Larsa

Origins

Larsa was an old Sumerian city sacred to Utu (Shamash), whose temple was the E-babbar. After the fall of Ur, an Amorite chief, Naplanum, established himself there around 2025 BCE. Larsa long stood in the shadow of Isin until Gungunum, around 1932 BCE, seized Ur and its Gulf trade and claimed the old royal titles.

Rule and society

Larsa's kings ruled an irrigated plain of barley, dates and sheep, controlled canals vital to rival cities and used Sumerian for royal inscriptions and Akkadian for letters and contracts. Around 1834 BCE an Amorite leader from Emutbal with an Elamite name, Kudur-Mabuk, installed his sons Warad-Sin and then Rim-Sin I as kings. Rim-Sin's sixty-year reign was the longest in Mesopotamian history; he conquered Uruk and in 1794 BCE took Isin, uniting the south.

Decline and legacy

Hammurabi of Babylon besieged Larsa and captured Rim-Sin in 1763 BCE, absorbing the kingdom into the Babylonian Empire. Southern resentment surfaced later in revolts under Hammurabi's son Samsu-iluna, and the far south soon broke away under the Sealand dynasty.