View source for Hamazi

'''Hamazi''' or '''Khamazi''' ([[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]: ''Ḫa-ma-zi''<sup>ki</sup><ref>[http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.2.1.1&display=Crit&charenc=gcirc# The Sumerian King List]. Accessed 15 Dec 2010.</ref>) was an ancient kingdom or city-state of some importance that reached its peak ca. 2500-2400 BC. Its exact location is unknown, but is thought to have been located in the western [[Zagros mountains]] roughly between [[Elam]] and [[Assyria]], possibly near [[Nuzi]] or modern [[Hamadan]].

Hamazi first came to the attention of archaeologists with the discovery of a vase with an inscription in very archaic cuneiform commemorating the victory of Utug (or Uhub), an early king of [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]], over this place, causing fringe theorist [[Laurence Waddell]] in 1929 to speculate that it was to be identified with [[Carchemish]] in [[Syria]]. It is now generally considered to have been somewhere in the vicinity of the [[Diyala River|Diyala]].

One of the earliest references to Hamazi is found in the epic ''[[Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta]]'', where [[Enmerkar]] prays to [[Enki]] about the confusion of languages in the various inhabited lands, at the time of the building of the [[ziggurat]]s in [[Eridu]] and [[Uruk]]. Hamazi is the only land mentioned in this prayer with the epithet "many-tongued". A sequel, ''[[Enmerkar and En-suhgir-ana]]'' also mentions that the sorcerer of Hamazi, Urgirinuna, went to [[Aratta]] after Hamazi "had been destroyed"; he is later sent by the Lord of Aratta on a failed mission attempting to bring Enmerkar into submission.

According to the ''[[Sumerian king list]]'', king [[Hadanish]] of Hamazi held hegemony over [[Sumer]] after defeating Kish, but was in turn defeated by [[Enshakushanna]] of [[Uruk]].

A clay tablet found in the archives at [[Ebla]] in Syria bears a copy of a diplomatic message sent from king [[Irkab-Damu]] of Ebla to king Zizi of Hamazi, along with a large quantity of wood, hailing him as a brother, and requesting him to send mercenaries in exchange.

Hamazi was one of the provinces of Ur under the reign of [[Amar-Sin]] during the [[Ur-III|"Sumerian renaissance"]];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/lulubi |title=LULUBI |publisher=Iranicaonline.org |date=2005-12-23 |accessdate=2009-02-17}}</ref> two governors or ''[[ENSI|ensis]]'' during this reign were named Lu-nanna son of Namhani, and Ur-Ishkur. In ca. 2010 BC, the province was occupied and plundered by [[Ishbi-Erra]] of [[Isin]] as the Ur-III empire was collapsing.

==Notes==
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==See also==
*[[Cities of the ancient Near East]]

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[[Category:Former populated places in Iraq]]


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