Washukanni

Washukanni (also spelled Waššukanni) was the capital of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni, from around 1500 BC to the 13th century BC.

A map of Mesopotamia showing Washukanni, Nineveh, Hatra, Assur, Nuzi, Palmyra, Mari, Sippar, Babylon, Kish, Nippur, Isin, Lagash, Uruk, Charax Spasinu and Ur, from north to south.

Location

The precise location of Waššukanni is unknown.[1] A proposal by Dietrich Opitz located it under the largely unexcavated mound of Tell el Fakhariya, near Tell Halaf in Syria.[2] This position was supported by M. Oppenheim and more recently by others.[3][4][5] A neutron activation comparison with clay from relevant Amarna tablets appeared to rule out Tell Fakhariya.[6] This idea was also rejected by Edward Lipinski.[7] However, this identification received a new support by Stefano de Martino, Mirko Novák and Dominik Bonatz due to recent archaeological excavations by a German team.[8][9][10][11] This is counterbalanced by the fact that despite many seasons of excavations over the years no documentation of the name of the Mittani capital has yet been found.[12]

History

Waššukanni is known to have been sacked by the Hittites under Suppiluliuma I (reigned c. 1344–1322 BC) in the first years of his reign, whose treaty inscription[13] relates that he installed a Hurrian vassal king, Shattiwaza. The city was sacked again by the Assyrian king Adad-nirari I around 1290 BC, but very little else is known of its history.

Legacy

The modern-day Waşokanî refugee camp, built near Hesekê in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to house inhabitants of Serê Kaniyê and Zirgan who had been displaced by the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, is named after Waššukanni.[14]

See also

References
  1. Parrot André. Barthel Hrouda, Waššukanni, Urkiš, Śubat-Enlil, dans MDOG, 90 (janvier 1958) In: Syria. Tome 37 fascicule 1-2, 1960. pp. 191-192
  2. D. Opitz, "Die Lage von Wassugganni", ZA 37, pp. 299-301, 1927
  3. Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, Der Tell Halaf, Eine neue Kultur im ältesten Mesopotamien, F. A. Brockhaus, 1931
  4. E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, Die Mittelassyrischen Briefe aus Tall Šēḫ Hamad. BATSH 4, Berlin (1996)
  5. S. Jakob, "Zwischen Integration und Ausgrenzung. Nichtassyrer im mittelassyrischen ‘Westreich‘.“ In: W.H. Van Soldt (ed.), Ethnicity in Ancient Mesopotamia. RAI 48, Istanbul (2005), 181-188.
  6. Allan Dobel, "NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS AND THE LOCATION OF WASSUKANNI", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1976-12-01
  7. Lipiński, Edward (2000). The Aramaeans: Their Ancient History, Culture, Religion. Peeters Publishers. p. 120. ISBN 978-90-429-0859-8.
  8. De Martino, Stefano, 2018. "Political and Cultural Relations between the Kingdom of Mittani and its Subordinated Polities in Syria and Southeast Anatolia", in Changing Faces of Kingship in Syria-Palestine 1500-500 BCE, Ugarit Verlag, p. 38: "...the recent German archaeological excavations at Tell Fekheriye support the assumption that the capital of Mittani, Wassukkanni, was located there..." See also Novák (2013: 346) and Bonatz (2014).
  9. D. Bonatz, “Tell Fekheriye – Renewed Excavations at the ‘Head of the Spring.’” In: D. Bonatz and L. Martin (eds.), 100 Jahre archäologische Feldforschungen in Nordost-Syrien – Eine Bilant. Schriften der Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung 18, Wiesbaden (2013), 209-234
  10. D. Bonatz, “Tell Fekheriye in the Late Bronze Age: Archaeological Investigations into the Structures of Political Governance in the Upper Mesopotamian Piedmont.” In: D. Bonatz (ed.), The Archaeology of Political Spaces. The Upper Mesopotamian Piedmont in the Second Millennium BCE. Topoi Berlin Studies of the Ancient World 12, Berlin/Boston (2014), 61-84.
  11. A. Tenu, “Building the Empire. Settlement Patterns in the Middle Assyrian Empire.” In: B.S. Düring (ed.), Understanding Hegemonic Practices of the Early Assyrian Empire. Essays dedicated to Frans Wiggermann. PIHANS, vol. 125, Leiden (2015), 75-87
  12. Bonatz, Dominik. Middle Assyrian Seal Motifs from Tell Fekheriye (Syria), Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021
  13. Suppiluliuma-Shattiwaza treaty excerpts. GeoCities, archived at webcitation.org and archive.org
  14. "New tent city for displaced people from Serêkaniyê". Firat News Agency. Hesekê. 24 November 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
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