Eshnunna

Origins

Eshnunna, modern Tell Asmar, had been a city since the Early Dynastic period and a province of the Neo-Sumerian Empire. As Ur collapsed around 2028 BCE its governor Ilshu-iliya declared independence, and the city became the centre of a kingdom controlling the Diyala valley and the routes from Mesopotamia into the Zagros.

Rule and society

Its god was Tishpak, and its rulers styled themselves his servants before claiming full kingship. Under Ipiq-Adad II, Naram-Sin and Dadusha in the 19th and early 18th centuries BCE it expanded to the middle Euphrates and Assyria. The Laws of Eshnunna, found at Tell Harmal (ancient Shaduppum), set prices, wages and penalties in Akkadian and predate Hammurabi's code. Oriental Institute excavations in the 1930s also found the Tell Asmar hoard of praying statues.

Decline and legacy

Eshnunna fought Mari, Elam and Babylon for supremacy. In 1762 BCE Hammurabi defeated it and it became part of the Babylonian Empire; a later year name of his records the destruction of Eshnunna by flood waters.