ROYAL CUNEIFORM BRICK - MESOPOTAMIA, c. 1860-1837 BC
Dimensions: 5 x 8 1/8” (125 x 202 mm)
An important 4000+ year old Mesopotamian (Isin/Larsa period) terracotta Cuneiform Brick of museum quality with royal dedication in Sumerian by Enlil-Bani of Isin, King of Ur, Sumer and Akkad.
The inscription translates as:
Enlil-Bani, the Shepherd (sage) of Nippur, the farmer (who Brings forth) mighty Barley for UR, who purifies the regulations of the city Eridu, agreeable Lord of the city Isin, king of Sumer and Akkad, favorite space of the Goddess Inanna.
ENLIL-BANI: A stroke of good “luck” and a peculiar Mesopotamian custom that backfired put Enlil-Bani on the throne. Whenever the omens were exceptionally bad, a king would place a worthless commoner on the throne as a "substitute king" in the hope that the wrath of the gods would fall on him instead. If nothing bad happened before the omens turned good again, they would sacrifice the substitute king as an offering to the gods (which also caused the death of the king as the omens had predicted). Consequently, in 1861 B.C. King Irra-Imitti put his crown on the head of a gardener named Enlil-Bani. Yet things did not go as planned. The real king died because "he had swallowed boiling broth." (Poison?) The lucky “king for a day” refused to step down and ruled for the next 24 years. Enlil-Bani was the last important king of Isin - the area was subjugated by Hammurabi of Babylon about four decades after his reign.
ISIN: Isin became the most powerful city in Mesopotamia during the two centuries after the fall of Ur. The rulers of Isin were the most powerful because they ruled Isin (the new capital), Ur (the old capital) and Nippur (the spiritual center). They claimed dominion over all of Sumer and Akkad: even though they were Semites, the rulers of Isin considered themselves the true heirs of Ur and took their title of "King of Ur, King of Sumer and Akkad". Their official inscriptions were in Sumerian instead of Akkadian, and they ordered the copying of all the great Sumerian literature. Dedications in the form of cuneiform bricks left in religious temples were a feature of the Isin/Larsa Period (2004-1763 BC).
