Top: An inscription dated c. 2130 BC, mentioning the Gutians: "
Lugalanatum, prince of
Umma ... built the E.GIDRU [Sceptre] Temple at
Umma, buried his foundation deposit [and] regulated the orders. At that time,
Siium was king of Gutium." The name 𒄖𒋾𒌝𒆠, gu-ti-umKI appears in the last column.
Louvre Museum. Bottom: Approximate location of original Gutium territory
The Guti (/ˈɡuːti/), also known by the derived
exonymsGutians or Guteans, were a people of the ancient Near East. Their homeland was known as Gutium (
Sumerian: 𒄖𒌅𒌝𒆠, GutūmKI or 𒄖𒋾𒌝𒆠, GutiumKI).[1][2]
Conflict between people from Gutium and the
Akkadian Empire has been linked to the collapse of the empire, towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Guti subsequently overran southern
Mesopotamia and formed the
Gutian dynasty of Sumer. The
Sumerian king list suggests that the Guti ruled over
Sumer for several generations following the fall of the Akkadian Empire.[3]
By the 1st millennium BC, usage of the name Gutium, by the peoples of lowland
Mesopotamia, had expanded to include all of western
Media, between the
Zagros Mountains and the
Tigris River. Various tribes and places to the east and northeast were often referred to as Gutians or Gutium.[4] For example, Assyrian royal annals use the term Gutians in relation to populations known to have been
Medes or
Mannaeans. As late as the reign of
Cyrus the Great of Persia, the famous general
Gubaru (Gobryas) was described as the "governor of Gutium".[5]
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.[6] 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, including
Sumerian,
Akkadian,
Hurrian,
Hittite, and
Elamite. Most scholars reject the attempt to link Gutian king names to Indo-European languages.[7]
Sargon the Great (r. circa 2340 – 2284 BC) also mentions them among his subject lands, listing them between
Lullubi,
Armanum and
Akkad to the north; Nikku and
Der to the south. According to one stele,
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 epic Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin claims Gutium among the lands raided by
Annubanini of
Lulubum during the reign of
Naram-Sin (c. 2254–2218 BC).[10] 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".[11]
Votive macehead of Gutian king
La-erabum, and its inscription "La-eraab, great King of Gutiim" (𒆷𒂍𒊏𒀊 𒁕𒈝 𒈗 𒄖𒋾𒅎la-e-ra-ab da-num lugal gutiim). The name is quite damaged, and was initially read "Lasiraab".[12]British Museum (BM 90852)
During the Akkadian Empire period the Gutians slowly grew in strength and then established a capital at the Early Dynastic city of Adab.[13] The Gutians eventually overran Akkad, and as the King List tells us, their army also subdued
Uruk for hegemony of Sumer, in about 2147–2050 BC. However, it seems that autonomous rulers soon arose again in a number of city-states, notably
Gudea of
Lagash.
The Gutians seem also to have briefly overrun
Elam at around the same time, towards the close of
Kutik-Inshushinak's reign (c. 2100 BC).[14] 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 c. 500 BC), portrays the Gutian kings as uncultured and uncouth:
Naram-Sin destroyed the people of
Babylon, so twice
Marduk summoned the forces of
Gutium against him. Marduk gave his kingship to the Gutian force. The Gutians were unhappy people unaware how to revere the gods, ignorant of the right cultic practices.Utu-hengal, the fisherman, caught a fish at the edge of the sea for an offering. That fish should not be offered to another god until it had been offered to Marduk, but the Gutians took the boiled fish from his hand before it was offered, so by his august command, Marduk removed the Gutian force from the rule of his land and gave it to Utu-hengal.
Decline from the late 22nd century BC 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 circa 2050 BC (
short chronology).[15]
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 wickedness and violence produced within the country..."
Following this,
Ur-Nammu of
Ur ordered the destruction of Gutium. The year 11 of king
Ur-Nammu also mentions "Year Gutium was destroyed".[18] 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 a "human face, dogs’ cunning, [and] monkey's build".[19]
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,[20] which was probably written in the 6th century BC.
Modern connection theories
The historical Guti have been regarded by several scholars as having contributed to the ethnogenesis of the
Kurds.[21]
^Parpola, S., "Neo-Assyrian Toponyms", (AOAT 6). Kevelaer and Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon & Bercker and Neukirchener Verlag, 1970
^Oppenheim, A. Leo, "VIII. Assyrian and Babylonian Historical Texts", The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, edited by James B. Pritchard, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 246-286, 2011
^[1]M. Molina, "The palace of Adab during the Sargonic period", D. Wicke (ed.), Der Palast im antiken und islamischen Orient, Colloquien der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 9, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2019, pp. 151-20
^Sicker, Martin (2000). The Pre-Islamic Middle East. p. 19.
^Thureau-Dangin, Fr. (1912). "La Fin de la Domination Gutienne" [The End of Gutian Domination]. Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale (in French). 9 (3): 111–120.
ISSN0373-6032.
JSTOR23283609.
Top: An inscription dated c. 2130 BC, mentioning the Gutians: "
Lugalanatum, prince of
Umma ... built the E.GIDRU [Sceptre] Temple at
Umma, buried his foundation deposit [and] regulated the orders. At that time,
Siium was king of Gutium." The name 𒄖𒋾𒌝𒆠, gu-ti-umKI appears in the last column.
Louvre Museum. Bottom: Approximate location of original Gutium territory
The Guti (/ˈɡuːti/), also known by the derived
exonymsGutians or Guteans, were a people of the ancient Near East. Their homeland was known as Gutium (
Sumerian: 𒄖𒌅𒌝𒆠, GutūmKI or 𒄖𒋾𒌝𒆠, GutiumKI).[1][2]
Conflict between people from Gutium and the
Akkadian Empire has been linked to the collapse of the empire, towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The Guti subsequently overran southern
Mesopotamia and formed the
Gutian dynasty of Sumer. The
Sumerian king list suggests that the Guti ruled over
Sumer for several generations following the fall of the Akkadian Empire.[3]
By the 1st millennium BC, usage of the name Gutium, by the peoples of lowland
Mesopotamia, had expanded to include all of western
Media, between the
Zagros Mountains and the
Tigris River. Various tribes and places to the east and northeast were often referred to as Gutians or Gutium.[4] For example, Assyrian royal annals use the term Gutians in relation to populations known to have been
Medes or
Mannaeans. As late as the reign of
Cyrus the Great of Persia, the famous general
Gubaru (Gobryas) was described as the "governor of Gutium".[5]
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.[6] 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, including
Sumerian,
Akkadian,
Hurrian,
Hittite, and
Elamite. Most scholars reject the attempt to link Gutian king names to Indo-European languages.[7]
Sargon the Great (r. circa 2340 – 2284 BC) also mentions them among his subject lands, listing them between
Lullubi,
Armanum and
Akkad to the north; Nikku and
Der to the south. According to one stele,
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 epic Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin claims Gutium among the lands raided by
Annubanini of
Lulubum during the reign of
Naram-Sin (c. 2254–2218 BC).[10] 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".[11]
Votive macehead of Gutian king
La-erabum, and its inscription "La-eraab, great King of Gutiim" (𒆷𒂍𒊏𒀊 𒁕𒈝 𒈗 𒄖𒋾𒅎la-e-ra-ab da-num lugal gutiim). The name is quite damaged, and was initially read "Lasiraab".[12]British Museum (BM 90852)
During the Akkadian Empire period the Gutians slowly grew in strength and then established a capital at the Early Dynastic city of Adab.[13] The Gutians eventually overran Akkad, and as the King List tells us, their army also subdued
Uruk for hegemony of Sumer, in about 2147–2050 BC. However, it seems that autonomous rulers soon arose again in a number of city-states, notably
Gudea of
Lagash.
The Gutians seem also to have briefly overrun
Elam at around the same time, towards the close of
Kutik-Inshushinak's reign (c. 2100 BC).[14] 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 c. 500 BC), portrays the Gutian kings as uncultured and uncouth:
Naram-Sin destroyed the people of
Babylon, so twice
Marduk summoned the forces of
Gutium against him. Marduk gave his kingship to the Gutian force. The Gutians were unhappy people unaware how to revere the gods, ignorant of the right cultic practices.Utu-hengal, the fisherman, caught a fish at the edge of the sea for an offering. That fish should not be offered to another god until it had been offered to Marduk, but the Gutians took the boiled fish from his hand before it was offered, so by his august command, Marduk removed the Gutian force from the rule of his land and gave it to Utu-hengal.
Decline from the late 22nd century BC 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 circa 2050 BC (
short chronology).[15]
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 wickedness and violence produced within the country..."
Following this,
Ur-Nammu of
Ur ordered the destruction of Gutium. The year 11 of king
Ur-Nammu also mentions "Year Gutium was destroyed".[18] 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 a "human face, dogs’ cunning, [and] monkey's build".[19]
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,[20] which was probably written in the 6th century BC.
Modern connection theories
The historical Guti have been regarded by several scholars as having contributed to the ethnogenesis of the
Kurds.[21]
^Parpola, S., "Neo-Assyrian Toponyms", (AOAT 6). Kevelaer and Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon & Bercker and Neukirchener Verlag, 1970
^Oppenheim, A. Leo, "VIII. Assyrian and Babylonian Historical Texts", The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, edited by James B. Pritchard, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 246-286, 2011
^[1]M. Molina, "The palace of Adab during the Sargonic period", D. Wicke (ed.), Der Palast im antiken und islamischen Orient, Colloquien der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 9, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2019, pp. 151-20
^Sicker, Martin (2000). The Pre-Islamic Middle East. p. 19.
^Thureau-Dangin, Fr. (1912). "La Fin de la Domination Gutienne" [The End of Gutian Domination]. Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale (in French). 9 (3): 111–120.
ISSN0373-6032.
JSTOR23283609.