Explaining Disaster: Tradition and Transformation of the 'Catastrophe of Ibbi-Sin' in Babylonian Literature

The aim of this study is to investigate the philosophy and the reasoning that transformed the plain historical fact of the destruction of the empire of the Third Dynasty of Ur under its king Ibbi-Sin (ca. 2028-2004 BCE) into a balanced and logical model of crime and divine punishment in the course of Babylonian historiography. The study presents nearly 80 excerpts and new editions of Babylonian texts dealing with the fall of the "great city" under an "ill-starred king" by divine disfavour or wrath, among them full new editions of numerous historical omens, the Esa?il Chronicle, the Book of Prodigies and the Religious Chronicle. It also contains excerpts from cultic lamentations, the Royal Correspondence of Ur, the Marduk Prophecy, Chronicle P, the Chedorlaomer Texts and various royal inscriptions.