Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates • Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Eridu • Kish • Uruk • Ur • Lagash • Nippur • Ngirsu
Elam: Susa
Akkadian Empire: Akkad • Mari
Amorites: Isin • Larsa
Babylonia: Babylon • Chaldea
Hittites • Kassites • Hurrians/Mitanni
Assyria: Assur • Nimrud • Dur-Sharrukin • Nineveh
Chronology
History of Mesopotamia
History of Sumer • Kings of Sumer
Kings of Assyria
Kings of Babylon
Mythology
Enûma Elish • Gilgamesh
Assyro-Babylonian religion
Language
Sumerian • Elamite
Akkadian • Aramaic
Hurrian • Hittite

Amorite (Sumerian MAR. Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC TU, Akkadian Tidnum or Amurrūm, Egyptian Amar, Hebrew ’^emōrî) refers to a Semitic people^[1] who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the third millennium BC. Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language most closely related to the Berber, Semitic, Somali and Beja languages The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת The 3rd millennium BC spans the Early to Middle Bronze Age. It represents a period of time in which Imperialism, or the desire to conquer grew to prominence The term Amurru refers to them, as well as to their principal deity. Amurru (or Martu) are names given in Akkadian and Sumerian texts to the god of the Amorite /Amurru people often forming part of personal

Origin

In the earliest Sumerian sources, beginning about 2400 BC, the land of the Amorites ("the Mar. tu land") is associated with the West, including Syria and Canaan, although their ultimate origin may have been Arabia. Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب jazīrat al-ʻarab) ^[2] They appear as nomadic people in the Mesopotamian sources, and they are especially connected with the mountainous region of Jebel Bishri in Syria called as the "mountain of the Amorites". The ethnic terms Amurru and Amar were used for them in Assyria and Egypt respectively. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Amorites seem to have worshipped the moon-god Sin, and Amurru. Sin (Akkadian Sîn, Suen; Sumerian Nanna) is a Sumerian God in Mesopotamian mythology. Amurru (or Martu) are names given in Akkadian and Sumerian texts to the god of the Amorite /Amurru people often forming part of personal

From the 21st century BC and likely triggered by the 22nd century BC drought, a large-scale migration of Amorite tribes infiltrated Mesopotamia, precipitating the downfall of the Neo-Sumerian Third Dynasty of Ur, and acquiring a series of powerful kingdoms, culminating in the triumph under Hammurabi of one of them, that of Babylon. The 21st century BC is a Century which lasted from the year 2100 BC to 2001 BC The 42 kiloyear BP aridification event was one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene period in terms of impact on cultural upheaval Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The Third Dynasty of Ur refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC ( Short chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Hammurabi ( Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer" from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman" and Rāpi Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq

Known Amorites (mostly those of Mari) wrote in a dialect of Akkadian found on tablets dating from 1800–1750 BC showing many northwest Semitic forms and constructions. Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of The 18th century BC was the Century which lasted from 1800 BC to 1701 BC The 18th century BC was the Century which lasted from 1800 BC to 1701 BC The Amorite language was presumably a northwest Semitic dialect. Amorite is an early Northwest Semitic language, spoken by the Amorite tribes prominent in early Near Eastern history The Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic language family. The main sources for our extremely limited knowledge about the language are proper names, not Akkadian in style, that are preserved in such texts. Many of these names are similar to later Biblical Hebrew names.

From inscriptions and tablets

In early inscriptions, all western lands, including Syria and Canaan, were known as "the land of the Amorites". "The MAR. TU land" appears in the earliest Sumerian texts, such as Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, as well as early tablets from Ebla; and for the Akkadian kings Mar. Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta is a legendary Sumerian account preserved early post-Sumerian copies composed in the Neo-Sumerian period (ca Ebla ( Arabic: عبيل، إيبلا modern Tell Mardikh, Syria) was an ancient city about 55 km southwest of Aleppo. tu was one of the "Four Quarters" surrounding Akkad, along with Subartu, Sumer and Elam. The land of Subar (Sumerian Su-bir4/Subar/Šubur or Subartu (Akkadian Šubartum/Subartum/ina Šú-ba-ri, Assyrian mât Šubarri) was situated Elam is the name of an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. The Akkadian king Naram-Sin records campaigns against them in northern Syria ca. 2240 BC, and his successor Shar-Kali-Sharri followed suit. Shar-Kali-Sharri (Akk = "King of all Kings" was a king of the Akkadian Empire.

By the time of the Neo-Sumerian Ur-III empire, immigrating Amorites had become such a force that kings such as Shu-Sin were obliged to construct a 170 mile wall from the Tigris to the Euphrates to hold them off ^[3]. The Third Dynasty of Ur refers simultaneously to a 21st to 20th century BC ( Short chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Shu-sin was king of Sumer and Akkad, and was the penultimate king of the Ur III dynasty The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern The Euphrates ( ( Arabic: ar نهر الفرات; Turkish: tr Fırat Syriac: syr ܦܪܬ; Hebrew: he פרת These Amorites appear as nomadic clans ruled by fierce tribal chiefs, who forced themselves into lands they needed to graze their herds. Some of the Akkadian literature of this era speaks disparagingly of the Amorites, and implies that the neo-Sumerians viewed their nomadic way of life with disgust and contempt, for example:

The MAR. TU who know no grain. . . . The MAR. TU who know no house nor town, the boors of the mountains. . . . The MAR. TU who digs up truffles. . . who does not bend his knees (to cultivate the land), who eats raw meat, who has no house during his lifetime, who is not buried after death. . . ^[4]

They have prepared wheat and gú-nunuz (grain) as a confection, but an Amorite will eat it without even recognizing what it contains!^[5]

As the centralized structure of the neo-Sumerian empire of Ur slowly collapsed, the component regions began to reassert their former independence, and places where Amorites resided were no exception. Ur ( Sumerian:urim; Akkadian: ?) is modern Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq, and was a city in ancient Sumer. Elsewhere, armies of Elam were attacking and weakening the empire, making it vulnerable. Some Amorites aggressively took advantage of the failing empire to seize power for themselves. There was not an Amorite invasion as such, but Amorites did ascend to power in many locations, especially during the reign of the last king of the Ur-III Dynasty, Ibbi-Sin. Ibbi-Sin, son of Shu-Sin, was king of Sumer and Akkad and last king of the Ur III dynasty and reigned Leaders with Amorite names assumed power in various places, including Isin, Larsa, and Babylon. Isin (modern Ishan al-Bahriyat was a city of lower Mesopotamia, which flourished during the 20th century BC. Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq The Elamites finally sacked Ur in ca. 2004 BC. Some time later, the most powerful ruler in Mesopotamia (immediately preceding the rise of Hammurabi of Babylon) was Shamshi-Adad I, another Amorite. Hammurabi ( Akkadian from Amorite ˤAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer" from ˤAmmu, "paternal kinsman" and Rāpi Shamshi-Adad I (fl late 18th century BC ( Short chronology) rose to prominence when he carved out a large kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, the Old Assyrian

Effects on Mesopotamia

The rise of the Amorite kingdoms in Mesopotamia brought about deep and lasting repercussions in its political, social and economic structure.

The division into kingdoms replaced the Sumerian city-state. A city-state is a Region controlled exclusively by a City, usually having Sovereignty. Men, land and cattle ceased to belong physically to the gods or to the temples and the king. The new monarchs gave, or let out for an indefinite period, numerous parcels of royal or sacerdotal land, freed the inhabitants of several cities from taxes and forced labour, and seem to have encouraged a new society to emerge, a society of big farmers, free citizens and enterprising merchants which was to last throughout the ages. The priest assumed the service of the gods, and cared for the welfare of his subjects, but the economic life of the country was no longer exclusively (or almost exclusively) in their hands.

In general terms, Mesopotamian civilization survived the arrival of Amorites, as it had survived the Akkadian domination and the restless period that had preceded the rise of the Third Dynasty of Ur. The religious, ethical, and artistic directions in which Mesopotamia had been developing since earliest times, were not greatly impacted by the Amorites' hegemony. They continued to worship the Sumerian gods, and the older Sumerian myths and epic tales were piously copied, translated or adapted, generally with only minor alterations. As for the scarce artistic production of the period, there is little to distinguish it from the preceding Ur-III era.

The era of the Amorite kingdoms, ca. 2000-1600 BC, is sometimes known as the "Amorite period" in Mesopotamian history. The principal Amorite dynasties arose in Mari, Yamkhad, Qatna, Assur (under Shamshi-Adad I), Isin, Larsa, and Babylon. Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city located 11 kilometers north-west of the modern town of Yamhad (also written Yamkhad or Jamhad) was an ancient Amorite kingdom centered at Halab (modern Aleppo, Syria) Qatna, (Arabic "قطنا" modern Tell el-Mishrife, Arabic "المشرفة" Syria, in the Wadi Il-Aswad, a tributary of Assur also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. Shamshi-Adad I (fl late 18th century BC ( Short chronology) rose to prominence when he carved out a large kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, the Old Assyrian Isin (modern Ishan al-Bahriyat was a city of lower Mesopotamia, which flourished during the 20th century BC. Larsa (also Larag or Larak, modern Tell as-Senkereh, Iraq, possibly the Biblical Ellasar) was an important city of Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq This era ended with the Hittite sack of Babylon (c. 1595 BC) which brought new ethnic groups - particularly Kassites and Hurrians - to the forefront in Mesopotamia. The Kassites were an Ancient Near Eastern tribe who gained control of Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire after ca The Hurrians (also Khurrites; cuneiform Ḫu-ur-ri 𒄷𒌨𒊑 were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia From the 15th century BC onward, the term Amurru is usually applied to the region extending north of Canaan as far as Kadesh on the Orontes. This article is about Kadesh in Syria see also Kadesh (South of Israel or Kedesh Kadesh (also Qadesh) was an ancient city of See Orontid dynasty for the Armenian kings and satraps called Orontes

Biblical Amorites

The term Amorites is used in the Bible to refer to certain highland mountaineers who inhabited the land of Canaan, described in Gen. 10:16 as descendants of Canaan, son of Ham

They are described as a powerful people of great stature "like the height of the cedars," who had occupied the land east and west of the Jordan; their king, Og, being described as the last "of the remnant of the giants" (Deut. 3:11). Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin Canaanites redirects here For the 1940s social and political movement in Israel, see Canaanites (movement. Canaan is a Biblical figure who according to the Old Testament, was the son of Ham and the grandson of the patriarch Noah. Ham (; Greek Χαμ, Cham; Arabic: ar حام, xam, "hot" according to the Table of Nations in Genesis, was a This article is about the Jordan River and its valley in western Asia According to several books of the Old Testament, Og (ɒg or /ɔːg/ meaning "gigantic" עוג - /ʕog/ was an ancient Amorite king of Bashan The Mythology and Legends of many different Cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength Deuteronomy (Greek deuteronomion, Δευτερονόμιον "second law" is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament

The terms Amorite and Canaanite seem to be used more or less interchangeably, Canaan being more general, and Amorite a specific component among the Canaanites who inhabited the land.

The Biblical Amorites seem to have originally occupied the region stretching from the heights west of the Dead Sea (Gen. The Dead Sea (יָם הַ‏‏מֶ‏ּ‏לַ‏ח, "Sea of Salt"البَحْر المَيّت, "Dead Sea" is a salt lake between 14:7) to Hebron (13:8; Deut. Hebron ( al-Ḫalīl or al-Khalīl, Standard Hebrew: Ḥevron Tiberian Hebrew: Ḥeḇrôn is the largest city in the West Bank, located in the south 3:8; 4:46-48), embracing "all Gilead and all Bashan" (Deut. From the Scriptures " Gilead " means hill of testimony or mound of witness, ( Genesis 3121 a mountainous region east of the Jordan Bashan ( Hebrew הבשן ha-Bashan, meaning "the light Soil " is a biblical place first mentioned in, where it is said that Chedorlaomer 3:10), with the Jordan valley on the east of the river (4:49), the land of the "two kings of the Amorites," Sihon and Og (Deut. The Bible describes that as the Israelites in their Exodus came to the country east of the Jordan, near Heshbon, King Siḥon of the Amorites 31:4; Josh. 2:10; 9:10). The Book of Joshua ( Hebrew: Sefer Y'hoshua ספר יהושע is the sixth book in both the Hebrew Tanakh and the Old Testament of the Christian Both Sihon and Og were independent kings.

These Amorites seem to have been linked to the Jerusalem region, and the Jebusites may have been a subgroup of them. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the According to the Hebrew Bible, the Jebusites ( were a Canaanite tribe who inhabited the region around Jerusalem prior to its capture by King David The southern slopes of the mountains of Judea are called the "mount of the Amorites" (Deut. Judea or Judæa ( Hebrew: יהודה Standard Yəhuda Tiberian Yəhûḏāh, "praised 1:7, 19, 20). One possible etymology for "Mount Moriah" is "Mountain of the Amorites," with loss of the initial syllable. Moriah ( Hebrew: מוריה Mōriyyā = "ordained/considered by YHWH " is the name given to a mountain range by the book of Genesis

Five kings of the Amorites were first defeated with great slaughter by Joshua (10:10). Joshua, Jehoshuah, or Yehoshua ( 'יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, Tiberian: jə They were said to have been utterly destroyed at the waters of Merom by Joshua (Josh. 11:8). It is mentioned that in the days of Samuel, there was peace between them and the Israelites (1 Sam. Samuel ( Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל, Standard Šəmuʼel Tiberian Šəmûʼēl) is an important 7:14). The Gibeonites were said to be their descendents, being an offshoot of the Amorites that made a covenant with the Hebrews; when Saul would break that vow and kill some of the Gibeonites, God sent a famine to Israel.

Amorites in Antisemitism

The view that Amorites were fierce nomads led to an idiosyncratic theory among some writers in the 19th Century that they were a tribe of "Germanic" warriors who at one point dominated the Israelites. This was because the evidence fitted then-current models of Indo-European migrations. This theory originated with Felix von Luschan, who later abandoned it. Felix Ritter von Luschan (11 August 1854 in Hollabrunn, Austria – 7 February 1924 in Berlin) was a doctor anthropologist explorer archaeologist Luschan's speculation was taken up by antisemites, notably Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who claimed that King David and Jesus were both of Amorite extraction. Houston Stewart Chamberlain ( September 9, 1855 - January 9, 1927) was a British -born author of books on political philosophy natural David, Arabic: داوود or داود dawud, "beloved" was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible This argument was repeated by the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg. (12 January 1893 16 October 1946 was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. ^[6]

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia

Notes

1. ^ Amorites
2. ^ Amorite Encyclopaedia Brittanica
3. ^ William H. Stiebing Jr. Ancient Near Eastern History And Culture Longman: New York, 2003: 79
4. ^ Chiera 1934: 58 and 112
5. ^ Chiera 1934: 3
6. ^ [1] Hans Jonas, New York Review of Books, 1981

References

• E. Hans Jonas ( May 10 1903 - February 5 1993) was a German -born philosopher who was from 1955 to 1976 Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy Chiera, Sumerian Epics and Myths, Chicago, 1934, Nos. 58 and 112;
• E. Chiera, Sumerian Texts of Varied Contents, Chicago, 1934, No. 3. ;
• H. Frankfort, AAO, pp. 54-8;
• F. R. Fraus, FWH, I (1954);
• G. Roux, Ancient Iraq, London, 1980.