Suteans
Sign in to savethumb|Map of Mesopotamia during the kingdom of Shamshi-Adad I showing the location of Suhum, the homeland of Suteans The Suteans (Akkadian: Sutī’ū, possibly from Amorite: Šetī’u) were a nomadic Semitic people who lived throughout the Levant, Canaan, and Mesopotamia, specifically in the region of Suhum, during the Old Babylonian period. They were famous in Semitic epic poetry for being fierce nomadic warriors, and like the ʿApiru, traditionally worked as mercenaries. The Suteans spoke the Sutean language, an unattested language proposed to be related to either Aramaic or Arabic. They may have b
Article
9 sectionsContents
- History
- Bronze Age
- Middle Bronze Age
- Late Bronze Age
- Amarna letters
- Iron Age
- Language
- See also
- References
thumb|Map of Mesopotamia during the kingdom of Shamshi-Adad I showing the location of Suhum, the homeland of Suteans The Suteans (Akkadian: Sutī’ū, possibly from Amorite: Šetī’u) were a nomadic Semitic people who lived throughout the Levant, Canaan, and Mesopotamia, specifically in the region of Suhum, during the Old Babylonian period. They were famous in Semitic epic poetry for being fierce nomadic warriors, and like the ʿApiru, traditionally worked as mercenaries. The Suteans spoke the Sutean language, an unattested language proposed to be related to either Aramaic or Arabic. They may have been part of the Ahlamu.
==History== ===Bronze Age=== ====Middle Bronze Age ==== One of the earliest instances of Suteans comes from a report of a Sutean attack on Qatna and Tadmor (Palmyra) at the time of Shamshi-Adad I's reign (c. 1808–1776 BC). They frequently attacked Mari's domains as a reprisal against what they saw as unjust Mariote hegemony over their territories in Suhum.