Top: An inscription datedc. 2130BCE, mentioning the Gutians: "Lugalanatum, prince ofUmma ... built theE.GIDRU [Sceptre] Temple atUmma, buried his foundation deposit [and] regulated the orders. At that time,Siium was king of Gutium." The name𒄖𒋾𒌝𒆠,gu-ti-umKI appears in the last column.Louvre Museum. Bottom: Approximate location of original Gutium territory
TheGuti (/ˈɡuːti/), also known by the derivedexonymsGutians orGuteans, were a people of the ancient Near East who both appeared and disappeared during theBronze Age. Their homeland was known asGutium (Sumerian:𒄖𒌅𒌝𒆠,GutūmKI or𒄖𒋾𒌝𒆠,GutiumKI).[1][2]Conflict between people from Gutium and theAkkadian Empire has been linked to the collapse of the empire, towards the end of the3rd millenniumBCE. Although economic factors, climate change and internal strife also played a part. The Guti subsequently overran southernMesopotamia and formed the short-livedGutian dynasty of Sumer, overseeing a period of economic decline. TheSumerian king list suggests that the Guti ruled overSumer for several generations following the fall of the Akkadian Empire.[3]
By the mid2nd millenniumBCE, use of the name "Gutium", by theAssyrians andBabylonians ofMesopotamia, was extended to include all foreigners from northwesternIran, between theZagros Mountains and theTigris River. Various tribes and places to the east and northeast, regardless of ethnicity, were often referred to asGutians orGutium, and the name no longer referred to one specific people .[4] For example, Assyrian royal annals use the term Gutians in relation to populations known to have beenMedes orMannaeans. As late as the reign ofCyrus the Great of Persia, the famous generalGubaru (Gobryas) was described as the "governor of Gutium".[5]
The Gutians capturing a Babylonian city, as Akkadians are making a stand outside their city. Illustration published 1915.
Little is known of the origins, material culture or language of the Guti, as contemporary sources provide few details and no artifacts have been positively identified.[6] As theGutian language lacks atext corpus, apart from some proper names, its similarities to other languages are impossible to verify. The names of Gutian kings suggest that the language was not closely related to any languages of the region at the time, includingSumerian,Akkadian,Hurrian,Hittite,Eblaite andElamite. Scholars reject the attempt to link Gutian king names to Indo-European languages, which had not yet arrived in the region.[7]
The Guti appear in texts from c. 17th century BC purported copies of inscriptions proposed to be ofLugal-Anne-Mundu (fl.c. 25th century BC – c.25th centuryBCE) ofAdab as among the nations providing his empire tribute. These inscriptions locate them betweenSubartu andAssyria in the north, andMarhashi andElam in the south.[10][11] This fragmentary text has been described as a "pseudoautobiographical literary composition".[12]
Votive macehead of Gutian kingLa-erabum, and its inscription "La-eraab, great King of Gutiim" (𒆷𒂍𒊏𒀊 𒁕𒈝 𒈗 𒄖𒋾𒅎la-e-ra-ab da-num lugal gutiim). The name is quite damaged, and was initially read "Lasiraab".[13]British Museum (BM 90852)
During the Akkadian Empire period, the Gutians slowly grew in strength and then established a capital at the Early Dynastic city of Adab.[17] The Gutians eventually overran Akkad, and as the King List tells us, their army also subduedUruk for hegemony of Sumer, in about2147~2050BCE. However, it seems that autonomous rulers soon arose again in a number of city-states, notablyGudea ofLagash.
The Gutians seem also to have briefly overrunElam at around the same time, towards the close ofKutik-Inshushinak's reign (c. 2100BCE).[18] On a statue of the Gutian kingErridupizir atNippur, an inscription imitates his Akkadian predecessors, styling him "King of Gutium, King of the Four Quarters".
Naram-Sin destroyed the people ofBabylon, so twiceMarduk summoned the forces ofGutium against him. Marduk gave his kingship to the Gutian force. The Gutians were unhappy people unaware how to revere the gods, ignorant of the right cultic practices.Utu-hengal, the fisherman, caught a fish at the edge of the sea for an offering. That fish should not be offered to another god until it had been offered to Marduk, but the Gutians took the boiled fish from his hand before it was offered, so by his august command, Marduk removed the Gutian force from the rule of his land and gave it to Utu-hengal.
The Sumerian rulerUtu-hengal, Prince of the Sumerian city of Uruk is similarly credited on the King List with defeating the Gutian rulerTirigan, and removing the Guti from the country inc. 2050BCE (short chronology).[19]
In his Victory Stele, Utu-hengal wrote about the Gutians:
Utu-hengal's victory stele, where he describes the Gutians he vanquished as "the fanged snake of the mountain ranges".Louvre Museum, AO 6018.[20]
Gutium, the fanged snake of the mountain ranges, a people who acted violently against the gods, people who the kingship of Sumer to the mountains took away, who Sumer with wickedness filled, who from one with a wife his wife took away from him, who from one with a child his child took away from him, who produced wickedness and violence within the country ..."
Following this,Ur-Nammu ofUr ordered the destruction of Gutium. The year 11 of kingUr-Nammu also mentions the "year Gutium was destroyed".[22] However, according to a Sumerian epic, Ur-Nammu died in battle with the Gutians, after having been abandoned by his own army.
A Babylonian text from the early 2nd millennium refers to the Guti as having
Somebiblical scholars believe that the Guti may be theQoa, named with theShoa andPekod as enemies of Jerusalem inEzekiel 23:23,[24] which was probably written in the6th centuryBCE.
^Johns, C.H.W.;Parpola, Simo (1970). Tallqvist, Knut Leonard; Dietrich, Manfried; Bergerhof, Kurt (eds.).Neo-Assyrian Toponyms. Alter Orient und Altes Testament. Vol. 6. Kevelaer and Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon & Bercker and Neukirchener Verlag.OCLC102576. Open Library OL20241301M.
^Oppenheim, A. Leo (2011). "VIII. Assyrian and Babylonian historical texts". In Pritchard, James B. (ed.).The Ancient Near East: An anthology of texts and pictures. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
^Douglas Frayne, "ADAB". Presargonic Period: Early Periods, Volume 1 (2700-2350 BC), RIM The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia Volume 1, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 17-34, 2008ISBN9780802035868
^Westenholz, Joan Goodnick. "Chapter 9. The Great Revolt against Naram-Sin". Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 221-262, 1997
^Molina, M. (2019). Wicke, D. (ed.).The palace of Adab during the Sargonic period(PDF). Der Palast im antiken und islamischen Orient, Colloquien der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 9. Wiesbaden, DE: Harrassowitz. p. 151 – via digital.csic.es.
^Sicker, Martin (2000).The Pre-Islamic Middle East. p. 19.
^Thureau-Dangin, Fr. (1912). "La fin de la domination Gutienne" [The end of Gutian domination].Revue d'Assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale (in French).9 (3):111–120.ISSN0373-6032.JSTOR23283609.
^Ansky, S. (12 February 2018) [1992]. "The cursing of Akkade". In Roskies, David G. (ed.).The Harps thatOnce ... [sic] : Sumerian poetry in translation. Translated by Werman, Golda. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 359–374.doi:10.12987/9780300161878.ISBN978-0-3001-6187-8.
^See, for example, Douglas, J.D.; Tenney, Merrill C. (2011).Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary (3rd ed.).HarperCollins. p. 1897.
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