Gutians

File:The Gutians capturing a Babylonian city.jpg

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.{{cite book |last1=Bryant |first1=Edwin |last2=Patton |first2=Laurie L. |year=2004 |title=The Indo-Aryan Controversy |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780700714636 |page=171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VnAk14pODsC&dq=The+First+Indo-Europeans+in+History+Henning+Guti&pg=PA171 |via=Google }} 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.{{cite book |first1=J.P. |last1=Mallory |author1-link=J. P. Mallory |first2=V.H. |last2=Mair |author2-link=Victor H. Mair |year=2000 |title=The Tarim Mummies |place=London, UK |publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=978-0-500-05101-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall/page/281 281–282] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall/page/281 |via=Internet Archive }}

File:Anubanini_relief_constituents_King_Anubanini.jpg of Lullubi, holding an axe and a bow, trampling a foe. Anubanini rock relief, circa 2300-2000 BC. Sar-I Pul, Iran.{{cite book |last1=Osborne |first1=James F. |year=2014 |title=Approaching Monumentality in Archaeology |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=9781438453255 |page=123 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvAQBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |via=Google |lang=en }} The Gutians "were close neighbours, hardly to be distinguished" from the Lullubi.{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=I.E.S. |last2=Gadd |first2=C.J. |last3=Hammond |first3=N.G.L. |year=1971 |title=The Cambridge Ancient History |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-07791-0 |page=444 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=slR7SFScEnwC&pg=PA444 |via=Google |lang=en }}]]

The Guti appear in texts from c. 17th century BC purported copies of inscriptions proposed to be of Lugal-Anne-Mundu (fl. {{circa| 25th century BC|{{nobr|25th century {{sc|BCE}}}}}}) of Adab as among the nations providing his empire tribute. These inscriptions locate them between Subartu in the north, and Marhashi and Elam in the south.{{cite web |title=Lugal-Anne-Mundu inscription CDLI-Found Texts |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&ObjectID=P450160 |website=cdli.ucla.edu}}{{cite journal |title=The Names of the Leaders and Diplomats of Marḫaši and Related Men in the Ur III Dynasty |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/pubs/cdlj/2017/cdlj2017_001.html |journal=Cuneiform Digital Library Journal|date=25 September 2017 |volume=2017 |issue=1 |last1=Chen |first1=Yanli |last2=Wu |first2=Yuhong }} This fragmentary text has been described as a "pseudoautobiographical literary composition".Douglas Frayne, "ADAB". Presargonic Period: Early Periods, Volume 1 (2700-2350 BC), RIM The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Volume 1, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 17-34, 2008 {{ISBN|9780802035868}}

{{see also|Gutian rule in Mesopotamia|Sumerian King List}}

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| header=La-erabum, "Great King of Gutiim"

| image1 = Votive_mace_head_mentioning_the_name_of_La-arab,_king_of_Gutium,_c._2150_BCE,_from_Sippar,_Iraq._British_Museum.jpg

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| footer=Votive macehead of Gutian king La-erabum, and its inscription "La-eraab, great King of Gutiim" ({{cuneiform|𒆷𒂍𒊏𒀊 𒁕𒈝 𒈗 𒄖𒋾𒅎}} la-e-ra-ab da-num lugal gutiim). The name is quite damaged, and was initially read "Lasiraab".{{cite book |title=The Sumerian Kings List |page=119, note 305 |url=https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/as11.pdf |via=oi.uchicago.edu }} British Museum (BM 90852)

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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.Westenholz, Joan Goodnick. "Chapter 9. The Great Revolt against Naram-Sin". Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 221-262, 1997

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 ({{circa|{{nobr| 2254–2218 {{sc|BCE}}}}}}).{{cite book |last=Ebling |first=Bruno Erich |year=1928 |title=Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie |lang=de |trans-title=Encyclopedia of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology |publisher=W. de Gruyter |isbn=9783-11003705-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5P86eKIOJjgC&pg=PA709 |via=Google }} 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".{{cite web |title=Year-names for Sharkalisharri |publisher=University of California Los Angeles |url=http://cdli.ucla.edu/tools/yearnames/HTML/T2K4.htm |via=cdli.ucla.edu }}

During the Akkadian Empire period the Gutians slowly grew in strength and then established a capital at the Early Dynastic city of Adab.{{cite conference |first=M. |last=Molina |year=2019 |title=The palace of Adab during the Sargonic period |editor-first=D. |editor-last=Wicke |conference=Der Palast im antiken und islamischen Orient, Colloquien der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 9 |place=Wiesbaden, DE |publisher=Harrassowitz |page=151 |url=https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/234857/1/2019-Palace_Adab_Sargonic_period.pdf |via=digital.csic.es }} The Gutians eventually overran Akkad, and as the King List tells us, their army also subdued Uruk for hegemony of Sumer, in about {{nobr|2147~2050 {{sc|BCE}}.}} 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 ({{circa|{{nobr| 2100 {{sc|BCE}}}}}}).{{cite book |first=Martin |last=Sicker |year=2000 |title=The Pre-Islamic Middle East |page=19 }} 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 {{circa|{{nobr| 500 {{sc|BCE}}}}}}), portrays the Gutian kings as uncultured and uncouth:

{{blockquote|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.}}

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|{{nobr| 2050 {{sc|BCE}} }}}} (short chronology).{{cite web |title=The victory of Utu-ḫeĝal |website=ETCSL |publisher=Oriental Institute |place=Oxford, UK |url=http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.2.1.6&display=Crit&charenc=gcirc&lineid=t216.p1#t216.p1 |via=etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk }}

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

File:Utu-Hengal victory stele AO 6018 (photograph and transcription of the obverse).jpg's victory stele, where he describes the Gutians he vanquished as "the fanged snake of the mountain ranges". Louvre Museum, AO 6018.Full transcription and translation in:
{{cite web |title=RIME 2.13.06.04 composite |id=P433096 |translator-last=Frayne |translator-first=Douglas R. |year=1993 |orig-year={{circa|{{nobr|2340–2200 {{sc|BCE}}}}}} |department=CDLI-found texts |website=cdli.ucla.edu |publisher=University of California |place=Los Angeles, CA |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/search/search_results.php?SearchMode=Text&ObjectID=P433096 }}]]

{{blockquote|

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{{cite journal |last1=Thureau-Dangin |first1=Fr. |year=1912 |title=La fin de la domination Gutienne |lang=fr |trans-title=The end of Gutian domination |journal=Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=111–120 |jstor=23283609 |issn=0373-6032 }}}}

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".{{cite web |title=Year names of Ur-Nammu |website=cdli.ucla.edu |publisher=University of California |place=Los Angeles, CA |url=https://cdli.ucla.edu/tools/yearnames/HTML/T6K1.htm }} 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".{{cite book |last=Ansky |first=S. |orig-year=1992 |date=12 February 2018 |section=The cursing of Akkade |title=The Harps that {{nobr|Once ...}}{{sic}} : Sumerian poetry in translation |editor-first=David G. |editor-last=Roskies |translator-first=Golda |translator-last=Werman |place=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=359-374 |doi=10.12987/9780300161878 |isbn=978-0-3001-6187-8 }}

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,See, for example,
{{cite book |first1=J.D. |last1=Douglas |first2=Merrill C. |last2=Tenney |year=2011 |title=Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary |edition=3rd |publisher=HarperCollins |page=1897 }} which was probably written in the {{nobr|6th century {{sc|BCE}}.}}

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{{Ancient Syria and Mesopotamia}}

{{Rulers of Sumer}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutian People}}

Category:States and territories established in the 3rd millennium BC

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