Monday, October 7, 2024

Location of the Temple built by King Solomon

“Can you imagine the upheaval in political and religious thinking if the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not the site of Solomon's [Temple]? And what if the stones of the Wailing Wall are not what tradition says?” Temple: Amazing New Discoveries That Change Everything about the Location of Solomon's Temple Paperback – April 30, 2014 by Robert Cornuke Dr (Author) ________________________________________ In a book that is being heralded as "an investigative masterpiece" with "astounding archaeological and prophetic implications," TEMPLE: Amazing New Discoveries That Change Everything About the Location of Solomon's Temple, by Robert Cornuke, is sending shockwaves through the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian worlds. Can you imagine the upheaval in political and religious thinking if the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not the site of Solomon's [Temple]? And what if the stones of the Wailing Wall are not what tradition says? In this highly-researched, exciting book, the author proposes from current archaeological excavations and Scriptural corroboration that the true temple location is not where tradition teaches. This is must reading for anyone who wants to fit together the pieces of biblical records, current geo-politics, and prophecy. Says the author, "Let the adventure begin as we now take the Bible in one hand and a shovel in the other and dig up some long-lost buried bones of biblical history. Along the way we will walk unknown passageways, known only to the prophets of old, as we search for the true location of the lost temples …. https://www.amazon.com.au/Temple-Robert-Cornuke/dp/193977909X ________________________________________

Monday, September 30, 2024

City of Jerusalem taken by “Shishak king of Egypt”

by Damien F. Mackey The high official Senenmut, often described as ‘the power behind the throne’ of the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaohs, Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, was - according to my now very strong conviction - none other than King Solomon of Israel himself, lately most heavily involved also in Egyptian affairs. Senenmut, as Solomon, as we read in my article: Solomon and Sheba (4) Solomon and Sheba | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu faded from the Egyptian scene in about Year 16 of these Egyptian co-rulers. If this was the approximate time of Senenmut’s-Solomon’s death, then the 5th year of his son, Rehoboam, the year when Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and pillaged its Temple and palace: I Kings 14:25-26: “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He carried off the treasures of the Temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made” …. must coincide very closely indeed to Thutmose III’s First Campaign in his Year 22-23, the very military campaign that Dr. I. Velikovsky had identified with the biblical one (Ages in Chaos, I, 1952). Since I have fully accepted Dr. Velikovsky’s identification of Thutmose III as the biblical “Shishak king of Egypt”, I therefore have something of a vested interest in his estimation that the pharaoh’s First Campaign was the biblical episode. Chronologically, in my revised scheme (Senenmut-Solomon factor), it fits like a glove. But what about geographically? Well, that has turned out to be a monumental challenge. We are going to be looking at four differing geographies for pharaoh Thutmose III’s First Campaign, the last three of these will be revised views. I refer to these four: • The conventional account of it; • Dr. I. Velikovsky’s account of it; • Dr. E. Danelius’s account of it; • My own view. A. The Conventional view Apart from its being dated approximately half a millennium too early on the time scale (c. 1460 BC instead of c. 920 BC), the conventional estimation of the geography of at least the early stage of the First Campaign of Thutmose III does not accord at all with the Egyptian description of it topographically speaking. All reconstructions (whether conventional or revised) are in agreement that the Egyptian army first marched to the city of Gaza. Wikipedia briefly tells of how the conventional version of the campaign runs in its article, “Thutmose III”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III#:~:text=First%20Campaign,-Thutmose%20III%20smiting&text=Thutmose%20marched%20his%20troops%20through,battle%20of%20Thutmose's%2017%20campaigns. First Campaign When Hatshepsut died on the 10th day of the sixth month of Thutmose III's 21st year, according to information from a single stela from Armant, the king of Kadesh advanced his army to Megiddo.[23] Thutmose III mustered his own army and departed Egypt, passing through the border fortress of Tjaru (Sile) on the 25th day of the eighth month. Thutmose marched his troops through the coastal plain as far as Jamnia, then inland to Yehem, a small city near Megiddo, which he reached in the middle of the ninth month of the same year.[24] The ensuing Battle of Megiddo probably was the largest battle of Thutmose's 17 campaigns. A ridge of mountains jutting inland from Mount Carmel stood between Thutmose and Megiddo and he had three potential routes to take.[25] The northern route and the southern route, both of which went around the mountain, were judged by his council of war to be the safest, but Thutmose, in an act of great bravery (or so he boasts, but such self-praise is normal in Egyptian texts), accused the council of cowardice and took a dangerous route[26] through the Aruna mountain pass, which he alleged was only wide enough for the army to pass "horse after horse and man after man."[24] Despite the laudatory nature of Thutmose's annals, such a pass does indeed exist, although not as narrow as Thutmose indicates,[27] and taking it was a brilliant strategic move since when his army emerged from the pass they were situated on the plain of Esdraelon, directly between the rear of the Canaanite forces and Megiddo itself.[25] For some reason, the Canaanite forces did not attack him as his army emerged,[26] and his army routed them decisively.[25] The size of the two forces is difficult to determine, but if, as Redford suggests, the amount of time it took to move the army through the pass may be used to determine the size of the Egyptian force, and if the number of sheep and goats captured may be used to determine the size of the Canaanite force, then both armies were around 10,000 men.[28] Most scholars believe that the Egyptian army was more numerous.[citation needed] According to Thutmose III's Hall of Annals in the Temple of Amun at Karnak, the battle occurred on "Year 23, I Shemu [day] 21, the exact day of the feast of the new moon",[29] a lunar date. This date corresponds to 9 May 1457 BC based on Thutmose III's accession in 1479 BC. After victory in battle, his troops stopped to plunder the enemy and the enemy was able to escape into Megiddo.[30] Thutmose was forced to besiege the city, but he finally succeeded in conquering it after a siege of seven or eight months (see Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC)).[30] This campaign drastically changed the political situation in the ancient Near East. By taking Megiddo, Thutmose gained control of all of northern Canaan and the Syrian princes were obligated to send tribute and their own sons as hostages to Egypt.[31] Beyond the Euphrates, the Assyrian, Babylonian and Hittite kings all gave Thutmose gifts, which he alleged to be "tribute" when he recorded it on the walls of Karnak.[32] The only noticeable absence is Mitanni, which would bear the brunt of the following Egyptian campaigns into Western Asia. [End of quote] From Gaza [Egyptian G3-d3-tw], to Yehem [Egyptian Y-hm], via a narrow defile, Aruna [Egyptian '3-rw-n3], to Megiddo [Egyptian My-k-ty]. So it goes. Then the pharaoh will go on to invade Syria, and, ultimately, on to Syrian Kadesh [Egyptian Kd-sw]. This conventional reconstruction of the campaign, if correct, would absolutely shatter any consideration that this could have been the biblical episode involving Jerusalem and the pharaoh “Shishak”. Prior to Megiddo, the route almost entirely hugs the coast. At least it does not go anywhere near inland Jerusalem. Thankfully, the conventional effort can be shown to be hopelessly inadequate as to its reconstruction of the early part of the campaign. Dr. Eva Danelius has shattered it - and indeed a crucial part of Velikovsky’s reconstruction as well - in her brilliant article, “Did Thutmose III Despoil the Temple in Jerusalem? A Critical Commentary to Chapter IV of "Ages in Chaos" (SIS Review, v2, No.3, 1977/78). While her main achievement here is on the level of topography, her comments about some key name identifications are also most telling. Writing of the infamous Aruna road, for instance, Dr. Danelius tells how the conventional identification of the location by no means fits the actual name: Breasted identified this defile, the road called "Aruna" in Egyptian records, with the Wadi 'Ara which connects the Palestine maritime plain with the Valley of Esdraelon (4). It was this identification which aroused my curiosity, and my doubt. …. As an afterthought, [Harold] Nelson warns not to be deceived by the Arabic name (wadi) 'Ara: "Etymologically, it seems hardly possible to equate (Egyptian) 'Aruna with (Arab) 'Ar'arah." (51). But Eva Danelius had a problem far more serious with the conventional identification of the Aruna road than this one of etymology - one which really had ‘aroused her doubt’. Thus she explains: If it is true that "the geography of a country determines the course of its wars" (44), the frightful defile, and attempts at its crossing by conquering armies, should have been reported in books of Biblical and/or post-Biblical history. There is no mention of either. Nor has the Wadi 'Ara pass ever been considered to be secret, or dangerous. "From the Plain of Sharon to Jordan. This line... ascends by the broad and open valley Wâdy 'Ârah, crossing the watershed at Ain Ibrahim, which is about 1200 feet above the sea. Thence the road descends, falling some 700 feet in 3 miles to Lejjûn, where it bifurcates... This line, which appears to be ancient, is of great importance, being one of the easiest across the country, owing to the open character of Wâdy 'Ârah." This was written 100 years ago, by C. R. Conder (45), long before a modern highway was laid through. Conder's view is shared by later writers: "Most armies coming north over Sharon. .. would cut across the... hills by the easy passes which issue on Esdraelon at Megiddo and elsewhere." - thus, a famous historian and geographer (46). The last army which actually crossed by this pass on its way from the south was the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under General Allenby, in September 1918. General Wavell evaluates the difficulties of the crossing when discussing the operational plan for the final onslaught: "There was no obstacle to rapid movement along either the Plain of Sharon or Plain of Esdraelon. The crux of the ride would be the passage of the mountain belt which divides these two plains... the width of this obstacle is about seven miles. Two routes lead across it from Sharon, of which... the eastern debouches into Esdraelon at El Lejjûn or Megiddo... Neither road presents any physical difficulties for a mounted force. On the other hand, either is easy of defence and would be hard to force against opposition." On September19th, 1918, a brigade with armoured cars was sent ahead to seize the defile leading to El Lejjûn. It was undefended, and on the following night "the 4th Cavalry Division passed the Musmus Defile (Wadi 'Ara pass) during the night, after some delay due to a loss of direction by the leading brigade, and reached the plain at El Lejjûn by dawn." (47) During the same years in which Breasted wrote his reconstruction of the campaign, a German team under Schuhmacher started to excavate Tell el-Mutesellim. The excavation was carried out during the years 1903 to 1905. Unfortunately, "At the spot excavated by Schuhmacher, absolutely nothing has been found which could provide any further information" (concerning identification of the mound with that besieged, and conquered, by Thutmose III), states the report (48). Schuhmacher's excavation was much too limited to permit final judgement. Breasted, quite rightly, refused to give up so easily. He wanted scientific proof for his identification, and suggested to one of his students, Harold H. Nelson, that he dedicate his doctoral thesis to the problem. Nelson was not given freedom to look for the frightening defile among the mountains of Palestine; Breasted confined him to a specific region: "This study is confined almost entirely to an effort to interpret the Annals of Thutmose III in the light of the geography of the environs of Megiddo," explains Nelson in his preface (49). In other words, the "scientific investigation" had to verify a foregone conclusion of Breasted - it was "prove or perish" for the unhappy young man. For the sensitive reader, the resulting dissertation is a moving testimony of an intelligent and honest young student who tried desperately to harmonise the theory of his venerated teacher with the observations made on the spot, which simply did not fit. Nelson travelled through the Wadi 'Ara pass in 1909, and again in 1912. He described it in detail: '...the road enters the Wady 'Ara which is there... flat and open... All the way to a quarter of a mile above 'Ar'arah the valley is wide and level and cultivated up the slopes on either side... the ascent is so gradual as to be scarcely perceptible and it is possible to drive a carriage as far as the top of the pass." The road follows an ancient Roman road which descends along a smaller way. "This latter gradually contracts as it proceeds till about half a mile above the mouth of the valley, it reaches its narrowest point, being not more than 10 yards wide. A little further on the road... opening out rapidly to a couple of 100 yards, emerges upon the plain of Lejjûn." Nelson comes to the conclusion that: "Of course such a road could be easily defended by a comparatively small number of men, but, on the other hand, an invading army could readily keep possession of the hills on either hand which are neither steep nor high above the valley... a watcher posted on the hill above Lejjûn could descry an approaching army at least a mile above the mouth of the pass." (50) …. Neither the physical appearance of the road as described by Nelson, nor its use as an international highway justify its identification with a road described as "inaccessible", "secret" or "mysterious" in the Egyptian records. [End of quotes] This telling estimation by Dr. Danelius has stuck with me even as I have vacillated over the years from one viewpoint to another about the actual route of the First Campaign, at one stage even dropping Velikovsky’s view that it was the “Shishak” episode and so looking for a more appropriate campaign by Thutmose III. Eventually, though, I would have to find a solution that was in topographical harmony with the Egyptian account. Dr. Danelius was also critical of the conventional interpretation of the place named in the Egyptian Annals as Y-hm. Though I never considered her alternative explanation of it as Yamnia (Yavne) to be very convincing either, and wondered if a better solution for Y-hm was possible. More recently, I have come to the conclusion that Y-hm is the key to the entire situation. That Y-hm refers to Jerusalem! This is what Dr. Danelius herself had to say about this Y-hm: Let us stop here and survey the situation. To recapitulate: the one undisputed place reached by the Egyptian army was Gaza. From there on, every "identification" has been pure guesswork. This is especially true for the "identification" of Y-hm, which was supposed to have been near the entrance to Wadi 'Ara (and identified, eventually, with Jemma, a nearby Arab village). In order to reach this place, the army which had just crossed the Sinai desert would have continued marching for 10 days, covering about 90 English miles (89). So far Breasted, and his followers to this day. Experience has shown that an army which includes cavalry and chariots drawn by horses cannot progress that quickly in a country where drinking water is in short supply during the dry season, May to November. It seems that neither Breasted nor any of his followers has given any thought to this vital question, not to mention other problems of logistics. In this respect, the dispatches sent by General Allenby to the Secretary of State for War during the advance of the Forces in the Philistine Plain are a veritable eye-opener. Gaza had fallen on November 7th 1917. Two days later: "By the 9th, the problem became one of supply... the question of water and forage was a very difficult one. Even where water was found in sufficient quantities, it was usually in wells and not on the surface, and consequently... the process of watering a large quantity of animals was slow and difficult," writes Allenby (90). The very next day, November 10th: "The hot wind is an additional trial, particularly to the cavalry already suffering from water-shortage." (This was near Ashdod, in the Philistine Plain.) "Owing to the exhaustion of their horses on account of the lack of water", two mounted brigades "had to be withdrawn into reserve" on November 11th. There is no reason to suppose that nature was kinder to Thutmose's troops in May, the month with the greatest number of days with the destructive hot wind blowing from the desert. than to the Allied troops in November. Allenby's advance, too, was considerably slower than that demanded in Breasted's calendar for the advance of the Pharaoh's army: the Allied left wing covered only 40 miles in 15 days along the plain (91), while Breasted suggested 80-90 miles in 10-11 days. These observations may justify a totally different interpretation of the events during the 10 or 11 days from the day Thutmose left Gaza to the council of war at Y-hm. According to the unanimous understanding of Egyptologists, the text of the Annals leaves no doubt that the entrance into Gaza was a peaceful one. There is no hint of any resistance by the inhabitants. Gaza, in the10th century BC, was the seat of one of the five Philistine kings (92). The peaceful entry and exit of the Pharaoh and his army justifies the assumption that the Egyptians found themselves in a friendly country. War preparations by the Pharaoh, most probably, were not confined to the purely military side; they should have included political discussions with the countries bordering the Judaean Kingdom: Edom, Philistia and the newly created Kingdom of Israel. Among these, the Philistine Plain would be the ideal base for an army considering the conquest of Judah and Jerusalem. For the following, it is assumed that the Egyptians were in the position to use it as such (93). The place named immediately after Gaza is Y-hm. Petrie suggested an identification with the modern Arab village Yemma, south-west of the Carmel ridge, an identification that is "little more than guesswork" according to Nelson (94). If an eminent Egyptologist like Petrie thought an equation Y-hm = Yemma possible, it may be permitted to see in Y-hm the Egyptian equivalent of Yamnia (Yabne in Hebrew), a port about 40 km north of Gaza. Today, Yamnia/Yabne lies about 7 km inland from the Mediterranean, from which it is separated by a broad belt of sand dunes. The plain around it is strewn with the remnants of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements, among them a harbour town at the mouth of a little river which bypasses the city. Needless to say, possession of a harbour would facilitate the problem of supply and help considerably in its solution. It is suggested to see in Yamnia the location of the campaign base and council of war described in the Annals (95). [End of quotes] For conventional history, any reconstruction of pharaoh Thutmose III is going to be out by some 500 years. That, for one, negates any possibility of his being the biblical “Shishak king of Egypt”, and it also negates any of his many campaigns as being the famous biblical attack on Jerusalem. Apart from some flawed name connections, especially the hopeless equation of the Egyptian Aruna (most crucial in any reconstruction of the event) with Wadi ‘Ara (Arab) ‘Ar‘arah, the conventional site for Aruna, Wadi ‘Ara, cannot possibly be associated topographically with the notorious road as described with such dread by the Egyptian soldiery. And this, despite Wikipedia’s hopeful “… such a pass does indeed exist, although not as narrow as Thutmose indicates”. B. The Campaign as Dr. Velikovsky explained it Most ironic that Dr. Velikovsky, to whom we must be forever grateful for his having courageously revised Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt on a massive scale, would contribute nothing really worthwhile regarding the route taken by pharaoh Thutmose III, the biblical “Shishak”, in his First Campaign, the one that Velikovsky had correctly identified as the biblical episode. For once we find Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky following the conventional view for the early part of Thutmose III’s First Campaign, and thus getting things quite wrong – as according to what we learned previously of the conventional interpretation. Dr. Velikovsky had accepted professor Breasted’s view that Megiddo was the Mk-t-y of the Egyptian Annals, and that Thutmose III and his troops had followed the coastal route from Gaza to Megiddo. That immediately runs into the serious problem of topographical dissimilarity as pointed out above. When confronted with Dr. Eva Danelius’s criticism of it, Velikovsky came with this reply that I consider to be weak, no better really than Wikipedia’s: “… such a pass does indeed exist, although not as narrow as Thutmose indicates”. And so Velikovsky wrote (“A Response to Eva Danelius”, SIS Review, Vol. II No. 3 Special Issue 1977/78, p. 80): Now as to the approach to Megiddo being a narrow pass - by what it is now, it cannot be judged what it was almost three thousand years ago. There could have been artificial mound-fortifications the length of the pass. Think, for instance, of Tyre of the time of Shalmaneser III or Nebuchadnezzar (who besieged it for 13 years), or even of the days of Alexander, when it withstood a protracted siege. Today its topography is completely changed. Neither of these comments (Wikipedia, Dr. Velikovsky) does justice to the frightening description of the Aruna Road as we find in the Egyptian campaign record. Having started badly on this one, Dr. Velikovsky then became more typically interesting and controversial. Instead of the Egyptian campaign now heading into Syria, as according to professor Breasted and the conventional view, Velikovsky has it suddenly wheeling back in dramatic fashion, southwards to Kadesh - obviously not the Syrian Kadesh, but Jerusalem itself (Kadesh = the “Holy”) according to Velikovsky. The Egyptians are now supposedly in pursuit of the fleeing King of Kadesh, Rehoboam, son of Solomon, heading for sanctuary in his capital city of Jerusalem. Exciting stuff, but pure fantasy! From Megiddo, the Egyptian army was actually on its way northwards towards Syria, as Creationist Patrick Clarke has clearly demonstrated in his article: Was Jerusalem the Kadesh of Thutmose III’s 1st Asiatic campaign?—topographic and petrographic evidence (4) Was Jerusalem the Kadesh of Thutmose III’s 1st Asiatic campaign—topographic and petrographic evidence | Patrick Clarke - Academia.edu It seems that Dr. Velikovsky - a bit like with that song by The Who, “north side of my town faced east and the east was facing south” - had the Egyptian army heading north while it was still located in the south, and then lurching southwards when it was really heading for the north. Most ironic that Dr. Velikovsky, to whom we must be forever grateful for his having courageously revised Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt on a massive scale, would contribute nothing really worthwhile regarding the route taken by pharaoh Thutmose III, the biblical Shishak, in his First Campaign, the one that Velikovsky had correctly identified as the biblical episode. C. The Campaign as Dr. Danelius explained it After my initial, rather uncritical, acceptance of Dr. Velikovsky’s reconstruction in the early days, I became quite enamoured with Dr. Eva Danelius’s version (“Did Thutmose III Despoil the Temple in Jerusalem?”), which pointed out problems of which I had been blissfully unaware, and, seemingly, solved the major ones of these. Whilst I no longer accept her thesis as a whole, Dr. Danelius’s vitally important contribution in the area of topography, and her connection of Aruna with the biblical Araunah the Jebusite, hence Jerusalem, remained with me. I believe that this element is necessary for a proper resolution of the whole matter. Instead of having the Egyptian army march almost immediately from Gaza towards Megiddo, but via the broad coastal road (which cannot be correct), Dr Danelius has it marching a far shorter distance northwards to connect with the Beth-horon road that leads back into Jerusalem. This is far more promising than the previous attempts, given that Jerusalem is in sight from the start, and that the Beth-horon road was notorious for its steepness and narrowness. It is this road, Beth-horon, that Dr. Eva Danelius will identify as the unpalatable Aruna road of the Egyptian Annals. Whereas Dr. Velikovsky had tried to identify Jerusalem as Kadesh, but wrongly, now Dr. Danelius will hopefully identify Jerusalem as Mk-t-y, again wrongly. She appears to have based her interpretation of Mk-t-y here on somewhat late names for the capital city: Among the names enumerated as designating Jerusalem is Bait-al-Makdis, or in brief, Makdis, corresponding to Beithha-Miqdash in modern Hebrew pronunciation. The10th century Arab writer who mentions this name calls himself Mukadassi = the Jerusalemite (102). The name Mâkdes was still used by the Samaritans (a Jewish sect who never left the country, who trace their ancestors to three of the northern tribes of Israel) at the beginning of this century, when discussing with Rabbi Moshe Gaster their attitude towards Jerusalem (103), and a local shop outside Damascus Gate still bears the inscription: Baith el-Makdis. But Mk-t-y, in its association in the Annals with Taanach (Egyptian T3-'3-n3-k3), is clearly Megiddo, as both professor Breasted and Dr. Velikovsky had accepted. Response to Eva Danelius: “Taanach is also next to Megiddo in the Bible (I Kings 4:12). Your equation of Taanach with the Tahhunah ridge does not strengthen your thesis”. Good try, though! What we can take from the thesis of Dr. Danelius - and it is not insignificant - is that the Aruna road really was a steep and forbidding road, and that it was near to Jerusalem. But do we need to go northwards from Gaza to get on to that road, only to have to double back after that? Or is there a more simple, Occam’s Razor, procedure? D. My own account of the Campaign But it seems that there are problems with every interpretation of the pharaoh’s route. Can pharaoh Thutmose III be saved as “Shishak”? The road to salvation is narrow and difficult to find (Matthew 7:14), and so has been the road to identifying, historically, the biblical “Shishak king of Egypt” (2 Kings 14:25). Thutmose III, the mightiest Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh, had once opted for a ‘redemption’ type of road, one narrow and most difficult to negotiate. And his military scribe, Tjaneni, marked down this road using the name ‘3-rw-n3 (Aruna). This road’s true identification has been missed by historians, conventional and revisionist alike. I say this because those on both sides who have accepted the typical identification of the Aruna road as the Wãdy ‘Ârah opening out towards Taanach and Megiddo have not been able to explain at all satisfactorily why the Wãdy ‘Ârah’s topography is nothing like that as described in pharaoh Thutmose III’s campaign Annals. Sir Henry Breasted’s prize doctoral student, Harold H. Nelson, had demonstrated beyond all doubt in his thesis, The Battle of Megiddo (1913), that the relatively gentle topography in that northern region did not accord at all with the terrifyingly narrow and steep road described by the Egyptians, that ‘enters into narrowness’ and where ‘horse will have to go after horse’. (References to Harold H. Nelson have been taken from Dr. Eva Danelius’s “Did Thutmose III Despoil the Temple in Jerusalem?”, SIS Review, Vol. 2 No. 3, 1977/78). Nor did the name ‘Ârah accord well linguistically with Aruna, as Nelson had rightly observed: “Etymologically, it seems hardly possible to equate (Egyptian) ‘Aruna with (Arab) ‘Ar‘arah”. And, while the young man succeeded in passing his doctorate to the professor’s satisfaction, Nelson later dissociated himself completely from its conclusions. One ought to read Dr. Danelius’s poignant account in her article of Harold H. Nelson and the fate of his doctoral thesis. Dr. Eva Danelius herself was the researcher to have come closest to identifying the Aruna road. According to her, it must have been the narrow Beth-horon pass leading up to the site of Araunah (hence Aruna) the Jebusite, which became the City of David (Zion), Jerusalem. Against the conventional view that Thutmose III’s Mk-t-y was Megiddo, Dr. Danelius would argue, instead, that Mk-t-y was a name for Jerusalem, (Bait-al-) Makdis. and she believed that the Kd-šw of the Egyptian Annals was, not Kadesh in Syria, but the land of “Har Kodsho”, “The Holy Mount”. But it seems that there are problems with every interpretation of the pharaoh’s route. The road chosen by Danelius, for instance, does not go anywhere near Taanach and Megiddo, whose coupling in the Egyptian Annals (with Taanach perfectly transliterated in the Egyptian, T3-‘3-n3-k3) leaves it beyond question that the pharaonic army was bound for the strong fort of Megiddo. Dr. Velikovsky had fully accepted the conventional interpretation here, that pharaoh Thutmose III’s Mk-t-y was Megiddo - but with a twist. Pharaoh, after conquering Megiddo, Velikovsky wrote (Ages in Chaos, I, 1952), had headed southwards in pursuit of Rehoboam, “King of Kd-šw” (Kadesh = ‘the Holy’), that is, Jerusalem. To explain the conventional estimation of the rugged Aruna road to Megiddo, against Dr. Danelius’s very strong topographical argument, Dr. Velikovsky would suggest in his response to her that topography can change markedly over time: “Now as to the approach to Megiddo being a narrow pass – by what it is now, it cannot be judged what it was almost three thousand years ago. There could have been artificial mound-fortifications the length of the pass” (“A Response to Eva Danelius by Immanuel Velikovsky”, SIS Review, Vol. 2 No. 3, 1977/78). That, I find, to be no more compelling a view than was Dr. Danelius’s effort to account for the Egyptian T3-‘3-n3-k3 somewhere in the region of Jerusalem. Velikovsky again (loc. cit.): “Your equation of Taanach with the Tahhunah ridge does not strengthen your thesis”. The conventional view is that the pharaoh, having arrived at Gaza (G3-d3-tw), continued on by a coastal route, ultimately via the Wãdy ‘Ârah, to Megiddo. After that he moved on further northwards, to conquer the troublesome city of Kadesh on the Orontes in Syria. The progression from Megiddo to a northern Kadesh does appear to accord properly with the geography of the Egyptian campaign. On this, see Patrick J. Clarke’s account in his article, “Was Jerusalem the Kadesh of Thutmose III’s 1st Asiatic campaign? – topographic and petrographic evidence” (Journal of Creation, Vol. 23, Issue 3, December 2011, pp. 48-55). The standard identifications of Gaza, Taanach and Megiddo, and Kadesh on the Orontes, seem to me now to be quite secure. Aruna as the Wãdy ‘Ârah, however, does not! And there is in the Egyptian account another little considered location, a town, or city, Yehem (Egyptian Y-hm), whose identification by convention I find to be not the least bit convincing. “Thutmose marched his troops through the coastal pain as far as Jamnia, then inland to Yehem, a small city near Megiddo …”. The typical view expressed here is just a guess. Where, if anywhere, is Jerusalem in all of this? As the disciples on another road, to Emmaus, had lamented: ‘We were hoping …’ (Luke 24:21). And, indeed, those inspired by Dr. Velikovsky’s Ages in Chaos reconstructions have been hopeful that he had been able to pinpoint, in Thutmose III’s First Campaign, his Year 22-23, his immediate march on the glorious City of Jerusalem. Would it not make perfect sense that the mighty pharaoh would firstly head straight for Jerusalem once he had begun his military campaigns into Syro-Palestine? But now we have the Kd-šw (Kadesh) necessarily cancelled out as a candidate for Jerusalem, it surely being Kadesh on the Orontes. As well as this, Mk-t-y is clearly Megiddo, and not Jerusalem. So what is there left to us? As it now seems to me, Dr. Danelius’s Araunah for the Aruna road can be salvaged – though not as to its precise geography. And also her view regarding the road’s most difficult topography can be maintained, but, once again, with geographical modifications. Let us briefly reconstruct anew this part of Thutmose III’s campaign. From Gaza, the pharaoh will do exactly what pharaoh Shoshenq I (conventionally, but wrongly, identified as the biblical “Shishak”) will do in a later period, swing across towards Jerusalem. In the case of Shoshenq I, though, he did not actually go to Jerusalem, but to Gibeon (modern al-Jīb), about six miles NW of Jerusalem. (For a handy map of Shoshenq I’s campaign, see p. 41 of SIS Review, Vol. VIII, 1986). Pharaoh Thutmose III will make as his first place of call after Gaza a town not given great consideration by historians, and hopelessly identified by them: namely, Y-hm. This Y-hm was, as I now believe it must be, a shortened version of Jerusalem (Y-erusa-hm), keeping in mind ancient Egyptian’s reluctant use of ‘l’ (actually missing in their alphabet). Y-hm, or as the Annals put it, “Yehem near Aruna”, was obviously an important halting place, where the Egyptian army dallied, organised supplies, and held a conference about how further to proceed. We read an account of it, for instance, as “Yaham”, in The Battle of Megiddo by Jimmy Dunn (aka Troy Fox: www.touregypt.net): [From Gaza the Egyptian army] reached Yaham eleven days later in mid May. Perhaps this [now slower rate of march] indicates fatigue, or simply caution as they travelled through territory that could be considered potentially or actually hostile. In fact, along the way Tuthmosis III detached units commanded by general Djehuty in order to place the stronghold of Jaffa under siege so that his line of communication and possible retreat could be protected, an indication that the Canaanite alliance was significant within southern Canaan. Three possible roads from Yehem to Megiddo lay open to the Egyptians, two of which were relatively easy to negotiate (like the conventionally chosen way through the Wãdy ‘Ârah). One nearby road, however, was a most difficult one, prompting the pharaoh’s officers to question: “Will the vanguard of us be fighting while the rear is waiting here in Aruna unable to fight?” They then provided the alternative suggestions “Now, two other roads are here, one of the roads – behold it is to the east of us, so that it comes out at Taanach. The other – behold, it is to the north side of Djefti, and we will come out to the north of Megiddo”. The Aruna road, the most difficult, but most direct, was the one that the brilliant pharaoh chose, for a surprise assault upon Megiddo. Jimmy Dunn writes regarding pharaoh’s tactic (op. cit.): … the Aruna road was through a narrow and difficult pass over a ridge that was presumed (particularly for the enemy coalition) to be too difficult for any army to use. Taking that route meant that ‘horse must follow horse, and man after man’…. Also, many modern commentators, and perhaps the Canaanite coalition as well, seem to forget the major virtues of the Egyptian Chariots. They were light vehicles, and it was certainly conceivable that many could be carried through the pass, while the horses were led separately …. The pass was named from its beginning at Araunah, near king Rehoboam’s capital, Jerusalem, “Yehem near Aruna”. Dr. Danelius had got the name right, but she had the Egyptian military negotiating it the wrong way around, with Araunah as its destination point, rather than its being their starting point. This road is variously known to us today as the Way of the Patriarchs, the Hill Road, or the Ridge Route, since it included, as we read, “a narrow and difficult pass over a ridge”. It was not a proper road, even as late as the time of Jesus, not one of the international highways then to be found in Palestine. This would have been a most tricky road, indeed, to negotiate, especially for an army that greatly relied upon its chariots. From Gaza (as all agree), pharaoh marched to Jerusalem (Dr. Danelius got the sequence right, but mis-identified Jerusalem), and then by the narrow Aruna road (Dr. Danelius got the name right only, not the direction) on to Megiddo (as per the conventional view and Velikovsky), and then on to Syrian Kadesh (as per the conventional view and Patrick J. Clarke).

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

King Hammurabi in need of some big explanations

by Damien F. Mackey Now, this was more like it – at last, a firmer base for King Hammurabi of Babylon as a younger contemporary of kings David and Hadadezer, and thus situated in c. C10th BC (about 1450 years later than Hammurabi’s first placement in c. 2400 BC). This was the biblical link for which Dr. Courville had been searching. (i) To which Era does Hammurabi belong? This question already presents us with a significant problem. The chronology of King Hammurabi has been shifted about to such an extent that revisionist scholar Dr. Donovan Courville had described the king as “floating about in a liquid chronology of Chaldea” (The Exodus Problem and its Ramifications, 1971). Starting at c. 2400 BC, historians have shifted Hammurabi about, now finally settling his reign (at least for now) at c. 1792 to c. 1750 BC. Dr. Courville, however, looking to establish the era of Hammurabi solidly with the assistance of a biblical synchronism, hit on the time of Joshua for Hammurabi, and consequently lowered him by some three centuries, to c. 1450 BC. This was based on the fact that Hammurabi was a known (from the Mari Letters) contemporary of a King Jabin of Hazor. And was not Jabin of Hazor a contemporary and foe of Joshua? (Joshua 11:1-12). Indeed, a Jabin king of Hazor was a contemporary of Joshua. The trouble is, though, that Jabin was apparently a generic name for rulers of Hazor, and there was another one of them some years later, during the Judgeship of the prophetess Deborah (Judges 4:2-24). In his ground-breaking article, “The Dating of Hammurabi” (C&AH Proc. 3rd Seminar of Catastrophism and Ancient History, Uni. of Toronto, 1986), Dean G. A. Hickman finally managed to fasten a definitive chronological anchor to King Hammurabi, to save him any more from “floating about”. Hammurabi’s older contemporary was the mighty Shamsi-Adad I of Syro-Assyria. The latter was the Syrian, Hadadezer, against whom King David would vigorously fight (2 Samuel 8:3-12). Shamsi-Adad I’s father, Uru-kabkabu (or Ilu-kabkabu), was Hadadezer’s father, Rekhob (or Rehob) (8:3). Thus, Urukab-kabu = Rekhob. Now, this was more like it – at last, a firmer base for King Hammurabi of Babylon as a younger contemporary of kings David and Hadadezer, and thus situated in c. C10th BC (about 1450 years later than Hammurabi’s first placement in c. 2400 BC). This was the biblical link for which Dr. Courville had been searching. But the Jabin of Hazor of the Mari Letters was not the one at the time of Joshua, nor was he the one at the time of Deborah. He was a third Jabin, one contemporaneous with kings David and Solomon. Hickman’s thesis, of course, would need a fuller development. Developing this new history I have since identified the powerful Amorite ship-building merchant-king of the time, Iarim-Lim, as King Hiram, ally of David and Solomon. And I have identified Zimri-Lim of Mari as King Solomon’s persistent foe, Rezin, whose father, Eliada, fits very well name-wise with Zimri-lim’s father, Iahdu-Lim. An inverted Zimri is not unlike Rezin (Zimri, Rizim). Thanks to this handful of synchronisms, I am convinced that Dean Hickman was the one to solve the problem of the era of King Hammurabi. (In iv, I shall be adding some other most important biblical characters to this list). The conventional chronology has set Hammurabi a whopping eight centuries too early. And Dr. Courville, despite his good intentions, had set Hammurabi about half a millennium too early. This has vitiated some of Dr. Courville’s fine work of revision, and that of those who have followed him, such as his fellow conservative Christian scholars, Drs. David Down and John Osgood. Conclusion: King Hammurabi was a contemporary of King Solomon of Israel. (ii) Ethnicity of King Hammurabi This, again, may come as something of a surprise. Hammurabi, reputedly the King of Babylon, was not a native Babylonian. Ethnically, he was a western Semite. This is apparent from what Hammurabi calls himself, “King of the Amorites”: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Amorites “One stele of Hammurabi has been found as far north as Diyarbekir, where he claims the title "King of the Amorites".” Articles about Hammurabi tell us the same thing. His dynasty was “Amorite”: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hammurabi “Hammurabi, also spelled Hammurapi … sixth and best-known ruler of the 1st (Amorite) dynasty of Babylon …”. Herbert A. Storck has drawn some conclusive connections between the Hammurabic Dynasty and the Amorite family of Abraham-Early Assyrians in his important article, “The Early Assyrian King List, The Genealogy of the Hammurapi Dynasty and the “Greater Amorite” Tradition” (C&AH, 1986). Hammurabi and his dynasty were not native Babylonians, as one might have imagined, but were Semitic Amorites. (iii) The name, “Hammurabi” The earlier romantic notion that Hammurabi was to be identified with the biblical “Amraphel king of Shinar” at the time of Abram (Genesis 14:1) is no longer well supported. Thus we read, for instance:  The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia also states, “There would therefore appear to be no sound reason for maintaining that Amraphel can be identified with Hammurabi, particularly as such a procedure is unsubstantiated by Mesopotamian archeology and history. If Hammurabi were really Amraphel, it is difficult to see why he should be occupying a subordinate position to that of Chedorlaomer, unless Hammurabi happened to be a crown prince at the time. But here it has to be recognized that the Palestinian expedition itself has not been discovered to date among the recorded campaigns of Hammurabi [sic]. The identity of Amraphel king of Shinar must therefore remain uncertain for the moment.”  The New Bible Dictionary states, “The equation with Hammurapi is unlikely.”  Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary states, “While some have tried to identify Amraphel with Hammurabi, founder of the first Babylonian dynasty, all efforts to identify him or pinpoint the location of Shinar have failed.”  The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary states of Amraphel, “formerly generally identified with Hammurabi the Great of the First Dynasty of Babylon (c. 1728-1689). This Amraphel-Hammurabi equation always was difficult linguistically but is now also disproved chronologically.” According to what was determined above in (i), following Dean Hickman, an identification of Hammurabi with the biblical Amraphel is quite impossible on - apart from other considerations (name, geography, etc.) - chronological grounds. Roughly a full millennium would separate Amraphel, at the time of Abram, from Hammurabi, at the time of King Solomon. D. D. Luckenbill tells this of “The Name Hammurabi” (JAOS, Vol. 37 (1917), p. 251): “The name Hammurabi was explained by a late Assyrian scribe as equivalent to kimtu rapaštu (kim-ta ra-pa-aš-tum) 'the wide- spread people,' VR 44”. This meaning of the name, Hammurabi, is not entirely incompatible with the description of Abram’s new name, Abraham, “Father of Many Nations”. Moreover, I cannot help but see a similarity in the names Abraham and Hammurabi. At least one writer has made such a comparison: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1701&context=ocj “Why should Hamu-Rabi be confused with the Biblical Amraphel? Each name has four consonants, yet only two in common. It seems to me that it would be easier to identify Hamu-Rabi with Abraham, since their four consonants are the same. Ibra-Hamu is a paranomasism that is not difficult”. None of this, of course, is to suggest (on my part, at least) that Hammurabi was Abraham. New World Encyclopedia, again, has suggested that these (Hammurabic) Amorites had worshipped the God of Abraham, El Shaddai: https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Amorites “Amorites worshiped, among others, the moon-god Sin, and Amurru, from whom their name may be taken. Amurru is sometimes described as a shepherd and the son of the Mesopotamian sky-god Anu. He is called Bêl Šadê ('Lord of the mountain') and 'He who dwells on the pure mountain.' Accordingly, it has been suggested by some scholars that Amurru might be the closely related to the Biblical El Šaddāi, the heavenly mountain deity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. Given Herbert A. Storck’s connections between the Hammurabic Dynasty and the Amorite family of Abraham, name and worship similarities between these two entities, though vastly separated in time, would not be an impossibility. (iv) Geography of King Hammurabi’s era In (i) I listed such biblical characters who I (following Dean Hickman) believe appear in the mis-dated C18th BC conventional era of King Hammurabi. These were: Shamsi-Adad I = Hadadezer; Uru-Kabkabu = Rekhob; Iarim-Lim = Hiram; Zimri-Lim = Rezin; Iahdu-Lim = Eliada Unaccounted for here, most surprisingly, are both David and Solomon of Israel. I had this mighty pair uppermost in mind when I noted: “In iv, I shall be adding some most important other biblical characters to this list”. Since first compiling the above list of a handful of biblico-historical characters, and always with David and Solomon in mind, I have now some further identifications to add, and these concern David and Solomon. The two are too important to be left out. I had long wondered, for instance, if the contemporaneous Dadusha, of very Davidic name (Dadu), could be King David himself. The trouble was, Dadusha was a king of Eshnunna. And, try as I might, I could not see how Eshnunna, seemingly so firmly based in central Mesopotamia, could be shifted to Israel (Judah). We know that ‘faith can move mountains’ (Matthew 17:20-21), but nations …? This eventually led me into identifying Nimrod’s city Akkad, no longer in Sumer where it has never been found, as the port city of Ugarit on the Syrian Mediterranean coast. Dilmun, reputedly in the Bahrain region, I now identified as the famous port of Tyre: Ugarit (Egyptian IKAT =) Akkad; Dilmun (Greek TYLOS =) Tyre. The dominoes were falling, and I was eventually able to conclude, as well, that neither Lagash nor Eshnunna (the realm of Dadusha) were to be found in southern or central Mesopotamia. Lagash and Eshnunna were/was in fact the same mighty fort city of Lachish in Judah. As far back as 2007, I had already identified Lachish as Sargon II of Assyria’s “Ashdod” (cf. Isaiah 20:1), whilst the coastal Philistine city of Ashdod was distinguished by Sargon II as Ashdod-by-the-Sea (Ashdudimmu). Now, perfectly could be fitted together Lachish (Lagash) = Ashdod (Eshnunna). (A minor substitution of ‘n’ for ‘d’ will turn Ashdudda into Eshnunna/Ashnunna). Conclusions I have drawn from all of this: King David could be both Dadusha and Naram-Sin (a ‘Beloved’ name, like David) of Eshnunna, whose religious capital appears to have been Girsu, presumably Jerusalem. Dadusha’s son, Ibal-pi-el, would then, presumably, be King Solomon. I have also identified Solomon as the temple-building Gudea, of Lagash (= Lachish). This stripping from southern Mesopotamia of some of its most cherished (supposed) cities (e.g., Akkad; Lagash; Girsu; …) will have some huge ramifications for the future.

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

If you don’t have King David, you don’t have a lot of things

“This is Jerusalem, which we know best from the Bible [which] contains within it descriptions of genuine historical reality”. Eilat Mazar Taken from: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/july-august/excavate-archaeology-house-david-chronology-historical.html How Archaeology Affirmed the Historic Stature of a Biblical King Once, the House of David seemed like a folk tale. Now, the rocks testify to its historic significance. Gordon Govier|June 12, 2023 The Bible describes David as a man after God’s heart and a king who reigned for 40 years, firmly establishing the “city of David” and an Israelite kingdom that he passed to his son Solomon (1 Sam. 13:14; 1 Kings 2:10–12). In archaeologists’ minds, the record is not so clear. Some experts, looking at the evidence from excavations across modern-day Israel, have argued that the Bible greatly exaggerated David’s historical significance. Some have gone so far as to suggest David was a myth, a heroic fiction, and a nationalist folk tale. “We obviously have in David a figure built substantially of romance, legend and literary elaboration,” wrote British scholar Philip R. Davies. Danish scholar Niels Peter Lemche claimed “it is rather likely” that “the tales about him are as historical as the legends are about King Arthur.” But after decades of debate, new discoveries are affirming David’s historic stature. The expanded evidentiary record—from monumental inscriptions to the remnants of ancient construction—supports the biblical account. “We now have a completely different picture than we did 50 years ago,” said Michael Hasel, professor of Near Eastern studies and archaeology at Southern Adventist University, pointing to the mounting pile of archaeological evidence. The first breakthrough came in 1993 with the discovery of the Tel Dan Stele near the Syrian border. An inscription on a stone slab, written by an Aramean king celebrating a military victory, names the defeated kingdom the “House of David.” The stele dates to about 140 years after David’s death, making David the earliest biblical person named in the archaeological record and, by the standards of the field, an established historical person. Part of the challenge with establishing extrascriptural evidence for David is that he sits on a historical fault line. “He’s right on the cusp of where the Bible doesn’t have a lot of external sources to affirm persons and events and the period where we do have sources,” said Kyle Keimer, adjunct professor at Jerusalem University College and coeditor of the textbook The Ancient Israelite World. The Tel Dan Stele, however, firmly placed David on the “sourced” side. Mackey’s comment: It is “a historical fault line” only because of a faulty Sothic-based chronology, history and archaeology. If one is looking in the wrong place all the time, one will not find evidence for kings David and Solomon. A few years after the discovery, though, a fierce academic fight broke out in Israel over whether David really had an empire. Was the kingdom, the House of David, a real political and military force? Israel Finkelstein, a highly regarded Israeli archaeologist, said No, not really. In a landmark paper, he claimed David was not a significant monarch, but maybe a kind of warrior-chief. The kingdom known as the House of David happened later—and was really only a vassal state of the Omride kingdom in northern Israel. “Someone for whom the Bible represents the word of God views what I have to say with complete shock,” Finkelstein later told The New Yorker. “The description is of a glorious kingdom, a huge empire, authors in the king’s court, a huge army, military conquests—and then someone like me comes along and says, ‘Wait a minute. They were nothing but hillbillies.’” It wasn’t just commitment to the Bible that prompted scholarly objections to Finkelstein’s “low chronology” argument, though. His interpretation of evidence—and claims based on lack of evidence—raised a lot of questions. He also seemed to be making broad assumptions about what a 10th-century B.C. empire would look like. A monument known as the Tel Dan Stele boasts of defeating “the House of David." Keimer told CT the lack of monumental architecture dating to David’s rule turned out to be a straw man. It is easily knocked down by looking at what the Bible actually said about David’s kingdom, instead of using modern ideas about political power. “The ancient world has its own cultural milieu,” Keimer said. “Allowing the text to speak for itself puts us in tune with the political and social details we have preserved there.” In the era, monuments were only one way to express power. Kings also used relational and charismatic authority, showing their strength by getting people to obey them. Patrimonialism—the sort of power that might be exerted today by a mafia boss—doesn’t leave the same record, but that doesn’t mean it’s not powerful or not an empire. The biblical accounts of King David don’t emphasize his construction projects. They do highlight his relationships, which are why his son Absalom mounted an almost-successful coup—by undermining his relational authority. Absalom didn’t erect a stele; he “stole the hearts of the people” (2 Sam. 15:6). Keimer suggests that David’s kingdom might have stretched from Dan to Beersheba (24:2), while his influence could have been felt much farther away, even as far as Egypt or the Euphrates River. There would be less archaeological evidence of that kind of power. Erez Ben-Yosef, a professor at Tel Aviv University, has recently argued that there’s an architectural bias in biblical archaeology. He suggests that many more people than previously realized still lived in tents 3,000 years ago. “This is a society that is not building large cities,” said Dan Pioske, a theology professor at University of St. Thomas. “We have to watch our assumptions about what capital cities or kingdoms looked like.” Archaeologists have also found more evidence from this period that Jerusalem was significant, even if it didn’t have the monumental architecture to rival other kingdoms of that era. Pioske points to the Amarna Letters, a series of communications from various Canaanite cities to an Egyptian pharaoh, which describe Jerusalem as a city of some standing. “If you add up all of the little pieces—which you have to do because Jerusalem is an inhabited city and it’s not easy to do archaeology there—it’s actually a pretty impressive site,” he said. “We have lots of examples from antiquity where a small place has a large influence.” …. The late Eilat Mazar discovered the foundation walls of a large public building, which neatly corresponds with an account of a construction project mentioned in 2 Samuel 5:17. She was able to date it conclusively to the 10th century B.C. Mazar, who died in 2021, told CT she was not religious but was an effective archaeologist because she read the Bible as a historical document. “This is Jerusalem, which we know best from the Bible,” she said, which “contains within it descriptions of genuine historical reality.” Outside of Jerusalem, archaeologists have found more evidence that points to the power and influence of the early Israelite kings. Hasel, from Southern Adventist University, excavated a site called Khirbet Qeiyafa with Israeli archaeologists Yosef Garfinkel and Saar Ganor. Qeiyafa overlooks the Valley of Elah, where David confronted Goliath. The archaeologists discovered massive fortifications in their excavation, with walls built of several hundred thousand tons of stone. “This wasn’t somebody building a pen for their sheep at night,” Hasel said. “It gives us new data for the debate.” There’s no evidence that the structure was Canaanite or Philistine, so the best explanation is that it was built by the growing Israelite political power in the Judean hills. Hasel noted that in earlier years, arguments about David’s empire were typically based on excavations in northern Israel. Now that more sites are being excavated in the foothills between the Judean highlands and the coast, archaeologists are discovering artifacts that Finkelstein said shouldn’t exist. Hasel believes the results from Qeiyafa and two other sites where his team has worked have solidly reestablished the traditional “high chronology” and established an archaeological record for the significance of David. And it’s good to have him back. “If you don’t have David, you don’t have a lot of things,” Hasel said. David is mentioned around 1,000 times in the Bible. He’s credited as the author of 73 psalms. His history is tied with Jerusalem becoming Israel’s capital and the site of the temple. And through the line of David, the Messiah is promised. “Without David, that is all put into question,” Hasel said. “He is a very significant figure not only for Israel but for the history of Christianity and Judaism. They all draw their identity back to that one person.” ….

Friday, July 26, 2024

Samsuiluna emerges somewhat like Hammurabi all over again

by Damien F. Mackey “In the 9th year of Samsu-iluna's reign a man calling himself Rim-sin … and thought to perhaps be a nephew of the Rim-sin who opposed Hammurabi … raised a rebellion against Babylonian authority …”. Wikipedia As with the long-reigning Rim Sin, so-called I: Rim Sin of Larsa apparently influenced by Davidic culture (3) Rim Sin of Larsa apparently influenced by Davidic culture | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu depictions of Samsuiluna, supposed son-successor of Hammurabi the Great, are extremely hard – virtually impossible – to find. And that, notwithstanding that Samsuiluna is thought to have reigned for some 38 years: 1749 BC to 1712 BC (middle chronology), or from 1686 to 1648 BC (short chronology) These dates, of course, are hugely inflated, as Hammurabi himself actually belonged to the era of kings David and Solomon of Israel (c. 1000 BC). It often happens with the ancient king-lists that they contain duplications and even triplications, and I think that this may be an explanation for Hammurabi and Samsuiluna, a supposed Babylonian succession: Hammurabi (First major ruler)[28] c. 1792–1750 BC Son of Sin-Mubalit and Contemporary of Zimri-Lim of Mari, Siwe-palar-huppak of Elam and Shamshi-Adad I of Assyria Samsu-iluna c. 1750–1712 BC Son of Hammurabi Abi-eshuh or Abieshu c. 1712–1684 BC Son of Samsu-iluna Ammi-ditana c. 1684–1647 BC Son of Abi-eshuh Ammi-saduqa or Ammisaduqa c. 1647–1626 BC Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa Samsu-Ditana c. 1626–1595 BC Sack of Babylon by the Hittites. Samsuiluna (see depiction above, which is variously attributed to he and to Hammurabi) seems to me to be simply a Hammurabi redivivus. And Hammurabi, in turn, I have tentatively identified with Ur Nammu of the so-called Ur III dynasty: Ur Nammu as Hammurabi? (3) Ur Nammu as Hammurabi? | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu We read some useful things about “Samsu-iluna” in the article of this same name at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsu-iluna Samsu-iluna (Amorite: Shamshu-iluna, "The Sun (is) our god") (c. 1749–1712 BC) was the seventh king of the founding Amorite dynasty of Babylon. …. He was the son and successor of Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BC) by an unknown mother. His reign was marked by the violent uprisings of areas conquered by his father and the abandonment of several important cities (primarily in Sumer).[1]: 49–50  Mackey’s comment: When we fail to perceive duplications and alter egos in history we end with historical episodes repeating previous ones. I wrote about it in my university thesis (2007), in the case of an over-inflated neo-Assyrian succession: (Volume One, p. 144): …. Disturbing, too, is the following unprecedented situation at ‘Ashdod’ as viewed by Tadmor from the conventional angle: Ashdod was then organized [by Sargon] as an Assyrian province. Sennacherib however restored it to its former state as a tributary kingdom. .... Mitinti, the king of Ashdod, is mentioned in the Annals of Sennacherib .... There is no doubt, therefore, that at the time of the campaign of Judah (701) Ashdod had an autonomous king and not an Assyrian governor. The reorganization of Ashdod - from a province back to a vassaldom - has no precedent. .... in the time of Esarhaddon Ashdod was again turned into a province. All this topsy turvy supposedly in the space of a few decades! Wikipedia continues: Circumstances of Samsu-iluna's reign …. When Hammurabi rose to power in the city of Babylon, he controlled a small region directly around that city, and was surrounded by vastly more powerful opponents on all sides. Mackey’s comment: This cramped geography for King Hammurabi may no longer apply, if I am correct in my radically revised geography of Babylon: Babel, Babylon, Byblos (3) Babel, Babylon, Byblos | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Wikipedia continues: By the time he died, he had conquered Sumer, Eshnunna, Assyria and Mari making himself master of Mesopotamia. He had also significantly weakened and humiliated Elam and the Gutians.[1]: 49–50 [2]: 195–201  While defeated, however, these states were not destroyed; if Hammurabi had a plan for welding them to Babylon he did not live long enough to see it through. Within a few years after his death, Elam and Assyria had left from Babylon's orbit and revolutions had started in all the conquered territories. The task of dealing with these troubles—and others—fell to Samsu-iluna. Though he campaigned tirelessly and seems to have won frequently, the king proved unable to stop the empire's unwinding. Through it all, however, he did manage to keep the core of his kingdom intact, and this allowed the city of Babylon to cement its position in history. Mackey’s comment: Note that Samsuiluna managed to keep the basic Hammurabic kingdom intact. That’s because it was, so I believe, the very same kingdom. Wikipedia continues: …. In the 9th year of Samsu-iluna's reign a man calling himself Rim-sin (known in the literature as Rim-sin II, and thought to perhaps be a nephew of the Rim-sin who opposed Hammurabi) ….  raised a rebellion against Babylonian authority in Larsa which spread to include some 26 cities, among them Uruk, Ur, Isin and Kisurra in the south, and Eshnunna …  in the north. Mackey’s comment: Rim Sin I-II was likely just the one king who fought against Hammurabi-Samsuliuna, who I think was just the one king. The geography here is all wrong if I am correct in identifying Eshnunna (var. Ashnunnu) with the above-mentioned Ashdod (Ashduddu): As Ashduddu (Ashdod) is to Lachish, so, likewise, is Eshnunna to Lagash (3) As Ashduddu (Ashdod) is to Lachish, so, likewise, is Eshnunna to Lagash | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu Wikipedia continues: …. In the end, Samsu-iluna was left with a kingdom that was only fractionally larger than the one his father had started out with 50 years prior [sic] (but which did leave him mastery of the Euphrates up to and including the ruins of Mari and its dependencies).[4]: 115 [Note 4] The status of Eshnunna is difficult to determine with any accuracy ….

Thursday, July 25, 2024

Rim Sin of Larsa apparently influenced by Davidic culture

by Damien F. Mackey Where are all the depictions of the long-reigning Rim Sin so-called I? Amongst the kings of Larsa the most important would be considered to be Rim Sin, of which name there were supposedly two (I and II). Rim Sin so-called I is listed amongst the most powerful kings of his time: https://www.asor.org/anetoday/2017/01/mari-taste-diplomacy/ In Zimri-Lim’s days, one governor estimated that, “No king is truly powerful just on his own: 10 to 15 kings follow Hammurabi of Babylon, as many follow Rim- Sin of Larsa, as many follows Ibal-pi-El of Eshnunna, and as many follows Amut-pi-El of Qatna; but 20 kings follow Yarim-Lim of Yamḫad.” [FMA 82] (The writer took it for granted that Zimri-Lim belonged in that group.) Despite his obvious significance, though, and despite the fact that Rim Sin I of Larsa is considered to have reigned longer than any other king of his region, some 60 years, c. 1822 to 1763 BC (conventional dating), he receives relatively little attention, as we shall shortly learn. Nor have I, so far, written much at all about him. But, in this context, the question needs to be asked, as it needed to be asked about each of Cheops (only one little statue), and Djedkare (only one image), and Ashurnasirpal so-called II (only one known statue), and Nebuchednezzar (only at Wadi Brissa): Considering such a long reign length, why are there virtually no statuary or bas-relief depictions in the case of this particular potentate? Pharaoh Ramses II (66-67 years) had reigned for a few years more than Rim Sin I is supposed to have done, yet his statuary, as we well know, is everywhere, and it is huge. Where are all the depictions of the long-reigning Rim Sin so-called I? As with Cheops and company, I had determined that these names had all required supplementation with an alter ego of one (or more) for whom there were plenty of depictions of one type or another. Cheops, for example, whom I identified with Djedkare, would now become amalgamated with the well-publicised dynastic founder, Amenemhet (so-called) I; while Ashurnasirpal, to be identified with Nebuchednezzar, would now become amalgamated with the extremely well-publicised king, Ashurbanipal (of the same reign length as Nebuchednezzar: 43 years). But statuary is not all that is strangely missing from the long reign of Rim Sin I. His biography seems to be one of continuous enigma and confusion. Despite Marc Van de Mieroop writing of Rim Sin, as we shall read further on, that he was “… more important than his challenger Hammurabi …”, that same writer will actually tell of the records of the last half of Rim-Sin’s reign being virtually non-existent. Consequently, many historians must fall back on the ridiculous notion that Rim Sin, having overcome, but then ‘rested on his laurels’, doing not much for the remaining 30 years of his reign. “…. there is no consensus as to what happened after that event in 1794 …”. That suggestion becomes even more incredible when one considers the supposed geography of Rim Sin’s kingdom, hemmed in, as is thought, by other warring states. “The kingdom was surrounded by several independent and competing states”. A more satisfactory chronology-geography With the benefit now of a far superior (to the conventional) chronology and geography - {with “Hammurabi of Babylon” (above) set at the time of kings David and Solomon of Israel, with “Ibal-pi-El of Eshnunna” (above) as King Solomon himself, governing Ashdod (Eshnunna), which is Lachish, and with “Yarim-Lim of Yamkhad” (above) as the biblical King Hiram} - then we can most confidently anchor a part of the long reign of Rim Sin I of Larsa to the time when David and Hiram were partners, and when the young Solomon had begun to emerge onto the international scene. So far I have identified David, in connection with Eshnunna (Ashdod-Lachish), as Dadusha/Naram-Sin, whose sometime foe was David’s enemy, Hadadezer, or Shamsi-Adad I (c. 1800 BC, conventional dating). Could Larsa - like the so-called Sumerian cities referred to above, some of which just drop off the map (such as Eshnunna) - be likewise located somewhere outside of Sumer? Berossus referred to Larsa as Larancha/Laranchon. A Shepherd King As I have previously noted, Rim Sin I was, like David, a shepherd king to his people, and a man after his god’s own heart. There I wrote: … compare this one: “Prince Rim-Sîn, you are the shepherd, the desire of his heart”, with the shepherd David’s being “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22). Rim-Sin is thought to have been a ruler of Larsa in Sumer (southern Mesopotamia) during the reign of Hammurabi of Babylon (slightly later than King David). Rim-sin’s prayerful sentiments can be very David-like – even quasi-monotheistic: Provenience of texts, in the case of Larsa, is a major problem as we shall read below. For example: “Unfortunately, many texts of this period were excavated illegally, and their discoverers often gave unreliable information about the place of origin”]. “-7......, who is fitted for holy lustration rites, Rim-Sîn, purification priest of An, who is fitted for pure prayers rites, whom you summoned from the holy womb ......, has been elevated to lordship over the Land; he has been installed as shepherd over the black-headed. The staff which strengthens the Land has been placed in his hand. The shepherd's crook which guides the living people has been attached at his side. As he steps forward before you, he is lavishly supplied with everything that he offers with his pure hands. 8-20Your attentive youth, your beloved king, the good shepherd Rìm-Sîn, who determines what should be brought as offerings for his life, joyfully pours out offerings for you in the holy royal cultic locations which are perfect for the cultic vessels: sweet-smelling milk and grain, rich produce of the Land, riches of the meadows, unending abundance, alcoholic drink, glistening wine, very sweet emmer beer fermented with pure substances, pure ...... powerful beer made doubly strong with wine, a drink for your lordship; double-strength beer, superior beer, befitting your holy hands, pale honey exported from the mountains, which you have specifically requested, butter from holy cows, ghee as is proper for you as prince; pressed oil, best oil of the first pressing, and yellow cream, the pride of the cow-pen, for the holy abode of your godhead. 21-26Accept from him with your joyful heart pure food to eat as food, and pure water to drink as water: offerings made for you. Grant his prayer: you are indeed respected. When he humbly speaks fair words to you, speak so that he may live. Guide him correctly at the holy lordly cultic locations, at the august lordly cultic locations. Greet him as he comes to perform his cultic functions. 27-37May his kingship exist forever in your presence. May he be the first of the Land, called (?) lord and prince. Following your commands he shall be as unshakeable as heaven and earth; may he be ...... over the numerous people. May the mother goddesses among the gods attend to his utterances; may they sit in silence before that which he says, and bring restorative life. May he create heart's joy for the population, and be the good provider for their days. May the terrifying splendour that he wears cover like a heavy raincloud the king who is hated by him. May all the best what he has be brought here as their offerings. 38-52The good shepherd Rim-Sîn looks to you as to his personal god. Grant him ...... a life that he loves, and bestow joy on him. May you renew it like the daylight. As he prays to you, attend to his ....... When he speaks most fair words to you, sustain his life power for him. May he be respected ......, and have no rivals. As he makes supplication to you, make his days long. In the ...... of life, ...... the power of kingship. May his correct words be ever ....... May he create heart's joy in his ....... ...... make the restorative ...... rest upon him, the lion of lordship. When he beseeches you, let his exterior (?) ...... shine. Give him ...... life ....... May you bring ...... for his life with your holy words. Hear him favourably as he lifts his hands in prayer, and decide a good destiny for him. 53-69As his life ......, so may it delight his land. Cast the four quarters at his feet, and let him be their ruler. Reclining in meadows in his own land, may he pass his days joyously with you ....... In the palace, lengthen the days and reign of Rim-Sîn, your compliant king who is there for you; whose name you, Acimbabbar, have named, ...... life. ...... the august good headdress. ...... due praise for his life. ...... the throne, and may the land be safe. May satisfaction and joy fill his heart. May ...... be good for his ....... Place in his hand the sceptre of justice; may the numerous people be bound (?) to it. Shining brightly, the constant ...... in his ....... Confer on him the benefit of months of delight and joy, and bestow on him numerous years as infinite in number as the stars in the lapis-lazuli coloured heavens. In his kingship may he enjoy a happy reign forever. 70-85May you preserve the king, the good provider. May you preserve Rim-Sîn, the good provider. May his reign be a source of delight to you. Lengthen the days of his life, and give him kingship over the restored land. For him gladden the heart of the land, for him make the roads of the land passable. For him make the Land speak with a single voice. May you preserve alive Rim-Sîn, your shepherd with the compliant heart. May his canals bring water for him, and may barley grow for him in the fields. May the orchards and gardens bring forth syrup and wine for him, and may the marshes deliver fish and fowl for him in abundance. May the cattle-pens and sheepfolds teem with animals, and may rain from the heavens, whose waters are sporadic, be regular for him. May the palace be filled with long life. O Rim-Sîn, you are my king!” Compare, for example, King David’s Psalm 60 (Douay), otherwise Psalm 61:6-7: ‘Increase the days of the king’s life, his years for many generations. May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever; appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him’. The geography and dimensions of Rim Sin’s kingdom are hugely problematical. Let us read a bit more about this Rim Sin I, as provided by Marc Van de Mieroop in 1993, in his article: 1993 “The Reign of Rim-Sin,” Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 87 (1993): 47-69. (4) 1993 “The Reign of Rim-Sin,” Revue d’assyriologie et d’archéologie orientale 87 (1993): 47-69. | Marc Van De Mieroop - Academia.edu “Many texts are published as deriving from Larsa, a site that was indeed heavily looted before scientific excavations took place; yet it is often unclear as to whether they are from the site itself or from a neighboring tell”. INTRODUCTION Rim-Sin of Larsa had the longest recorded rule in ancient Mesopotamian history with sixty years from 1822 to 1763 … but modern-day historians have not paid much attention to him. He is usually regarded as the last ruler of the independent Larsa dynasty, who had the bad luck to be defeated by the famous and glorious Hammurabi of Babylon. When his reign is discussed, great, emphasis is placed upon his conquest of the rival city of Isin in his thirtieth year, and his unification of Southern and Middle Babylonia. …. This event had a profound impact on Rim-Sin's contemporaries and it gave rise to a chronological era. Consequently modern historians also deem this event very significant; however, there is no consensus as to what happened after that event in 1794, or at least it is not much discussed. Hammurabi's ascension to the throne of Babylon the next year usually causes historians' attention to shift to him, and Rim-Sin is only depicted as the victim of Babylonian expansion. This lack of interest is partly due to the fact that all the year names after Rim-Sin's conquest of Isin refer only to that victory, thus depriving us of historical information about other events. But the absence of new year names also has been interpreted as the result of the lethargy of the Rim-Sin who "rested complacently on his laurels". …. Leemans, however, credited Rim-Sin with important reforms in the second half of his reign, reforms that were adopted by Hammurabi. …. According to Leemans these reforms resulted from Rim-Sin's strength after the conquest of his most powerful rival, Isin. In this article I will re-examine Rim-Sin's career. I will attempt to show that he was a key figure in the history of Mesopotamia for introducing changes in the administration of the south of Babylonia, which arose not out of strength but rather from his weakness in the second half of his reign. I will argue thus a totally new evaluation of this man's reign: his administrative reforms made him more important than his challenger Hammurabi …. SOURCES There is an abundance of material available from the reign of Rim-Sin, but it is not evenly divided over its sixty years. These sources include the following seven groups: l) So-called "royal inscriptions": these texts usually commemorate the building or the restoration of a temple or a cult object and often include some statements about military successes by the king. They have recently been collected, arranged in a chronological order, and translated by Frayne. …. Of the nineteen inscriptions, only two refer to Rim-Sin's conquest of Isin and are thus to be dated after that event. All others date before Rim-Sin's twenty-ninth year. 2) Year names: the sequence of names assigned to the regnal years of Rim-Sin is well known. The names provide information on military or cultic events, and on public works, and they are very important for historical reconstructions. …. The thirtieth year commemorates the defeat of the city of Isin which took place in year 29. Following this event, Rim-Sin's administration measured the passage of time with respect to it: first year after the defeat, second, third year …., etc. until the thirty-first year. This sequence deprives us of an important source of information, since no other events are recorded. 3) Mari letters: the king of Mari, Zimri-Lim, was informed of the events of the time through extensive correspondence with a number of colleagues and envoys. Fortunately, some of these letters survived the looting and destruction of his palace on the Middle Euphrates in Syria by Hammurabi's troops in 1759. The letters provide important and vivid information on Rim-Sin's last years and his defeat. 4) Literary letters: two letters to Rim-Sin entered the literary corpus of Babylonia, and were later copied out by scribes. One of the letters alludes to the capture of Uruk. …. 5) Letters written to or by Rim-Sin: among the many letters preserved from the Old Babylonian period there are a few that involve Rim-Sin. They contain very little historical information. 6) Administrative and legal documents: these texts are informative in several ways. First of all, the appearance in a particular town of a text dated with a year name of Rim-Sin shows us that the place was politically dependent upon that ruler. Of course, the absence of such texts does not necessarily imply that the city was independent from Rim-Sin. Unfortunately, many texts of this period were excavated illegally, and their discoverers often gave unreliable information about the place of origin. Many texts are published as deriving from Larsa, a site that was indeed heavily looted before scientific excavations took place; yet it is often unclear as to whether they are from the site itself or from a neighboring tell. At the moment, we may say with certainty that texts dated in the reign of Rim-Sin were found at Girsu, Kisurra, Kutalla, Larsa, Nippur, and Ur, because they were scientifically excavated there or can be associated with such texts. Illicitly excavated texts seem also to derive from Isin, Umma, Uruk, and perhaps Zabalam, but their provenance is not always certain. These documents are also important for their content since they document historical events and the administration of the kingdom of Rim-Sin. Obviously, this information is extremely partial and often difficult to extract from the texts, which were not written to inform a later historian of what went on, but to put down in writing contractual agreements. 7) The later "historical" text, the Chronicle of Early Kings, mentions Rim-Sin's defeat … As far as I can see this is the only later reference to this king. THE EARLY YEARS …. When Rim-Sin succeeded his brother Warad-Sin to the throne of Larsa in 1822, he must have been quite young since he would live at least another sixty years. We have no information about his earlier life except that he made an offering of silver hoes late in his brother's reign. …. We can reconstruct with some certainty the size of the kingdom that he inherited from Warad-Sin …. It stretched from the sea border and Ur in the south along the Euphrates to just west of Larsa where it bordered on independent Uruk. The kingdom extended further north and east, including the cities Kutalla, Bad-tibira, and eastward at least as far as Girsu, if not actually reaching the sea. At Girsu it stretched to the north-west to include Zabalam, Adab, and finally Maškan šāpir. …. To the south of Maškan šāpir it included Nippur, on an eastern branch of the Euphrates. The border with Babylon lay probably just to the west of Maškan šāpir. The kingdom was thus a long, and at some places very narrow, strip extending for at least 230 kilometers along the Iturungal canal from Maškan šāpir to the sea. Communication between the different regions was not always easy, especially in the south where extensive marshes surrounded the areas of Ur and Girsu. The eastern border of the kingdom was probably very unstable because of the marshes at the head of the Persian Gulf. The kingdom was surrounded by several independent and competing states. Just to the north of Larsa lay Uruk, which was a close ally of Babylon. …. Further north and to the west of the central part of the state lay the kingdom of Isin, a long time rival. To the west of Maškan šāpir was the kingdom of Babylon, at that time still focused on its domestic affairs. To the north of that city along the Tigris was the state of Malgium, about which we know almost nothing. To the east across the Tigris lay the state of Elam, with which Kudur-Mabuk may have had a special affiliation, since his father and Kudur-Mabuk himself had Elamite names. Rim-Sin's kingdom was a union of two states: in the south the kingdom of Larsa with its capital city at Larsa, and in the north the state of Emutbalum, with its capital city at Maškan šāpir. …. The year names of the first thirteen years of Rim-Sin's rule emphasize his attention to the cults of various deities in the state: Adad, Enki, Inanna, and Nanna in Larsa, Baraulegarra in Zarbilum, a town to the north-east or north of Larsa, Ninkimar in Ašdubba near Larsa, Baraulegarra in Adab, Enki in Ur, Ninenimma in Enimma near Ur, and Adad in Karkar. …. These are all cities in the southern part of the state. He also undertook public works in the eastern part by digging a canal from Girsu to the sea. Year 7 commemorates fortification and canalization work in Maškan šāpir, located outside his usual area of interest … and he also fortified two unidentified cities: Iškun-Šamaš and Iškun-Nergal. There is no reported military activity, but Nippur was lost to Isin late in Rim-Sin's ninth year. The contest between Isin and Larsa seems not to have been a violent affair, however … and kings did not boast about it. There are a few points at this stage that I can glean from the above: • Rim Sin’s kingdom supposedly extended to the Girsu that I have re-located as Jerusalem itself. • The conquest of Isin, seemingly so pivotal, was ‘not to be boasted about’. • Amazingly, no mention of Lagash, Eshnunna, or Umma, places that may have fallen off the map. • Two more unidentified place names, “Iškun-Šamaš and Iškun-Nergal”. Moreover, Rapiqum (below) also has not been identified. • “Ninkimar in Ašdubba near Larsa” is most interesting. The name Ašdubba is almost identical to the neo-Assyrian name, Ashduddu (Ashdod), that I have identified with the Judean fort of Lachish (Lagash). Much of the above would simply be estimations of where Rim Sin’s kingdom ought to have extended, rather than being hard proof that this is where it did actually extend. Recall: Many texts are published as deriving from Larsa, a site that was indeed heavily looted before scientific excavations took place; yet it is often unclear as to whether they are from the site itself or from a neighboring tell. At the moment, we may say with certainty that texts dated in the reign of Rim-Sin were found at Girsu, Kisurra, Kutalla, Larsa, Nippur, and Ur, because they were scientifically excavated there or can be associated with such texts. Illicitly excavated texts seem also to derive from Isin, Umma, Uruk, and perhaps Zabalam, but their provenance is not always certain. …. Marc Van de Mieroop continues with Rim Sin’s military beginnings: THE FIRST PERIOD OF EXPANSION In his thirteenth year Rim-Sin defeated a large coalition of enemy forces: Uruk, Isin, and Babylon. These cities were assisted by Rapiqum, a city probably located on the Euphrates north of Babylon, and the Suteans, nomads from the Syrian desert who had penetrated further south. The king of Uruk, Irdanene … may have been the leader of the coalition as he is singled out for special scorn, being compared to a snake trod upon by the victorious Rim-Sin. …. Although various settlements around Uruk were reportedly captured … the, city itself remained independent. Our knowledge is too limited to determine whether Irdanene lost his throne, and if so, who succeeded him. Rim-Sin continued to report the capture of a number of cities with unknown locations, as well as irrigation works in the next five years. In his nineteenth year he captured Durum, a city near Uruk, and Kisurra, a city some twenty kilometers east of Isin. Possibly at the same time he regained control over Nippur, where texts dated with his year names re-appear in his twenty-first year. Thus he started to infringe upon the territory of two of his rival states. The next year he captured Uruk, but spared the city, which was incorporated into his state. This defeat of a close ally of Babylon may, however, have caused the northern state to react, thus initiating a period of retreat by Larsa. PERIOD OF RETREAT In the six years after the capture of Uruk Rim-Sin seems to have been mainly interested in irrigation works, if we can believe, his year names. Only in his twenty-fourth year he claims to have captured Al-Damiq-ilišu, a city belonging to the state of Isin. But the situation was probably not rosy. Sin-muballit of Babylon mentions already in 1802 that he fortified the city of Karkar, which had been in Larsa's control previously. …. If this city is indeed located between Adab and Umma, its domination by Sin-muballit would indicate that Babylon had a foothold in the center of Rim-Sin's state, thereby endangering communication between the north and the south. The following year Sin-muballit fortified Marad, a city on the border between the states of Isin and Babylon. Renger has suggested that Rim-Sin's earlier incursions into the north were a reaction to Sin-muballit's deeds, but the reverse may have been true, namely Sin-muballit reacted to Larsa's defeat of Uruk. Rim-Sin was active elsewhere in the very north of his state. A text from 1801 …. states that troops from Emutbalum were gathered in Maškan šāpir for an expedition to Ešnunna, yet it is unclear whether this was an act of aggression or a gesture of help to the king of Ešnunna. …. Sin-muballit claims to have defeated the army of Larsa in 1800, and to have captured Isin in 1797. Not, surprisingly, neither of these events is reported by Rim-Sin, and the gains of Babylon were ephemeral since the king of Isin, Damiq-ilišu, remained on the throne. Eshnunna (Ešnunna) finally emerges. Though I wonder if it had already appeared under its variant of Ashduddu (Ašdubba). Rim-Sin seems to be frequently here in Syro-Palestinian, and not Babylonian, territory, with Eshnunna/Lachish, Karkar, and with Al-Damiq-ilišu looking rather suspiciously like the Syrian capital city of Damascus (Dimašqu). SECOND PERIOD OF EXPANSION The weakening of his rival Isin may have enticed Rim-Sin into returning to the area. In 1795 he captured Dunnum, one of the main cities in the Isin state, and the next year Isin, the capital city itself, fell. The following year Sin-muballit of Babylon died and was succeeded by his son Hammurabi, who did not react to Larsa's aggression. The state of Rim-Sin was now encompassed a much larger area than it had thirty years earlier …. In the south the borders had probably remained the same, but in the north-west the kingdom had expanded into Middle Babylonia, incorporating the ancient areas of Uruk and Isin. There was now a long border between the states of Larsa and Babylon, running north-east to south-west from Maškan šāpir to the Euphrates south of Dilbat. There are too many uncertainties to determine where the borders ran in the west and in the east. …. THE SECOND HALF OF RIM-SIN'S REIGN With the defeat of Isin, Rim-Sin's power seems to have reached its apogee. The royal chancellery decided not to follow the tradition of naming each year after an important event of the previous one, but instead to continue to commemorate the fall of Isin, a practice which lasted for the next thirty-one years. This decision turned out to be disastrous for the historian trying to reconstruct what happened in those years, as the list of yearly achievements disappeared. Whenever this period is discussed by modern historians, Rim-Sin is depicted as a mighty king resting on his laurels and enjoying the disappearance of his closest rival. Only after thirty years did the Babylonian ruler Hammurabi turn against the south to overthrow the aged king. But is this depiction accurate? Although our evidence is extremely limited, it suggests the opposite scenario. Rim-Sin ruled over a shaky state, constantly faced with Babylonian expansionism, and he, did not accomplish anything worth celebrating in his year names. Indicative of such a state of affairs is the lack of any building inscriptions from the, second half of his reign. As stated above, of the nineteen preserved inscriptions only two are to be dated after Rim-Sin's twenty-ninth year, and they seem to have been written soon after the defeat of Isin. A city such as Ur which had been constantly embellished by the king in his early reign, yields no evidence of royal activity in the entire second half of Rim-Sin's reign. Meanwhile Hammurabi reports in his seventh year name, which correspond to Rim-Sin's thirty-seventh, that he conquered Isin … and Uruk, the latter city being located less than twenty kilometers from the capital city Larsa. This conquest was clearly short-lived, since there is a small group of tablets from Isin dated in the years Rim-Sin 45-47, but the conquest shows that the king of Babylon was able to penetrate deeply into the state of Larsa. …. In addition to the disappearance of year names and of royal inscriptions after the middle of Rim-Sin's reign, the number of towns where, a substantial amount of legal and administrative documents are found declines as well at this time. It seems that most cities remained under Rim-Sin's control, but only at Larsa itself and at Nippur do we see a constant stream of documents …. I do not want to suggest that Rim-Sin was totally powerless at this time. The often quoted passage from a Mari letter shows that he was an important player on the international scene: "There is no king who is (all-)powerful by himself: ten or fifteen kings follow in the train of Hammurabi of Babylon, as many follow Rim-Sin of Larsa, as many follow Ibal-pi-el of Ešnunna, as many follow Amut-pi-el of Qatna, and twenty follow in the train of Yarim-Lim of Yamhad." …. There are several indications that his relations with Ešnunna were very close, and that he had considerable influence there. A small group of texts dealing with trade … is dated both with the names of years Rim- Sin 39 through 42, and with names of the rulers of Ešnunna. These texts were not written in Larsa, as Leemans suggests, but must have been written somewhere in the vicinity of Ešnunna … far to the north [sic] of Maškan šāpir. The close connections between these two states is also clear from other letters that cannot be dated exactly. Interestingly, they show that Rim-Sin needed to import grain from Ešnunna, and that transport was difficult. …. Perhaps there was a famine in Larsa, requiring imports of food. THE END OF RIM-SIN The last years of Rim-Sin's rule are depicted in vivid detail in the Mari letters, where envoys of king Zimri-Lim residing in Babylon inform their master of current affairs. Important are letters of Yarim-Addu, Šarrum-andulli, Yasim-Addu, Yeškit-El, Ibal-El, and Zimri-Addu. …. We can follow events starting in 1765, i.e. just after the ruler of Elam conquered Ešnunna. …. Hammurabi of Babylon and Rim-Sin had plans to enter into a defensive alliance, after they had both been invited by the ruler of Elam to assist him in an attack against each other (ARM 26: 362). Hammurabi was in a difficult position because a crucial city on his eastern border, Upi, was under attack by an unnamed enemy, probably Elam. After a general mobilization of his country, he sent messengers to Rim-Sin to request help (ARM 26:363-364, 366-367), but the latter delayed his response. Ultimately he refused to send his troops under the pretense that the enemy was now free to attack his own country, probably indicating that the siege of Upi had been a success and that the attacker could now turn either against Babylon or against Larsa; however Rim-Sin reiterated that he was still willing to create a defensive alliance (ARM 26: 368). At that moment, Rim-Sin's position deteriorated. Hammurabi patched up his relations with Ešnunna, now ruled by a new king, Silli-Sin. At the same time, he complained that troops of Rim-Sin had raided Babylonian territory and had stolen people and property (ARM 26: 385). In retaliation, the envoys of Rim-Sin in Babylon were detained, and diplomatic exchanges between the two countries ceased (ARM 26: 372). Finally, Hammurabi decided to attack Larsa, and he requested, and obtained, the support from Mari. …. He then laid siege to Maškan šāpir, where the brother of Rim-Sin, Sin-muballit, three generals, and several thousand men were caught (ARM 26: 383). The siege was seemingly a short affair, and possibly the people gave up without, a fight (ARM 26: 383). Thus Hammurabi was free to pursue, Rim-Sin and his capital city, Larsa. ….. The siege of Larsa started at the very end of the year 1764 …. and lasted six months according to the Mari letters. The duration of the siege is corroborated by texts found in Larsa itself, although the situation is not entirely clear. …. The last text dated with a Rim-Sin year name is Riftin 121 of the last day of month VI, Rim-Sin 60, i.e. 1763. The text records the distribution of a large quantity of barley over a period of more than one year. The last entry reports that the barley was collected in the neighborhood of the town … indicating that the citizens could still leave the city walls. The first Larsa text dated in the reign of Hammurabi is from the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of Hammurabi 30, i.e. 1763. 42 If the new administration continued to use the calendar utilized under the previous ruler, rather than switching to the Babylonian one, this would indicate a break of six months; however this text is rather difficult since it lists distributions of grain for six months up until month VI of that year. If these distributions were in Larsa itself, this would indicate that the city was in Hammurabi's hands for the entire year, which is impossible. Thus it is likely that the, text was brought to Larsa from another place. …. …. The questions remains, then: what happened to Rim-Sin? No texts describe his exile in Babylon. Given his advanced age, it seems unlikely that he survived for long. Twenty-two years later a man named Rim-Sin claimed kingship over Larsa in a rebellion against Hammurabi's successor Samsuiluna. It seems extremely unlikely to me that this man was the former ruler, since he would have been more than eighty-two years old at that time. …. I wrote previously: Another point perhaps needing to be made is that the references to Ur-Nammu as being the father of Shulgi tend to occur in notoriously inaccurate, and very late documents, such as The Mesopotamian Chronicles (also known as the Babylonian Chronicles). How much dynasty are we really talking about? I have suggested for the Akkadians that Sargon, Naram-Sin and Shar-kali-sharri, be merged, and, for Ur III, that Ur-Nammu and Shulgi perhaps be merged Can Hammurabi, too, of the Old Babylonian Dynasty, be merged with his own supposed son, Samsuiluna? The reason why I wonder this is that Hammurabi apparently defeated his long-time foe, Rim-Sin I of Larsa, of whom we read in the Mari archive: “Ten to fifteen kings follow … Rim-Sin, the man of Larsa …”, and Samsuiluna also defeated a Rim-Sim (so-called II) of Larsa. Marc Van de Mieroop writes of these two, separate, presumably, Rim-Sin encounters (A History of the Ancient Near East Ca. 3000 - 323 BC, Blackwell, 2007): P. 88: “Hammurabi waited until Rim-Sin was an old man to initiate his swift conquest of all his neighbours, including Larsa, which he conquered in 1763 [sic].” P. 108: “Only ten years after [Hammurabi’s] death, his son, Samsuiluna, faced a major rebellion in the south led by a man calling himself Rim-Sin after Larsa’s last ruler”. In each case, the defeated Rim-Sin soon apparently died: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rim-Sin_I In 1764 BC, Hammurabi turned against Rim-Sin, who had refused to support Hammurabi in his war against Elam despite pledging his troops. Hammurabi, with troops from Mari, first attacked Mashkan-shapir on the northern edge of Rim-Sin's realm. Hammurabi's forces quickly reached Larsa, and after a six-month siege the city fell. Rim-Sin escaped the city but was soon found and taken prisoner and died thereafter.[5] https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/MesopotamiaLarsa.htm Along with many others at the time of Hammurabi's death, Rim-Sin II sees an opportunity to lead a revolt against the rule of Samsu-iluna's Babylonian empire. The two fight for five years, with Rim-Sin allied to Eshnunna, and most battles taking place on the Elam/Sumer border before Rim-Sin is captured and executed. Much more still needs to be said, I think, about Rim-Sin (I-II) of Larsa - Rim-Sin, so-called I, thought to have recorded ‘the longest rule in ancient Mesopotamia (60-70 years), somewhat like pharaoh Ramses II of Egypt (66-67 years).