Gutium
Encyclopedia
The Gutians were a tribe that overran southern Mesopotamia
when the Akkad
ian empire collapsed in approximately 2154 BC.
Sumer
ian sources portray the Gutians as a barbarous, ravenous people from Gutium or Qutium (Sumerian
: Gu-tu-umki or Gu-ti-umki) in the mountains, presumably the central Zagros in the Kurdish area of Iraq. The Sumerian king list
represents them as ruling over Sumer for a short time after the fall of the Akkadian Empire, and paints a picture of chaos within the Gutian administration.
Next to nothing is known about their origins, as no "Gutian" artifacts have surfaced from that time; little information is gleaned from the contemporary sources. Nothing is known of their language
either, apart from those Sumerian king names, and that it was distinct from other known languages of the region (such as Sumerian
, Akkadian
, Hurrian
, Hittite
and Elamite
).
of Adab
as among the nations providing his empire tribute. These inscriptions locate them between Subartu
in the north, and Marhashe and Elam
in the south. They were a prominent nomadic tribe who lived in the Zagros mountains in the time of the Akkadian Empire. Sargon the Great also mentions them among his subject lands, listing them between Lullubi
, Armanu and Akkad
to the north, and Nikku and Der
to the south. The epic Cuthaean Legend of Naram-Sin of a later millennium mentions Gutium among the lands around Mesopotamia raided by Annubanini of Lulubum during Naram-Sin
's reign in Akkad. Contemporary year-names for Shar-kali-sharri
of Akkad indicate that in one unknown year of his reign, he captured Sharlag king of Gutium, while in another year, "the yoke was imposed on Gutium".
for hegemony of Sumer — although it seems that autonomous rulers soon arose again in a number of city-states, notably Gudea
of Lagash
. The Gutians also seem to have briefly overrun Elam
at the close of Kutik-Inshushinak
's reign, around the same time. and in an inscribed statue of Gutian king Erridupizir
at Nippur
, in imitation of his Akkadian predecessors, he assumes the title "King of Gutium, King of the Four Quarters".
According to the Sumerian king list, "In the army of Gutium, at first no king was famous; they were their own kings and ruled thus for 3 years."
The Weidner Chronicle
, of some 1500 years later, portrays the Gutian kings as uncultured and uncouth:
The Sumerian ruler Utu-hengal of Uruk is similarly credited on the King List with defeating the Gutian ruler Tirigan, and removing the Guti from the country (ca. 2050 BC (short)). Following this, Ur-Nammu
of Ur
had their homeland of Gutium devastated, though according to one lengthy Sumerian poem, he died in battle with the Gutians, after having been abandoned by his own army.
and the Tigris
, also known as western Media
. All tribes to the east and northeast who often had hostile relations with the peoples of lowland Mesopotamia, were referred to as Gutian or Guti. Assyrian royal annals use the term Gutians to refer to Iranian populations otherwise known as Medes
or Mannaeans; and as late as the reign of Cyrus the Great
of Persia, the famous general Gubaru
(Gobryas) was described as the "governor of Gutium".
(1901), Assyriologist Theophilus Pinches
(1908), renowned archaeologist Leonard Woolley
(1929) and Assyriologist Ignace Gelb
(1944) the Gutians were pale skinned and blonde haired. This identification of the Gutians as fair haired first came to light when Julius Oppert
(1877) published a set of tablets he had discovered which described Gutian (and Subarian) slaves as "namrum" or "namrûtum", meaning "light colored" or "fair-skinned". This racial character of the Gutians as blondes or being light skinned was also taken up by Georges Vacher de Lapouge
in 1899 and later by historian Sidney Smith in his Early history of Assyria (1928). Ephraim Avigdor Speiser
however criticised the translation of "namrum" as "light colored". An article was published by Speiser in the Journal of the American Oriental Society attacking Gelb's translation. Gelb in response accused Speiser of circular reasoning. In response Speiser claimed the scholarship regarding the translation of "namrum" or "namrûtum" is unresolved.
peoples (of which the Kurds are one) by some 1500 years In the late 19th-century, Assyriologist Julius Oppert
sought to connect the Gutians of remote antiquity with the later Gutones (Goths), whom Ptolemy
in 150 AD had known as the Guti
, a tribe of Scandia
. Oppert's theory on this connection is not shared by many scholars today, in the absence of further evidence.
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
when the Akkad
Akkad
The Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia....
ian empire collapsed in approximately 2154 BC.
Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
ian sources portray the Gutians as a barbarous, ravenous people from Gutium or Qutium (Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
: Gu-tu-umki or Gu-ti-umki) in the mountains, presumably the central Zagros in the Kurdish area of Iraq. The Sumerian king list
Sumerian king list
The Sumerian King List is an ancient manuscript originally recorded in the Sumerian language, listing kings of Sumer from Sumerian and neighboring dynasties, their supposed reign lengths, and the locations of "official" kingship...
represents them as ruling over Sumer for a short time after the fall of the Akkadian Empire, and paints a picture of chaos within the Gutian administration.
Next to nothing is known about their origins, as no "Gutian" artifacts have surfaced from that time; little information is gleaned from the contemporary sources. Nothing is known of their language
Gutian language
The Gutian language was spoken by the Gutians or Guteans, an ancient people who lived in the territory between the Zagros and the Tigris, present-day Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan, around 2100 BCE, and who briefly ruled over Sumer....
either, apart from those Sumerian king names, and that it was distinct from other known languages of the region (such as Sumerian
Sumerian language
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...
, Akkadian
Akkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
, Hurrian
Hurrian language
Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians , a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in...
, Hittite
Hittite language
Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...
and Elamite
Elamite language
Elamite is an extinct language spoken by the ancient Elamites. Elamite was the primary language in present day Iran from 2800–550 BCE. The last written records in Elamite appear about the time of the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great....
).
History
The Guti appear in Old Babylonian copies of inscriptions ascribed to Lugal-Anne-MunduLugal-Anne-Mundu
Lugal-Anne-Mundu was the most important king of the city-state Adab in Sumer. The Sumerian king list claims he reigned for 90 years, following the defeat of Meskiaj-nanna of Ur...
of Adab
Adab
Adab or Udab was an ancient Sumerian city between Telloh and Nippur. It was located at the site of modern Bismaya or Bismya in the Wasit Governorate of Iraq.-History:...
as among the nations providing his empire tribute. These inscriptions locate them between Subartu
Subartu
The land of Subartu or Subar is mentioned in Bronze Age literature...
in the north, and Marhashe and Elam
Elam
Elam was an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Elam was centered in the far west and the southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province, as well as a small part of southern Iraq...
in the south. They were a prominent nomadic tribe who lived in the Zagros mountains in the time of the Akkadian Empire. Sargon the Great also mentions them among his subject lands, listing them between Lullubi
Lullubi
The Lullubi or Lulubi were a group of tribes during the 3rd millennium BC, from a region known as Lulubum, now the Sharazor plain of in the Zagros Mountains of modern Iran...
, Armanu and Akkad
Akkad
The Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia....
to the north, and Nikku and Der
Der (Sumer)
Der was a Sumerian city-state at the site of modern Tell Aqar near al-Badra in Iraq's Wasit Governorate. It was east of the Tigris River on the border between Sumer and Elam. It's namewas possibly Durum.-History:...
to the south. The epic Cuthaean Legend of Naram-Sin of a later millennium mentions Gutium among the lands around Mesopotamia raided by Annubanini of Lulubum during Naram-Sin
Naram-Sin
Naram-Sin , reigned ca. 2254–2218 BCE, short chronology, was the third successor and grandson of King Sargon of Akkad. Under Naram-Sin the Akkadian Empire reached its zenith...
's reign in Akkad. Contemporary year-names for Shar-kali-sharri
Shar-Kali-Sharri
Shar-Kali-Sharri was a king of the Akkadian Empire.According to the Sumerian king list, he was the son of Naram-sin and reigned for 25 years - around 2100 BC...
of Akkad indicate that in one unknown year of his reign, he captured Sharlag king of Gutium, while in another year, "the yoke was imposed on Gutium".
Gutian dynasty of Sumer
As Akkadian might went into a decline, the Gutians began to practice hit-and-run tactics on Mesopotamia; they would be long gone by the time forces could arrive to deal with the situation. Their raids crippled the economy of Sumer. Travel became unsafe, as did work in the fields, resulting in famine. The Gutians eventually overran Akkad, and as the King List tells us, their army also subdued UrukUruk
Uruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River, some 30 km east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Uruk gave its name to the Uruk...
for hegemony of Sumer — although it seems that autonomous rulers soon arose again in a number of city-states, notably Gudea
Gudea
Gudea was a ruler of the state of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia who ruled ca. 2144 - 2124 BC. He probably did not come from the city, but had married Ninalla, daughter of the ruler Urbaba of Lagash, thus gaining entrance to the royal house of Lagash...
of Lagash
Lagash
Lagash is located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Ash Shatrah. Lagash was one of the oldest cities of the Ancient Near East...
. The Gutians also seem to have briefly overrun Elam
Elam
Elam was an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Elam was centered in the far west and the southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province, as well as a small part of southern Iraq...
at the close of Kutik-Inshushinak
Kutik-Inshushinak
Kutik-Inshushinak was king of Elam from about 2240 to 2220 BC , and the last from the Awan dynasty....
's reign, around the same time. and in an inscribed statue of Gutian king Erridupizir
Erridupizir
Erridupizir was a Gutian ruler in Sumer from ca. 2141 BC to 2138 BC . His reign is attested by a royal inscription at Nippur where he calls himself "King of Guti, King of the Four Quarters."-See also:*Chronology of the ancient Near East...
at Nippur
Nippur
Nippur was one of the most ancient of all the Sumerian cities. It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the "Lord Wind," ruler of the cosmos subject to An alone...
, in imitation of his Akkadian predecessors, he assumes the title "King of Gutium, King of the Four Quarters".
According to the Sumerian king list, "In the army of Gutium, at first no king was famous; they were their own kings and ruled thus for 3 years."
The Weidner Chronicle
Babylonian Chronicles
The Babylonian Chronicles are many series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. They are thus one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography...
, of some 1500 years later, portrays the Gutian kings as uncultured and uncouth:
- "Naram-SinNaram-SinNaram-Sin , reigned ca. 2254–2218 BCE, short chronology, was the third successor and grandson of King Sargon of Akkad. Under Naram-Sin the Akkadian Empire reached its zenith...
destroyed the people of BabylonBabylonBabylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
, so twice MardukMardukMarduk was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to...
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-hengalUtu-hengalUtu-hengal was one of the first native kings of Sumer after centuries of Akkadian and Gutian rule....
, 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 of Uruk is similarly credited on the King List with defeating the Gutian ruler Tirigan, and removing the Guti from the country (ca. 2050 BC (short)). Following this, Ur-Nammu
Ur-Nammu
Ur-Nammu founded the Sumerian 3rd dynasty of Ur, in southern Mesopotamia, following several centuries of Akkadian and Gutian rule...
of Ur
Ur
Ur was an important city-state in ancient Sumer located at the site of modern Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq's Dhi Qar Governorate...
had their homeland of Gutium devastated, though according to one lengthy Sumerian poem, he died in battle with the Gutians, after having been abandoned by his own army.
Gutium as a later geographic term
In the first millennium BC, the term "Gutium" was used to refer to the region between the ZagrosZagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq. With a total length of 1,500 km , from northwestern Iran, and roughly correlating with Iran's western border, the Zagros range spans the whole length of the western and southwestern Iranian plateau and ends at the Strait of...
and the Tigris
Tigris
The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
, also known as western Media
Medes
The MedesThe Medes...
. All tribes to the east and northeast who often had hostile relations with the peoples of lowland Mesopotamia, were referred to as Gutian or Guti. Assyrian royal annals use the term Gutians to refer to Iranian populations otherwise known as Medes
Medes
The MedesThe Medes...
or Mannaeans; and as late as the reign of Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
of Persia, the famous general Gubaru
Gubaru
Gobryas was a common name of several Persian noblemen. The English form Gobryas is derived from the Greek rendering of this name.- Gobryas :...
(Gobryas) was described as the "governor of Gutium".
Physical Appearance
According to the historian Henry Hoyle HoworthHenry Hoyle Howorth
Sir Henry Hoyle Howorth KCIE FRS was a British Conservative politician, barrister and amateur historian and geologist....
(1901), Assyriologist Theophilus Pinches
Theophilus Pinches
Theophilus Goldridge Pinches M.R.A.S. , was a pioneer British assyriologist.Pinches was originally employed in father's business as a die-sinker, but, following an amateur interest in cuneiform inscriptions, joined the staff of the British Museum in 1878, working there as assistant then curator...
(1908), renowned archaeologist Leonard Woolley
Leonard Woolley
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley was a British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia...
(1929) and Assyriologist Ignace Gelb
Ignace Gelb
Ignace Jay Gelb was a Polish-American ancient historian and Assyriologist who pioneered the scientific study of writing systems...
(1944) the Gutians were pale skinned and blonde haired. This identification of the Gutians as fair haired first came to light when Julius Oppert
Julius Oppert
Julius Oppert , French-German Assyriologist, was born at Hamburg, of Jewish parents.After studying at Heidelberg, Bonn and Berlin, he graduated at Kiel in 1847; and the next year went to France, where he was teacher of German at Laval and at Reims...
(1877) published a set of tablets he had discovered which described Gutian (and Subarian) slaves as "namrum" or "namrûtum", meaning "light colored" or "fair-skinned". This racial character of the Gutians as blondes or being light skinned was also taken up by Georges Vacher de Lapouge
Georges Vacher de Lapouge
Georges Vacher de Lapouge was a French anthropologist and a theoretician of eugenics and racialism.- Biography :...
in 1899 and later by historian Sidney Smith in his Early history of Assyria (1928). Ephraim Avigdor Speiser
Ephraim Avigdor Speiser
Ephraim Avigdor Speiser was a Polish-born American Assyriologist. He discovered the ancient site of Tepe Gawra in 1927 and supervised its excavation between 1931 and 1938.-Pre-war career:...
however criticised the translation of "namrum" as "light colored". An article was published by Speiser in the Journal of the American Oriental Society attacking Gelb's translation. Gelb in response accused Speiser of circular reasoning. In response Speiser claimed the scholarship regarding the translation of "namrum" or "namrûtum" is unresolved.
Modern connection theories
The historical Guti have been regarded by some as among the ancestors of the Kurds, including by some modern assyriologists. However, the term Guti had by late antiquity become a "catch all" term to describe all tribal peoples in the Zagros region, and according to J.P. Mallory, the original Gutians precede the arrival of Indo-IranianIndo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian can refer to:* Indo-Iranian languages* Prehistoric Indo-Iranians * Indo-European languages* Proto-Indo-Iranian religion* Proto-Indo-Iranian language...
peoples (of which the Kurds are one) by some 1500 years In the late 19th-century, Assyriologist Julius Oppert
Julius Oppert
Julius Oppert , French-German Assyriologist, was born at Hamburg, of Jewish parents.After studying at Heidelberg, Bonn and Berlin, he graduated at Kiel in 1847; and the next year went to France, where he was teacher of German at Laval and at Reims...
sought to connect the Gutians of remote antiquity with the later Gutones (Goths), whom Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
in 150 AD had known as the Guti
Guti
Guti may refer to:*Jose María Gutiérrez Hernández, usually known as Guti, Spanish footballer.*The Gutian people, founders of the Gutian dynasty of Sumer*A people of Scandia mentioned by Ptolemy ; in later Latin known as Gutones and Gothi....
, a tribe of Scandia
Scandia
Scandia was a name used for various uncharted islands in Northern Europe by the first Greek and Roman geographers. The name originated in Greek sources, where it had been used for a long time for different islands in the Mediterranean region...
. Oppert's theory on this connection is not shared by many scholars today, in the absence of further evidence.