Shutruk-Nahhunte I

He left behind a huge number of inscriptions. The inscriptions of Shutrok-Nahhunta allow us to conclude that the true passion for collecting monuments characteristic of this Elamite king is. This passion was very useful for historians, because the tsar, as a rule, inscribed steles and thereby made them sources of interesting messages. It is unlikely that another Elamite ruler transported so many monuments to Susa as a gift to the temple of Inshushinak, as Shutruk-Nahhunte did.

So from the Ayahitek (possibly modern Isfahan ), the stele of the earlier king Pakhir-ishshan was brought and inscribed Shutrok-Nahhunte. Due to damage to the inscription and the very complex Elamite vocabulary, a lot of it, unfortunately, has not yet been deciphered. The king first of all reports in her that he ordered the stele to be transported from Ayahitek to Susa. Then he continues: “I, Shutruk-Nahhunte, the son of Hallutush-Inshushinaka, the king of Anshan and Suz, have increased the wealth of my kingdom. Of the former kings, not one knew the location (stele) of their "forest warriors". I, Shutrok-Nahhunte, appealed to my god, Inshushinak, since he protects me; he heeded my plea and indicated to my "forest warriors" their refuge . " Further, the king reports that, with the help of Inshushinak, he conquered a number of cities and localities (Teida, Hashmar, Shahnam and others whose localization is not entirely clear are listed), reached Ayahitek and included the conquered land in his kingdom. The fact that the inhabitants of this land once abducted, he, Shutok-Nahhunte, again returned. The end of the inscription is destroyed and is especially difficult to decipher. However, one can still make out that among the trophies captured by the Elamite warriors, there were 30 measures of copper and 2455 measures of grain (?). And the fact that 3415 "forest warriors" were sent to capture this stele.

Through the efforts of Shutok-Nakhkhunte, a stele from the mountain Anshan turned out to be in the capital. “I don’t know the king who installed it,” appears in his inscription. The memorial stele Untash-Napirishi from Dur-Untash was also transferred to Susa. The justification of the stele collector was disarming: “This monument was erected by Untash Napirisha in the holy district. "At the behest of God Inshushinak, I, Shutok-Nahhunte, appropriated a stele for myself and placed it in Susa before my god Inshushinak . " One of the documents was found in Liyana (present-day Bushir) , where it is reported that the temple built by Humban Numena I in Liyana , dedicated to the goddess Kirirish, again fell into disrepair. Shutruk-Nahhunte made sure that he was restored.

Shutruk-Nahhunte I took care to preserve the inscriptions of the earlier Elamite kings. When he intended to restore the temple of Manzat (wife of Simut) in Susa, he came across bricks with inscriptions of previous kings. “I took these bricks for my protection,” says Shutok-Nahhunte, “and kept the names and titles (of those rulers), and left what they wrote at the temple. Then I ordered that my name be entered and bricked up here. ”

Apparently Jutruk-Nahhunta managed to end the internal turmoil and unite the whole country under the auspices of his power. The calm situation in the state allowed him to turn his eyes to Mesopotamia . His contemporary was the Assyrian king Ashur-dan I , in which Assyria began to gradually recover from the period of frequent change of rulers. Babylonia was still weak, and Ashur-dan, without much effort, recaptured her lands in the region of Lower Zaba . The Elamites took advantage of this defeat of the Babylonians.

Around 1160 BC e. Shutruk-Nahhunte, along with his eldest son Kutir-Nahhunte I crossed the Kerch and, passing the entire area of Der , entered Babylonia . Later Babylonian records recorded horrific memories of the Elamites descending "on horse-drawn chariots from the mountains . " The Babylonian rulers were put to death; "The hostile Elamite robbed all the temples, appropriated their property, took everything to Elam . " Unfortunately, very little has come to us from the military communications of Shutruk-Nahhunte itself, however, according to some surviving fragments, it can be concluded that several hundred Babylonian settlements were captured by Elam forces. In Babylon itself, the Elamite king expelled Zabab-noise-iddin from the penultimate king of Kassit, and proclaimed his own son, Kutir-Nahhunte, ruler of Babylon.

From the capital of Babylon, Jutruk-Nahhunte triumphantly continued his offensive. “God Inshushinak patronized me. I defeated Akkad , I appropriated the statue of Manistusha and transported it to Elam . ” This is reported by the inscription Shutrok-Nahhunte on the statue of Manistusu, taken by the Elamite king to Susa. From Akkad he moved to neighboring Sippar : "God Inshushinak patronized me, and I defeated Sippap, I captured the stele representing Naram-Suen , appropriated it and transported it to Elam, and then installed it in front of my god Inshushinak . " Shutruk-Nahhunte imposed a huge tribute on the vanquished. The cities of Babylonia, the inscription on the wreckage mentions Dur-Kurigalsa , Upi , Dur-Sharrukin, Sippar, along with other tribute, had to get 120 talents (about 3600 kg) of gold and 480 talents (14,400 kg) of silver, for the then conditions monstrous amounts. In Sippar, the king of Elam fell into the hands of an obelisk with the famous Hammurabi Codex . True, Shutruk-Nakhkhunte ordered 7 out of 51 columns of the Akkadian code to be erased, but then he himself did not put any inscription on the obelisk.

After Shutruk-Nahhunte, obviously, everything is the same, 1160 BC. e. returned home to Susa, his heir Kutir-Nahhunte introduced a brutal Elamite regime of power in Babylonia. Since the situation was not yet stable, he prudently seated on the throne in Babylon the cassit Ellil-nadin-ahhe , who was supposed to take care of order as a vassal of Elam. How events developed in Mesopotamia in the future, it becomes known only from the records of the king of Babylon, the outstanding Nebuchadnezzar I , who ruled some time later. Nebuchadnezzar reports that Shutruk-Nahhunte transferred dominion over Babylonia to “his first-born son Kutir-Nahhunta” . “However, his crimes far exceeded the atrocities of his ancestors. He was hostile to the country of Akkad and seated (in Babylon) on the throne of one of my predecessors, Elill-nadin-akhhe . " This last Kassite king, however, soon rebelled against his Elamite lord. For three years, Kutir Nahhunte was forced to fight against the rebellious Babylonians. Then in 1157 BC e. he managed to win a decisive victory. The last cassite was forced to go to the Elamite exile. “Kutir-Nahhunte was angry (at the Kassites) and, like a global flood, dared the entire population from Akkad. He turned Babylon and other famous centers of worship into heaps of ruins. He forced the great god Marduk to leave the throne of his greatness. He hijacked the people of Sumer and Akkad as a prisoner in Elam. Ellil-nadin-ahhe he also fired, destroyed his kingdom, put an end to his domination. He appointed the governor, but not of Babylonian descent, but the enemy of Marduk . "

Although in 1157 BC. e. and the end of Cassitic domination came, however, Elam, in spite of this, could not maintain unlimited power over Babylonia. The sorrow and bitterness of the population over the Elamite atrocities, especially due to the forcible abduction of the statue of Marduk from Babylon, served as a fertile ground for the emergence of resistance, by using which the Babylonian Marduk-kabit-akheshu could establish a new dynasty in Yixing . And, although the Elamites made every effort to defend Babylonia, more than once making sudden raids, however, Elam still failed to overthrow the Second Dynasty of Isin. King Jutruk-Nahhunte, a few years after the fall of Kassi domination in Babylonia, apparently died around 1155 BC. e.

• Kutir Nahhunte I
• Shilhak-Inshushinak
• Shimutnikatash

Shutruk-Nahhunte is mentioned in the film The Imperial Club , being a very iconic, albeit completely symbolic, figure of the plot.

• Hinz V. The State of Elam / Per. with him. L. L. Shokhina. - M .: The main edition of the eastern literature of the publishing house "Science", 1977. - 191 p.
• Ancient East and antiquity . // Rulers of the World. Chronological and genealogical tables on world history in 4 vols. / Compiled by V.V. Erlikhman . - T. 1.