Near East Kingdoms

Arina (City) (Northern Mesopotamia)

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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. It 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.

As irrigation improved so the more southerly reaches of the Euphrates could at last be occupied by humans and their animals. Southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and the western edge of Iran) was subjected to permanent settlement, initially in the form of pastoralists but soon as farmers too. Cultures around the edges of this progression included the Hassuna and Samarra which began this settlement process, and perhaps elements of the Hissar culture in the Iranian highlands were also involved.

By the late fourth millennium BC, Sumer was divided into approximately a dozen city states which were independent of one another and which used local canals and boundary stones to mark their borders. Many early historical events in the region are found only in the Sumerian king list, which notates the rulers of the city states (and see feature link), but archaeology has also uncovered a wealth of detail.

The city of Arina (or Arinnu) apparently remains virtually undocumented even today. Otherwise referred to as a fortress, it was decisively conquered by Shalmaneser I in the mid-thirteenth century BC when he undertook a campaign to subdue the fortresses and settlements of eight 'countries' which would later coalesce into the kingdom of Urartu. These all lay to the north-west of Ashur, and were apparently already fortified and militaristic in the thirteenth century.

The possibility remains that this Arina is not the Arina of about 2900 BC which was the source of seals which mentioned the city of Nippur. That city had become the cult centre for Sumer, far to the south of Anatolia's mountainous terrain, and at a far earlier date than that at which complex cities would emerge in such an isolated northern region. So far, a contender for the site of a potential southern Mesopotamian Arina has not emerged.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from History of the Ancient Near East c.3000-323 BC, Marc van der Mieroop (Blackwell Publishing, 2004, 2007), 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 Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History, J N Postgate (Routledge, 1994), and from External Links: Evolution of Sumerian kingship (Ancient World Magazine), and Joshua 5:13-6:27 as War Narrative in Context, Trevor Pomeroy (Thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2014, and available to download as a PDF).)

c.2900 BC

The Jemdet Nasr period which uses the city of that name as a type site - Jemdet Nasr - now fades in favour of a new, outward-looking 'Early Dynastic' period. True writing now blossoms as it moves closer to spoken Sumerian, archives explode with mercantile records and administrative acts, and the first kings begin to appear as leading city figures take on more duties and increasing power, ostensibly as deputies of the gods themselves.

Nippur becomes the focus of Sumer's unified cult practices, in favour of Ur. Positioned centrally in Sumer, perhaps this location is more satisfactory for the region's cities. All of them seem to be joined together when it comes to paying homage to the Sumerian pantheon of gods, headed by Enlil who is Nippur's patron (another good reason for making this city the religious centre).

This unique status lasts until the eighteenth century BC (which witnesses the rise of Babylon). Seals mention it frequently, even when they are found in small or obscure Sumerian cities such as Abu Salabikh, Arina, Kesh, Urum, and Zabalam.

c.1270s BC

The first references to a political organisation to the north of Ashur in northern Mesopotamia comes when the Assyrians campaign there and encounter what they call the Nairi and Uruatri. Shalmaneser I and his son, Tukulti-Ninurta I, are primarily to blame for these attacks.

Shalmaneser states: 'The city of Arina, a strongly fortified mountain fortress which had formerly revolted, despising the god Assur, by the help of Assur and the great gods, my lords, I took that city, I destroyed it and scattered kudime over its [site]'

The former conquers eight 'countries' to the north-west of Ashur and destroys their fortresses (which include that of Arina or Arinnu). In response these 'countries' begin to merge into a single kingdom which becomes known as Urartu.