Amurru (state)

Geopolitical situation in the Levant during the Amarna period , before Amurru came under Hittite influence.

Amurru describes a historical small state in the Levant in the north of today's Lebanon . The national territory lay on the Mediterranean between the city-states Byblos and Ugarit and reached in the north as far as the Mitanni empire. The state was alternately either independent, belonging to the Hittite Empire or the Ancient Egyptian Empire .

In the third millennium BC The Amurites appear in cuneiform documents as half-nomads invading Mesopotamia . Amurru himself is mentioned for the first time in the Amarna letters . At the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. (18th Dynasty, New Kingdom ) the area was under Egyptian administration . The first known kings Amurrus, Abdi-Aširta and his son Aziru , operated an independent foreign policy , which under Amenophis III. was pro-Egyptian. During the reign of his son and successor Akhenaten , Aziru concluded an alliance with the Hittites, which turned against Egyptian interests. After a campaign by Seti I , Amurru and Kadesh were briefly captured before the country fell back to the Hittites. Also Ramses II. Could briefly by King in his first Asian campaign Amurru Bentešina recapture. After the battle of Kadesch , Amurru again allied with the Hittites. At the time of Ramses III. Amurru was defeated by the Egyptians. It is not entirely clear whether the state fought on the side of the Sea Peoples . It is true that a gathering of the sea peoples in Amurru in the eighth year of Ramses III. reports what could indicate fighting. On a relief in the mortuary temple of Ramses III. however, the "wretched prince of Amurru" is shown together with other defeated enemies of Egypt. In the Canopus Decree , Amurru is equated with Syria .

Amurru was known economically for exporting Lebanon cedar wood , beverages and balsam .

List of famous rulers

• Abdi-Aširta (around 1380 BC)
• Aziru (1340-1315 BC)
• Ari-Teššup (1315-1313 BC)
• Duppi-Teššup (1313-1280 BC)
• Bentešina (1280–1275 BC, first phase of government)
• Šapili (1275–1260 BC)
• Bentešina (1260–1230 BC, second phase of government)
• Šaušgamuwa (1230–1210 BC)
• Maḫḫaza (from approx. 1210 BC?)

literature

• Raphael Giveon: Amurru. In: Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). Volume I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 , Sp. 251-252.
• Honigmann, E. Forrer: Amurru. In: Erich Ebeling , Bruno Meissner (Ed.): Reallexikon der Assyriologie . Volume 1, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Leipzig 1932, pp. 99-101.
• Yuan Zhihui: Amurru's Expansion and Egypt's Response in the Amarna Age . In: Journal of Ancient Civilizations . tape 19 , 2004, ISSN  1004-9371 , p. 21-31 .

Web links

• Chronology of Amurru (English)
• Hittite texts with reference to Amurru

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Raphael Giveon: Amurru. In: LÄ I. S. 252.
2. ^ Raphael Giveon: Amurru. In: LÄ I. pp. 251-252.
3. ↑ Kingdoms of Syria - Amurru . From: historyfiles.co.uk - last accessed June 8, 2017.

Coordinates: 35 °  N , 36 °  E