Šandabakku

The office of šandabakku, inscribed Sumerian: 𒇽𒄘𒂗𒈾, romanized: LÚGÚ.EN.NA)[i 1] or sometimes as 𒂷𒁾𒁀𒀀𒂗𒆤𒆠 (GÁ.DUB.BA.A EN.LÍLKI), the latter designation perhaps meaning "archivist of (the god) Enlil," was the name of the position of governor of the Mesopotamian city of Nippur from the Kassite period (mid second millennium BC) onward.

Enlil, as the tutelary deity of Nippur, had been elevated in prominence and was shown special veneration by the Kassite monarchs, it being the most common theophoric element in their names.

The term šandabakku first appears in texts from Mari, where it seems to represent a high-ranking administrative official, but it is not until the Kassite period that it became synonymous with the city of Nippur.

Only during the reign of Nazi-Maruttaš, were they held by separate individuals, with Nūr-Delebat and his son Ninurta-rēṣušu assuming the nišakku-priest position, the latter of whom naming Enlil-kidinni’s father Enlil-bānī and Amīlatum as ancestors, on his clay quadrangular prism,[i 2] a votive dedication to the storm-god Adad.

[3] The most prominent of the šandabakku officials were - Enlil-kidinni, who corresponded[i 3] and exchanged gifts with the Assyrian crown prince Enlil-nirari,[4] if his name has been correctly restored,[5] and, Amil-Marduk around a hundred years later, under whose rule Nippur experienced significant restoration work undertaken by servile laborers whose purchase documents and ration lists make up much of the so-called “governor's library.” In the later Achaemenid period, from the reign of Xerxes I, the title was replaced by that of the paqdu.