TheTurukkaeans were aBronze andIron Age people ofZagros Mountains. Theirendonym has sometimes beenreconstructed asTukri.
Turukkum was regarded by the Kingdoms ofAssyria andEshnunna as a constant threat, during the reign ofShamshi-Adad I (1813-1782 BCE) and his son and successorIshme-Dagan (1781-1750 BCE). The Turukkaeans were allied to the Land ofAhazum, and they gathered at the town ofIkkallum to face the army of Ishme-Dagan, as Shamshi-Adad wrote in a letter to his other sonYasmah-Adad. Ishme-Dagan destroyed the army, reporting "Not one man escaped".[1] Turukkum seems to have been made up of a collection of tribes with mixed populations, mostlyHurrian speaking but also heavilySemitic.[2]
The Turukkaeans were reported to have sacked the city ofMardaman, apparently under Hurrian rule, around the year 1769/68 BCE.[3] Babylon's defeat of Turukku was celebrated in the 37th year of Hammurabi's reign (c. 1773 BCE).
A significant early reference to them is an inscription by the Babylonian kingHammurabi, (r. circa 1792 – c. 1752 BCE) that mentions a kingdom namedTukriš(UET I l. 46, iii–iv, 1–4), alongsideGutium,Subartu and another name that is usually reconstructed asElam. Other texts from the same period refer to the kingdom asTukru.
By the early part of the 1st millennium BCE, names such asTurukkum,Turukku andti-ru-ki-i are being used for the same region inAssyrian andBabylonian records. In a broader sense, names such as Turukkaean been used in a generic sense to mean "mountain people" or "highlanders", and like "Gutian", no longer with reference to any specific ethnic group.
Tukru orTurukkum was said to have spanned the north-east border of Mesopotamia and an adjoining part of the Zagros Mountains. In particular, they were associated with theLake Urmia basin and the valleys of the north-east Zagros. They were therefore located north of ancientLullubi, and at least oneNeo-Assyrian (10th to 7th centuries BCE) text refers to the whole area and its peoples as "Lullubi-Turukki"(VAT 8006).
In terms of cultural and linguistic characteristics, little is known about the Tukri. They are described by their contemporaries as a semi-nomadic, mountain tribe, who wore animal skins. Some scholars believe they may have beenHurrian-speaking or subject to a Hurrian elite.[4] According toHorst Klengel [de], "The Turukka people evidently belonged to those late-gentile groups in which the primitive social conditions had already decayed and tribal leaders exercised a permanent function due to close contact, partly established through economic pressure, with the state-organized population practicing rain-fed agriculture in the Rania Plain and the Zagros foothills."[5]
The Turukkeans were closely associated with the Lullubi,[citation needed] and attacked the Hurrian city Madraman.[3]