Belassunu ( ) was a

princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

of Karana (modern day

Tell al-Rimah Tell al-Rimah is a tell, or archaeological settlement mound, in Nineveh Province (Iraq). Its ancient name may have been either Karana or Qattara. It is located in Nineveh Province (Iraq), roughly west of Mosul and ancient Nineveh in the Sinjar re ...

History

Belassunu was the daughter of Samu-addu, King of Karana, perhaps by his wife Ama-duga, and she was sister to Queen

Iltani Queen Iltani (), was the wife of the ruler Aqba-hammu. Her archive was discovered in the palace of Karana(modern day Tell al-Rimah). The main group of tablets from the archive consisted of about 200 letters and administrative records, which directl ...

, wife of the

usurper A usurper is an illegitimate or controversial claimant to power, often but not always in a monarchy. In other words, one who takes the power of a country, city, or established region for oneself, without any formal or legal right to claim it as ...

King Aqba-Hammu. Details of Belassunu's life are known from surviving letters from the former royal

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

at Tell-el-Rimah. She was the wife of Abdu-Suri to whom she bore children. This marriage appears to have been unhappy, as she was ill-treated by her husband, as recorded in letters preserved as clay tablets discovered by archaeologists amongst the

archive. This mistreatment was such that she did not wish to live with her husband, and requested to move to the court of her brother in law. The assertion that Belassunu had been a secondary wife to

Zimrilim __NOTOC__ Zimri-Lim (Akkadian: ''Zi-im-ri Li-im'') was king of Mari c. 1775–1761 BCE. Zimri-Lim was the son or grandson of Iakhdunlim, but was forced to flee to Yamhad when his father was assassinated by his own servants during a coup. He ha ...

, king of Mari has now been proved incorrect. While residing in the city of Karana she was the recipient of royal rations of meat and oil, and she paid visits to the cities of Mari and Andariq. Eventually she retired to her father's court at Karana, being escorted there under the protection of her brother-in-law Aqba-Hammu.

References

* B.F. Batto, ''Women at Mari'' (1974) {{DEFAULTSORT:Belassunu 18th-century BC women Ancient princesses Ancient Assyrians Ancient Mesopotamian women 18th-century BC people