Agum III
[Inscribed mA-gu-um in the ''Chronicle of Early Kings''.] was a
Kassite king of
Babylon
Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...
ca. mid-15th century BC. Speculatively, he might figure around the 13th position in the dynastic sequence; however, this part of the ''Kingslist A''
[''Kingslist A'', tablet BM 33332 in the British Museum.] has a
lacuna, shared with the ''Assyrian Synchronistic Kinglist''.
[''Kinglist A.117'', Assur 14616c, in the İstanbul Arkeoloji Műzeleri.]
Agum (usually called Agum III), son of
Kaštiliyåš, appears to have been one of the successors to
Burna-Buriyåš I, because he is mentioned in the ''Chronicle of Early Kings''
[''Chronicle of Early Kings'' (ABC 20) tablet BM 96152 in the British Museum, copy B, lines 16 through 18.] after
Ulam-Buriyåš, who was a son of a Burna-Buriyåš. Although this source does not give him a royal title, it is inconsistent in this regard and does say he called up his own army, ''ummānšu idkēma''.
Campaigns Against the Sealand and in Dilmun
Little is known about the king, with the only Babylonian reference to him from an expedition he led against "the Sealand", a region synonymous with
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...
, ca. 1465 BC, which is described in the ''
Chronicle of Early Kings''.
[ His invasion followed that of his uncle, Ulam-Buriyåš, described in the preceding lines of the chronicle, who had previously made himself “master of the land”, i.e. Sealand. Whether the campaign was against a competing Kassite kingdom, a restive province or a resurgent Sealand dynasty is not disclosed. He reputedly conquered the city of Dur-Enlil which is otherwise unknown and destroyed its temple of Egalgašešna, leaving him in control of all of southern ]Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
.
The excavation conducted by Béatrice André-Salvini (1995) in Bahrain, ancient Dilmun
Dilmun, or Telmun, ( Sumerian: ,Transliteration: Similar text: later 𒉌𒌇(𒆠), NI.TUKki = dilmunki; ) was an ancient East Semitic–speaking civilization in Eastern Arabia mentioned from the 3rd millennium BC onwards. Based on contextual ...
, yielded around 50 tablets some of which dated to Agum III, whose 3rd and 4th years are attested in the dates of texts found in the area of Qal’at al-Bahrain, when Kassite rule may have extended to the island. It has been suggested that following on from his successes conquering the Sealand, he crossed over to Bahrain, constructed a new palace and installed a local bureaucracy and by his 3rd and 4th years administrative documents began being dated to his reign.[For example, month of Ajaru, 19th day, 4th year of Agum, in tablet QA94-49, a record of delivery of condiments, sesame and black cumin.] The later kings Kadašman-Ḫarbe I and Kurigalzu I each have texts dated using the archaic “year name” style[Tablet Ni 3199: “The year Kadašman-Ḫarbe, the king, dug the canal of Diniktum; Tablet D85: “19th day of Šabatu, the year Kurigalzu built the Ekurigibara.”] and it is not until their successors, Kadašman-Enlil I and Burna-Buriaš II that regnal years count from the accession of a king.
Inscriptions
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agum Iii
15th-century BC kings of Babylon
Kassite kings