ABSTRACT
The figure of the first Nebuchadnezzar preserved in the cultural memory of the literary texts had taken on a meaning that was just one cultural formation in a broader intellectual landscape that reinforced the elevation of Marduk. When assessing the evidence from Nebuchadnezzar's reign, it becomes more difficult to assert that there had been a royally sanctioned and programmatic attempt to impose Marduk's primacy throughout Babylonia. During both the rise and decline of the Kassite Dynasty that had preceded the Second Dynasty of Isin, its history featured episodes in which Babylon fell to invading armies. The notion that harm could only come to a city if the patron deity removed his or her protective aura and abandoned the city to its fate and traditions that articulated the hope for the deity's return persisted in Babylonian religious thought. The prevailing cultural mentalities provided Marduk with a template that explained the political fortunes of Babylon in terms of divine departure, and return.
