Waššukanni (; and ) or Aššukanni (
Etymology
It has been suggested that the name Waššukanni is of
Old Indo-Aryan origin, and its original form may have been , composed of the Indic term , meaning , to which was added the Indic suffix , followed by the
Hurrian language suffix .
Location
The precise location of Waššukanni is unknown with most suggestions being in the general area defined by the Khabur River, a tributary of the Euphrates River, and the
Jaghjagh River in the upper Jezirah of Syria.
[Parrot André. Barthel Hrouda, "Waššukanni, Urkiš, Śubat-Enlil", dans MDOG, 90 (janvier 1958) In: Syria. Tome 37 fascicule 1-2, pp. 191-192, 1960] A proposal by
Dietrich Opitz located it under the largely unexcavated mound of Tell el Fakhariya, near
Tell Halaf in
Syria.
[D. Opitz, "Die Lage von Wassugganni", ZA 37, pp. 299-301, 1927] This position was supported by M. Oppenheim and more recently by others.
[Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, "Der Tell Halaf, Eine neue Kultur im ältesten Mesopotamien", F. A. Brockhaus, 1931][E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, "Die Mittelassyrischen Briefe aus Tall Šēḫ Hamad", BATSH 4, Berlin, 1996][S. Jakob, "Zwischen Integration und Ausgrenzung. Nichtassyrer im mittelassyrischen 'Westreich'", In: W.H. Van Soldt (ed.), Ethnicity in Ancient Mesopotamia. RAI 48, Istanbul, pp. 181-188, 2005] A neutron activation comparison with clay from relevant
Amarna tablets appeared to rule out Tell Fakhariya.
[[1] Allan Dobel, "Neutron Activation Analysis and the Location of Waššukanni", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Orientalia, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 375–82, 1977] This idea was also rejected by Edward Lipinski.
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.
[[2] 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, 2018][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, pp. 209-234, 2013][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, pp. 61-84, 2014][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, pp. 75-87, 2015] But despite many seasons of excavations, no documentation of the name of the Mittani capital has yet been found.
[Bonatz, Dominik, "Middle Assyrian Seal Motifs from Tell Fekheriye (Syria)", Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021]
On his way to conquer Waššukanni, Suppiluliuma I passed through Isuwa (east of Malatya, within the bend of the Euphrates), Alse (upper Tigris valley), Kutmar (on the Batman-Su ?) and Suta (on the lower Batman-Su ?) and then returns to the Euphrates and Halpa then "Piyasilis and Mattiwaza pass "Irrite and Harran" then wait in Irrite (Irridu) before coming to Waššukanni. This would suggest a location near Mardin.[Goetze, Albrecht", On the Chronology of the Second Millennium B. C. (Concluded)", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 63–73, 1957][Crasso, Daniela, "The Region of the Upper Euphrates: The Hittite Perspective", Entre les fleuves–I. Untersuchungen zur historischen Geographie Obermesopotamiens im 2, pp. 211-231, 2009]
In the original text:
Tell Farfara and Üçtepe Höyük (near Üçtepe, Bismil in Diyarbakır Province in Turkey) have also been proposed.[Buccellati, Federico, "Learning New Styles, Quickly: An Examination of the Mittani–Middle Assyrian Transition in Material Culture", Values and Revaluations: The Transformation and Genesis of “Values in Things” from Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives, edited by Hans Peter Hahn et al., Oxbow Books, pp. 29–46, 2002][Köroğlu, K., "Yeni kazı ve yüzey bulguları işığında Diyarbakır. Üçtepe ve çevresinin yeni Assur dönemi tarihi coğrafyası, Türk tarih kurumu yayınları 5, 45, Ankara, 1998][Ristvet, L. and Weiss, H., :The Hābūr region in the late third and early second millennium BC. In: W. Orthmann (ed.), The History and Archaeology of Syria I (Saarbrücken), pp. 1–26, 2005]
The large and relatively recently found, site of Koçlu Tepe has also been proposed.[Casana, Jesse, "Remote sensing-based approaches to site morphology and historical geography in the northern fertile crescent", New Agendas in Remote Sensing and Landscape Archaeology in the Near East, pp. 154-174, 2020]
The site of Tell al-Hawa in the Jazira has also been suggested.[W. Ball, "Tell al-Hawa and the Development of Urbanization in the Jazira, al-Râfïdïn 9, pp. 1-26, 1990]
History
Waššukanni is known to have been sacked by the
Hittites under
Suppiluliuma I (reigned –1322 BC) in the first years of his reign, whose treaty inscription
[Devecchi, Elena, "Details That Make the Difference: The Akkadian Manuscripts of the 'Šattiwaza Treaties.'", Die Welt Des Orients, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 72–95, 2018] relates that he installed a Hurrian vassal king,
Shattiwaza. The city was sacked again by the
king
Adad-nirari I around 1290 BC, and became an Assyrian provincial capital for a time before disappearing from history.
[Grayson, Albert Kirk, "Assyrian Royal Inscriptions: From the beginning to Ashur-resha-ishi I", Vol. 1. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1972]
Legacy
The modern-day Waşokanî refugee camp, built near
Al Hasakah in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to house inhabitants of
Ras al-Ayn and
Abu Rasayn who had been displaced by the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, is named after Waššukanni.
See also
Sources
-
Dominik Bonatz, "Waššukanni at the End of the Late Bronze Age: The Fate of a Capital City During Periods of Change", in Exploring 'Dark Ages' Archaeological Markers of Transition in the Near East from the Bronze Age to the Early Islamic Period, Benoit et al. (ed), Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, pp. 33–52, 2022
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W Mayer, "Taide Oder Wassukanni? Name und Lage der Hauptstadt Mitannis", in Ugarit-Forschungen. Internationales Jahrbuch für die Altertumskunde Syrien-Palästinas, vol. 18, pp. 231–236, 1986
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A. Moortgat, "Arch. Forschungen der Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung im nordlichen Mesopotamien", Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen 62, 1957
