Razama

Tell al-Rimah (also Tell ar-Rimah) is an archaeological settlement mound, in Nineveh Province, Iraq, roughly west of Mosul and ancient Nineveh in the Sinjar region. It lies 15 kilometers south of the site of Tal Afar in 1938. The site of Tell al-Rimah was excavated from 1964 to 1971 by a British School of Archaeology in Iraq team led by David Oates, joined by the Penn Museum and Theresa Howard Carter in the first three years. A large temple and palace from the early second millennium BC were excavated, as well as a Neo-Assyrian building. Tell al-Rimah also is known for having a third millennium example of brick vaulting. It has been suggested that the city-goddess of Karana was Geshtinanna in Old Babylonian times.

Although only a small portion of the palace was excavated due to it depth, a number of Old Babylonian tablets contemporary with Zimri-Lim of Mari and 40 tablets from the time of Shalmaneser I were found as well as other objects. Most of the Older texts were from the time of the Karana ruler, Aqba-aḫum with a few dating to the time of an earlier ruler Hatnu-rapi. The tablets are mostly administrative documents involving loans of grain or tin. The tablets also showed a thriving wine industry. A god, Saggar, known from Mari is also attested in the texts.

Among the finds were over 40 Middle Assyrian period faience rosettes with "transverse perforations on the reverse sides and a knob disc attached to their obverse sides".

History

Early Bronze

It appears that the site was occupied in the third millennium BC.

Middle Bronze

It reached its greatest size and prominence during the second millennium BC. The second millennium activity was primarily strong during the Old Babylonian (contemporary with Zimri-Lim of Mari, Hammurabi of Babylon and Ishme-Dagan of Ekallatum who was the son of Shamshi-Adad I) and Mitanni periods. In a letter found at Mari:

In the Middle Bronze period the site experienced widespread destruction and was abandoned before being re-occupied in the Late Bronze period. In the Mitanni period that followed the Old Babylonian occupation Karana is frequently mentioned in tablets found at the trading city of Nuzi and two Nuzi type tablets were found at Karana. The city was no longer fortified at that time but appears to have been quite prosperous. Another period of abandonment then occurred, followed by re-occupation on a much smaller scale in Neo-Assyrian times.

A notable find was a large archive of letters of Iltani, daughter of Samu-Addu, king of Karana from the Old Babylonian period. The archive covers about a four year period and amounts to about 200 tablets. It is known she had at least two sons, one named Yasitna-abum and a sister in Assur.
Another sister, Amat-Shamash, who was a priestess in Sippar who once sent her a gift of shrimp.

Her husband was Aqba-aḫum of Qaṭṭara who in a text found at Mari wrote to her saying "The ice (house) of Qaṭṭara should be unsealed, so that the goddess, you, and Belassunu could drink from it as needed. But the ice must remain under guard.". Another Mari text involving Iltani reveals that there was a version of the goddess Istar at Qatara.

An Old Babylonian period seal was found saying "i-lí-sa-ma- �sdumu iq-qa-at utu/iskur ir pí-it-ha-na," i.e, "Ill-Samas, son of Iqqāt-Šamas Addu, servant of Pithana" which has given rise to the suggestion that this referred to Pithana who was ruler of the Anatolian city of Kuššara, although that reading of the ruler's name is not certain.

Known rulers of Karana

*Samu-Addu - father of Iltani and Ashkur-Addu. fled to Eshnunna
*Hatnu-rapi
*Ashkur-Addu - son of Samu-Addu, brother of Iltani, father of Bini-shakim
*Aqba-hammu - husband of Iltani, vassal of Hammurabi

Samu-Addu held power in the last years of Shamshi-Adad of Ekallatum and may have been a vassal. With the death of Shamshi-Adad Mari, under Zimri-Lim expanded in the region and Hatnu-rapi, an ally of Zimri-Lim, took power. Hatnu-rapi was present at the sack of Shubat-Enil, the royal city of Shamshi-Adad. In a letter found at Karana:

Ashkur-Addu then deposed Hatnu-rapi, who fled to Mari. A clay sealing read "Bini-sakin, foremost son of the king, servant of Askur-Addu". A messenger text found at Karana "They have brought in four tablets of the governor of Susa in Elam.... I opened those tablets... but there was no news in them" showed the wide regional interconnections at this time. Aqba-hammu then deposed Ashkur-Addu and became a vassal of Hammurabi.

Iron Age

Neo-Assyrian Period

The site was lightly occupation in the later Iron Age Neo-Assyrian period.

The most notable artifact found was the stele of Adad-nirari III (811 to 783 BC), known as the Tell al-Rimah stela, which may mention an early king of Northern Israel stating "He received the tribute of Ia'asu the Samaritan, of the Tyrian (ruler) and of the Sidonian (ruler)" and contains the first cuneiform mention of Samaria by that name. On the side of the stele was an inscription of Nergal-ereš, who names himself "governor of Raṣappa". It has been suggested, based on the stele, that Tell al-Rimah has called Zamaḫâ at that time. A larger version of this stele was found at Dūr-Katlimmu.

Razama

Razama (ra-za-ma-a^ki) was an ancient Near East city which achieved prominence in the
Old Babylonian period and was capital of the land of Yussan/Yassan. It is currently unlocated. A complication is that there were two cities of this name in that period. It is known that at
one point the chief archivist at Razama, appointed by Shamshi-Adad I,
was a Sîn-iddinam. There is an unpublished treaty between Mutlya of Apum and Hazip-Tessup of Razamä. The city was
briefly controlled by Ishme-Dagan I, ruler of Isin, after attacking it with
the assistance of Eshnunna, before it was recaptured by Zimri-Lim.

A text found at Tell Leilan (Subat-Enlil) mentions a Hurrian prince of the Razama, Hazip-Tessup. A tablet found at Me-Turan carried a year
name of Silli-Sin, a ruler of Eshnunna who was a contemporary of Hammurabi, "Year Razama was smitten by weapons".

Razama is mentioned in several texts found at the site of Mari. In
the 10th regnal year of Mari ruler Zimri-Lim (c. 18th century BC) an army
led by Atamrum, king of Allahad and later of Andarig to attack Razama which
was ruled by Šarriya/Šarraya (Sharrum-kima-kalima), a vassal of Zimri-Lim. The army consisted of troops from Eshnunna and Elam. There was a long, and unsuccessful siege of the city. The defenders practiced a strategy of active defense "When troops arrived at Razama, when they arrived, the troops of the city came out and killed 700 Elamites and 600 Eshnunakeans". They also dropped
bitumen on the attacker's siege towers and burned them. After a siege ramp was constructed it was attacked:

Location of Razama

In a text found at Mari, Razama it states "500 Turukkeans made a raid below Ekallatum and Aššur and reached Razama" which would place the city south of those cities. Ekallatum
is unlocated but is known to be in the vicinity of Assur. In another Mari text a journey of
ruler Zimri-Lim has him taking the path "... Rassum, Tadum, Ilan-sura, Razama-of-Yussan, and Husla". In a messenger text from Mari a route is recorded of " he route of the messeners f the Yainites etween Ešnunnaand Karana, e made it known to me hus: (from Ešnunna) to DurSin; rom DurSin to Arrapha; rom Arapha o Kaa hum rom Kwalh mto Razama of the Yamutbal; from Razama of the Yamutbal to Karana; from Karana to Allahad. To the river bank: this is their route". A reconstruction of Old Babylonian period trading routes included one "ASSUR – Sadduatum – Razama sa Bura – Abidiban – Qattara – Razama sa Uhakim – Kaluzanum – Adubazum – Daraqum – Apum ...".Stratford, Edward, "Tempo of Transport", Volume 1 A Year of Vengeance, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 148-162, 2017

Tell al-Hawa has been suggested as the location. Tell al-Rimah has been proposed based on a tablet found in the palace area, Site C:

See also

*Cities of the ancient Near East
*Short chronology timeline

References

Further reading

*Battini, Laura, "La dernière phase du palais de Tell al-Rimah : nouvelle approche", Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie Orientale, vol. 95, no. 2, pp. 115–40, 2001
*Carter, Theresa Howard, "Excavations at Tell al-Rimah, 1964 Preliminary Report", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 178.1, pp. 40-69, 1965
*Carter, Theresa Howard, "Tell al-Rimah: The Campaigns of 1965 and 1966", Archaeology 20.4, pp. 282-289, 1967
*Stephanie Dalley, "Old Babylonian Trade in Textiles at Tell al Rimah, Iraq", vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 155–159, 1977
*Stephanie Dalley, C.B.F Walker and J.D. Hawkins, "The Old Babylonian Tablets from Al-Rimah", British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1976,
*Howard-Carter, T., "An Interpretation of the Sculptural Decoration of the Second Millennium Temple at Tell al-Rimah", Iraq 45, pp. 64-72, 1983
*Langlois, A. I., "Archibab 2. Les archives de la princesse Iltani découvertes à Tell al-Rimah (XVIIIe siècle av. J.-C.) et l'histoire du royaume de Karana/Qaṭṭara", Mémoires de NABU 18, Paris: SEPOA, 2017
* Barbara Parker, "Middle Assyrian Seal Impressions from Tell al Rimah", Iraq, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 257–268, 1977

arolyn Postgate, David Oates and Joan Oates, "The Excavations at Tell al Rimah: The Pottery", Aris & Phillips, 1998,
*J. N. Postgate, "A Neo-Assyrian Tablet from Tell al Rimah", Iraq, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 31–35, 1970
*J. N. Postgate, "An Inscribed Jar from Tell Al-Rimah", Iraq 40, pp. 71–5, 1978
*Joan Oates, "Late Assyrian Temple Furniture from Tell al Rimah", Iraq, vol. 36, no. 1/2, pp. 179–184, 1974
*von Saldern, Axel, "Mosaic Glass from Hasanlu, Marlik, and Tell al-Rimah", ''Journal of Glass Studies'', vol. 8, pp. 9–25, 1966
*C. B. F. Walker, "A Foundation-Inscription from Tell al Rimah", Iraq, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 27–30, 1970

External links

Rimah digital tablets at CDLI

{{Authority control

Rimah
Rimah
Rimah