ABSTRACT
Following Mursili I’s expedition in Babylonia, Samsu-ditana continued to rule for a few years over a reduced and devastated kingdom. This situation paved the way for the rise of the Kassites, who had already attempted some military expeditions in Babylonia during the reign of Samsu-iluna. Unfortunately, we do not possess any information about the way in which a Kassite dynasty managed to establish itself on the Babylonian throne. Later chronicles would report that the dynastic sequence of Kassite kings had begun with some individuals (Gandash, Agum I and Kashtiliash I) that remain unattested in Babylonia. Hypothetically, they could have been contemporaries of the last kings of the First Babylonian Dynasty. These kings must have belonged to a Kassite dynasty that was already established, but was based in the original land of the Kassites, namely, the Zagros Mountains, and not in Babylonia. Be that as it may, the name of the Kassite conqueror of Babylon remains unknown to us.
