Kassite Dynasty

The Babylonian King List places the Kassites as successors to Hammurabi's Dynasty, but their kings' reigns sum to over 576 years. Knowing that the Kassite Dynasty ended in 1155 BCE, a literal interpretation places the first Kassite kings of Babylonia as shortly after Hammurabi himself reigned. Thus, the King List includes not just Kassite kings of Babylonia, but their ancestors as well. It remains undetermined when or who was the first Kassite king of Babylonia. The Kassites were a distinct new population in Babylonia who spoke a language isolate. A few Akkadian-Kassite vocabulary lists exist, but no known works were composed in Kassite. Their kings took Kassite names exclusively until the 13th CENT BCE, at which time only a few took Akkadian names. Kassites had their own pantheon, known from their names, but only two temples were built and these were in the palace for coronation rites. Neighbors referred to the Babylonian king as King of the Kassites or King of Karduniash, a term which may have been Kassite in origin.

Like Hammurabi's Amorites before them, the Kassites ruled Babylonia but did not change its language nor religion; they controlled the government without leaving a cultural impact. However, the settling-down of formerly semi-nomadic tribes fundamentally changed Babylonia's social structure. Within the tribe, people were grouped according to their ancestor -- Bit + Name of ancestor -- though the ancestor may have been fictitious. Males were known as sons of the ancestor. When the Amorites and Kassites grew sedentary, each unit could grow to include several villages and fields. The unit had its own administration, including a chief. Even after the Kassites lost hegemony over Babylonia, they continued to live in the land and these units existed even without a Kassite presence in the state apparatus. Thus, the tribal influence on Babylonian social structure lasted long beyond the tribe's dynasty.

Babylonian cultural developments

Though Kassite rulers kept their own religion, pantheon and societal structure, they did not interfere with Babylonian cultural development. Their centuries of rule were crucial for the creation of a Babylonian literary corpus in the Akkadian language. Even the Sumerian language was not abandoned as an esoteric language of elite culture and the cult. Great works were preserved, with lines alternating between the Sumerian original and their direct translation into Akkadian. The production of Akkadian literature involved a great deal of creativity. A distinct literary dialect was developed, now known as Standard Babylonian. This remained the literary dialect for Assyria and Babylon for the rest of Mesopotamian history, with vernaculars leading to slight regional variations.

In the ensuing 1st MILL BCE, it was used as the language of royal inscriptions. The distinction between Assyrian and Babylonian literature is removed; Assyrian literature becomes fully inspired by the Babylonian tradition. In the 1st MILL BCE, Babylonian scribes were grouped into families whose eponymous ancestors were Sin-leqe-unninni, Hunzu'u, Eku-zakir and Ahhutu. It has been suggested that these families dated back to the Kassite period. The works from the Kassite period were dutifully copied, providing most of our copies of literature from that period. Literature provides insight into notions of the time. While Old Babylonian literature praised military and cultic acts, literature of the Second Isin Dynasty portrays man as at the sometimes brutal whim of the gods.