Kassites
The Kassites were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until .
The Kassites gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon in 1531 BC, and established a dynasty generally assumed to have been based first in that city, after a hiatus. Later rule shifted to the new city of Dur-Kurigalzu. By the time of Babylon's fall, the Kassites had already been part of the region for a century and a half, acting sometimes with Babylon's interests and sometimes against. There are records of Kassite and Babylonian interactions, in the context of military employment, during the reigns of Babylonian kings Samsu-iluna, Abī-ešuh, and Ammī-ditāna.
The origin and classification of the Kassite language, like the Sumerian language and Hurrian language, is uncertain, and, also like the two latter languages, has generated a wide array of speculation over the years, even to the point of linking it to Sanskrit. However, like these other languages, it is regarded as a language isolate and is not accepted to be Semitic or Indo-European. The Kassite religion is also poorly understood, though the names of some Kassite deities are known. The chief gods, titular gods of the kings, were Shuqamuna and Shumaliya, which are distinct from Sumerian, Semitic and Indo-European gods. As was typical in the region, there was some cross-pollination with other religions. After Babylon came within the Kassite sphere of control its city-god, Marduk, was absorbed into the Kassite pantheon.
History
Documentation of the Kassite period depends heavily on the scattered and disarticulated tablets from Nippur, where thousands of tablets and fragments have been excavated. They include administrative and legal texts, letters, seal inscriptions, private votive inscriptions, and even a literary text. Many of those tablets have not yet been published, including hundreds held in the Ottoman Museum in Istanbul.About 100 Kassite tablets were found at Dur-Kurigalzu. A few inscribed building materials of Kurigalzu I were found at Kish. Several tablets dated to the reign of Agum III were found at the Dilmun site of Qal'at al-Bahrain. In total, about 12,000 Kassite period documents have been recovered, of which only around 10% have been published. There are also a number of building inscriptions, all but one written in Sumerian unlike the Akkadian typically used by the Kassites. A number of seals have also been found. Kudurrus, stone stele used to record land grants and related documents, provide another source for Kassite history. This practice continued for several centuries after the end of the Kassite Dynasty. Often situated on the surface, many were found early and made their way to museums around the world.
The ancient city of Nippur was a major focus for the Kassites. Early on, refurbishments were conducted of the various religious and administrative buildings, the first of these datable to Kurigalzu I. Major construction occurred under Kadashman-Enlil, Kudur-Enlil, and Shagarakti-Shuriash, with lesser levels of repair work under Adad-shuma-usur and Meli-Shipak. Other important centers during the Kassite period were Larsa, Sippar and Susa. The Kassites were very active at Ur. At the site of Isin, which had been abandoned after the time of Samsu-iluna, major rebuilding work occurred on the religious district including the temple of Gula. The work at Isin was initiated by Kurigalzu I and continued by Kadashman-Enlil I, and after a lapse, by Adad-shuma-usur and Meli-Shipak II. After the Kassite dynasty was overthrown in 1155 BC, the system of provincial administration continued and the country remained united under the succeeding rule, the Second Dynasty of Isin.
Origins
The origin of the Kassites is uncertain, though a number of theories have been advanced. Several suspected Kassite names are recorded in economic documents from the Ur III period in southern Babylon, but their origin is ambiguous. It has been suggested they originated from the Zagros Mountains region. Kassites were first reported in Babylonia in the 18th century BC, especially around the area of Sippar. The 9th year name of king Samsu-iluna of Babylon, the son of Hammurabi mentions them ie..Middle Bronze Age
As the Babylonian empire weakened in the following years the Kassites became a part of the landscape, even at times supplying troops for Babylon. The Babylonians divided those into kingdom resident Kassites and Kassites from peripheral areas termed Samḫarû and Bimatü. It is known that a contingent of Bimatü were stationed at Dūr-Abī-ešuḫ.The idol of the god Marduk had been carried off from Babylon, possibly by the Hittites, but the Kassite rulers regained possession, returned Marduk to Babylon, and made him the equal of the Kassite Shuqamuna. Babylon under Kassite rulers, who renamed the city Karanduniash, re-emerged as a political and military power in Mesopotamia.
Late Bronze Age
The fall of the First Sealand dynasty in 1460 BC created a power vacuum which the Kassites filled. After the destruction of the Mitanni by the Hittites in the early 14th century BC, Assyria rose in power creating a three-way power structure in the region between the Kassites, Hittites, and Assyrians, with Elam exerting influence from the east and Egypt from the south. A number of the Amarna Letters are correspondence between the respective rulers. An international system came into place between these parties connected by widespread trade, treaties, and intermarriage between the ruling classes. A typical treaties include the Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty and the treaty between the Kassite ruler Karaindash and the Assyrian ruler Ashur-bel-nisheshu.At the peak of their power the Kassites, under Kurigalzu I in the mid 14th century BC, conquered Elam and sacked the capital of Susa. That ruler initiated significant building efforts in Ur and other southern Mesopotamia cities. The most notable of these efforts was the construction of a new city, Dur-Kurigalzu. It contained a number of palaces and also temples to many Babylonia gods including Enlil, Ninlil, and Ninurta. The Kassites also extended their power into the Persian Gulf, including at Qal'at al-Bahrain. Being in close proximity the Assyrians and Kassites often came into political and military conflict over the next few centuries. For a time in the early reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I, Assyria gained ascendancy, until the Elamites under Kidin-Hutran III intervened. This period is marked by a building hiatus at Babylon, similar to the one after the fall of the First Babylonian dynasty.
Iron Age
The Elamites of the Shutrukid dynasty conquered Babylonia, carrying away the Statue of Marduk, in the 12th century BC, thus ending the Kassite state. According to the Assyrian Synchronistic Chronicle, which is not considered reliable, the last Kassite king, Enlil-nadin-ahi, was taken to Susa and imprisoned there in 1155 BC, where he also died.The annals of the Assyrian king Sennacherib detail that on his second, eastern, campaign of 702 BC he campaigned against the land of the Kassites, that being along the Diyala River between the Jebel Hamrin and the Darband-i-Khan. The Kassites took refuge in the mountains but were brought down and resettled, in standard Assyrian practice, in Hardispi and Bit Kubatti, which were made part of the Arrapha district.
File:Kudurru Melishipak Louvre Sb23 n02.jpg|thumb|Kassite king Meli-Shipak II on a kudurru land grant presenting his daughter Ḫunnubat-Nanaya to the goddess Nanaya. The eight-pointed star seen above was Inanna-Ishtar's most common symbol. Here it is shown alongside the solar disk of her brother Shamash and the crescent moon of her father Sin on a boundary stone of Meli-Shipak II, dating to the twelfth century BC.
Kassite language
The Kassite language has not been classified. The few extant sources consist of personal names, a few fragmented documents, and some technical terms related to horses and chariotry. What is known is that their language was related to neither the Indo-European language group, nor to Semitic or other Afro-Asiatic languages. It is most likely to have been a language isolate, although some linguists have proposed a link to the Hurro-Urartian languages of the Armenian highlands and Upper Mesopotamia.It has been suggested that several Kassite leaders bore Indo-European names, and they might have had an Indo-European elite similar to the Mitanni. Over the centuries, however, the Kassites were absorbed into the Babylonian population. Eight among the last kings of the Kassite dynasty have Akkadian names. It has also been suggested that the first element in Kudur-Enlil's name is derived from Elamite but that is disputed.