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Washukanni (also spelled Waššukanni) was the capital of the
Hurrian
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...
kingdom of
Mitanni
Mitanni (; Hittite cuneiform ; ''Mittani'' '), c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat (''Hanikalbat'', ''Khanigalbat'', cuneiform ') in Assyrian records, or ''Naharin'' in ...
, from around 1500 BC to the 13th century BC.
Location
The precise location of Waššukanni is unknown. A proposal by
Dietrich Opitz
Dietrich Opitz (13 January 1901 – 2 January 1992) was a German assyriologist and colleague of Bruno Meissner. He was the first to propose that Tell el Fakhariya was the location of Wassuganni, capital of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni from c. ...
located it under the largely unexcavated mound of
Tell el Fakhariya
Tell Fekheriye ( ar, تل الفخيرية) (often spelled as Tell el-Fakhariya or Tell Fecheriye, among other variants) is an ancient site in the Khabur River basin in the Al Hasakah Governorate of northern Syria. It is securely identified a ...
, near
Tell Halaf
Tell Halaf ( ar, تل حلف) is an archaeological site in the Al Hasakah governorate of northeastern Syria, a few kilometers from the city of Ra's al-'Ayn near the Turkish border. The site, which dates to the 6th millennium BCE, was the firs ...
in
Syria. This position was supported by M. Oppenheim and more recently by others. A neutron activation comparison with clay from relevant
Amarna tablets appeared to rule out Tell Fakhariya. This idea was also rejected by
Edward Lipinski.
However, this identification received a new support by Stefano de Martino, Mirko Novák and Dominik Bonatz due to recent archaeological excavations by a German team. This is counterbalanced by the fact that despite many seasons of excavations over the years no documentation of the name of the Mittani capital has yet been found.
History
Waššukanni is known to have been sacked by the
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...
under
Suppiluliuma I (reigned c. 1344–1322 BC) in the first years of his reign, whose treaty inscription relates that he installed a Hurrian vassal king,
Shattiwaza Shattiwaza or Šattiwaza, alternatively referred to as Kurtiwaza or ''Mattiwaza'', was a king of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni, who reigned c. 1330-1305 BC.
Biography
Shattiwaza was the son of king Tushratta. His Hurrian name was ''Kili-Tešup' ...
. The city was sacked again by the
Assyria
Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...
n king
Adad-nirari I around 1290 BC, but very little else is known of its history.
Legacy
The modern-day
Waşokanî refugee camp, built near
Hesekê in the
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to house inhabitants of
Serê Kaniyê and
Zirgan who had been
displaced by the
2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria
The 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace Spring ( tr, Barış Pınarı Harekâtı) by Turkey, was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Arm ...
, is named after Waššukanni.
See also
*
Mitanni
Mitanni (; Hittite cuneiform ; ''Mittani'' '), c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat (''Hanikalbat'', ''Khanigalbat'', cuneiform ') in Assyrian records, or ''Naharin'' in ...
*
Cities of the ancient Near East
The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
References
{{coord missing, Turkey
Hurrian cities
Bronze Age sites in Syria
Lost ancient cities and towns