Shutruk-Nakhunte's Sack of Babylon (1158 BC): Elam's Plunder

Around 1158 BC Shutruk-Nakhunte, king of Elam, invaded Babylonia, plundered its cities and carried famous monuments back to his capital at Susa in south-western Iran. Among his trophies were the stele of the Code of Hammurabi and the victory stele of the Akkadian king Naram-Sin. The raid helped end the long Kassite dynasty of Babylon, and because the Elamites stored their booty at Susa, archaeologists found these masterpieces there more than three thousand years later.

Background: Elam and Kassite Babylon

Elam, centred on Susa and the highlands of Anshan, was the eastern neighbour and frequent rival of Mesopotamia. In the 13th and 12th centuries BC it enjoyed a period of strength under the kings of the Middle Elamite period, who built monuments such as the temple city of Chogha Zanbil.

Babylon, meanwhile, had been ruled for more than four centuries by the Kassites, a dynasty of foreign origin that took power after the fall of Hammurabi’s line around 1595 BC. By the 12th century BC the Kassite state was weakened by wars with Assyria and by the wider troubles of the late Bronze Age. Elamite kings, some of whom had married Kassite princesses, also claimed a right to interfere in Babylonian affairs.

The invasion

Shutruk-Nakhunte, who reigned roughly 1185 to 1155 BC, was the second king of a new Elamite dynasty founded by his father, Hallutush-Inshushinak, and set out to restore Elam’s power. Around 1158 BC he marched into Babylonia, deposed the Kassite king Zababa-shuma-iddin and placed his own son, Kutir-Nakhunte, in charge of the conquered territory.

The Elamite inscriptions record the capture of a long list of Mesopotamian cities, including Sippar, Kish, Akkad, Eshnunna and others. The Kassite Enlil-nadin-ahi then took the throne and resisted for about three years, but around 1155 BC Kutir-Nakhunte defeated him. This ended the Kassite dynasty, which had ruled Babylon for more than 400 years.

The plunder of monuments

What makes this raid unusual is what the Elamites took. Instead of simply melting down treasure, Shutruk-Nakhunte carried off old and famous royal monuments and set them up at Susa as trophies, adding his own inscriptions to some of them.

The best known are:

• The stele of the Code of Hammurabi, probably taken from Sippar. Several columns of its text were erased, apparently to make room for an Elamite inscription that was never carved.
• The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, a carved monument of the Akkadian king from around 2250 BC. Shutruk-Nakhunte added an inscription in Elamite stating that he took it from Sippar and brought it to Elam as an offering to his god Inshushinak.
• Statues and an obelisk of the Akkadian king Manishtushu, together with other inscribed stones and kudurrus (boundary stones recording land grants).

Babylonian tradition also says the cult statue of Marduk, chief god of Babylon, was carried off to Elam during this period, probably under Kutir-Nakhunte. Its loss was remembered as a national disaster.

Key people

• Shutruk-Nakhunte: Elamite king who led the raid and set up the captured monuments at Susa, presenting them to the god Inshushinak.
• Kutir-Nakhunte: His son and successor, who completed the conquest and ended Kassite rule.
• Zababa-shuma-iddin: Kassite king of Babylon deposed by the Elamites after a very short reign.
• Enlil-nadin-ahi: The last Kassite king, who held out for about three years before his defeat.
• Jacques de Morgan (1857–1924): French archaeologist whose mission recovered the plundered monuments at Susa.

Aftermath

Elamite control of Babylonia did not last. A new local dynasty, the Second Dynasty of Isin, rose in Babylonia. Its most famous king, Nebuchadnezzar I (c. 1125–1104 BC), invaded Elam around 1110 BC and brought the statue of Marduk back to Babylon, a triumph celebrated in later Babylonian literature. Elam itself soon entered a long period of decline and obscurity.

The monuments taken to Susa, however, stayed there. Over the following centuries they were buried in the debris of the city’s acropolis mound.

Rediscovery at Susa

From 1897 a French archaeological mission led by Jacques de Morgan dug at Susa on a large scale, using narrow-gauge railway wagons to remove huge quantities of earth. In 1898 the team found the stele of Naram-Sin, and in December 1901 and January 1902 it uncovered the stele of Hammurabi in three pieces.

Under the agreements of the time between France and Persia, these finds went to the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The excavators’ methods were rough by modern standards, but they recovered a remarkable collection of Mesopotamian masterpieces in an Iranian city.

Timeline

• c. 1185 BC: Shutruk-Nakhunte becomes king of Elam (approximate).
• c. 1158 BC: Elamite invasion of Babylonia; Zababa-shuma-iddin is deposed.
• c. 1157–1155 BC: Enlil-nadin-ahi resists until defeated by Kutir-Nakhunte, ending the Kassite dynasty.
• c. 1110 BC: Nebuchadnezzar I invades Elam and recovers the statue of Marduk.
• 1898: French excavators find the stele of Naram-Sin at Susa.
• 1901–1902: The stele of the Code of Hammurabi is found at Susa.

Why it matters

Shutruk-Nakhunte’s raid ended one of Babylon’s longest-ruling dynasties and shows how ancient kings used captured monuments as symbols of victory. By an accident of history, the plunder preserved the stele of Hammurabi and the stele of Naram-Sin, so that two of the most important works of Mesopotamian art and law survived in Iran.