MITANNI
Location
:
Mitanni
Lands. Source: Wikipedia
The
kingdom of the Mitanni Indo-Iranian dynasty that ruled in the land
of the Hurrians was located in the upper Euphrates-Tigris basin
- land that is now part of northern Iraq, Syria and south-eastern
Turkey.
At
its greatest extent (for a brief period at the height of its dynastic
power), Mitanni territory extended to the Mediterranean coast and
into northern Assyria / Mesopotamia, it's south-eastern neighbour.
Mitanni's
north-western border with the Hattian kingdom of the Hittites was
fluid and constantly subject to aggression except when the two rivals
concluded a peace treaty - one that invoked the Indo-Iranian pantheon
of Mitra, Varuna, Indra and the Nasatyas - but also one that marked
the decline of the Mitanni kingdom and a decrease in size. The Mitanni
and Hittites were closely related. The Hittites used the Hurrian
language extensively in their inscriptions. They also shared in
the development of the light chariot whose wheels used spokes.
The
Hurrian lands are today a part of Greater Kurdistan.
Wassukanni / Washukanni - Mitanni Capital :
Reputed location of the Mitanni capital, Washukanni: Tell
Fecheriye, Syria. Source: Wikipedia
The Mitanni capital was Wassukanni / Washukanni and its location
has been determined by archaeologists to be on the headwaters of
the River Habur, a tributary of the Euphrates.
The
name Washukanni is similar to the Kurdish word bashkani, bash meaning
good and kanî meaning well or source (Kurdish has the same
name, kani, for well and source). The Luwian word vasu also means
good. The name is similar to the Sanskrit word vasukhani meaning
'mine of wealth'.
Some
believe the ancient city of Sikan was built on the site of Washukanni,
and that its ruins may be located under the mound of Tell Fecheriye/el
Fakhariya near Gozan in Syria. Other proposed locations for Wassukanni
are Rais el Ain in Syria (80 km. east of Akcakale, Turkey), and
further north near Diyarbakir (ancient Amida), a Kurdish city and
province.
The Mitanni Dynasty :
The Mitanni dynasty ruled over the northern Euphrates-Tigris region
between c. 1475 and c. 1275 BCE. While the Mitanni kings were Indo-Iranians,
they used the language of the local people which was at that time
a non Indo-Iranian language, Hurrian.
![](TushrattaLetter.jpg)
Tushratta's letter to Amenhotep III of Egypt. British Museum
WAA 29791
For a period, the extent of Mitanni control included parts of northern
Assyria, including the Nineveh and Ashur. However, after the mid-fourteenth
century BCE, Mitanni was plagued by a dynastic crisis and palace
intrigue. It appears that the young king Tusratta who had been installed
as a figure-head after the murder of his father, was not universally
recognized and as a result, he lost control of the Assyrian lands
at the outset of his reign. At the same time, in northeast Mitanni,
a rival named Artatama II seems to have created a kingdom of his
own and the Hittites invaded Mitanni - an attack that Tusratta managed
to repulse.
Despite
Tusratta's problems, he was not beyond offering his daughter Tadukhipa
in marriage to the King Amenhotep III of Egypt for a large quantity
of gold. The tablet seen to the right is a letter from Tusratta
to Amenhotep in which he asks for "gold in very great quantity"
as a bride price, supporting his request with the comment, "Gold
is as dust in the land of my brother."
The
beleaguered Tusratta was then murdered by his son in a palace coup.
Tusratta's other son, Prince Shattiwaza, fled Mitanni and was eventually
given sanctuary by the Hittite King Suppiluliuma with whom he concluded
a treaty c. 1380 BCE, which we know as the Suppiluliuma-Shattiwaza
Treaty (discovered in 1907 CE in Hattusa, near present-day Bogazkale
(Bogazkale, formerly Bogazköy) in north-central Turkey. In
the treaty, the Hittite King Suppiluliuma agreed to assist Shattiwaza
gain the Mitanni throne and invaded Mitanni. The Hittites captured
the Mitanni capital Wassukanni after a second attempt and installed
Shattiwaza as a vassal king.
The
Suppiluliuma-Shattiwaza Treaty is a source of considerable information
about the Mitanni. In addition, it gives us some astonishing information
about the religious practices of the Mitanni for it invokes the
Indo-Iranian pantheon of asuras and devas Mitras (il) (Mitra), Uruvanass
(il) (Varuna), Indara (Indra) and the Nasatianna (Nasatyas) (Ashwins).
Following
the capture of Wassukanni, the Hittites installed new rulers in
Mitanni towns while the Assyrians regained control of the territory
they had lost to the Mitanni. Tusratta was killed and his son Shattiwaza
became a vassal of the Hittite Suppiluliuma (c.1344 - 1322 BCE).
At the same time, the rebellious Artatama became a puppet king of
a reborn Assyria, led by king Assur-Uballit I (1364-1328 BCE). Wassukanni
was sacked again by the Assyrian king Adad-Nirari I around 1290
BCE, after which very little is known of its history.
In
our page on the Hittites, we note :
"In the Bogazkale archives, native Hurrian is used frequently
for a wide range of non-official texts such as those on rituals
and even the Epic of Gilgamesh - more so than native Hattian. Native
Hurrian texts have been found throughout the region. One such text
dated to 1750 BCE was found at Tell Hariri (ancient Mari), a Middle
Euphrates site, and another at Ras Shamra (Ugarit) on the Syrian
coast indicating Hurrian i.e. Mitanni influence in the region preceded
the rise of Hittite power. A similar language to Hurrian is the
language of Urartu located to the east of the Hittite lands at the
headwaters of the Euphrates and around Lake Van. According to the
literature (cf. The Hittites by O. R. Gurney, Penguin Books 1981),
The Hurrians were migrants to the Upper Euphrates and Habur basin
from the Elburz Mountains east across the Taurus Mountains from
about 2300 BCE onwards."
Famed Charioteers :
Mitanni
Chariot note wheels with spokes
The Mitanni were famed charioteers. They are reported to have spearheaded
the development of the light war chariot with wheels that used spokes
rather than solid wood wheels like those used by the Sumerians.
The
Mitanni name for chariot warriors was maryanna or marijannina, a
form of the Indo-Iranian term marya meaning 'young man," used
in the Rig Ved when referring to the celestial warriors assembled
around the Vedic deity Indra.
Expertise in Horse Training :
The Hittite archives of Hattusa, near present-day Bogazkale contained
what is the oldest surviving horse training manual in the world.
The elaborate work was written c. 1345 BCE on four tablets and contains
1080 lines by a Mitanni horse trainer named Kikkuli. It begins with
the words, "Thus speaks Kikkuli, master horse trainer of the
land of Mitanni" and uses various Indo-Iranian words for horse
colours, numbers and names.
Examples are :
A ssussanni a form of the Sanskrit asva-sani meaning 'horse trainer',
Aika wartanna meaning one turn (cf. Vedic Sanskrit ek vartanam),
Tera wartanna meaning three turns (cf. Vedic Sanskrit tri vartanam),
Panza wartanna meaning five turns (cf. Vedic Sanskrit panch vartanam),
Satta wartanna meaning seven turns (cf. Vedic Sanskrit sapt vartanam),
and
Navartanna meaning nine turns (cf. Vedic Sanskrit nav vartanam).
[Regrettably, writers do not mention the Old Iranian equivalents.]
A
Hurrian text from Yorgan Tepe also uses Indo-Iranian words to describe
the colour of horses, words such as babru for brown, parita for
grey, and pinkara for a reddish hue.
The
Kikkuli manual for training chariot horses highlights the links
between the Mitanni and Hittites. Even though they were rivals at
times, the two groups also collaborated frequently. The fact that
the Hittites employed a Mitanni as a master trainer of horses may
indicate that it was the Mitanni who were the regional experts in
horse training especially for military purposes (in a manner similar
to the Sogdians in the East) and that the Mitanni in turn had brought
the expertise with them in their migration westward.
The
methods used in the Kikkuli method enabled horses to be trained
without injury. The text detailed a 214-day training regime using
interval training and sports medicine techniques such as the principle
of progression, peak loading systems, electrolyte replacement, fartlek
training, intervals and repetitions and was directed at horses with
a high proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibres. the Kikkuli horses
were stabled, rugged, washed down with warm water and fed oats,
barley and hay at least three times per day.
Kikkuli's
interval training technique stressed the leading of horses at a
trot, canter and gallop, before subjecting them to the weight bearing
stress of a rider, driver or chariot. Workouts sometimes numbered
three a day with scheduled rest days. Kikkuli's interval training
contained three stages - the first two for developing strong legs
and a strong cardio-muscular system, and the third for increasing
neuromuscular conditioning. His workouts included brief recoveries
to lower the heart rate. Swimming was also included in intervals
of three to five sessions, with rest periods after each session.
The horses were also subject to warming down periods and the method's
example of cantering included intermediate pauses to lower the heart
rate partially and as the training advanced the workouts included
intervals at the canter.
Mitanni Indo-Iranian Names :
The names of the Mitanni kings and their capital city were
of Indo-Iranian origin. For instance, Tueratta was a form of the
Indo-Iranian Tves-rath meaning 'Possessor of a Chariot'. The name
S'attuara was a form of Satvar meaning 'warrior' and the name of
the Mitanni capital Wassukanni, was a form of Vasu-khani meaning
'wealth-mine'.
The
names of proto-Indo-Iranian dieties are also found to form the names
of the Kassite rulers of Babylonia.
Arta :
Several Mitanni names contained the Old Persian term arta, a derivative
of asha via arsha, meaning cosmic order and truth (arta transforms
to the Sanskrit r'ta). Arta is found used in Old Persian Achaemenian
names (e.g. Artakhshassa c.450 BCE) and in the Sogdian Avesta as
well. Asha is the central ethical concept of the Avesta.
Philologists
trace the Mitanni names to the Vedic equivalents. For instance,
they note that the royal name Artatama was a form of the Indo-Iranian
R'ta-dhaanman meaning 'the abode of rta', and the name Artas's'umara
was a form of Rta-smara meaning 'remembering r'ta'.
However,
for some reason, none of the writers that we have come across link
the name to their Old Iranian or Old Persian equivalents - equivalents
that will be closer to the Mitanni names as we have demonstrated
with the use of arta above.
Society Structure & Rule of Law :
Mitanni society was structured into classes, ranks, and professions,
in a manner similar to the Jamshidi system of professional guilds.
The judiciary was well organized and the records display a strong
emphasis on correct procedure.
Land Conveyance :
The aristocratic families usually received their landed property
as an inalienable fief, in other words, The land grant included
a provision that the land could only be transferred to children
of the owner - it could not be sold. Nevertheless, sellers and buyers
found a convenient work-around and the prohibition against selling
landed property was circumvented by the owner of property 'adopting'
the buyer for an acceptable sum of money. The wealthy landlord Tehiptilla
was 'adopted' almost two hundred times, acquiring tremendous holdings
of landed property in this way without interference by the local
governmental authorities.
Agriculture & Manufacturing :
The system of planting crops included a productive two-field system
of agriculture in which an agricultural plot was divided into two
fields where each field was cultivated only once every two years.
Records
indicate that sheep were bred for their wool on which an extensive
woollen and textile industry was based. The manufactured textiles
were collected by the palace were exported on a large scale.
According
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "glass was produced on a
large scale for the first time around 1600 BCE, perhaps in the Mitanni
state of northern Mesopotamia."
Trade :
Trade in the Euphrates-Tigris basin was conducted using the extensive
river network and the Mitanni controlled the river trade routes
down the River Habur to Mari and from there up the River Euphrates
to Carchemish. They also controlled trade along the upper Tigris
River and its headwaters at Nineveh, Arbil, Ashur and Nuzi.
Source
:
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/
zoroastrianism/ranghaya/
mitanni.htm