Sealand Dynasty

The Sealand Dynasty, (ŠEŠ-KU) or the 2nd Dynasty ofBabylon (although it was independent of Amorite ruledBabylon), very speculatively ca. 1732–1460 BC (shortchronology), is an enigmatic series of kings attested toprimarily in laconic references in the king lists A andB, and as contemporaries recorded on the Assyrian Syn-chronistic king list A.117. The dynasty, which had bro-ken free of the short lived, and by this time crumblingBabylonian Empire, was named for the province in the farsouth of Mesopotamia, a swampy region bereft of largesettlements which gradually expanded southwards withthe silting up of the mouths of the Tigris and Euphratesrivers. The kings bore fanciful pseudo-Sumerian namesand harked back to the glory days of the dynasty of Isin.The third king of the dynasty was even named for the ul-timate king of the dynasty of Isin, Damiq-ilišu. Despitethese cultural motifs, the population predominantly boreAkkadian names and wrote and spoke in the Akkadianlanguage. There is circumstantial evidence that their ruleextended at least briefly to Babylon itself.

1 The King list tradition

The king list references which bear witness to the se-quence of Sealand kings are summarized below:An additional king list[i 5] provides fragmentary readingsof the earlier dynastic monarchs.[1] The king list A to-tals the reigns to give a length of 368 years for this dy-nasty. The Synchronistic King List A.117 gives the se-quence from Damqi-ilišu onward, but includes an addi-tional king between Gulkišar and Pešgaldarameš, mDIŠ-U-EN (reading unknown). This source is considered reli-able in this respect because the forms of the names of Peš-galdarameš and Ayadaragalama match those on recentlypublished contemporary economic tablets (see below).[2]

2 Evidence of individual reigns

The sources for this dynasty are sparse in the extreme,with insufficient evidence to enable their placement inabsolute chronology or to support the somewhat dubiouslength of reigns alleged on the king list A.

2.1 Ilum-ma-ilī

Ilum-ma-ilī,[i 6] or Iliman (mili-ma-an),[i 2] the founderof the dynasty, is known from the account of his ex-ploits in the Chronicle of Early Kings[i 3] which describeshis conflicts with his Amorite Babylonian contemporariesSamsu-iluna and Abi-ešuḫ. It records that he “attackedand brought about the defeat of (Samsu-iluna’s) army.”He is thought to have conquered Nippur late in Samsu-iluna’s reign [3] as there are legal documents from Nip-pur dated to his reign.[i 7] Abi-eshuh, the Amorite king ofBabylon, and Samsu-iluna’s son and successor, “set outto conquer Ilum-ma-ilī,” by damming the Tigris, to flushhim out of his swampy refuge, an endeavor which was ap-parently confounded by Ilum-ma-ilī’s superior use of theterrain.

2.2 Damqi-ilišu

The last surviving year-name for Ammi-ditana commem-orates the “year in which (he) destroyed the city wall ofDer / Udinim built by the army ofDamqi-ilišu.[i 8] This isthe only current contemporary indication of the spellingof his name, contrasting with that of the earlier king ofIsin.[4]

2.3 Gulkišar

Gulkišar, meaning “raider of the earth,” has left fewtraces of his apparently lengthy reign. The colophonof a tablet giving a chemical recipe for glaze[i 9] reads“property of a priest of Marduk in Eridu,” thought tobe a quarter of Babylon rather than the city of Eridu,is dated mu.us-sa Gul-ki-šar lugal-e “year after (the onewhen) Gul-kisar (became?) king.” A kudurru[i 10] of theperiod of Babylonian king Enlil-nādin-apli, ca. 1103–1100 BC, records the outcome of an inquiry instigatedby the king into the ownership of a plot of land claimedby a temple estate. The governors of Bit-Sin-magirand Sealand, upheld the claim based on the earlier ac-tions of Gulkišar who had “drawn for Nanse, his divinemistress, a land boundary.” It is an early example of aDistanzangaben statement recording that 696 years hadelapsed between Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur, Enlil-nādin-apli’sfather, and Gulkišar.[5]

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2 5 REFERENCES

2.4 Pešgaldarameš and Ayadaragalama

Pešgaldarameš, “son of the ibex,” andAyadaragalama,“son of the clever stag,” were successive kings and de-scendants (DUMU, “sons” in its broadest meaning) ofGulkišar.Recently published tablets mainly from the MartinSchøyen collection, the largest privately held collectionof manuscripts to be assembled during the 20th century,cover a 15 to 18 year period extending over part of eachking’s reign. They seem to originate from a single cachebut their provenance was lost after languishing in smallerprivate collections since their acquisition on the antiq-uities market a century earlier. The tablets include let-ters, receipts, ledgers, personnel rosters, etc., and pro-vide year-names and references which hint at events ofthe period. Messengers from Elam are provisioned,[i 11]Anzak, a god of Dilmun (ancient Bahrain) appears asa theophoric element in names,[i 12] and Nūr-Bau askswhether he should detain the boats of Ešnunna,[i 13] arare late reference to this once thriving Sumerian conur-bation. In addition to normal commercial activity, twoomen texts[i 14] from another private collection are datedto the reign of Pešgaldarameš and a kurugu-hymn men-tions Ayadaragalama.[i 15] A variant version of the Epicof Gilgameš relocates the hero to Ur and is a piece fromthis period.[2]

Ayadaragalama’s reign seems to have been eventful, as ayear-name records expelling the “massed might of twoenemies,” speculated to be Elamites and Kassites, theKassites having previously deposed the Amorites as rulersin Babylon. Another records the building of a “great ringagainst the Kalšu (Kassite) enemy” and a third records the“year when his land rebelled.” A year-name gives “yearwhen Ayadaragalama was king – after Enlil established(for him?) the shepherding of the whole earth,” and alist of gods includes Marduk and Șarpanitum, the tute-lary deities of The Sealand.[i 16][2]

A neo-Babylonian official took a bronze band dedicatoryinscription ofA-ia-da-a-ra,MANŠÚ “king of the world,”to Tell en-Nasbeh, probably as an antique curio, where itwas discarded to be found in the 20th century.

2.5 Ea-gâmil

Ea-gâmil, the ultimate king of the dynasty, fled to Elamahead of an invading horde lead by Kassite chief Ulam-Buriaš, brother of the king of Babylon Kashtiliash, whoconquered the Sealand, incorporated it into Babyloniaand “made himself master of the land.”

3 Inscriptions[1] Babylonian King List A, BM 33332, i 4 to 14 where the

names are abbreviated but give their lengths of reign.

[2] Babylonian King List B, BM 38122, reverse 1 to 13.

[3] Chronicle of Early Kings, tablets BM 26472 and BM96152, B rev. (Ilum-ma-ilī) 7-10 (Ea-gâmil) 12–14.

[4] Synchronistic King List A.117, Assur 14616c, i 1 to 10.

[5] Formed from BM 35572 and eleven other fragments.

[6] Tablet Ashm. 1922.353 from Larsa.

[7] Five legal tablets such as CBS 4956, published in Chiera(1914), CBS 11013, published as BE VI 2 text 68, 3N-T87, UM 55-21-239 catalogued as SAOC 44 text 12, andOIMA 1 45, from Nippur.

[8] Tablets MCS 2 52, YOS 13 359.

[9] Tablet BM 120960 thought to have been recovered fromTall 'Umar (Seleucia) on the Tigris.

[10] Kudurru in the University Museum, Philadelphia, BE I/183 15.

[11] MS 2200/40 and MS 2200/455.

[12] MS 2200/394, 444, 321 and so on.

[13] MS 2200/3.

[14] R. Kovacs 5304 and 5309.

[15] R. Kovacs 5306.

[16] MS 2200/81.

4 Notes[1] Given as PEŠ.GAL-DÀRA.MAŠ.

[2] Given as A-DÀRA-GALAM.MA.

5 References[1] J. A. Brinkman (1999). Dietz Otto Edzard, ed.

Reallexikon der Assyriologie und VorderasiatischenArchäologie: Meek – Mythologie 8. Walter De Gruyter.p. 7.

[2] Stephanie Dalley (2009). Cornell University Studies in As-syriology and Sumerology. Volume 9 Babylonian Tabletsfrom the First Sealand Dynasty in the Schoyen Collection.CDL Press. pp. 1–16.

[3] Albert Kirk Grayson (1975). Assyrian and Babylonianchronicles. J. J. Augustin. p. 221.

[4] William W. Hallo (2009). The world’s oldest literature:studies in Sumerian belles-lettres. BRILL. p. 183.

[5] J. A. Brinkman (1968). A political history of post-KassiteBabylonia, 1158–722 B.C. Analecta Orientalia. p. 118.

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