Marduk-bēl-zēri
King of Babylon
Reign8th century BC
PredecessorNinurta-apla-X
SuccessorMarduk-apla-uṣur
HouseDynasty of E
(mixed dynasties)

Marduk-bēl-zēri, inscribed in cuneiform as dAMAR.UTU.EN.NUMUN[i 1][i 2] or mdŠID.EN.[x][i 3] and meaning “Marduk (is) lord of descendants (lit. seed)”,[1] was one of the kings of Babylon during the turmoil following the Assyrian invasions of Šamši-Adad V (ca. 824 – 811 BC). He is identified on a Synchronistic King List fragment[i 3] as Marduk-[bēl]-x, which gives his place in the sequence and reigned around the beginning of the 8th century BC. He was a rather obscure monarch and the penultimate predecessor of Erība-Marduk who was to restore order after years of chaos.[2]

Biography

He is known from a single economic text[i 1] from the southern city of Udāni dated to his accession year (MU.SAG.NAM.LUGAL). This city was a satellite cultic center to Uruk, of uncertain location but possibly near Marad, later to be known as Udannu, associated with the deities dIGI.DU (the two infernal Nergals) and Bēlet-Eanna (associated with Ištar).[3] The document records the parts of a chariot including the wagon pole (mašaddu) which had been entrusted by Belšunu, the šangû or chief administrator[4] of Udāni to the temple of dIGI.DU (Igišta, Palil?).[1] He is tentatively restored to the Dynastic Chronicle[i 2] where he is described as “a soldier” (lúaga.[úš]) but his circumstances are otherwise unknown.[5]

Inscriptions

  1. 1 2 Tablet YBC 11546 in the Yale Babylonian Collection.
  2. 1 2 Dynastic Chronicle vi 2.
  3. 1 2 Synchronistic King List, tablet VAT 11345 (KAV 13), 2.

References

  1. 1 2 J. A. Brinkman (1968). A political history of post-Kassite Babylonia, 1158-722 B.C. Analecta Orientalia. p. 214.
  2. ↑ J. A. Brinkman (1999). "Marduk-bēl-zēri". In Dietz Otto Edzard (ed.). Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: Libanukasabas - Medizin. Vol. 7. Walter De Gruyter. p. 376.
  3. ↑ Paul-Alain Beaulieu (2003). The pantheon of Uruk during the neo-Babylonian period. Brill Academic Pub. pp. 289–290.
  4. ↑ CAD, Š I, p. 377.
  5. ↑ Jean-Jacques Glassner (2004). Mesopotamian chronicles. Brill. pp. 132–133.
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