Kassites

The Kassites (/ˈkæsaɪts/) were people of the ancient Near

Kassite dynasty of the
East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old
Babylonian Empire
Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short
chronology). The endonym of the Kassites was probably circa 1600 BC — circa 1155 BC
Galzu,[1] although they have also been referred to by the
names Kaššu, Kassi, Kasi or Kashi.

They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of the

city in 1595 BC (i.e. 1531 BC per the short chronology), and
established a dynasty based first in Babylon and later in Dur-
Kurigalzu.[2][3] The Kassites were members of a small
military aristocracy but were efficient rulers and not locally
unpopular,[4] and their 500-year reign laid an essential
groundwork for the development of subsequent Babylonian
culture.[3] The chariot and the horse, which the Kassites
worshipped, first came into use in Babylonia at this time.[4] The Babylonian Empire under the
Kassites, c. 13th century BC.
The Kassite language has not been classified.[3] What is Capital Dur-
known is that their language was not related to either the Kurigalzu
Indo-European language group, nor to Semitic or other Afro- Common languages Kassite
Asiatic languages, and is most likely to have been a language language
isolate although some linguists have proposed a link to the Government Monarchy
Hurro-Urartian languages of Asia Minor.[5] However, the King
arrival of the Kassites has been connected to the • ca. 1500 BC Agum II (first)
contemporary migrations of Indo-European • 1157—1155 BC Enlil-nadin-
peoples. [6][7][8][9] Several Kassite leaders and deities bore ahi (last)
Indo-European names,[6][7][8][10][11] and it is possible that Historical era Bronze Age
they were dominated by an Indo-European elite similar to the • Established circa 1531
Mitanni, who ruled over the Hurro-Urartian-speaking BC
Hurrians of Asia Minor.[6][7][8] • Sack of Babylon circa 1531
BC
• Invasions by Assyria circa 1158
and Elam BC
• Disestablished circa 1155
Contents BC
History Preceded by Succeeded by
Late Bronze Age
First Middle
Iron Age Babylonian Assyrian
Kassite dynasty of Babylon dynasty Empire
Elamite
Culture Empire
Social life
Language Today part of Iran
Kudurru Iraq
 See also
References
Sources
External links

Dur-
History Kurigalzu Sippar
Babylon Kish
Nippur
Isin
Girsu
Uruk
Late Bronze Age Ur

The original homeland of the Kassites is not well-known,

but appears to have been located in the Zagros
Mountains, in what is now the Lorestan Province of Iran.
However, the Kassites were—like the Elamites, Gutians Map of Iraq showing important sites that were
and Manneans who preceded them—linguistically occupied by the Kassite dynasty (clickable
map)
unrelated to the Iranian-speaking peoples who came to
dominate the region a millennium later.[12][13] They first
appeared in the annals of history in the 18th century BC when
they attacked Babylonia in the 9th year of the reign of Samsu-
iluna (reigned c. 1749–1712 BC), the son of Hammurabi. Samsu-
iluna repelled them, as did Abi-Eshuh, but they subsequently
gained control of Babylonia c. 1570 BC some 25 years after the
fall of Babylon to the Hittites in c. 1595 BC, and went on to
conquer the southern part of Mesopotamia, roughly
corresponding to ancient Sumer and known as the Dynasty of the
Sealand by c. 1460 BC. The Hittites had carried off the idol of
the god Marduk, but the Kassite rulers regained possession,
returned Marduk to Babylon, and made him the equal of the
Kassite Shuqamuna. The circumstances of their rise to power are
unknown, due to a lack of documentation from this so-called
"Dark Age" period of widespread dislocation. No inscription or
document in the Kassite language has been preserved, an absence
that cannot be purely accidental, suggesting a severe regression
of literacy in official circles. Babylon under Kassite rulers, who Kassite Kudurru stele of Kassite king
renamed the city Karanduniash, re-emerged as a political and Marduk-apla-iddina I. Louvre
military power in Mesopotamia. A newly built capital city Dur- Museum.
Kurigalzu was named in honour of Kurigalzu I (ca. early 14th
century BC).

Their success was built upon the relative political stability that the Kassite monarchs achieved. They
ruled Babylonia practically without interruption for almost four hundred years—the longest rule by any
dynasty in Babylonian history.

The transformation of southern Mesopotamia into a territorial state, rather than a network of allied or
combative city states, made Babylonia an international power, although it was often overshadowed by its
northern neighbour, Assyria and by Elam to the east. Kassite kings established trade and diplomacy with
Assyria. Puzur-Ashur III of Assyria and Burna-Buriash I signed a treaty agreeing the border between the
two states in the mid-16th century BC, Egypt, Elam, and the Hittites, and the Kassite royal house
intermarried with their royal families. There were foreign merchants in Babylon and other cities, and
Babylonian merchants were active from Egypt (a major source of Nubian gold) to Assyria and Anatolia.
Kassite weights and seals, the packet-identifying and measuring tools of commerce, have been found in
as far afield as Thebes in Greece, in southern Armenia, and even in the Uluburun shipwreck off the
southern coast of today's Turkey.

A further treaty between Kurigalzu I and Ashur-bel-nisheshu of Assyria was agreed in the mid-15th
century BC. However, Babylonia found itself under attack and domination from Assyria for much of the
next few centuries after the accession of Ashur-uballit I in 1365 BC who made Assyria (along with the
Hittites and Egyptians) the major power in the Near East. Babylon was sacked by the Assyrian king
Ashur-uballit I (1365–1330 BC)) in the 1360s after the Kassite king in Babylon who was married to the
daughter of Ashur-uballit was murdered. Ashur-uballit promptly marched into Babylonia and avenged his
son-in-law, deposing the king and installing Kurigalzu II of the royal Kassite line as king there. His
successor Enlil-nirari (1330–1319 BC) also attacked Babylonia and his great grandson Adad-nirari I
(1307–1275 BC) annexed Babylonian territory when he became king. Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244–1208 BC)
not content with merely dominating Babylonia went further, conquering Babylonia, deposing Kashtiliash
IV and ruling there for eight years in person from 1235 BC to 1227 BC.

The Kassite kings maintained control of their realm through a network of provinces administered by
governors. Almost equal with the royal cities of Babylon and Dur-Kurigalzu, the revived city of Nippur
was the most important provincial center. Nippur, the formerly great city, which had been virtually
abandoned c. 1730 BC, was rebuilt in the Kassite period, with temples meticulously re-built on their old
foundations. In fact, under the Kassite government, the governor of Nippur, who took the Sumerian-
derived title of Guennakku, ruled as a sort of secondary and lesser king. The prestige of Nippur was
enough for a series of 13th-century BC Kassite kings to reassume the title 'governor of Nippur' for
themselves.

Other important centers during the Kassite

period were Larsa, Sippar and Susa. After the
Kassite dynasty was overthrown in 1155 BC, the
system of provincial administration continued
and the country remained united under the
succeeding rule, the Second Dynasty of Isin.

Documentation of the Kassite period depends

Cylinder seal of Kassite king Kurigalzu II (c. 1332–1308 heavily on the scattered and disarticulated
BC). Louvre Museum AOD 105 tablets from Nippur, where thousands of tablets
and fragments have been excavated. They
include administrative and legal texts, letters,
seal inscriptions, kudurrus (land grants and administrative regulations), private votive inscriptions, and
even a literary text (usually identified as a fragment of a historical epic).

"Kassite rulers in Babylon were also scrupulous to follow existing forms of expression, and the public
and private patterns of behavior "and even went beyond that—as zealous neophytes do, or outsiders, who
take up a superior civilization—by favoring an extremely conservative attitude, at least in palace circles."
(Oppenheim 1964, p. 62).
The Elamites conquered Babylonia in the 12th century BC, thus
ending the Kassite state. The last Kassite king, Enlil-nadin-ahi,
was taken to Susa and imprisoned there, where he also died.

Iron Age
The Kassites did briefly regain control over Babylonia with
Dynasty V (1025–1004 BC); however, they were deposed once
more, this time by an Aramean dynasty.

Kassites survived as a distinct ethnic group in the mountains of
Lorestan (Luristan) long after the Kassite state collapsed.
Babylonian records describe how the Assyrian king Sennacherib
on his eastern campaign of 702 BC subdued the Kassites in a
battle near Hulwan, Iran.
Herodotus and other
ancient Greek writers
sometimes referred to the
region around Susa as
"Cissia", a variant of the
Kassite name. However,
it is not clear if Kassites were actually living in that region so
late.
Kassite king Meli-Shipak II on his
throne on a kudurru-Land grant to
Ḫunnubat-Nanaya. The eight-pointed
star was Inanna-Ishtar's most
common symbol. Here it is shown
alongside the solar disk of her
brother Shamash (Sumerian Utu)
and the crescent moon of her father
Sin (Sumerian Nanna) on a boundary
stone of Meli-Shipak II, dating to the
twelfth century BC.[i 1]

Kassite cylinder seal, ca. 16th–12th

century BC.
citation of Nearchus by Strabo (13.3.6).
During the later Achaemenid period, the Kassites, referred to as
"Kossaei", lived in the mountains to the east of Media and were
one of several "predatory" mountain tribes that regularly
extracted "gifts" from the Achaemenid Persians, according to a

But Kassites again fought on the Persian side in the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC, in which the Persian
Empire fell to Alexander the Great, according to Diodorus Siculus (17.59) (who called them "Kossaei")
and Curtius Rufus (4.12) (who called them "inhabitants of the Cossaean mountains"). According to
Strabo's citation of Nearchus, Alexander later separately attacked the Kassites "in the winter", after which
they stopped their tribute-seeking raids.

Strabo also wrote that the "Kossaei" contributed 13,000 archers to the army of Elymais in a war against
Susa and Babylon. This statement is hard to understand, as Babylon had lost importance under Seleucid
rule by the time Elymais emerged around 160 BC. If "Babylon" is understood to mean the Seleucids,
then this battle would have occurred sometime between the emergence of Elymais and Strabo's death
around 25 AD. If "Elymais" is understood to mean Elam, then the battle probably occurred in the 6th
century BC. Note that Susa was the capital of Elam and later of Elymais, so Strabo's statement implies
that the Kassites intervened to support a particular group within Elam or Elymais against their own
capital, which at that moment was apparently allied with or subject to Babylon or the Seleucids.

The latest evidence of Kassite culture is a reference by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy, who
described "Kossaei" as living in the Susa region, adjacent to the "Elymeans". This could represent one of
many cases where Ptolemy relied on out-of-date sources.
It is believed that the name of the Kassites is preserved in the name of the Kashgan River, in Lorestan.

Kassite dynasty of Babylon

(short chronology)

Ruler Reigned Comments

Agum II or
Returns Marduk statue to Babylon
Agum-Kakrime
Burnaburiash I c. 1500 BC (short) Treaty with Puzur-Ashur III of Assyria
Kashtiliash III
Ulamburiash c. 1480 BC (short) Conquers the first Sealand Dynasty
Possible campaigns against "The Sealand" and "in
Agum III c. 1470 BC (short)
Dilmun"
Karaindash c. 1410 BC (short) Treaty with Ashur-bel-nisheshu of Assyria
Kadashman-harbe I c. 1400 BC (short) Campaign against the Sutû
Founder of Dur-Kurigalzu and contemporary of
Kurigalzu I c. x-1375 BC (short)
Thutmose IV
Contemporary of Amenophis III of the Egyptian
Kadashman-Enlil I c. 1374—1360 BC (short)
Amarna letters
Burnaburiash II c. 1359—1333 BC (short) Contemporary of Akhenaten and Ashur-uballit I
Kara-hardash c. 1333 BC (short) Grandson of Ashur-uballit I of Assyria
Nazi-Bugash or
c. 1333 BC (short) Usurper “son of a nobody”
Shuzigash
Son of Burnaburiash II, Lost ? Battle of Sugagi with
Kurigalzu II c. 1332—1308 BC (short)
Enlil-nirari of Assyria
Nazi-Maruttash c. 1307—1282 BC (short) Lost territory to Adad-nirari I of Assyria
Kadashman-Turgu c. 1281—1264 BC (short) Contemporary of Hattusili III of the Hittites
Kadashman-Enlil II c. 1263—1255 BC (short) Contemporary of Hattusili III of the Hittites
Kudur-Enlil c. 1254—1246 BC (short) Time of Nippur renaissance
“Non-son of Kudur-Enlil” according to Tukulti-Ninurta I of
Shagarakti-Shuriash c. 1245—1233 BC (short)
Assyria
Kashtiliashu IV c. 1232—1225 BC (short) Deposed by Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria
Enlil-nadin-shumi c. 1224 BC (short) Assyrian vassal king
Kadashman-Harbe II c. 1223 BC (short) Assyrian vassal king
Adad-shuma-iddina c. 1222—1217 BC (short) Assyrian vassal king
Sender of rude letter to Aššur-nirari and Ilī-ḫaddâ, the
Adad-shuma-usur c. 1216—1187 BC (short)
kings of Assyria
Correspondence with Ninurta-apal-Ekur confirming
Meli-Shipak II c. 1186—1172 BC (short)
foundation of Near East chronology
Marduk-apla-iddina I c. 1171—1159 BC (short)
Zababa-shuma-iddin c. 1158 BC (short) Defeated by Shutruk-Nahhunte of Elam
Enlil-nadin-ahi c. 1157—1155 BC (short) Defeated by Kutir-Nahhunte II of Elam

Culture
Social life
In spite of the fact that some of them took Babylonian names, the Kassites retained their traditional clan
and tribal structure, in contrast to the smaller family unit of the Babylonians. They were proud of their
affiliation with their tribal houses, rather than their own fathers, preserved their customs of fratriarchal
property ownership and inheritance.[14]

Language
The Kassite language has not been classified.[3] However, several
Kassite leaders bore Indo-European names, and they might have
had an Indo-European elite similar to the Mitanni.[11][9] Over the
centuries, however, the Kassites were absorbed into the
Babylonian population. Eight among the last kings of the Kassite
dynasty have Akkadian names, Kudur-Enlil's name is part
Elamite and part Sumerian and Kassite princesses married into
the royal family of Assyria.

Herodotus was almost certainly referring to Kassites when he

described "Ethiopians [from] above Egypt" in the Persian army
that invaded Greece in 492 BC.[15] Herodotus was presumably
repeating an account that had used the name "Kush" (Cush), or
something similar, to describe the Kassites; "Kush" was also,
purely by coincidence, a name for Ethiopia. A similar confusion
of Kassites with Ethiopians is evident in various ancient Greek
accounts of the Trojan war hero Memnon, who was sometimes
Babylonian Kudurru stele of the late
described as a "Kissian" and founder of Susa, and other times as
Kassite period, in the reign of Kassite
Ethiopian. According to Herodotus, the "Asiatic Ethiopians" king Marduk-nadin-akhi (ca. 1099–
lived not in Kissia, but to the north, bordering on the 1082 BC). Found near Baghdad by
"Paricanians" who in turn bordered on the Medes. The Kassites the French botanist André Michaux
were not geographically linked to Kushites and Ethiopians, nor is (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris)
there any documentation describing them as similar in
appearance, and the Kassite language is regarded as a language
isolate, utterly unrelated to any language of Ethiopia or Kush/Nubia,[16] although more recently a
possible relationship to the Hurro-Urartian family of Asia Minor has been proposed.[17] However, the
evidence for its genetic affiliation is meager due to the scarcity of extant texts.

According to the Encyclopædia Iranica:

There is not a single connected text in the Kassite

Winged centaur hunting animals.
Kassite period. Louvre Museum,
reference AO 22355
language. The number of Kassite appellatives is
restricted (slightly more than 60 vocables, mostly
referring to colors, parts of the chariot, irrigation
terms, plants, and titles). About 200 additional
lexical elements can be gained by the analysis of the
more numerous anthroponyms, toponyms,
theonyms, and horse names used by the Kassites
(see Balkan, 1954, passim; Jaritz, 1957 is to be used
 with caution). As is clear from this material, the
Kassites spoke a language without a genetic
relationship to any other known tongue.

Kudurru
The most notable Kassite artifacts are their Kudurru steles. Used for marking boundaries and making
proclamations, they were also carved with a high degree of artistic skill; they took a long time to make.

See also
Cities of the ancient Near East
Early Kassite rulers
Kassite Art
Hittites
Hyksos
Kaska
Kassite deities
Mitanni
Philistines
Sea Peoples
Short chronology timeline

References
1. Trevor Bryce, 2009, The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient
Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire,
Abingdon, Routledge, p. 375.
2. "The Old Hittite Kingdom" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/22897/Anatolia/4434
9/The-Old-Hittite-Kingdom). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Retrieved 8 September 2012.
3. "The Kassites in Babylonia" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/376828/history-of-
Mesopotamia/55446/The-Kassites-in-Babylonia). Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved
8 September 2012.
4. "Kassite (people)" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/313072/Kassite).
Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
5. Schneider, Thomas (2003). "Kassitisch und Hurro-Urartäisch. Ein Diskussionsbeitrag zu
möglichen lexikalischen Isoglossen". Altorientalische Forschungen (in German) (30): 372–
381.
6. Myres, Sir John Lynton (1930). Who Were the Greeks? (https://books.google.com/books?id
=DhyQ5nHMt3UC). University of California Press. p. 102. "Among the names of Kassite
kings are some which appear to contain Indo-European elements, as though they belonged
to families which had once used Indo-European speech, but had lost it as their official
language, through assimilation to the people of Kassite speech whose movements they
were now directing. Some Kassite deities too seem to have Indo-European names."
 7. MacHenry, Robert (1992). The new encyclopaedia Britannica: in 32 vol. Macropaedia, India
- Ireland, Volume 21 (https://books.google.com/books?id=hHKiJGzJ5ewC). Encyclopedia
Britannica. p. 36. ISBN 0852295537. "That there was a migration of Indo-European
speakers, possibly in waves, which can be dated to the 2nd millennium bc, is clear from
archaeological and epigraphic evidence in western Asia. Mesopotamia witnessed the
arrival, in about 1760 bc, of the Kassites, who introduced the horse and the chariot and bore
such obviously Indo- European names as Surias, Indas, and Maruttas (Surya, Indra, and
Marutah in Sanskrit)."
8. Phillips, E. D. (1963). "The Peoples of the Highland: Vanished Cultures of Luristan, Mannai
and Urartu" (https://books.google.com/books?id=4IgkAQAAMAAJ). Vanished Civilizations of
the Ancient World. McGraw-Hill: 241. Retrieved 25 July 2018. "During the 2nd millennium
the long process began by which Indo-European peoples from the northern steppes beyond
the Caucasus established themselves about Western Asia, Iran and northern India. Their
earliest pressure perhaps drove some the native peoples of the mountains to migrate or
infiltrate and sometimes come as invaders into Mesopotamia and northern Syria, even in
the 3rd millennium. The Indo-Europeans then drove their way through these peoples,
drawing many of them in their train as subjects or allies, and appeared themselves early in
the 2nd millennium as invaders and conquerors in the Near East. For the first half of the
millenium the highlanders under Indo-European leadership dominated the older peoples of
the plains, most of whom were Semites. The most powerful of these Indo-Europeans were
the Hittites who ruled Anatolia, and later extended their dominion over northern Syria, but
their connection with our three cultures is not direct, unles more Hittite influence was felt in
Urartu than has so far appeared. Two other peoples are directly relevant, namely the
Kassites from the Zagros mountains in the region of Luristan, and the Hurrians, who spread
from regions further north, particularly from Armenia. Both were themselves native peoples
of the highland, and spoke languages which were not Indo-European, but belonged to a
group sometimes loosely called Caucasian, once widespread but later surviving only in the
Caucasus. They were led by Indo- European aristocracies small in numbers but great in
energy and achievement. They were the first to use the horse in war to draw the light
chariot with spoked wheels. Indo-European names of gods at least appear among the
Kassites, and of gods and rulers much more obviously among the Hurrians, in whom this
element was clearly stronger. In both cases the names reveal the Indic branch of the Indo-
European family, of which the main body moved through Iran to conquer northern India."
9. "Iranian art and architecture" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293553/Iranian-ar
t-and-architecture/37848/Median-period). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
10. Piggot, Stuart (1970). Ancient Europe (https://books.google.com/books?
id=2HxlXCoQzfAC). Transaction Publishers. p. 81. ISBN 0202364186. "The Kassite dynasty
of Mesopotamia (with Indo-European names) was established early in the second
millennium B.C."
11. "India: Early Vedic period" (http://www.britannica.com/place/India/Early-Vedic-period#ref485
125). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
12. "Lorestan - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0130212135352/http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/Lorestan).
Education.yahoo.com. Archived from the original (http://education.yahoo.com/reference/enc
yclopedia/entry/Lorestan) on 2013-02-12. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
13. "History of Iran" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130212132137/http://www.iranologie.com/hi
story/history1.html). Iranologie.com. 1997-01-01. Archived from the original (http://www.iran
ologie.com/history/history1.html) on 2013-02-12. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
14. J. Boardman et al. (eds) Cambridge Ancient History Vol III Pt 1 (2nd Ed) 1982
15. Herodotus, Book 7, Chapter 70
16. see Balkan, 1954,
17. Schneider, Thomas (2003). "Kassitisch und Hurro-Urartäisch. Ein Diskussionsbeitrag zu
möglichen lexikalischen Isoglossen". Altorientalische Forschungen (in German) (30): 372–
381.
1. Land grant to Ḫunnubat-Nanaya kudurru, Sb 23, published as MDP X 87, found with Sb 22
during the French excavations at Susa.

Sources
Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911.
A. Leo Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, 1964.
K. Balkan, Die Sprache der Kassiten, (The Language of the Kassites), American Oriental
Series, vol. 37, New Haven, Conn., 1954.
D. T. Potts, Elamites and Kassites in the Persian Gulf, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol.
65, no. 2, pp. 111–119, (April 2006)

External links
Daniel A. Nevez, 'Provincial administration at Kassite Nippur' (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0060719073459/http://home.uchicago.edu/~nev2/prospectus.html) abstract of a dissertation
gives details of Kassite Nippur and Babylonia.
Christopher Edens, "Structure, Power and Legitimation in Kassite Babylonia" (http://ancient
neareast.tripod.com/Kassites.html)
Richard Hooker, "The Kassites: 1530-1170 The Kassite Interregnum" (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20050212070930/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/KASSITES.HTM)
Kassites in Encyclopaedia Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kassite.html)
David W. Koeller, "Kassite rule in Mesopotamia" (https://web.archive.org/web/20041204171
358/http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/MiddleEast/Kassites.html)
Kassites in Encyclopedia Iranica by Ran Zadok (https://web.archive.org/web/200804170246
25/http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/ot_grp9/ot_kassites_20051223.html)
Livius.org: Kassites/Cossaeans (http://www.livius.org/k/kassites/kassites.html)

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