Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman in the Neo-Assyrian Correspondence.

• Author: WATERS, MATTHEW W.

Analysis of eight Neo-Babylonian letters from the Nineveh corpus offers additional details of the career of the Neo-Elamite king Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman (664-653 B.C.) before and during his reign. This material complements what is revealed of his activities in the annals of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal.

The Neo-Elamite king Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman is a major focus of Assurbanipal's annals, which portray him as an inveterate enemy of Assyria. But the annals provide sparse information regarding Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman beyond his seizure of the throne and his defeat and death during Assurbanipal's second Elamite campaign (653 B.C.). This brief study examines Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman's influence and activities in the years preceding the battle at Tell Tuba, as revealed by the Harper letters. [1] A pattern of anti-Assyrian activity characterized Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman's political conduct from the early 670s until his death in 653.

With two exceptions, explicit references to Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman are absent in the Nineveh corpus. [2] But such absence is not unusual: the letters infrequently name Elamite kings. Instead, "king of Elam" (sar Elamti) is usually written by itself, since the identity of the then current king of Elam would have been obvious to the recipient of the letter. In some instances, it is possible for modern scholars to determine which Elamite king is meant in a particular letter, but there are many instances where his identity cannot be established with certainty.

Assurbanipal's annals, particularly Edition B, relate in great detail the campaign against Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman. [3] This campaign culminated in a massive Elamite defeat and the installation of Assurbanipal's Elamite clients (Hubannikas II and Tammaritu) at Madaktu and Hidalu. The victory was celebrated in an elaborate relief sequence, with a scene showing the severed head of Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman hanging from a tree as Assurbanipal and his queen banquet in an idyllic garden setting. [4]

Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman's reign is unmarked in the Assyrian annals, except for his accession to the throne and the Assyrian campaign against him. The extant chronicles are also silent about it. [5] Only a few letters from the corpus of Neo-Assyrian correspondence offer further details; yet even in them the record is scant and often uncertain. Nevertheless, the letters provide important clues to other aspects of Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman's career beyond what is related in the annals. On account of the uncertainties involved in analysis of the relevant letters, however, much of the following remains provisional. [6]

In a series of letters, the elders of the Sealand reported the king of Elam's attempts to wrest the Sealand from Assyrian control with the help of Nabu-usallim. [7] The elders related in ABL 576 (NB): 7-17 that a messenger of [CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]tu-um-man and Zineni came to the Sealand to urge acceptance of Nabu-usallim as their lord. [8] This Tumman is described in ABL 576: 8 as a brother of the king of Elam, the latter not identified by name. [9]

There is reason to suppose that the Tumman of ABL 576: 8, said to be the brother of the king, was Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman and that his brother was king Huban-haltas 11(681-675). That Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman and Huban-haltas II were brothers is confirmed by K. 2867, an inscription from Assurbanipal's reign concerning the defeat of Urtak (664). Referring to the flight of the sons of Huban-haltas II and Urtak to Assyria, the passage describes Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman as the brother of their father ([CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman ahi abisunu...). [10] K. 2867 not only supports the interpretation of Tumman as Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman in ABL 576 but also reveals that from 681 to 653 rule in Elam (at least from the Assyrian perspective) passed successively through three brothers: Huban-haltas II. Urtak, and Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman. [11]

The background for Te[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]umman's activity in the Sealand involved a Chaldean rebellion after the death of Sennacherib. Nabu-zer-kitti-lisir, governor of the Sealand and a son of Merodach-baladan, had attacked Ur without success in 680 and then fled to Elam seeking refuge. But Huban-haltas 11(681-675) imprisoned and killed him. Nabu-zer-kitti-lisir's brother, Na[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]id-Marduk, having left Elam and obtaining pardon from Esarhaddon, became master of the Sealand under heavy tribute. [12] Na[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]id-Marduk and the Sealand subsequently faced the threat of another son of Merodach-baladan, the Elamite-sponsored Nab u-usallim.

ABL 576 and its complements (see below) contain no explicit dates. However, the incidents which they describe (i.e., Nabu-usallim's Elamite-sponsored agitation in the Sealand against Na[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]id-Marduk) may be confidently dated in the first six years of Esarhaddon's reign (680-669), i.e., 680-675, when Huban-haltas II was ruling Elam. Nabu-usallim had been in Elam during the reign...