In the midst of the turmoil inflicted by the Aramean migrations and the famines that drove them, Eulmaš-šākin-šumi seems to have seized the throne and possibly moved his capital to Kar-Marduk, a hitherto unknown location presumed to be less vulnerable to invasions of semi-nomads than Babylon.
[2] An earlier character called Eulmaš-šākin-šumi, son of Bazi, appears as a witness on a kudurru[i 4] recording a land grant[3] of twenty GUR arable land to Adad-zêr-ikîša, where he is called (amêlu)šaq-šup-par ša mâtâti, “officer of the lands” and also another[i 5] confirming ownership of seven GUR of arable land to a certain Iqīša-Ninurta, where he is described as a sak-ru-maš, “chariot officer.”[4] He may also appear on another small broken kudurru,[i 6] if his name has been deciphered correctly, but these three are dated to the tenth (first kudurru) and thirteenth (second and third kudurrus) years of the reign of Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē,[5] too early to be this monarch if the chronology and sequence of kings currently favored is followed, but quite possibly an ancestor.
The Eclectic Chronicle[i 9] records that “(Marduk stayed) on the dais (in) the fifth year of Eulmaš-šakin-šumi, the king.
[6] The Sun God Tablet[i 10] of Nabu-apla-iddina relates that Ekur-šum-ušabši, the priest and seer appointed during the time of Simbar-šipak, complained that due to the “stress and famine under Kaššu-nādin-aḫi,” an intermediate monarch, "the temple offerings of Šamaš (had) ceased," prompting Eulmaš-šākin-šumi to divert flour and sesame wine from that allocated to the god Bel and a garden in the new city district of Babylon for ongoing provisions.
[7] The Dynastic Chronicle reports that “he was buried in the palace of Kar-Marduk.”[i 3] He was succeeded by Ninurta-kuddurī-uṣur and later Širikti-Šuqamuna, both “sons of Bazi.”