A matter of life and death. The Akkadian verb dâku and Tukultī-apil-Ešarra IV*’s war with Mukīn-zēri (731–727 BC)

Edmonds, Alexander Johannes

Abstract

This note investigates the precise connotations of the Akkadian verb dâku 'to kill', demonstrating that its occasional translation as the non-lethal 'to defeat' is unwarranted according to present evidence. This has crucial consequences for the Assyrian invasion of Babylonia from 731 BC onwards, demanding a new chronology for the invasion's events. As a result, it can be shown that the preceeding Babylonian king Mukīn-zēri's reign actually overlapped with that of Tukultī-apil-Ešarra IV* (as implied by the Ptolemaic Canon), and that Mukīn-zēri only died in 727 BC in a siege, a scarce few months before Tukultī-apil-Ešarra IV* himself. This suggests that the Assyrian occupation of Babylonia was chaotic from the very outset, rather than only after Marduk-apla-iddina (II) took the throne in 722 BC.