Near East Kingdoms

Razama of the Yamutbal (Amorite City & State) (Northern Mesopotamia)

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In southern Mesopotamia the city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation developed out of the end of the Pottery Neolithic across the Fertile Crescent, a period which had seen Neolithic Farmer practices spread far and wide across the Near East and beyond.

At the same time, northern Mesopotamia experienced its own burgeoning development processes, largely starting under the Hassuna culture. These processes took longer here than they did in the south, in what is now northern Iraq, the western edge of Iran, the south-eastern corner of Turkey, and the eastern wedge of Syria.

An urban lifestyle only really appeared in the third millennium BC, thanks in part to such influences being imposed during Sumerian empire-building periods. The collapse of Sumer (officially around 2004 BC) to climate-induced drought and political instability allowed other cities and powers to arise. In the north this was focussed on Amorite and Assyrian groups.

The city of Razama was the (second) capital of the territory of the Amorite Yamutbal people (or Emutbal). The Yamutbal lived in the narrow belt of marginal dry farming which lay between the steppe to the south and the ridges of the 'Hilly Arc', the sequence of long, narrow ridges which trace the southern margin of the eastern Anatolian highlands and the south-western margins of the Persian highlands in the form of an arc.

This is separated from the Anatolian highlands by the 'Northern Plains' and from the Persian highlands by rolling hill country, through which the Tigris winds its way. To the west they were neighboured by the Mariote province of Qattunan, while in the east the narrow belt of territory was cut off by Qattara and Karana.

The most important Yamutbal city during the period in which Zimri-Lim ruled from Mari was nearby Andarig of what was Upper Yamutbal, in reference to the Yamutbal-related state of Larsa to the south, which had been founded in the late twenty-first century BC.

Razama was probably also the second station on the trading route from Ashur, home city of the early Assyrians, to Kanesh in central Anatolia. The city is sometimes called 'Southern Razama' to differentiate it from the northern one, Razama of the land of Yussun. Very little information is available for it, however, and even its precise location remains unknown.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City, Gwendolyn Leick (Penguin Books, 2001), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from Political Change and Cultural Continuity in Eshnunna from the Ur III to the Old Babylonian Period, Clemens Reichel (Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, 11 June 1996), from Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 2000), from The Ancient Near East, c.3000-330 BC, Amélie Kuhrt (Routledge, 2000, Vol I & II), from Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Michael Road (Facts on File, 2000), from Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians, Enrico Ascalone (Dictionaries of Civilizations 1, University of California Press, 2007), from Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, J N Postgate (Routledge, 1994), from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), and from External Links: Ancient Worlds, and Ancient History, Anthony Michael Love (Sarissa.org).)

c.1809 - 1776 BC

Northern Mesopotamia is conquered by Shamshi-Adad and is incorporated into his kingdom of 'Upper Mesopotamia'. Upon his death the kingdom collapses and the previous order is re-established, with new rulers emerging in many of the smaller cities, which includes Razama, now controlled by Amorites.

While southern Mesopotamia flourished during the third millennium BC, it took longer for the same effect to be felt in northern Mesopotamia, with the first larger cities and city states only really emerging towards the end of the millennium (click or tap on map to view full sized)

from c.1776? BC

King of the Yamutbal. Ally of Hatnu-rabi of Qattara.

c.1760s? BC

The Yamutbal tribe of Amorites cedes to Ekallatum the city of Sadduwatum, the first station on the trading route from Ashur to Kanesh, suggesting that although the city's inhabitants are Yamutbal, the city itself is so close to Ekallatum as to naturally fall under its control. Razama itself is a vassal of Zimri-Lim of Mari, powerful at this time.

c.1766 BC

Eshnunnan troops take part in the siege of Razama by Atamrum of Andarig, but Ibalpiel II hurries to assist Razama, collecting troops and a battering ram from his governor in Qattunan on the way. The Razamans manage to repel Atamrum before he arrives, so he returns home.

Sharriya of Razama possibly suffers defeat at the hands of Aqba-Hammu of Karana following a siege (and seemingly a second one so close to the first).

The rough terrain of north-western Iraq, north-eastern Syria, and southern-central Turkey - all of which formed the northernmost parts of ancient Mesopotamia in which Yamatbul was located - offer a tough life, and one which even today is predominantly pastoralist

c.1764 - 1762 BC

Hammurabi turns on his old ally, defeating Zimri-Lim in battle and conquering Mari in 1764 BC. Karana's control over Razama ends when Hammurabi of Babylon conquers much of the region in 1762 BC. No independent kings are known for Razama after this event.