Marduk-bel-zeri
# Marduk-bel-zeri

Marduk-bēl-zēri, inscribed in cuneiform as $^dAMAR.UTU.EN.NUMUN$ or $^{md}ŠID.EN.[x]$ and meaning “Marduk (is) lord of descendants (lit. seed)”, was one of the kings of Babylon during the turmoil following the Assyrian invasions of Šamši-Adad V (ca. 824 – 811 BC). He is identified on a Synchronistic King List fragment as Marduk-[bēl]-x, which gives his place in the sequence and reigned around the beginning of the 8th century BC. He was a rather obscure monarch and the penultimate predecessor of Erība-Marduk who was to restore order after years of chaos.

## Biography

He is known from a single economic text from the southern city of Udāni dated to his accession year (MU.SAG.NAM.LUGAL). This city was a satellite cultic center to Uruk, of uncertain location but possibly near Marad, later to be known as Udannu, associated with the deities $^dIGI.DU$ (the two infernal Nergals) and Bēlet-Eanna (associated with Ištar). The document records the parts of a chariot including the wagon pole (mašaddu) which had been entrusted by Belšunu, the šangû or chief administrator of Udāni to the temple of $^dIGI.DU$ (Igišta, Palil?). He is tentatively restored to the Dynastic Chronicle where he is described as “a soldier” $(^{lú}aga.[úš])$ but his circumstances are otherwise unknown.

## Inscriptions

* 1 2 Tablet YBC 11546 in the Yale Babylonian Collection.
* 1 2 Dynastic Chronicle vi 2.
* 1 2 Synchronistic King List, tablet VAT 11345 (KAV 13), 2.
