The First Dynasty of the Sealand in Mesopotamia

The Sealand kingdom arose from the rebellion against Babylonian hegemony in the latter half of the 18th century BCE., forcing it to share power over Sumer and Akkad. Although its kings maintained themselves throughout the turmoil leading to the demise of the Amorite dynasty at Babylon, it remains one of the most poorly documented Mesopotamian polities. Until recently, it was known to us mainly through its inclusion into later king lists and chronicles, but the recent publication of well over 400 archival texts from a Sealand palace, soon followed by literary and divinatory tablets, finally makes it possible to study this polity from primary sources. This book proposes a history of the Sealand kingdom based on the new evidence and a reevaluation of previously known sources. The aspects examined are: the economy — mainly the palatial administration and transformation of agricultural and animal resources; the panthea and the palace-sponsored cult, which show that Sealand I kings may have positioned their rule in a Larsean tradition; the political history, including a discussion of the geography and the relative chronology; the recording and transmission of knowledge on the Sealand I dynasty in Mesopotamian historiography. Preface......Page 5 Contents......Page 7 Tables and Figures......Page 13 Conventions and Abbreviations......Page 15 1. Introduction......Page 17 2. The Sealand I in Babylonian historiography......Page 36 3. Geographical and chronological considerations......Page 76 4. A political history of the Sealand kingdom......Page 102 5. The Sealand I palatial economy......Page 142 6. The Sealand I panthea and religious history......Page 199 7. Conclusion......Page 253 Appendix 1: BKL A and Babylon I-Sealand I synchronism......Page 257 Appendix 2: Sealand I year names......Page 264 Appendix 3: Text numbers corresponding to Table......Page 267 Bibliography......Page 269 Indexes......Page 291 The history of mid-2nd millennium Babylonia is marked by a dire lack of sources. The Sealand kings who controlled part of it were long known to us only indirectly. A palatial archive published recently now illuminates this elusive polity from the inside. This book explores its political, economic, and religious history, as well as the transmission of its memory. It forms a basis for interpreting future finds of that period in southern Iraq