Ansud (also read as Ianupu, Yanup, Anubu, Gansud, Anusu and Hanusum),
was an early king (
Lugal
Lugal ( Sumerian: ) is the Sumerian term for "king, ruler". Literally, the term means "big man." In Sumerian, ''lu'' "𒇽" is "man" and ''gal'' "𒃲" is "great," or "big."
It was one of several Sumerian titles that a ruler of a city-state could ...
) of the second
Mariote kingdom who reigned c. 2423-2416 BC.
Ansud is known for warring against the
Ebla
Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...
ites from a letter written by the later Mariote king
Enna-Dagan.
Reign
Identity
It has been proposed that a bead (reference M. 4439) discovered at Mari, was sent as a gift by
Mesannepada
Mesannepada ( sux, , ), Mesh-Ane-pada or Mes-Anne-pada ("Youngling chosen by An") was the first king listed for the First Dynasty of Ur (c. 26th century BC) on the Sumerian king list. He is listed to have ruled for 80 years, having overthrown ...
of
Ur to king "Hanusum" (Gansud) of Mari.
This has now been corrected with new translations only giving Mesannepada as son of
Meskalamdug
Meskalamdug (, mes-ug-du10, MES-KALAM-DUG "hero of the good land") was an early Sumerian ruler of the First Dynasty of Ur in the 26th century BCE. He does not appear in the ''Sumerian King List'', but is known from a royal cylinder seal found in ...
:
[Description with photograph: ]
It is unclear how this bead came to be in Mari, but this points to some kind of relation between Ur and Mari at that time. The bead was discovered in a jar containing other objects from Ur or Kish.
The letter of Enna-Dagan is extremely difficult to read, and the word "Sa'umu" appeared in three passages of it.
In the second and third passages, the word referred to Ansud's successor Sa'umu.
However, in the first passage, "Sa'umu" was read as a verb by
Giovanni Pettinato
Giovanni Pettinato (30 April 1934, in Troina – 19 May 2011, in Rome) was a assyrologist and paleographer of writings from the ancient Near East, specializing in the Eblaite language, His major contributions to the field include the deciphering o ...
, who later read it as (Anudu).
Alfonso Archi
Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...
, recognized that this verb is a personal name of a monarch and read it as Anubu (motivated by the
Sumerian King List
The ''Sumerian King List'' (abbreviated ''SKL'') or ''Chronicle of the One Monarchy'' is an ancient literary composition written in Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims to power of various city-states and king ...
which record a dynasty of Mari and king Anbu as the first monarch of the dynasty).
However, the discovery of an intact (SKL) with the names of Mari's dynasty bearing no resemblance to second kingdom monarchs, eliminated the need for Archi's identification.
According to
Michael Astour
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
, the name is Anusu (Ansud) and must be correlated with king Hanusum.
Campaigns
In the letter Ansud is recorded defeating the Eblaite vassal cities of
Aburu,
Ilgi and
Belan.
The king is also mentioned leaving ruins in the mountains of Labanan,
which were identified by Pettinato with
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
.
However, this identification was ruled as geographically impossible by Astour.
See also
*
Eblaite-Mariote war
Notes
Citations
{{Early Rulers of Mesopotamia
25th-century BC rulers
Kings of Mari
25th-century BC people