Marduk-bel-zeri
{{Infobox royalty
| name = Marduk-bēl-zēri
| title = King of Babylon
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| reign = 8th century BC
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| predecessor = Ninurta-apla-X
| successor = Marduk-apla-uṣur
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| royal house = Dynasty of E
(mixed dynasties)
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Marduk-bēl-zēri, inscribed in cuneiform as dAMAR.UTU.EN.NUMUNTablet YBC 11546 in the Yale Babylonian Collection.Dynastic Chronicle vi 2. or mdŠID.EN.[x]Synchronistic King List, tablet VAT 11345 (KAV 13), 2. and meaning 'Marduk (is) lord of descendants (lit. seed)',{{ cite book | title = A political history of post-Kassite Babylonia, 1158-722 B.C. | author = J. A. Brinkman | publisher = Analecta Orientalia | year = 1968 | page = 214 }} was one of the kings of Babylon during the turmoil following the Assyrian invasions of Šamši-Adad V (ca. 824 – 811 BC). He is identified on a Synchronistic King List fragment as Marduk-[bēl]-x, which gives his place in the sequence and reigned around the beginning of the 8th century BC. He was a rather obscure monarch and the penultimate predecessor of Erība-Marduk who was to restore order after years of chaos.{{ cite book | title = Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie: Libanukasabas - Medizin | volume = 7 | chapter = Marduk-bēl-zēri | author = J. A. Brinkman | editor = Dietz Otto Edzard | publisher = Walter De Gruyter | year = 1999 | page = 376 }}
Biography
He is known from a single economic text from the southern city of Udāni dated to his accession year (MU.SAG.NAM.LUGAL). This city was a satellite cultic center to Uruk, of uncertain location but possibly near Marad, later to be known as Udannu, associated with the deities dIGI.DU (the two infernal Nergals) and Bēlet-Eanna (associated with Ištar).{{ cite book | title = The pantheon of Uruk during the neo-Babylonian period | author = Paul-Alain Beaulieu | publisher = Brill Academic Pub | year = 2003 | pages = 289–290 }} The document records the parts of a chariot including the wagon pole (mašaddu) which had been entrusted by Belšunu, the šangû or chief administratorCAD, Š I, p. 377. of Udāni to the temple of dIGI.DU (Igišta, Palil?). He is tentatively restored to the Dynastic Chronicle where he is described as "a soldier" (lúaga.[úš]) but his circumstances are otherwise unknown.{{ cite book | title = Mesopotamian chronicles | author = Jean-Jacques Glassner | author-link = Jean-Jacques Glassner | publisher = Brill | year = 2004 | pages = 132–133 }}