The Flooding of Ešnunna, the Fall of Mari: Hammurabi's Deeds in Babylonian Literature and History

Abstract

This article provides a preliminary edition of a hitherto unpublished Akkadian-language literary text that narrates historical events from the reign of King Hammurabi of Babylon. Discovered in Nippur towards the end of the nineteenth century, the multicolumn tablet N 1498+ was probably copied during the Middle Babylonian period, but the text may have been composed centuries earlier during the reign of either Hammurabi or Samsu-iluna. It is possible that the text described many incidents, but the sole preserved column on the reverse is concerned with pivotal events in the last years of Hammurabi's reign: his seizure of Mari and his takeover of Ešnunna, possibly by means of, or as the result of the flooding of that city. The tablet narrates events in an order that is different from what is known from other historical sources, and it contains what is so far the only Babylonian reference to King Zimri-Lim of Mari, Hammurabi's one-time ally, rival, and antagonist.