Well into the top half of the 12th century BC, the forever-war between Babylonia and Assyria continued to overshadow the reigns of many rulers. On the side of Babylonia, king Meli-Shipak II was succeeded by his sons, one upon the other, in Marduk-apal-iddin (1187-1175), and then Ilbaba-shum-iddin (1174). On the side of Assyria, Ninurta-apal-ekur was succeeded by Ashur-dan I (1175-1141).
One year into his reign, king Ashur-dan I pressed Assyria's armies into the borderlands of Babylonia, capturing many frontier towns. Upon victory, the young king pushed beyond the boundary between their nations to successfully lay siege to the city of Karduniash, where in the aftermath of its fall, looted all of its treasury, which was then transported back to Assyria. It's a wonder why the Assyrian king chose not to claim the city for himself, a risk in minimizing his victory to merely a glorified raid.
While Assyria appeared conservative in its military approach, the opposite could be said of Babylonia's eastern neighbor, Elam. Shortly after the success of Assyria's short military campaign, in that same year (1174), Elam's forces charged down from the mountaintops and into a monstrous attack upon Babylonia. Unlike their encroachments of the past, this was no ordinary raid.
Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, the king of Elam, invaded the heartland of Babylonia, where king Ilbaba-shum-iddin of Babylon was killed. The Elamite king along with his warrior-son, Kutir-nakhkunte, completely overwhelmed Sippar, despoiling the city of all its riches.
The attacks upon Babylonia by Assyria and then Elam were simply too much for the kingdom to endure. A century of occupation, war, chaos, and a looming threat of complete destruction to the cities and their people spelled out the fall of the Kassite dynasty that had ruled Babylonia for nearly six hundred years. A new ruling party, the Pashe dynasty, came to power and by 1169 began to take steps to shape the kingdom into a new Babylonia.
[SEAL OF THE KASSITES USED BETWEEN THE 16TH - 12TH CENTURIES BC]
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