User:Ichthyovenator/Babylonian periodization

Prelude for a project to eventually improve Babylonian history coverage - dynasty II is omitted because it doesn't really work here (overlaps with I and III). The cultural/linguistic divisions are not very useful in terms of historical periodization, but it's an interesting disconnect.

Survey of sources
Brinkman (2017 - a chapter in this ) says the following:
 * "I turn now to questions of terminology and classification. The epoch under discussion here, besides being termed the Kassite period or the Kassite dynasty, is sometimes referred to as the Middle Babylonian period (i.e., a phase between Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian). “Middle Babylonian” is sometimes used in preference to the term “Kassite”—because of the latter’s possibly too specific “alien” connotation, which is discussed further below. “Middle Babylonian” itself is more often used to designate a stage of the language, again between Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian. There has been general agreement about the start of the Middle Babylonian dialect, roughly coinciding with the end of the Hammurabi dynasty. But the two major dictionaries of the language, the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD) and the Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (AHw), disagree as to where Middle Babylonian should end. The CAD ends it with the close of the Kassite dynasty (1155 or the middle of the twelfth century), while AHw extends the period down to the year 1000. This means that all texts written in the century and a half between these two dates are “mittelbabylonisch” for one dictionary and “Neo-Babylonian (or early NB)” for the other. This is not a trivial difference, since these 155 years represent a period of major literary creativity; and, as Heeßel has pointed out, they are a prime candidate for the time of canonization of certain omen series. I do not wish to advocate here in favor of one view rather than the other, but it would be worth reviewing the question again since the last serious detailed research on the subject was published in 1941. We should re-examine the language of texts over a longer transitional period (e.g., 1225–800), set more sophisticated standards for appraisal, and see how one might more plausibly evaluate the development of the language. Perhaps the difference in classification will not be really significant; but the shifting terminology can be confusing to those who use the two reference dictionaries, standard grammars, and syllabaries of Akkadian casually without a knowledge of the period(s) involved. Middle Babylonian, unfortunately, has also been used as an archeological term; and here the usage has been even less precise. We shall cite only a few examples. In his surveys, Robert Adams has assigned varying dates for Middle Babylonian: 1100–625 (in the Diyala), after the Kassite dynasty until 800 B.C. (in the Uruk area), after the Kassite dynasty until 700 B.C. (in the Heartland). Boehmer in his Uruk survey has referred to the Kassite and Isin II dynasties combined (1600–1030) as Middle Babylonian (mittelbabylonisch). Reuther in his Merkes volume on Babylon has distinguished a Kassite level, a Middle Babylonian-Assyrian level, and a Neo-Babylonian level. Pedersén in his catalogue of the texts excavated at Babylon distinguishes Kassite versus Middle Babylonian tablets (the latter clearly referring to post-Kassite texts in single entries in his catalogue); but he has included them all in one chapter which he labels simply “Das mittelbabylonische Babylon.” So the tendency, except for Boehmer’s Uruk survey and Pedersén’s expansive use, has been to employ Middle Babylonian to designate post-Kassite levels (or post-Kassite tablets). In other words, the term Middle Babylonian often has quite a different temporal sense when applied to archeological phases as opposed to written materials"

Possible approach
Least problematic option is probably to eventually cover Babylonian history in 4 main articles: Old Babylonian Empire (1894–1595), Kassite Babylonia (1530?–1155), Post-Kassite Babylonia (1153–626) and Neo-Babylonian Empire (626–539) - possibly also a Late Babylonian period for Babylon under the Achaemenids, Macedonians and Parthians.


 * Make Middle Babylonian period either into a disambiguation page, linking to both Kassite Babylonia and Post-Kassite Babylonia since it is in a historical sense variously used for either.