Gutians

Origin

Little is known of the origins, material culture or language of the Guti, as contemporary sources provide few details and no artifacts have been positively identified. As the Gutian language lacks a text corpus, apart from some proper names, its similarities to other languages are impossible to verify. The names of Gutian kings suggest that the language was not closely related to any languages of the region at the time, including Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian, Hattic, Eblaite, Amorite and Elamite, nor to the later arriving Indo-European languages, with scholars rejecting the attempt to link Gutian king names to Indo-European languages, whose date of arrival in the region is attested much later.

History

25th to 23rd centuries {{sc|BCE}}

The Guti appear in texts from c. 17th century BC purported copies of inscriptions proposed to be of Lugal-Anne-Mundu (fl. ) of Adab as among the nations providing his empire tribute. These inscriptions locate them between Subartu and Assyria in the north, and Marhashi and Elam in the south. This fragmentary text has been described as a "pseudoautobiographical literary composition".

Prominence during the early 22nd century {{sc|BCE}}

According to the later literary composition Great Revolt against Naram-Sin, Naram-Sin of Akkad's army of 360,000 soldiers defeated the Gutian king Gula'an, despite having 90,000 slain by the Gutians.

The much later Sumerian literary composition Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin claims Gutium among the lands raided by Annubanini of Lulubum during the reign of Naram-Sin (). Contemporary year-names for Shar-kali-sharri of Akkad indicate that in one unknown year of his reign, Shar-kali-sharri captured Sharlag king of Gutium, while in another year, "the yoke was imposed on Gutium".

During the Akkadian Empire period, the Gutians slowly grew in strength and then established a capital at the Early Dynastic city of Adab. The Gutians eventually overran Akkad, and as the King List tells us, their army also subdued Uruk for hegemony of Sumer, in about However, it seems that autonomous rulers soon arose again in a number of city-states, notably Gudea of Lagash, and Upper Mesopotamia and Assyria appear not to have been overrun by the Gutians.

The Gutians seem also to have briefly overrun Elam at around the same time, towards the close of Kutik-Inshushinak's reign (). On a statue of the Gutian king Erridupizir at Nippur, an inscription imitates his Akkadian predecessors, styling him "King of Gutium, King of the Four Quarters".

The Weidner Chronicle (written ), portrays the Gutian kings as uncultured and uncouth:

Decline from the late 22nd century {{sc|BCE}} onwards

The Sumerian ruler Utu-hengal, Prince of the Sumerian city of Uruk is similarly credited on the King List with defeating the Gutian ruler Tirigan, and removing the Guti from the country in (short chronology).

In his Victory Stele, Utu-hengal wrote about the Gutians:

Gutium, the fanged snake of the mountain ranges, a people who acted violently against the gods, people who the kingship of Sumer to the mountains took away, who Sumer with wickedness filled, who from one with a wife his wife took away from him, who from one with a child his child took away from him, who produced wickedness and violence within the country ..."|Victory Stele of Utu-hengal}}

Following this, Ur-Nammu of Ur ordered the destruction of Gutium. The year 11 of king Ur-Nammu also mentions the "year Gutium was destroyed". However, according to a Sumerian epic, Ur-Nammu died in battle with the Gutians, after having been abandoned by his own army.

A Babylonian text from the early 2nd millennium refers to the Guti as having : "human face, dogs’ cunning, [and] monkey's build".

Some biblical scholars believe that the Guti may be the Qoa, named with the Shoa and Pekod as enemies of Jerusalem in Ezekiel 23:23, which was probably written in the

References

References

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