The Turukkaeans were a Bronze and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

people of

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

and the

Zagros Mountains The Zagros Mountains ( ar, جبال زاغروس, translit=Jibal Zaghrus; fa, کوه‌های زاگرس, Kuh hā-ye Zāgros; ku, چیاکانی زاگرۆس, translit=Çiyakani Zagros; Turkish: ''Zagros Dağları''; Luri: ''Kuh hā-ye Zāgro ...

, in

South West Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes Ana ...

. Their

endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...

has sometimes been reconstructed as Tukri.

History

Middle Bronze

Turukku was regarded by the

Old Assyrian Empire The Old Assyrian period was the second stage of Assyrian history, covering the history of the city of Assur from its rise as an independent city-state under Puzur-Ashur I 2025 BC to the foundation of a larger Assyrian territorial state after the ...

as a constant threat, during the reign of Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1782 BCE) and his son and successor Ishme-Dagan (1781-1750 BCE). The Turukkaeans were reported to have sacked the city of Mardaman around the year 1769/68 BCE. Babylon's defeat of Turukku was celebrated in the 37th year of Hammurabi's reign (c. 1773 BCE). A significant early reference to them is an inscription by the Babylonian king

Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian: ; ) was the sixth Amorite king of the Old Babylonian Empire, reigning from to BC. He was preceded by his father, Sin-Muballit, who abdicated due to failing health. During his reign, he conquered Elam and the city-state ...

, (r. circa 1792 – c. 1752 BCE) that mentions a kingdom named ''Tukriš'' (UET I l. 46, iii–iv, 1–4), alongside Gutium,

Subartu The land of Subartu (Akkadian ''Šubartum/Subartum/ina Šú-ba-ri'', Assyrian '' mât Šubarri'') or Subar (Sumerian Su-bir4/Subar/Šubur, Ugaritic 𐎘𐎁𐎗 ṯbr) is mentioned in Bronze Age literature. The name also appears as ''Subari'' in ...

and another name that is usually reconstructed as Elam. Other texts from the same period refer to the kingdom as ''Tukru''.

Iron Age

By the early part of the 1st millennium BCE, names such as ''Turukkum'', ''Turukku'' and ''ti-ru-ki-i'' are being used for the same region. In a broader sense, names such as Turukkaean been used in a generic sense to mean "mountain people" or "highlanders". Elam1

''Tukru'' or ''Turukkum'' was said to have spanned the north-east edge of Mesopotamia and an adjoining part of the Zagros Mountains (modern Iraq and Iran). In particular, they were associated with the

Lake Urmia Lake Urmia; az, اۇرمۇ گؤلۆ, script=Arab, italic=no, Urmu gölü; ku, گۆلائوو رمیەیێ, Gola Ûrmiyeyê; hy, Ուրմիա լիճ, Urmia lich; arc, ܝܡܬܐ ܕܐܘܪܡܝܐ is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is ...

basin and the valleys of the north-west Zagros. They were therefore located north of ancient Lullubi, and at least one Neo-Assyrian (9th to 7th centuries BCE) text refers to the whole area and its peoples as "Lullubi-Turukki" (VAT 8006).

Hurrians?

In terms of cultural and linguistic characteristics, little is known about the Tukri. They are described by their contemporaries as a semi-

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...

ic, mountain tribe, who wore animal skins. Some scholars believe they may have been

Hurrian The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...

-speaking or subject to a Hurrian elite.

Footnotes

Bibliography

*German Archaeological Institute
Department of Tehran Archaeological releases from Iran, Volume 19
Dietrich Reimer, 1986 * Wayne Horowitz, ''Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography''. Winona Lake; Eisenbrauns, 1998. *Jesper Eidem,

Jørgen Læssøe Jørgen Læssøe (26 June 19242 February 1993) was a Danish Assyriologist and professor at the University of Copenhagen. He directed the Danish excavations at Tell Shemshara, uncovering an Old Assyrian palace complex and a substantial cache ...

, ''The Shemshara archives, Volume 23''. Copenhagen, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2001. *Jörgen Laessøe, ''The Shemshāra Tablets''. Copenhagen, 1959. *Jörgen Laessøe, "The Quest for the Country of *Utûm", ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', 1968, vol. 88 , no. 1, pp. 120–122. * Victor Harold Matthews, Pastoral nomadism in the Mari Kingdom (ca. 1830-1760 B.C.). American Schools of Oriental Research, 1978. {{ISBN, 0897571037 * Peter Pfälzner
''Keilschrifttafeln von Bassetki lüften Geheimnis um Königsstadt Mardaman''
(webpage; German language), University of Tubingen, 2018. * Daniel T. Potts, ''Nomadism in Iran: From Antiquity to the Modern Era''. Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2014. Ancient peoples of the Near East Ancient history of Iran States and territories established in the 2nd millennium BC States and territories disestablished in the 1st millennium BC Ancient Mesopotamia History of Mesopotamia

History

Middle Bronze

Iron Age

Hurrians?

See also

Footnotes

Bibliography