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Sumu-abum

Sūmû-abum (also Su-abu) was an Amorite, and the first King of the First Dynasty of Babylon (the Amorite Dynasty). He reigned c. 1897-1883 BC (MC). He freed a small area of land previously ruled by the fellow Amorite city state of Kazallu which included Babylon, then a minor administrative center in southern Mesopotamia. Sūmû-abum (and the three Amorite kings succeeding him) makes no claim to be King of Babylon, suggesting that the town was at this time still of little importance. He is known to have become king of Kisurra. [1][2] An alternative view is that the Sūmû-abum controling Kisurra was actually a ruler in the 6th Dynasty of Uruk, preceding Sîn-kāšid.[3] He controlled the city of Dilbat 25 kilometers south of Babylon, recording the building of its city wall in his 9th year of rule.[4] In his 3rd year of rule he claimed to have conquered the city of Elip/Ilip, a major city of the Manana Dynasty.[5] By year 10 of his reign, Sūmû-abum had gained control of Kish, 12 kilometers east of Babylon, which had been controlled by the Manana dynasty for some time. It was then briefly lost to Larsa but recovered by Sūmû-abum in his 13th reigning year. While Kish was no longer a powerful city, it maintained its outsized symbolic importance. [6]

He should not be confused with Isi-sümü-abum of the same period who ruled a city as yet unknown.[7] On a tablet found at Sippar, BM 80328, there is a list of rulers of Babylon with 19 unknown rulers before Sūmû-abum.[8]

  1. ^ Rients de Boer., "Beginnings of Old Babylonian Babylon: Sumu-Abum and Sumu-La-El", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 70, The American Schools of Oriental Research, pp. 53–86, 2-18
  2. ^ Year names of Sumu-Abum of Babylon - CDLI
  3. ^ Tyborowski, Witold, "New Tablets from Kisurra and the Chronology of Central Babylonia in the Early Old Babylonian Period", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 102, no. 2, pp. 245-269, 2013
  4. ^ S. G. Koshurnikov, and N. Yoffee, "Old Babylonian Tablets from Dilbat in the Ashmolean Museum", Iraq, vol. 48, pp. 117–30, 1986
  5. ^ Stephen D. Simmons, "Early Old Babylonian Documents", Yale Oriental Series, Babylonian Texts, vol. XIV, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978
  6. ^ T. Clayden, "Kish in the Kassite Period (c. 1650-1150 B.C.)", Iraq, vol. 54, pp. 141–55, 1992
  7. ^ Charpin, Dominique and Ziegler, Nele, "Masters of Time: Old Babylonian Kings and Calendars", Time and History in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 56th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Barcelona, July 26th-30th, 2010, edited by Lluis Feliu, J. Llop, A. Millet Albà and Joaquin Sanmartín, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 57-68, 2013
  8. ^ Finkelstein, J. J., "The Genealogy of the Hammurapi Dynasty", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 20, no. 3/4, pp. 95–118, 1996

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