In the case of Hammurabi's immediate successor, as has been pointed out, the equation Bel-Marduk is distinctly set down, but, for all that, the double employment of the name continues even through the period of the Assyrian supremacy over Babylonia.

The northern rulers now use Bel to designate the more ancient god, and, again, merely as a designation of Marduk.

Tiglathpileser I.( see note 1, below) expressly adds 'the older' when speaking of Bel.

When Sargon refers to Bel, 'the lord of lands, who dwells on the sacred mountain of the gods,' or when Tiglathpileser I.calls Bel 'the father of the gods,' 'the king of the group of spirits' known as the Anunaki, it is of course only the old Bel, the lord of the lower region, or of the earth, who can be meant; but when, as is much more frequently the case, the kings of Assyria, down to the fall of the empire, associate Bel with Nabu, speak of Bel and the gods of Akkad (_i.e._, Babylonia), and use Bel, moreover, to designate Babylonia,[152] it is equally clear that Marduk is meant.

In the Neo-Babylonian empire Marduk alone is used.
The continued existence of a god Bel in the Babylonian pantheon, despite the amalgamation of Bel with Marduk, is a phenomenon that calls for some comment.