowns upon them representing the gods, Ea
(water), Anu (sky) and Enlil (kingship). The third register depicts altars with a spade
and dragon emerging, for Marduk god of Babylon, and another altar bearing a wedge
and stylus with a goat-fish emerging for Nabu, god of writing. On the fourth row
there are beast-headed weapons (Nergal, underworld), and an altar with a horse head
under a rainbow. The latter may be an emblem of the constellation Andromeda. A
bird on a perch may be a Kassite deity. Below, we see a seated goddess and her dog.
This is Gula, goddess of medicine and healing. The scorpion archer before her represents
the constellation Sagittarius or Scorpio. At the lowest part of the stele, a recumbent
bull with a lightning fork emerging from his back is associated with Adad, the storm
god. The turtle invokes Ea (water), the scorpion (Ishara, oath goddess) and a lamp
on a stand is the emblem for Nusku, god of light and fire. Finally, an undulating
snake climbing up the side of the monument represents Nirah or Ishtaran, the minister
of the gods. The deity symbols appear to provide divine sanction for the administrative
act of the land grant, and perhaps worked to anchor the legal decree into the permanence
of the monument.
As the iconography of Kudurrus developed over time, images of the people involved
in the transfer of the land came to be represented also. A Kudurru bearing such a
portrait is the Kudurru of Marduk Nadin Ahhe in the British Museum in London
(Figure 10. 5 ). He wears elaborate royal attire of embroidered clothes and feathered
crown and carries a bow and two arrows. A caption next to the figure describes the
Babylonian ruler as ‘The Avenger of his People’.
— The Babylonian visual image —