Near East Kingdoms

Huhnuri / Khukhnur (City State) (Western Iran)

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The city states of Sumer formed one of the first great civilisations in human history (see feature link). This Near Eastern civilisation emerged a little way ahead of that of Africa's ancient Egypt, and up to a millennium before that of the Indus Valley culture.

Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement during the Pottery Neolithic and, by the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen city states, by which time other regions were emerging as population centres in their own right. Elam was located to the east of Sumer, with its own selection of city states at its core (and see feature link).

This region was located on an alluvial plan below the Zagros mountains, and its remoteness meant that it took some time for it to assimilate Sumer's groundbreaking social, agricultural, and administrative inventions. Access to Sumer was in the Zagros foothills, circling the marshes, but this meant difficulties in communication, and a feeling in Sumer of there being comparative barbarians on their eastern flank.

Culturally, Elamite kingdoms achieved less than their more advanced neighbours, and imported much of what they needed, including writing from Sumer and architecture from the later city and empire of Babylon. Elamite records are also extremely sparse in recording local events, and large areas of its history are almost totally unknown except through Sumerian records.

Huhnuri, otherwise translated as Khukhnur (and sometimes shown as Huhnur, Khukhunuri, or Khukhnuri), may have been located at what is now the archaeological site of Tall Barmi (also translated as Tappeh Bormi). It is known to have bordered the territory of Pashime during its 'Old Elamite' peak. The site's location roughly midway between Susa and Anshan fits with most reasonable modern estimates.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Samuel Noah Kramer ('List 1' of Sumerian rulers, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963), 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 The Archaeology of Elam, D T Potts (Cambridge University Press, 1999), from The Elamite World, Javier Álvarez-Mon, Gian Pietro Basello, & Yasmina Wick (Eds, Routledge, 2018), and from External Links: Some Thoughts in Neo-Elamite Chronology, Jan Tavernier (PDF), and the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, and Early Kings of Kish, Albrecht Goetze (Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol 15, No 3, 1961, pp 105-111 and available to read via University of Chicago Press Journals), and Archaeology.org.)

c.3100 - 2700 BC

The Uruk IV influence suddenly fades around 3100 BC (or 3200 BC in some modern sources) for reasons unknown. Older traditions re-emerge in places which had previously taken on board Uruk influences.

The Uruk-inspired centre at Susa in Elam seems to be taken over by immigrants from the Zagros mountains (or at least it witnesses an indigenous return to pre-Uruk political and cultural controls). This coincides with Mesopotamian centres diminishing in size or - like Shakhi Kora - being abandoned altogether, while others are created such as Huhnuri.

Pottery found at the archaeological site of Shakhi Kora in north-eastern Iraq reveals the adoption of the Uruk IV cultural period and then the apparent abandonment of centralised authority in favour of individual farming

c.2350 BC

Lugalannemundu of Adab extends Sumer's control to include territory from the Persian Gulf right up to the Mediterranean, bordering the Taurus mountains in the north, and the Zagros mountains in the east. Having subjected the Gutians, he confronts the king of the Marhashi state or confederation and leaves an inscription to record the event.

fl c.2325 BC

Ruler of Khukhnur.

c.2120 BC

Utuhengal appears to be a rare native Sumerian ruler following the Akkadian empire period and the Gutian phase in southern Mesopotamia. His inscriptions make it clear that he is the king (and only king) of Uruk's 'Fifth Dynasty'.

He may gain the position after helping to throw out the Gutians and elevating himself from a vassal governor of Uruk. His eventual death is due to an accident while investigating a dam, after which he is succeeded by his son-in-law, Ur-Nammu of Ur.

The Ram Hormuz region in which ancient Huhnuri may be located is an area which both ethnically and archaeologically can be considered a buffer zone between the highland and lowland polities of early Elamite history

fl c.2100 BC

Unnamed ruler of Khukhnur.

c.2050 BC

Shulgi of Ur extends his father's empire to include all of the Assyrian city states and their at-present non-Assyrian neighbours such as the Lullubi. He also re-conquers Susa from Elam and its Simashki rulers, and may be responsible for finishing off rebuilding work at Nippur.

For the next half century he and his successors continuously control, dominate, or destroy various cities and states of the Zagros mountains and the nearer Iranian plateau, including Huhnuri.

? - 2041 BC

Unnamed ruler of Khukhnur.

c.2041 - ? BC

Ensi (governor). A vassal of Ur.

c.2039 BC

The seventh year of the reign of Amar-Sin of Ur is named as the year, ‘the king Amar-Sin destroyed Bitum-rabium, Jabru, their neighbouring territories, and Huhnur. The reason is not recorded, but it must be doubtful that his own ensi remains in post afterwards, while his own son is required to leave his governorship in Der to protect Ur.

Elamite cities on the plain to the east of Sumer benefited from direct contact, but cities with more easterly locations also swiftly caught up, connected into a network of trading routes which stretched east to the Indus and north to Hissar and the BMAC (click or tap on map to view at an intermediate size)

c.2030 BC

The seventh year of the reign of Shu-Sin of Ur is named as the year 'Shu-sin, the king of Ur, king of the four quarters, destroyed the land of Zabshali'.

He also dedicates a statue of himself for the god Enlil, with it being made from gold which has been taken as booty from the lands of the Su people, and the lands of Zabshali, Shigrish, Iabulmat, Alumiddatum, Karta, Shatilu, Bulma, and Nushushmar (and possibly other equally vague and little-known Elamite territories, but the dedication is cut short). The suggestion here is that he no longer controls or dominates much of Elam.

fl c.2019 BC

Unnamed ruler of Huhnur.

c.2019 - 2014 BC

The ninth year of the reign of Ibbi-Sin of Ur is named as the year 'Ibbi-Sin, the king of Ur, went with massive power to Huhnur, [and struck a] bolt [in]to the land of Anshan...'.

The ruins of the once-vast city of Ur were excavated in 1922 by Sir Leonard Woolley, which is when the 'Royal Tombs' were discovered (External Link: Creative Commons Licence 4.0 International)

Ibbi-Sin in his fourteenth year (circa 2014 BC) has a year name for overwhelming 'Susa, Adamdun, and Awan like a storm, [so that he] subdued them in a single day and captured the lords of their people'. All three cities are clustered on the Khuzestan plain on the eastern flank of the Tigris.

fl c.1400 BC

Unnamed ruler of Huhnur.

c.1400 BC

The political outlook in Elam at this time may be one of fragmentation, or at least areas of control. Tepti-ahar may be king of Anshan and Susa, but there is at least one other king mentioned. He is located at Huhnur, usually located about midway between the two major cities. This possibility casts potential light on Tepti-ahar's grand building project.

The best-attested act of this period is his building of a new settlement (actually a monumental rebuild), called Kabnak, approximately twenty kilometres from Susa. The Kidinuid kings leave no mark outside of the western lowlands though.

Several hundred people were massacred in this period and their bodies piled into a mass grave behind one of Kabnak's city walls, for archaeologists to find in 2014-2015, although the circumstances surrounding the massacre are unknown

With Elam in general decline, Kabnak also declines. Some of its temples and palaces are abandoned, and their materials are reused to build simple dwellings. The remains of several hundred massacre victims of this period are found by archaeologists in AD 2014-2015, piled on top of one another behind one of the city's internal walls.

c.660s BC

Elam itself appears to be flourishing. King of Elam from 664 BC, Tempti-Khumma-In-Shushinak (also shown as Tepti-Huban-Inshushnak) refers to campaigns against the lands or peoples of Balahute and Lallar, both otherwise unknown and not located.

This sort of military activity, combined with the building or rebuilding of shrines to Inshushinak, Pinigir, and possibly Umu at Susa is suggestive of an Elamite renaissance which remains free of Babylonian interference.

Whilst Babylon in the eighth century BC was perhaps not the great city it once had been and would again be, it was still one of the biggest, most heavily-populated centres of population in the ancient world of the early first millennium (click or tap on image to view full sized)

In addition to hostile relations with Balahute and Lallar, Acropole texts from Susa also mention many other peoples and toponyms, including Ayapir (modern Izeh-Malamir), Huhnur, Parsirra (the Parsua), Unsak, and Zari.

539 BC

The Parsua assume full control of Elam as part of their increasing dominance of the region, leading to the Elamites fading from history as a recognisable people and culture - although they clearly do survive within the newly-formed Achaemenid empire.