Marduk-bel-zeri

Marduk-bēl-zēri, inscribed in cuneiform as dAMAR.UTU.EN.NUMUN[i 1][i 2] or mdŠID.EN.[x][i 3] and meaning “Marduk (is) lord of descendants (lit. seed)”,[1] very speculatively ca. 790 – 780 BC, was one of the kings of Babylon during the turmoil following the Assyrian invasions of Šamši-Adad V (ca. 824 – 811 BC). He is identified on a Synchronistic King List fragment[i 3] as Marduk-[bēl]-x, which gives his place in the sequence and reigned around the beginning of the 8th century BC. He was a rather obscure monarch and the penultimate predecessor of Erība-Marduk who was to restore order after years of chaos.[2]

Marduk-bēl-zēri
King of Babylon
Reignca. 790 – 780 BC
PredecessorNinurta-apla-X
SuccessorMarduk-apla-uṣur
HouseDynasty of E
(mixed dynasties)

Biography

He is known from a single economic text[i 1] from the southern city of Udāni dated to his accession year (MU.SAG.NAM.LUGAL). This city was a satellite cultic center to Uruk, of uncertain location but possibly near Marad, later to be known as Udannu, associated with the deities dIGI.DU (the two infernal Nergals) and Bēlet-Eanna (associated with Ištar).[3] The document records the parts of a chariot including the wagon pole (mašaddu) which had been entrusted by Belšunu, the šangû or chief administrator[4] of Udāni to the temple of dIGI.DU (Igišta, Palil?).[1] He is tentatively restored to the Dynastic Chronicle[i 2] where he is described as “a soldier” (lúaga.[úš]) but his circumstances are otherwise unknown.[5]

Inscriptions
  1. Tablet YBC 11546 in the Yale Babylonian Collection.
  2. Dynastic Chronicle vi 2.
  3. Synchronistic King List, tablet VAT 11345 (KAV 13), 2.

References
  1. J. A. Brinkman (1968). A political history of post-Kassite Babylonia, 1158-722 B.C. Analecta Orientalia. p. 214.
  2. J. A. Brinkman (1999). "Marduk-bēl-zēri". In Dietz Otto Edzard (ed.). Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: Libanukasabas - Medizin. 7. Walter De Gruyter. p. 376.
  3. Paul-Alain Beaulieu (2003). The pantheon of Uruk during the neo-Babylonian period. Brill Academic Pub. pp. 289–290.
  4. CAD, Š I, p. 377.
  5. Jean-Jacques Glassner (2004). Mesopotamian chronicles. Brill. pp. 132–133.
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