Kindattu

Kindattu
King of Elam
King of Anshan and Susa
King of Shimashki
The Lament for Ur, commemorating the fall of Ur to the Elamites. Louvre Museum.[1]
King of Elam
Reignc. 2004 BC
PredecessorLurak-luhhan
SuccessorIndattu-Inshushinak I

Kindattu (𒆠𒅔𒁕𒌅, ki-in-da-tu, also Kindadu, reigned ca. 2000 BC, middle Chronology) was the 6th king of the Shimashki Dynasty,[2] in Elam (in present-day southwest Iran), at the time of the third dynasty of Ur in ancient Lower Mesopotamia.

He is mentioned in the Shilhak-Inshushinak list of kings who did work on the Inshushinak temple in Susa.[3] Apparently, Kindattu invaded and conquered Ur (2004 BC), and captured Ibbi-Sin, the last of the third dynasty of Ur, and made him a prisoner.[2] The Elamites sacked Ur and settled there, but then were defeated by Ishbi-Erra, the first king of the Isin dynasty in his year 16, and later expelled from Mesopotamia.

The destructions are related in the Lament for Ur:

"The good house of the lofty untouchable mountain, E-kiš-nu-g̃al, was entirely devoured by large axes. The people of Shimashki and Elam, the destroyers, counted its worth as only thirty shekels. They broke up the good house with pickaxes. They reduced the city to ruin mounds. Its queen cried, "Alas, my city", cried, "Alas, my house". Ningal cried, "Alas, my city," cried, "Alas, my house. As for me, the woman, both my city has been destroyed and my house has been destroyed. O Nanna, the shrine Urim has been destroyed and its people have been killed.""

— Lament for Ur (extract).[4]

The Lament for Sumer and Ur then describes the fate of Ibbi-Sin:

An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursag̃a have decided its fate -- to overturn the divine powers of Sumer, to lock up the favourable reign in its home, to destroy the city, to destroy the house, to destroy the cattle-pen, to level the sheepfold; (...) that Šimaški and Elam, the enemy, should dwell in their place; that its shepherd, in his own palace, should be captured by the enemy, that Ibbi-Sin should be taken to the land Elam in fetters, that from Mount Zabu on the edge of the sea to the borders of Anšan, like a swallow that has flown from its house, he should never return to his city"

— Lament for Sumer and Ur (extract).[5]

An Hymn to Ishbi-Erra, although quite fragmentary, mentions the role played by Kindattu in the destruction of Ur.[6][7]

  1. ^ Barton, George A. (George Aaron) (1918). Miscellaneous Babylonian inscriptions. New Haven, Yale University Press. pp. 45–50.
  2. ^ a b D. T. Potts (2016). The Archaeology of Elam. Cambridge University Press. p. 135.
  3. ^ F.W. König, Die Elamischen Königsinschriften, Graz 1965; #48
  4. ^ "The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature". etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk.
  5. ^ "The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature". etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk.
  6. ^ Potts, D. T. (1999). The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. Cambridge University Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-521-56496-0.
  7. ^ "The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature". etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk.