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Bur-Suen

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Būr-Sîn
King of Isin
Cylinder seal of Bur-Sin
Reign21/22 regnal years
c. 1895-1875 BC (MC)
PredecessorUr-Ninurta
SuccessorLipit-Enlil
House1st Dynasty of Isin

Būr-Sîn (inscribed 𒀭𒁓𒀭𒂗𒍪 dbur-dEN.ZU), c. 1895 – 1874 BC (MC) was the 7th king of the 1st Dynasty of Isin and ruled for 21 years according to the Sumerian King List,[i 1] 22 years according to the Ur-Isin king list.[i 2][1] His reign was characterized by an ebb and flow in hegemony over the religious centers of Nippur and Ur.

Biography

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The titles “shepherd who makes Nippur content,” "mighty farmer of Ur," “who restores the designs for Eridu” and “en priest for the mes, for Uruk” were used by Būr-Sîn in his standard brick inscriptions in Nippur and Isin,[i 3] although it seems unlikely that his rule stretched to Ur or Eridu at this time as the only inscriptions with an archaeological provenance come from the two northerly cities.[2] A solitary tablet from Ur is dated to his first year, but this is thought to correspond to Abē-sarē’s year 11, for which several tablets attest to his reign over Ur.

He was contemporary with the tail end of the reign of Abī-sarē, c. 1905-1894 BC and that of Sūmú-El, c. 1895-1866 BC, the kings of Larsa. This latter king’s year-names record victories over Akusum, Kazallu, Uruk (which had seceded from Isin), Lugal-Sîn, Ka-ida, Sabum, Kiš, and village of Nanna-isa, relentlessly edging north and feverish activity digging canals or filling them in, possibly to counter the measures taken by Būr-Sîn to contain him.[3] Only nine of Būr-Sîn's own year-names are known and the sequence is uncertain. He seized control of Kisurra for a time as two year-names are found among tablets from this city, possibly following the departure of Sumu-abum the king of Babylon who “returned to his city.” The occupation was brief, however, as Sumu-El was to conquer it during his fourth year.[4] Other year-names record Būr-Sîn's construction of fortifications, walls on the bank of the Eurphrates and a canal. A year-name of Sumu-El records “Year after the year Sumu-El has opened the palace (?) of Nippur,” whose place in this king’s sequence is unknown.[4]

A red-brown agate statuette was dedicated to goddess Inanna[i 4] and an agate plate[i 5] was dedicated by the lukur priestess and his “traveling companion,” i.e. concubine, Nanāia Ibsa. A certain individual by the name of Enlil-ennam dedicated a dog figurine to the goddess Ninisina for the life of the king. There are around five extant seals and seal impressions of his servants and scribes,[5] three of which were excavated in Ur suggesting a fleeting late reoccupancy of this city at the end of his reign and the beginning of his successor's as coincidentally no texts from Ur bear Sumu-El's years 19 to 22 which correspond with this period.[3]

Inscriptions

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  1. ^ Sumerian King List, WS 444, the Weld Blundell prism.
  2. ^ Ur-Isin king list MS 1686.
  3. ^ For example, brick CBS 8642 from Nippur and brick IM 76546 from Isin.
  4. ^ Formerly in collection of Frau G. Strauss.
  5. ^ LB 2120 in the Lagre Böhl collection.

References

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  1. ^ Jöran Friberg (2007). A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts: Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection: Cuneiform Texts. Springer. pp. 231–235.
  2. ^ A. R. George (2011). Cuneiform Royal Inscriptions and Related Texts in the Schøyen Collection. CDL Press. p. 93.
  3. ^ a b M. Fitzgerald (2002). The Rulers of Larsa. Yale University Dissertation. pp. 55–75.
  4. ^ a b Anne Goddeeris (2009). Tablets from Kisurra in the Collections of British Museum. Harrassowitz.
  5. ^ Douglas Frayne (1990). Old Babylonian period (2003-1595 BC): Early Periods, Volume 4 (RIM The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia). University of Toronto Press. pp. 69–74.

See also

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  • Būr-Sîn year names at CDLI
  • An adab to Ninurta for Būr-Sîn at ETCSL
  • An adab to Enlil for Būr-Sîn at ETCSL


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