by
Damien F. Mackey
“BORSIPPA, the modern Birs Nimrud, city in Babylonia,
south of the city of Babylon and the river Euphrates, and connected with Babylon by the Barsip canal”.
Encyclopedia.com
If ancient Babylon was not in southern Mesopotamia, as I have recently suggested:
Correction for Babylon (Babel). Carchemish preferable to Byblos
(3) Correction for Babylon (Babel). Carchemish preferable to Byblos | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
then its closely related sacred city of Borsippa, likewise, will need to be re-identified out of that southerly region.
If that identification can be satisfactorily achieved, then it will add strength to my already proposed reasons in favour of a NW shifting of Babel-Babylon, these being, according to my article:
- The famous king Hammurabi, an Amorite, ought more appropriately be located well further to the west. This suspicion was greatly strengthened when I read Royce (Richard) Erickson’s earth-shaking article (2020):
A PROBLEM IN CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY
(3) A PROBLEM IN CHALDAEAN AND ELAMITE GEOGRAPHY | Royce Erickson - Academia.edu
calling for a dramatic geographical shift for Chaldea and Elam - and whose conclusions for these two countries I have since embraced.
- I had, previously, newly identified Nimrod’s Akkad with Ugarit (Egyptian IKAT), a Mediterranean port.
- I have returned to another early choice that I had as a candidate for Babel/ Babylon, and that is CARCHEMISH. Does not the Septuagint Isaiah 10:9 virtually tell us that Carchemish was Babylon, or Babel, with its Tower, by replacing the usual reading, “Carchemish”, with “Babylon”?:
- ‘Have I not taken the country above Babylon and Chalanes, where the Tower was built?’ Here we have connected together two of Nimrod’s cities, Babel (the Tower) and Calneh (Genesis 10:10).
- There is also the important element of “rivers” (Psalm 136:2 Douay): “Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion”. Carchemish rests by, or near, two well-known rivers, the Euphrates and the Khabur.
- The Book of Ezekiel opens with the prophet “by the river Kebar [Chebar]” amongst the Babylonian exiles (Ezekiel 1:1-2). The so far unidentified Chebar (×›ְּבָ֑ר) river here must surely be the Chabur (Khabur) near Carchemish.
- Then there is the name. Though “its meaning is doubtful”, one of its suggested meanings is ‘Tower of Chemosh” – the Tower again, but I am more intrigued by its acute likeness to Karduniash, another ancient name for Babylon!
- Historical parallel – which I regard as being just the one historical event – we have Tukulti-ninurta attacking Babylon and removing its Kassite king, Kastiliash so-called IV, in chains to Assyria; and we have Sargon II attacking Carchemish and removing, its Hittite king, Piyashili (Pisiri), in chains to Assyria. Spelt out, Tukulti-ninurta/Sargon II attacks and takes the city of Babylon/ Carchemish and captures the Kassite/Hittite king, Kashtiliash/Piyasili, taking him in chains to Assyria.
Kasht ili ash
Piy ash ili
Borsippa as Til Barsip
We may well find the name Borsippa reproduced in Til Barsip (modern Tall al-Ahmar), located about 20 kilometres south of Carchemish.
Situationally, this accords very well with the conventional Borsippa (Birs Nimrud), which is located about 18 kilometres SW of Babylon.
And both Til Barsip and Birs Nimrud are to be found to the east of the Euphrates River.
Borsippa was closely connected with Babylon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borsippa
“Borsippa is mentioned, usually in connection with Babylon, in texts from the Third Dynasty of Ur through the Seleucid Empire and even in early Islamic texts. It is also mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 36a, Avodah Zarah 11b) and other rabbinic literature. Borsippa was dependent upon Babylon and was never the seat of a regional power”.
Note, moreover, Til Barsip has the exact same name as the “Barsip canal” presumably linking Borsippa to Babylon.
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