Second Dynasty of Isin: A Visual History

The Second Dynasty of Isin (about 1155-1026 BC) took over Babylonia after the Elamites destroyed the Kassite dynasty. Its greatest king, Nebuchadnezzar I (about 1125-1104), invaded Elam in a summer campaign, defeated it on the Ulai and brought back the statue of Marduk that the Elamites had carried off, an event celebrated as Marduk's triumph; the Enuma Elish creation epic, which crowns Marduk king of the gods, was probably composed or promoted under him. Later kings fought Assyria and Aramaean incursions until the dynasty gave way to weaker lines around 1026 BC.

When it existed: the era ribbon

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Babylonian territory

Timeline of the Second Dynasty of Isin

1. 1,158 BC
   Elamites end the Kassite dynasty
2. 1,155 BC
   Second Dynasty of Isin founded
3. 1,125 BC
   Nebuchadnezzar I
4. 1,110 BC
   Marduk's statue recovered from Elam
5. 1,090 BC
   War with Tiglath-Pileser I
6. 1,026 BC
   Dynasty ends

After the Kassites

The Kassites had ruled Babylon for four centuries when Shutruk-Nakhunte of Elam invaded around 1158 BC, deported the king and looted the great monuments of Mesopotamia; his son Kutir-Nakhunte took Marduk's statue to Susa. Marduk-kabit-ahheshu of Isin founded a new native dynasty around 1155 and his successors gradually restored Babylonian rule.

Nebuchadnezzar I

Nebuchadnezzar I first failed against Elam and fell ill; then, in a daring campaign in the heat of summer 'when the axes burned like fire', he marched to the Ulai river with the Elamite defector Shitti-Marduk, defeated King Hulteludish and sacked Susa, recovering Marduk. His inscriptions present the god's return as a cosmic restoration, and the poem of Marduk's prophecy and probably the Enuma Elish date from this reign; Marduk became 'Bel', lord of the gods, for the rest of Babylonian history.

Decline

Marduk-nadin-ahhe fought Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria, who sacked Babylon; famine and Aramaean tribes crossing the Euphrates ended the dynasty's effectiveness. Adad-apla-iddina, possibly of Aramaean origin, tried to hold on; by 1026 the throne passed to the Second Sealand dynasty and Babylonia entered two centuries of weakness.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Elamite Empire (2,700 BC to 539 BC)
• Middle Assyrian Empire (1,365 BC to 1,050 BC)
• First Babylonian Empire (1,894 BC to 1,595 BC)
• Neo-Babylonian Empire (626 BC to 539 BC)
• New Hittite Kingdom (Hittite Empire) (1,400 BC to 1,180 BC)
• New Kingdom of Egypt (1,550 BC to 1,069 BC)

8 surprising things about the Second Dynasty of Isin

1. Nebuchadnezzar I is the namesake of the famous Nebuchadnezzar II who destroyed Jerusalem 500 years later.
2. The Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic recited every New Year, was likely composed to celebrate this dynasty's rescue of Marduk.
3. The 'kudurru' boundary stones with divine symbols reach their finest form under this dynasty.
4. The summer campaign to Elam was so hot, the inscription says, that 'the roads burned like flames'.
5. Marduk's statue had been carried off three times in 500 years: by the Hittites, the Assyrians and the Elamites.
6. The dynasty is called Isin II because a first Isin dynasty ruled after Ur III, 800 years earlier.
7. Nebuchadnezzar I's Elamite ally Shitti-Marduk was rewarded with tax exemption for his city, recorded on a surviving stone.
8. The Aramaeans who undermined the dynasty later gave Babylonia its Chaldean tribes and, eventually, its Neo-Babylonian kings.

Sources

• Nebuchadrezzar I Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Second Dynasty of Isin Wikipedia
• Babylonia: The Kassites and Isin II Encyclopaedia Britannica
• J. A. Brinkman, A Political History of Post-Kassite Babylonia (1968) Pontifical Biblical Institute

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