The Reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in History and Historical Memory

✍ Scribed by John P. Nielsen;

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 244
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Nebuchadnezzar I (r. 11251104 BCE) was one of the more significant and successful kings to rule Babylonia in the intervening period between the demise of the Kassite Dynasty in the twelfth century at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the emergence of a new, independent Babylonian monarchy in the last quarter of the seventh century. His dynamic reign saw Nebuchadnezzar active on both domestic and foreign fronts. He tended to the needs of the traditional cult sanctuaries and their associated priesthoods in the major cities throughout Babylonia and embarked on military campaigns against both Assyria in the north and Elam to the east. Yet later Babylonian tradition celebrated him for one achievement that was little noted in his own royal inscriptions: the return of the statue of Marduk, Babylon's patron deity, from captivity in Elam. The Reign of Nebuchadnezzar I in History and Historical Memory reconstructs the history of Nebuchadnezzar I's rule and, drawing upon theoretical treatments of historical and collective memory, examines how stories of his reign were intentionally utilized by later generations of Babylonian scholars and priests to create a historical memory that projected their collective identity and reflected Marduk's rise to the place of primacy within the Babylonian pantheon in the first millennium BCE. It also explores how this historical memory was employed by the urban elite in discourses of power. Nebuchadnezzar I remained a viable symbol, though with diminishing effect, until at least the third century BCE, by which time his memory had almost entirely faded. This study is a valuable resource to students of the Ancient Near East and Nebuchadnezzar, but is also a fascinating exploration of memory creation and exploitation in the ancient world.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
Contents
List of figures
List of map
List of tables
Foreword – history, memory, and the past
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Part I Writing history and recovering memory, sources and methodologies
1 Toward an understanding of the Babylonian memory of Nebuchadnezzar I
1.1 Nebuchadnezzar I
1.2 Nebuchadnezzar I and historical memory
1.3 Babylonian historical consciousness
1.4 Nebuchadnezzar I and historical memory: a prospectus
2 Nebuchadnezzar I: prior scholarship, historical sources, and chronology
2.1 Prior scholarship
2.2 Historical sources
2.3 Writing of the royal name
2.4 Chronology
Part II Nebuchadnezzar I and his times
3 The reign of Nebuchadnezzar I
3.1 The origins of the Second Dynasty of Isin
3.2 The reign of Nebuchadnezzar I
3.3 Conclusions
4 Nebuchadnezzar I’s successors
4.1 Enlil-nādin-apli
4.2 Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē
4.3 Marduk-šāpik-zēri
4.4 Conclusions
Part III Remembering Nebuchadnezzar I in the first millennium BCE
5 Esarhaddon and the return of Marduk in 668 BCE
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Ashurbanipal’s library and the Nebuchadnezzar I literary tablets
5.3 The past repeated: the departure and return of Marduk in the seventh century
5.4 Nebuchadnezzar I and the discourse at Esarhaddon’s court
5.5 Conclusions
6 Remembering Nebuchadnezzar I from the zenith of Babylonian power through the Seleucid era
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Nebuchadnezzar I in the Neo-Babylonian Empire
6.3 Nebuchadnezzar I in Achaemenid Babylonia
6.4 Nebuchadnezzar I in Hellenistic Babylonia
6.5 Conclusions
Part IV The making of memory and the making of meaning
7 Nebuchadnezzar I in the collective memory
7.1 The early first millennium BCE: crisis and continuity
7.2 The making of memory
7.3 Nebuchadnezzar I in collective memory
7.4 Conclusions
8 The elevation of Marduk: Nebuchadnezzar I as cultural formation
8.1 The creation of meaning
8.2 Syncretic thought
8.3 Conclusions
9 Intentional history in the early first millennium BCE
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Scholarly culture during the Second Dynasty of Isin
9.3 Babylonia from the tenth through the eighth centuries BCE
9.4 Intentional history
9.5 Conclusions
Index