Simbar-Šipak, son of a certain Erība-Sîn and soldier of the Sealand, founded a new dynasty at Babylon. Chronographic sources (including King List A [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/kinglists/kinglista/index.html]) state that he ruled Babylonia for either seventeen or eighteen years (1025–1008 BC). One text (the Dynastic Chronicle) implies that he was associated with the First Dynasty of the Sealand; he is said to have been a soldier "of the dynasty of Damiq-ilīšu," the third ruler of that earlier Sealand Dynasty. An inscription of the ninth-century Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) may allude to Simbar-Šipak. Assuming that the Babylonian ruler Sibir is the same man as Simbar-Šipak, then this king of Babylon may have captured the city Atlila, which was located in the land Zamua, to the northeast. The Dynastic Chronicle records that he was killed and buried in his palace. Because his immediate successor Ea-mukīn-zēri [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon3/rulers/eamukinzeri/index.html] is said to have been a usurper, it has been suggested that Simbar-Šipak was slain during a coup; alternatively, he may have been killed on the battlefield.
A few of his accomplishments on and off the battlefield have come down to us via contemporary and later sources. An official inscription of his (text 1 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon3/Q006279/]), which is known from two later copies, and a chronicle record that Simbar-Šipak completely refurbished a metal-plated throne of the god Enlil at Nippur. A kudurru (boundary stone) of the ninth-century king Nabû-apla-iddina [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon6/earlyfirstmillenniumrulers/nabuaplaiddina/index.html] states that he attempted to restore the sun-god's cult at Sippar after Aramean and Sutian invaders had greatly disrupted it.
For further information on the inscriptions of Simbar-Šipak, click here or the "Inscriptions" link to the left.
Browse Simbar-Šipak Online Corpus [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon3/pager/]
Jamie Novotny
Jamie Novotny, 'Simbar-Šipak (1025-1008 BC)', RIBo, Babylon 3: The Inscriptions of the Second Dynasty of the Sealand, The RIBo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2016 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ribo/babylon3/rulers/simbarshipak/]