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Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Kummuh Kummaḫa | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown–708 BC | |||||||||
 Kummuh among the Neo-Hittite states | |||||||||
| Capital | Kummuh | ||||||||
| Common languages | Hieroglyphic Luwian | ||||||||
| Religion | Luwian religion | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Historical era | Iron Age | ||||||||
• Established | Unknown | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 708 BC | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Turkey | ||||||||
Kummuh was a Neo-Hittite kingdom in the Iron Age, located on the west bank of the Upper Euphrates within the eastern loop of the river between Melid (north) and Carchemish (south). The city is identified with the classical-period Samosata (modern-day Samsat Höyük), which has now been flooded under the waters of a newly built dam.
Kummuh bordered the kingdoms of Melid to the north, Gurgum to the west and Carchemish to the south, while to the east it faced Assyria and later Urartu.
Other places that are mentioned in historical sources as lying within Kummuh are lands of Kištan and Helpi, and cities of Wita, Helpa, Parala, Sukiti and Sarita(?).[1]
From the Middle Hittite Period (15th century BCE) onwards, the Hittite archives of Hattuša refer to a city of Kummaha,[2] which might be identical to the later city of Kummuh.[3]
Most of the information about Kummuh comes from Assyrian sources. From the beginning of the 9th to the middle of the 8th centuries, Kummuh seems to have remained a peaceful tributary state allied with Assyria.
Assyrian sources refer to both the land and its capital city by the same name. Urartian sources refer to it as Kummaha.[4] The name is also attested in at least one local royal inscription dating to the 8th century BCE.[5]
In 866 BCE, Kummuh king Qatazilu paid tribute to Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II in the city of Huzirina (modern-day Sultantepe). In 858 BCE, Assyrian king Shalmaneser III reported in his Kurkh Monolith that Qatazilu submitted to him peacefully after the Assyrian king crossed the Euphrates on a campaign to the west. A similar report is mentioned for another campaign in 857. In 853 BCE, a new king in Kummuh, Kundašpi, was reported by Shalmaneser III as being among the northern Syrian kings who submitted to him in the city of Pitru.[6]
In 805 BCE, as reported on the Pazarcık Stele, the Kummuh king Ušpilulume (Šuppiluliuma) asked for the assistance of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari III against the a coalition of eight kings led by Ataršumki of Arpad. Adad-nirari apparently travelled with his mother Šammuramat, defeated the alliance, and established the border between Kummuh and Gurgum at Pazarcık. In 773 BCE, the same boundary was re-established by Assyrian general (turtanu) Šamši-ilu acting on behalf of Assyrian king Shalmaneser IV. Around 750 BCE Kummuh was attacked by the Urartian king Sarduri II who captured the cities of Wita and Helpi, and made the Kummuh king Kuštašpi pay a tribute. In 743, BCE Kuštašpi was among the Urartu-Arpad alliance against Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria. The alliance was defeated but Tiglath-pileser III pardoned Kuštašpi along with the kings of Melid and Gurgum. Kuštašpi appears as a tributary of Tiglath-pileser III in 738 and 732.
In 712 BCE, after the Kingdom of Melid was dismembered by the Assyrian king Sargon II, the city of Melid itself was given to Kummuh king Muttallu. Several indigenous rock inscriptions have been found in the region, all written in Hieroglyphic Luwian, attesting to the continuity of Hittite traditions. In his annals, the Assyrian king Sargon II referred to the Kummuh ruler as 'Hittite', and several rulers of Kummuh bore the same names as famous Hittite kings of the 2nd millennium BCE: Hattušili(?), Šuppiluliuma, and Muwattalli (in Assyrian sources Qatazilu, Ušpilulume, and Muttallu, respectively).[7]
In 708 BCE, Sargon II accused Muttallu of allying himself with Urartu and sent his army into Kummuh. According to the annals, Muttallu escaped but the royal family and the population was deported to Babylonia, and settlers from Bit-Yakin (in Babylonia) were brought to Kummuh. Thereafter the region became a province of Assyria and was under the jurisdiction of the turtanu of the left, whose seat of power was apparently the city of Kummuh.
After the Assyrian empire collapsed, a city of the name of Kimuhu, which is almost certainly Kummuh, appears in a conflict between Egyptians and Babylonians in 607–606 BCE. The Babylonian king Nabopolassar captured the city and stationed a garrison there, whereupon the Egyptian army under the command of Necho II laid siege to it and captured it after a four-month siege.[8]
Kummuh later gave its name to the classical Commagene and Samsat.
| Kings | Assyrian contemporary |
|---|---|
| Qatazilu (Hattušili?) | Assurnasirpal II (884-859 BCE) Shalmaneser III (859-824 BCE) |
| Kundašpi | Shalmaneser III (859-824 BCE) |
| Ušpilulume (Šuppiluliuma) | Adad-nirari III (811-783 BCE) Shalmaneser IV (783-773 BCE) |
| Hattušili?[9] | ? Ashur-Dan III (773-755 BCE) ? Ashur-nirari V (755-745 BCE) |
| Kuštašpi | ? Ashur-nirari V (755-745 BCE) Tiglat-pileser III (745-727 BCE) |
| Mutallu (Muwattalli) | Sargon II (722-705 BCE) |
Several monuments with Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions dating to the kingdom of Kummuh have been found in the region, as at Samsat, Ancoz, Boybeypınarı, Malpınarı and Adıyaman. The one found in Boybeypınarı is the longest and best preserved of them. It is made of several basalt blocks and dates to the reign of Šuppiluliuma. The Malpınarı inscription is carved on a natural rock cliff and dates to the reign of Hattušili, son of Šuppiluliuma.[10] An improved reading of ANCOZ 5 mentions the pair "Hattušili and Šuppiluliuma, father and son" (as opposed to a father Šuppiluliuma and son Hattušili), which may suggest the existence of either a second Šuppiluliuma or second Hattušili.[9]
Another inscription, ANCOZ 5, mentions the pair "Hattušili and Šuppiluliuma, father and son" which suggests the existence of either a second Šuppiluliuma or second Hattušili, requiring a dynastic order of either Šuppiluliuma-Hattušili-Šuppiluliuma or Hattušili-Šuppiluliuma-Hattušili, see Poetto, M. (2010) "L'iscrizione luvio-geroglifica ANCOZ 5 (A) rivista e completata", Hethitica XVI (Gs Neu), 131-142.
37°33′N 38°30′E / 37.550°N 38.500°E
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Kummuh was a Neo-Hittite kingdom in the Iron Age, located on the west bank of the Upper Euphrates within the eastern loop of the river between Melid (north) and Carchemish (south). The city is identified with the classical-period Samosata (modern-day Samsat Höyük), which has now been flooded under the waters of a newly built dam.
The Battle of Kummuh marked the end of the Urartu hold on northern Syria, as Tiglath-pileser III defeated Sarduri II (r. 763–734 B.C.) in 742 B.C. Tiglath-Pileser III's summary inscriptions indicate that the battle at Kummuh was immediately followed by an Assyrian attack on Urartian territory and a subsequent siege of their capital city.
Šuppiluliuma (Akkadian: Ušpilulume; Hieroglyphic Luwian: PURU.S.FONS.MI-sa) was a Neo-Hittite king of Kummuh (Classical Commagene), attested in various sources between 805 and 773 BC. He bore the title of ruler.
Shammuramat (Akkadian: Sammu-rāmat or Sammu-ramāt), also known as Sammuramat or Shamiram and Semiramis, was a powerful queen of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Beginning her career as the primary queen consort of the king Shamshi-Adad V (r. 824–811 BC), Shammuramat reached an unusually prominent position in the reign of her son Adad-nirari III (r. 811–783 BC). Though there is dispute in regard to Shammuramat's formal status and position, and if she should be considered a coregent, it is clear that she was among the most powerful and influential women of the ancient Near East and the Iron Age in general; she is the only known Assyrian queen to have retained her status as queen after the death of her husband and the only known woman from Mesopotamia to have partaken in, and perhaps even led, a military campaign. Shammuramat's origin is unclear; her name could equally well be of West or East Semitic origin. Proposed regions of origin include the Akkadian-speaking Assyria itself, the ethnolinguistically indistinguishable Babylonia (which spoke the Babylonian variety of Akkadian), Levant and Phoenicia. If originating from abroad, she is typically assumed to have been a princess. Nothing is known of her life or relative influence and power in the reign of her husband. Under Adad-nirari, her role was exceptionally prominent for a woman of the time. Per the Pazarcık Stele, she accompanied her son on a campaign against the Hittites Kummuh in Hittite and both she and Adad-nirari are credited with expanding the borders of the empire in all directions into the Levant, Anatolia and Persia. In some inscriptions, local governors made dedications not only to the king (as was customary) but also to Shammuramat. All evidence suggests that Shammuramat was among the most renowned figures of her time. Shammuramat was immortalized in later Persian, Levantine and Greco-Roman literary tradition as the legendary Assyrian warrior-queen and heroine Semiramis, a half-divine daughter of the North Syrian goddess Atargatis and the wife of the fictional Ninus, the legendary and mythical founder of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire. Among the legendary feats ascribed to Semiramis were securing victory during a siege of Bactra, the foundation of Babylon, and the invention of a type of pants/trousers later popular among the Medes, Persians and Parthians. Numerous parallels can be drawn between the historical Shammuramat and the legendary Semiramis, whose feats are mythical rather than historical. Semiramis and Shammuramat are both still used as popular given names for girls among the Assyrian people today.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.
