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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.
It has been proposed that its ancient name in the 2nd millennium BC was Karana or Qattara or Razama. Karana and Qattara were very close together and thought to be part of a small kingdom.Charpin, Dominique, and Jean-Marie Durand, "Le nom antique de Tell Rimāh", Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie Orientale, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 125–46, 1987 It has also been suggested that the site's name in the 1st Millennium BC was Zamaḫâ. It is near the circular walled similar archaeological sites of Tell Hadheil, a large Early Dynastic site with Old Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian occupation, and Tell Huweish. Tell Hamira, known earlier as Tell Abu Hamira, is 16 kilometers to the east and has also been suggested as the site of Karana.
Currently, archaeology leans toward Qattara as the ancient name of Tell Al-Rimah.Nashef, Khaled, "Qaṭṭarā and Karanā", Die Welt Des Orients, vol. 19, 1988, pp. 35–39, 1988
The region was originally surveyed by Seton Lloyd in 1938.Seton Lloyd, "Some Ancient Sites in the Sinjar district, Iraq", vol. 5, pp. 123ff, 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.David Oates, "The Excavations at Tell al Rimah: 1964", Iraq, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 62-68, 1965David Oates, "The Excavations at Tell al Rimah, 1965", Iraq, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 122-139, 1966David Oates, "The Excavations at Tell al Rimah, 1966", Iraq, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 70-96, 1967David Oates, "The Excavations at Tell al Rimah: 1967", Iraq, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 115-138, 1968David Oates, "The Excavations at Tell al Rimah, 1968", Iraq, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 1-26, 1970David Oates, "The Excavations at Tell al Rimah: 1971, Iraq", vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 77-86, 1972 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.Barbara Parker, "Cylinder Seals from Tell al Rimah, Iraq", vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 21-38, 1975 It has been suggested that the city-goddess of Karana was Geshtinanna in Old Babylonian times.Dalley, Stephanie, "Cults and Beliefs", Mari and Karana: Two Old Babylonian Cities: With a New Introduction by the Author, Piscataway, NJ, USA: Gorgias Press, pp. 112-138, 2002
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.H. W. F. Saggs, "The Tell al Rimah Tablets: 1965, Iraq", vol. 30, vo. 2, pp. 154-174, 1968D. J. Wiseman, "The Tell al Rimah Tablets: 1966, Iraq", vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 175-205, 1968Stephanie Page, "The Tablets from Tell Al-Rimah 1967: A Preliminary Report", Iraq, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 87-97, 1968 The tablets also showed a thriving wine industry.McGovern, Patrick E., "Wine and the Great Empires of the Ancient Near East", Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 167-209, 2019 A god, Saggar, known from Mari is also attested in the texts.Archi, Alfonso, "Studies in the Pantheon of Ebla", Ebla and Its Archives: Texts, History, and Society, Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 592-600, 2015
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".Puljiz, Ivana, "Faience for the empire: A Study of Standardized Production in the Middle Assyrian State", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 111, no. 1, pp. 100-122, 2021
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.Dalley, Stephanie, "The Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age", Mari and Karana: Two Old Babylonian Cities: With a New Introduction by the Author, Piscataway, NJ, USA: Gorgias Press, pp. 179-207, 2002
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.Jesper Eidem, "Some Remarks on the Iltani Archive from Tell al Rimah", Iraq, vol. 51, pp. 67–78, 1989Langlois, Anne-Isabelle, "'You Had None of a Woman's Compassion': Princess Iltani from her Archive Uncovered at Tell al-Rimah (18th Century BCE)", Gender and methodology in the ancient Near East: Approaches from Assyriology and beyond 10, 2018 It is known she had at least two sons, one named Yasitna-abum and a sister in Assur.Stol, Marten, "The court and the harem before 1500 BC", Women in the Ancient Near East, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 459-511, 2016 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.".Sasson, Jack M., "Religion". From the Mari Archives: An Anthology of Old Babylonian Letters, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 235-293, 2015 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-ás dumu 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.Lacambre, Denis, and Werner Nahm, "Pithana, an Anatolian Ruler in the Time of Samsuiluna of Babylon: New Data From Tell Rimah (Iraq)", Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie Orientale, vol. 109, pp. 17–28, 2015Frayne, Douglas, "Qaṭṭarā / Karanā", Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 B.C.): Early Periods, Volume 4, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 737-747, 1990
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 Tell Leilan, 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.
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".Page, Stephanie, "A Stela of Adad-Nirari III and Nergal-Ereš from Tell al Rimah", Iraq, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 139–53, 1968Shea, William H., "Adad-Nirari III and Jehoash of Israel", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 101–13, 1978Parpola, Simo, "The Location of Raṣappa", At the Dawn of History: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of J. N. Postgate, edited by Yağmur Heffron, Adam Stone and Martin Worthington, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 393-412, 2017 It has been suggested, based on the stele, that Tell al-Rimah has called Zamaḫâ at that time.May, Natalie N., "'The True Image of the God…:' Adoration of the King's Image, Assyrian Imperial Cult and Territorial Control", Tales of Royalty: Notions of Kingship in Visual and Textual Narration in the Ancient Near East, edited by Elisabeth Wagner-Durand and Julia Linke, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 185-240, 2020 A larger version of this stele was found at Dūr-Katlimmu.Radner, Karen, "The Stele of Adad-nērārī III and Nergal-ēreš from Dūr-Katlimmu (Tell Šaiḫ Ḥamad)", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 265-277, 2012
A text found at Tell Leilan (Subat-Enlil) mentions a Hurrian prince of the Razama, Hazip-Tessup.Salvini, Mirjo, "The earliest evidences of the Hurrians before the formation of the reign of Mittanni", Urkesh and the Hurrians Studies in Honor of Lloyd Cotsen, Urkesh/Mozan Studies Bibliotheca Mesopotamica. Malibu: Undena Publications, pp. 99-115, 1998 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".Muhamed, Ahmad Kamil, "Old Babylonian Cuneiform Texts from the Hamrin Basin: Tell Hadad", Edubba, vol. 1. London: NABU, 1992
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.Charpin, D. – Ziegler, N., "Mari et le Proche-Orient à l'époque amorrite", Essai d'histoire politique (FM V), Paris, 2003Heimpel, W., "Letters to the King of Mari", Winona Lake, 2003Archi, Alfonso, "Men at War in the Ebla Period: On the Unevenness of the written Documentation", Ebla and Its Archives: Texts, History, and Society, Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 262-291, 2015 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.Sasson, Jack M., "Siege Mentality: Fighting at the City Gate in the Mari Archives", Marbeh Ḥokmah: Studies in the Bible and the Ancient Near East in Loving Memory of Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, edited by Shamir Yonah, Edward L. Greenstein, Mayer I. Gruber, Peter Machinist and Shalom M. Paul, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 465-478, 2015 After a siege ramp was constructed it was attacked:
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:
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