Middle Babylonian
MIDDLE BABYLONIAN PERIOD
The Middle Babylonian period stretches from 1158* BC - 729 BC (in this section dates with an * are +/- 5 years). It encompasses at least five dynasties and a number of non-dynastic kings. I have thrown them all into a single section because our knowlege about the whole period is very limited.
The period opens with the sack of Babylon by the Elamites (from southwestern Iran). This brought an end to a long period of prosperity under the Kassite dynasty. More traumatic still, the Elamites seized the statues of the Babylonian gods and took them away to Elam. For the Babylonians the statues were the gods' bodies on Earth, so when the statues went away it was as if the gods had left them. It would be a long time before they returned.
In the confused period after the Elamite Invasion, it was a man from the far southern city of Isin who took the lead, founding the Second Dynasty of Isin in 1158* and by the 1140s, this dynasty seems to have controlled Babylon. It managed to reassert something of Babylon's former power and the third king, Nebuchadnezzar I (not to be confused with the king from the Biblical book of Daniel) even managed to lead an army into Elam and retrieve the gods' statues. However, he did not, it would seem, recover their favour. Under his successor, the city was sacked by the Assyrians. A worse threat followed; a semi-nomadic people, the Aramaeans, entered the region from Syria. Soon they inhabited most of the region in the borderlands between Babylon and Assyria. Their influence can be seen in the spread of their language: by the end of the period the language of commerce and everyday life was no longer Akkadian, but Aramaic. Both Babylon and Assyria struggled with these newcomers, but Babylon was rather less successful and, as a result, came under increasing Assyrian influence - the eighth king of the dynasty was appointed by them (and may have been an Aramaean to boot). Under continued pressure, the dynasty disintegrated.
Another dynasty from the south, from the marshy area known as the Sealand, attempted to fill the gap: the Second Sealand Dynasty (1026*-1006*). This dynasty's short duration is the best testamony to the limited success of its efforts to restore order. The Bazi Dynasty (1006*-986*) was no more successful. It seems to have been ended by an Elamite Invasion, which led to the establishment of the Elamite Dynasty (986*-979*), with a single, short-lived king. At least three non-dynastic kings follow, who were mostly occupied by wars with the Aramaeans.
From about 893, the Assyrians, now an ascendant power, began to campaign intensively in Babylon. At first, the new Babylonian kings (probably of the E Dynasty) were able to hold their own. The situation seemed to be in Babylon's control. In 822 they took advantage of a civil war in Assyria to impose a degrading treaty upon the Assyrian king. This the king could not accept. In 814 the Assyrian king stormed into Babylonia and led the Babylonian king back in chains. Many of the following Babylonian kings seem to have been Assyrian vassals. Even when they were not, their continued inability to deal with the Aramaeans increasingly meant that the Babylonian kings had to invite the Assyrians in to restore order for them.
The problem for the Assyrians now became how to control this region. The cities and tribes of Babylonia would not respect or obey a king who was so weak as to be a vassal to the Assyrians. Some kings, mostly from a semi-nomadic people of the south, the Chaldeans, were strong enough to deal with these rebellions, but they were unwilling to remain obedient vassals. In 728, Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria did away with the king altogether, taking the throne for himself. Babylonian revolts followed, with the Assyrians trying a number of different administrative arrangements. All were to no effect. After putting down a final revolt in 689, Sennacherib of Assyria razed the city to the ground and scattered its people far and wide. The period that began with the sack of Babylon ended with its annihilation.
Yet the fate which the Assyrians inflicted upon Babylon would soon be revisited upon them. The Chaldeans of the south maintained the memory of Babylon and would eventually use it as the rallying call in a grand campaign which would reduce the Assyrians from masters of the entire civilised world to dusty ruins and distant memories.
SOURCES
CM46: Walker Chronicle (translation by Jean-Jacques Glassner available here: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/walker/walker.html)
CM14: Chronicle of Aššur-reš-iši (translation by Jean-Jacques Glassner available here: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/cm/assur-res-isi.html)
CM15: Chronicle of Tiglath-pileser (translation by Jean-Jacques Glassner available here: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/cm/tiglath-pileser.html)
ABC24: The Eclectic Chronicle (translation by A.K. Grayson available here: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc24/eclectic.html)
ABC17: The Religious Chronicle (translation by A.K. Grayson available here: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc17/religious_chronicle1.html)
CM9: Assyrian Eponym List (translation by Jean-Jacques Glassner available here: http://www.livius.org/li-ln/limmu/limmu_1.html)
CM52: Chronicle of Nabû-šuma-iškun (translation by Jean-Jacques Glassner available here: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/cm/nabu-shuma-ishkun.html)
CM17: From Nabû-Nasir to Esarhaddon (translation by Jean-Jacques Glassner available here: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc1/cm17.html)
ABC1: From Nabû-Nasir to Šamaš-šuma-ukin (translation by A.K. Grayson available here: http://www.livius.org/cg-cm/chronicles/abc1/abc1_col_i.html)
Brinkman, A Political History of Post-Kassite Babylonia 1158-722 BC. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1968.
————, "Babylonia c. 1000–748 B.C." in The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 2, Part 2: The Middle East and the Aegean Region, c.1380–1000 BC, Third Edition, edited by Edwards, Gadd, Hammond & Sollberger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975: 282-313.