Bit-Amukkani

{{Short description|Ancient Chaldean tribe}}File:Babylonie chaldeens.svgBit-Amukani (in the Aramaic Assur Ostracon ʾwkn; Assyrian ^mA-muk-ka-nu; Babylonian ^diBit U-ka-a-ni, ^diU-ka-nu; lit. House of Amukani) was a tribe, proto-state founded by Chaldeans in southern Mesopotamia which stretched from southeast of Nippur to the area of Uruk.{{Cite book|last=Zadok|first=Ran|title=On West Semites in Babylonia during the Chaldean and Achaemenian Periods: An Onomastic Study|year=1985|pages=58–62}} It is considered{{by whom|date=November 2021}} to have been one of the most powerful Chaldean tribes, next to Bīt-Iakin and Bīt-Dakkūri.

As early as 732 BCE, it was ruled by prince Ukinzer (also known as Mukin-zeri or Nabu-mukin-zeri) who became a king of Babylon in 732 BCE instead of Nabu-shum-ukin II whom he superseded.{{Cite book|last=Tadmor, Hayim|title=The royal inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (744–727 BC) and Shalmaneser V (726–722 BC), kings of Assyria|date=2011|publisher=Eisenbrauns|others=Yamada, Shigeo., Novotny, Jamie R.|isbn=978-1-57506-657-8|location=Winona Lake, Ind.|page=18|oclc=774282690}} Later, Tiglath-pileser III devastated Bit-Amukani for the second time and defeated Mukin-zeri. Shalmaneser III (856-824) inscriptions note that two Chaldean leaders (Mušallim-Marduk of Bīt-Amukāni and Adīnu of Bīt-Dakkūri) carried silver, gold, tin, bronze, elephant tusks, elephant skins, ebony and sissoowood (or meskannu wood) as a tribute to the King of Assyria.

Though unconfirmed, the economy of Bīt-Amūkāni probably relied on producing dates.

Tiglath-pileser III described his genocide of Bit-Amukani with the words: "the land Bit-Amukani I threshed as with a threshing instrument. I took all of its people (and) its property to Assyria." Although Tiglath-pileser III's writings testify about conflict with Bīt-Amūkāni, Bīt-Amūkāni never went extinct but actually remained important through later Babylonian history.

Sennacherib's inscriptions note that Bit-Amukani consisted of 39 walled cities and 350 villages.{{cite book |last1=Younger |first1=K. Lawson Jr. |title=A political history of the Arameans: from their origins to the end of their polities |date=2016 |location=Atlanta |isbn=978-1-58983-128-5 |page=676}} Its capital was Sapia (Assyrian Sapīya or Šapīya).