Samnuha or Samanuha was the tutelary deity of Shadikanni (Šadikanni; modern Tell 'Ağağa) in the lower
Habur area. It is generally accepted that he had
Hurrian origin. It is assumed that Šamanminuḫi, a god known from a treaty of
Shattiwaza, is the same deity. In this document, he occurs before "
Teshub, lord of
Washukanni," and after KASKAL.KUR.(RA).
Bel-Eresh, a ruler of Shadikanni who was a contemporary of
Ashur-resh-ishi I
Aššur-rēša-iši I, inscribed m''aš-šur-''SAG''-i-ši'' and meaning “Aššur has lifted my head,” ruled 1132–1115 BC, son of Mutakkil-Nusku, was a king of Assyria, the 86th to appear on the Assyrian King ListAssyrian King List’s: Nasso ...
, renovated the temple of Samanuha and a deity identified by
Stephanie Dalley
Stephanie Mary Dalley FSA (''née'' Page; March 1943) is a British Assyriologist and scholar of the Ancient Near East. She has retired as a teaching Fellow from the Oriental Institute, Oxford. She is known for her publications of cuneiform te ...
as
Kubaba, the Hurrian goddess of
Carchemish, but whose name was actually spelled
d''Gu-ba-ba''. Whether Gubaba, known also from the Assyrian ''Takultu'' ritual, and Kubaba were the same deity is uncertain, and there are also proposals that this name refers to a masculine deity similar to either
Nergal
Nergal ( Sumerian: d''KIŠ.UNU'' or ; ; Aramaic: ܢܸܪܓܲܠ; la, Nirgal) was a Mesopotamian god worshiped through all periods of Mesopotamian history, from Early Dynastic to Neo-Babylonian times, with a few attestations under indicating hi ...
or
Amurru.
Many attestations of Samanuha come from
neo-Assyrian sources. He appears in an inscription of
Ashurnasirpal II
Ashur-nasir-pal II (transliteration: ''Aššur-nāṣir-apli'', meaning " Ashur is guardian of the heir") was king of Assyria from 883 to 859 BC.
Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 883 BC. During his reign he embarked ...
, where he is acknowledged as the personal god of the provincial governor Mushezib-Ninurta, the son of a ruler of Shadikanni who bore the
theophoric name Samanuha-shar-ilani. He continued to be worshiped in Shadikanni at least until the ninth century BCE. He is also attested as one of the Hurrian deities from
Taite (originally a major
Mitanni city) in ''Takultu'', alongside
Kumarbi
Kumarbi was an important god of the Hurrians, regarded as "the father of gods." He was also a member of the Hittite pantheon. According to Hurrian myths, he was a son of Alalu, and one of the parents of the storm-god Teshub, the other being Anu ...
and
Nabarbi.
Personal names attest that Samanuha continued to be worshiped at least until the
Achaemenid period.
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*{{citation, last=Wilhelm, first=Gernot, entry=Šamanminuḫi, encyclopedia=Reallexikon der Assyriologie, year=2011, entry-url=http://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#10293, language=de, access-date=2022-03-06
Hurrian deities