Fifteenth dynasty of Egypt of the Hyksos, of whom the Amorites were part.
There are also sparse mentions about Amorites (often as MAR-DUki) in tablets from theEast Semitic-speaking kingdom ofEbla, dating from 2500 BC to the destruction of the city inc. 2250 BC.[6] From the perspective of the Eblaites, the Amorites were a rural group living in the narrow basin of the middle and upper Euphrates in northern Syria.[7] The Eblaites used the term MAR.TU in an early time for a state and people east to Ebla (aroundEmar andTuttul), which means the name Amurru for the west is later than the name for the state or the people.[8]
For theAkkadian emperors of central Mesopotamia,mar.tu was one of the "Four Quarters" surrounding Akkad, along withSubartu (north),Sumer (south), andElam (east).[8]Naram-Sin of Akkad records in a royal inscription defeating a coalition of Sumerian cities and Amorites nearJebel Bishri in northern Syriac. 2240 BC.[9] His successor,Shar-Kali-Sharri, recorded in one of his year names "In the year in whichSzarkaliszarri was victorious over Amurru in the [Jebel Bishri]".[10]
Artifacts from Amorite Kingdom of Mari, first half of 2nd millennium BC
By the time of the last days of theThird Dynasty of Ur, the immigrating Amorites had become such a force that kings such asShu-Sin were obliged to construct a 270-kilometre (170 mi) wall from theTigris to theEuphrates to hold them off.[11][12] The Amorites are depicted in contemporary records as nomadic tribes under chiefs, who forced themselves into lands they needed to graze their herds. Some of the Akkadian literature of this era speaks disparagingly of the Amorites and implies that the Akkadian- and Sumerian-speakers ofMesopotamia viewed their nomadic and primitive way of life with disgust and contempt. In the Sumerian myth "Marriage of Martu", written early in the2nd millennium BC, a goddess considering marriage to the god of the Amorites is warned:
Now listen, their hands are destructive and their features are those of monkeys; (An Amorite) is one who eats what (the Moon-god)Nanna forbids and does not show reverence. They never stop roaming about ..., they are an abomination to the gods' dwellings. Their ideas are confused; they cause only disturbance. (The Amorite) is clothed in sack-leather ... , lives in a tent, exposed to wind and rain, and cannot properly recite prayers. He lives in the mountains and ignores the places of gods, digs up truffles in the foothills, does not know how to bend the knee (in prayer), and eats raw flesh. He has no house during his life, and when he dies he will not be carried to a burial-place. My girlfriend, why would you marry Martu?[13]
As the centralized structure of the Third Dynasty of Ur slowly collapsed, the city-states of the south such as Isin, Larsa and Eshnunna, began to reassert their former independence, and the areas in southern Mesopotamia with Amorites were no exception.[14] Elsewhere, the armies ofElam were attacking and weakening the empire, making it vulnerable. Ur was eventually occupied by the Elamites. They remained until they were rejected by the Isin rulerIshbi-Erra, which marked the beginning of the Isin-Larsa period.[15]
After the decline of Ur III, Amorite rulers gained power in a number of Mesopotamian city-states beginning in the Isin-Larsa period and peaking in the Old Babylonian period. In the north, the Amorite ruler ofEkallatum,Shamshi-Adad I conqueredAssur and formed the large, though short-lived Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia.[17] In the south,Babylon became the major power under the Amorite rulerSumu-la-El and his successors, including the notableHammurabi. Higher up the Euphrates, to the northwest, the Amorite kingdom ofMari arose, later to be destroyed by Hammurabi. Babylon itself would later be sacked by the Hittites, with its empire assumed by theKassites. West of Mari,Yamhad ruled from its capital Halab, today's Aleppo, until it was destroyed by the Hittites in 16th century BC. The city ofEbla, under the control of Yamhad in this period, also had Amorite rulership.[18]
There is thought to have been an Amorite presence inEgypt from the 19th century BC. TheFourteenth Dynasty of Egypt, centred in theNile Delta, had rulers bearing Amorite names such asYakbim. Furthermore, increasing evidence suggests that the succeedingHyksos of Egypt were an amalgam of peoples fromSyria of which the Amorites were also part.[2] Based on temple architecture,Manfred Bietak argues for strong parallels between the religious practices of the Hyksos atAvaris with those of the area aroundByblos,Ugarit,Alalakh andTell Brak and defines the "spiritual home" of the Hyksos as "in northernmost Syria and northern Mesopotamia", areas typically associated with Amorites at the time.[3]
In the 16th century BC, the Amorite era ended in Mesopotamia with the decline and fall of Babylon and other Amorite-ruled cities. TheKassites occupied Babylon and reconstituted it under theKassite dynasty under the name ofKarduniaš around 1595 BC. In far southern Mesopotamia, the nativeFirst Sealand dynasty had reigned over theMesopotamian Marshes region until the Kassites brought the region under their control. Innorthern Mesopotamia, the power vacuum left by the Amorites brought the rise of theMitanni (Ḫanigalbat) c. 1600 BC.
From the 15th century BC onward, the termAmurru is usually applied to the region extending north of Canaan as far asKadesh on theOrontes River in northern Syria.[20]
After the mid-2nd millennium BC, Syrian Amorites came under the domination of first theHittites and, from the 14th century BC, theMiddle Assyrian Empire. They then appear to have been displaced or absorbed by other semi-nomadicWest Semitic-speaking peoples, known collectively as theAhlamu during theLate Bronze Age collapse. TheArameans rose to be the prominent group amongst the Ahlamu.[20] From c. 1200 BC onward, the Amorites disappeared from the pages of history, but the name reappeared in theHebrew Bible.[21]
The language was first attested in the 21st–20th centuries BC and was found to be closely related to theCanaanite,Aramaic andSam'alian languages.[22] In the 18th century BC atMari Amorite scribes wrote in an Eshnunna dialect of theEast SemiticAkkadian language. Since the texts containNorthwest Semitic forms, words and constructions, theAmorite language is thought to be a Northwest Semitic language. The main sources for the extremely limited extant knowledge of the Amorite language are the proper names and loanwords, not Akkadian in style, that are preserved in such texts.[23][15][24] Amorite proper names were found throughout Mesopotamia in the Old Babylonian period, as well as places as far afield asAlalakh in Turkey and modern day Bahrain (Dilmun).[25] They are also found in Egyptian records.[26]
Ugaritic is also a Northwest Semitic language and is possibly an Amorite dialect.[27]
A bilingual list of the names of ten Amorite deities alongside Akkadian counterparts from theOld Babylonian period was translated in 2022. These deities are as follows:[28]: 118–119
Dagan, who is identified withEnlil. Dagan was the supreme god in many cities in theEuphrates region ofUpper Mesopotamia, especially at sites such as Mari,Tuttul, andTerqa. Babylonian texts refer to the chief god of the Amorites asAmurru (dmar.tu, read as "ilu Amurru"), corresponding to their name for the ethnic group. They also identify his consort as the goddessAšratum.[29]
Kamiš, an otherwise poorly attested deity largely known from Akkadian and Amoritetheophoric names. He was significant atEbla, where a month was named after him. The bilingual identifies him with the godEa though other god lists identify him withNergal.
Destruction of the Army of the Amorites byGustave Doré.
The termAmorites is used in theBible to refers to certain highlanders who inhabited the land ofCanaan, described inGenesis as descendants ofCanaan, the son of Ham (Gen. 10:16). This aligns with Akkadian and Babylonian traditions that equateSyro-Palestine with the "land of the Amorites".[30] They are described as a powerful people of great stature "like the height of the cedars" (Amos 2:9) who had occupied the land east and west of theJordan. The height and strength mentioned in Amos 2:9 has led some Christian scholars, including Orville J. Nave, who wrote theNave's Topical Bible, to refer to the Amorites as "giants".[31] InDeuteronomy, the Amorite kingOg is described as the last "of the remnant of theRephaim" (Deut 3:11). The terms Amorite and Canaanite seem to be used more or less interchangeably, but sometimes Amorite refers to a specific tribe living in Canaan.[32]
The Biblical Amorites seem to have originally occupied the region stretching from the heights west of theDead Sea (Gen. 14:7) toHebron (Gen. 13:8; Deut. 3:8; 4:46–48), embracing "allGilead and allBashan" (Deut. 3:10), with theJordan Valley on the east of the river (Deut. 4:49), the land of the "two kings of the Amorites",Sihon and Og (Deut. 31:4 andJoshua 2:10; 9:10).Sihon and Og were independent kings whose people were displaced from their land in battle with the Israelites (Numbers 21:21–35)—though in the case of the war led by Og/Bashan it appears none of them survived, and the land became part of Israel (Numbers 21:35). The Amorites seem to have been linked to theJerusalem region, and theJebusites may have been a subgroup of them (Ezek. 16:3). The southern slopes of the mountains ofJudea are called the "mount of the Amorites" (Deut. 1:7, 19, 20).
TheBook of Joshua states the five kings of the Amorites were first defeated with great slaughter byJoshua (Josh. 10:5). Then, more Amorite kings were defeated at the waters ofMerom by Joshua (Josh. 11:8). It is mentioned that in the days ofSamuel, there was peace between them and the Israelites (1 Sam. 7:14). TheGibeonites were said to be their descendants, being an offshoot of the Amorites who made a covenant with the Hebrews (2 Samuel 21:2). WhenSaul later broke that vow and killed some of the Gibeonites, God is said to have sent a famine to Israel (2 Samuel 21:1).
In 2017, Philippe Bohstrom ofHaaretz observed similarities between the Amorites and modern-day Jews, since both may have originated from a single spot, spread around their regions and managed to stay distantly connected kinshipwise. He believes possibly either thatAbraham was among the Amorites who migrated toLand of Israel, around the same time of the destruction of the Sumerian capitalUr by Elamites in 1750 BCE, or suggests continuity between "the bible’s [sic] portrait of Israel’s tribal organization and mobile herding background" and that of the Amorites. Nonetheless, the Biblical writers only applied the Amorite ethnonym to Canaanite nations existing pre-Israelite conquest. According to biblical scholarDaniel E. Fleming, reasons for Biblical appearances include a polemical desire to use the stereotypes present in the Sumerian mythMarriage of Martu and explaining the acquisition of current territory, caveating both that the lack of evidence of Biblical writers having access to contemporaneous texts describing the historical past of Amorites may result in only historical interest from their use of the ethnonym.[33]
Terracotta of a couple, probablyInanna andDumuzi,Girsu, Amorite period, 2000–1600 BC. Louvre Museum AO 16676.
There are a wide range of views regarding the Amorite homeland.[34] One extreme is the view thatkur mar.tu/māt amurrim covered the whole area between theEuphrates and theMediterranean Sea, theArabian Peninsula included. The most common view is that the "homeland" of the Amorites was a limited area in central Syria identified with the mountainous region ofJebel Bishri.[35][36] The Amorites are regarded as one of theancient Semitic-speaking peoples.[37][38][39]
The view that Amorites were fierce and tall nomads led to an anachronistic theory among some racialist writers in the 19th century that they were a tribe of "Aryan" warriors, who at one point dominated the Israelites. This belief, which originated withFelix von Luschan, fit models ofIndo-European migrations posited during his time, but Luschan later abandoned that theory.[40]Houston Stewart Chamberlain claims that KingDavid andJesus were both Aryans of Amorite extraction. The argument was repeated by theNazi ideologueAlfred Rosenberg.[41]
Ancient DNA analysis on 28 human remains dating to the Middle and LateBronze Age from ancientAlalakh, an Amorite city with aHurrian minority, found that the inhabitants of Alalakh were a mixture ofCopper age Levantines and Mesopotamians, and were genetically similar to contemporaneous Levantines.[42] Paternal Y-DNA haplogroups among twelve male specimen were distributed as follows:J1a2a1a2-P58 (6),J2a1a1a2b2a-Z1847 (2), while the remaining four carried haplogroupsJ2b2-Z2454,H2-P96,L2-L595 andT1a1-CTS11451 each.[43] Seven more male specimen were analyzed by Ingman et al. (2021): three carried haplogroupJ2a1a1a2, while the remaining four carried J1a2a1a, T1a1a,E1b1b-V12[44] andL1b-M349 each.[45]
^abBietak, Manfred (2019). "The Spiritual Roots of the Hyksos Elite: An Analysis of Their Sacred Architecture, Part I". In Bietak, Manfred; Prell, Silvia (eds.).The Enigma of the Hyksos. Harrassowitz. pp. 47–67.ISBN978-3-447-11332-8.
^van Seters, John, "The Terms 'Amorite' and 'Hittite' in the Old Testament", Vetus Testamentum, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 64–81, 1972
^Katz, Dina, "Ups and Downs in the Career of Enmerkar, King of Uruk", Fortune and Misfortune in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the 60th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale Warsaw, 21–25 July 2014, edited by Olga Drewnowska and Malgorzata Sandowicz, University Park, US: Penn State University Press, pp. 201–210, 2017
^Archi, Alfonso, "Mardu in the Ebla Texts", Orientalia, vol. 54, no. 1/2, pp. 7–13, 1985
^Giorgio Bucellati, "Ebla and the Amorites",Eblaitica3, pp. 83–104, 1992
^abStreck, Michael P.,Das amurritische Onomastikon der altbabylonischen Zeit. Band 1: Die Amurriter, die onomastische Forschung, Orthographie und Phonologie, Nominalmorphologie, Ugarit-Verlag, 2000, p. 26
^Westenholz, Joan Goodnick, "Chapter 6. Naram-Sin and the Lord of Apišal", Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts, University Park, US: Penn State University Press, pp. 173–188, 1997
^F. Thureau-Dangin, Recueil des tablettes chaldéennes, Paris, 1903
^Lieberman, Stephen J., "An Ur III Text from Drēhem Recording 'Booty from the Land of Mardu.'", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 22, no. 3/4, pp. 53–62, 1968
^Buccellati, G., "The Amorites of the Ur III Period", Naples: Istituto Orientale di Napoli. Pubblicazioni del Semionario di Semitistica, Richerche 1, 1966
^Gary Beckman, "Foreigners in the Ancient Near East", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 133, no. 2, pp. 203–216, 2013
^[1] Clemens Reichel, "Political Change and Cultural Continuity in Eshnunna from the Ur III to the Old Babylonian Period", Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, 1996
^abMichalowski, Piotr, "Chapter 5. The Amorites in Ur III Times", The Correspondence of the Kings of Ur: An Epistolary History of an Ancient Mesopotamian Kingdom, University Park, US: Penn State University Press, pp. 82–121, 2011ISBN978-1-57506-194-8
^L. E. R. (1908). "Egyptian Portraiture of the XX Dynasty".Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin.6 (36): 48.JSTOR4423408.
^Wygnańska, Zuzanna, "Burial in the Time of the Amorites. The Middle Bronze Age Burial Customs From a Mesopotamian Perspective", Ägypten Und Levante / Egypt and the Levant, vol. 29, pp. 381–422, 2019
^Matthiae, Paolo, "New Discoveries at Ebla: The Excavation of the Western Palace and the Royal Necropolis of the Amorite Period", The Biblical Archaeologist, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 18–32, 1984
^abLawson Younger, K., "The Late Bronze Age / Iron Age Transition and the Origins of the Arameans", Ugarit at Seventy-Five, edited by K. Lawson Younger Jr., University Park, US: Penn State University Press, pp. 131–174, 2007
^John Van Seters, "The Terms 'Amorite' and 'Hittite' in the Old Testament", VT 22, pp. 68–71, 1972
^Gelb, I. J., "An Old Babylonian List of Amorites", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 88, no. 1, pp. 39–46, 1968
^[2] Ignace J. Gelb, "Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite", Assyriological Studies 21, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980
^Knudsen, Ebbe Egede, "An Analysis of Amorite: A Review Article", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 34, no. 1/2, pp. 1–18, 1982
^Burke, Aaron (2013). "Introduction to the Levant During the Middle Bronze Age". In Steiner, Margreet L.; Killebrew, Ann E. (eds.).The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c. 8000–332 BCE. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-166255-3.
^Paul-Alain Beaulieu,The God Amurru as Emblem of Ethnic and Cultural Identity in "Ethnicity in Ancient Mesopotamia" (W. van Soldt, R. Kalvelagen, and D. Katz, eds.) Papers Read at the 48thRencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Leiden, July 1–4, 2002 (PIHANS 102; Nederlands Instituut voor her Nabije Oosten, 2005) 31–46
^Barton, George A. (1906). "Palestine before the Coming of Israel".The Biblical World.28 (6):360–373.doi:10.1086/473832.JSTOR3140778.
^Alfred Haldar,Who Were the Amorites (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971), p. 7
^Minna Lönnqvist, Markus Törmä, Kenneth Lönnqvist and Milton Nunez,Jebel Bishri in Focus: Remote sensing, archaeological surveying, mapping and GIS studies of Jebel Bishri in central Syria by the Finnish project SYGIS. BAR International Series 2230, Oxford: Archaeopress, 2011ISBN978-1-4073-0792-3
^Zarins, Juris, "Early Pastoral Nomadism and the Settlement of Lower Mesopotamia", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, no. 280, pp. 31–65, 1990
^Who Were the Amorites?, by Alfred Haldar, 1971, Brill Archive
Burke, Aaron A., "Amorites and Canaanites: Memory, Tradition, and Legacy in Ancient Israel and Judah", The Ancient Israelite World. Routledge, pp. 523–536, 2022ISBN978-0-367-81569-1
George, Andrew, and Manfred Krebernik, "Two Remarkable Vocabularies: Amorite-Akkadian Bilinguals!", Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale 116.1, pp. 113–166, 2022
Homsher, R. and Cradic, M., "The Amorite Problem: Resolving a Historical Dilemma", Levant 49, pp. 259–283, 2018
[4] Howard, J. Caleb, "Amorite Names through Time and Space", Journal of Semitic Studies, 2023
Streck, Michael P.,Das amurritische Onomastikon der altbabylonischen Zeit. Band 1: Die Amurriter, die onomastische Forschung, Orthographie und Phonologie, Nominalmorphologie, Ugarit-Verlag, 2000
Torczyner, H. Tur-Sinai, "The Amorite and the Amurrû of the Inscriptions", The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 249–258, 1949
Wasserman, Nathan, and Yigal Bloch, "The Amorites: A Political History of Mesopotamia in the Early Second Millennium BCE", The Amorites, Brill, 2023ISBN978-90-04-54658-5
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