Near East Kingdoms

Qattara (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.

As irrigation improved so the more southerly reaches of the Euphrates could at last be occupied by humans and their animals, with permanent settlements arising from the sixth millennium BC. Initially these were pastoralist settlements, but soon farming villages appeared and they gradually grew and improved. 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. Archaeology has uncovered a wealth of detail about settlements in this region, but many more sites remain to be examined.

Qattara emerged as a small state in the northern Mesopotamian plain in the nineteenth century BC. Its eponymous capital city is thought to have been located at the modern archaeological site of Tell al-Rimah, about sixty kilometres to the west of Mosul in Iraq. There is a chance that this site may have been Karana instead, as Qattara the state incorporated both the cities of Qattara and Karana.

Tell al-Rimah has been occupied since prehistory, but its earliest levels still had not been searched at the start of the twenty-first century AD, with the first excavation of the higher layers alone dating to 1964.

The Amorite Numha population which controlled the city in the first half of the second millennium BC seems to have been related to that of Ekallatum to the south-east, while to the west they were neighboured by the Yamutbal, and Nineveh was not far away to the north-east.

As was common with many of the small city states of northern Mesopotamia in this period, the kings of Qattara maintained close ties with the powerful Zimri-Lim of Mari. The city was probably the fourth stage on the trade route from the early Assyrian city of Ashur to the Anatolian city of Kanesh.

(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 Historical Atlas of the Ancient World, 4,000,000 to 500 BC, John Heywood (Barnes & Noble, 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 The First Empires, J N Postgate (Oxford 1977), from Mesopotamia, Chris Scarre (Ed, Past Worlds - The Times Atlas of Archaeology, Guild Publishing, London 1989), and from External Links: The Tell al-Rimah Stela (Livius).)

c.1809 BC

The city of Qattara is conquered by Shamshi-Adad and is incorporated into his 'Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia'. If he is in position by this date then it is Hatnu-rabi who is retained as a vassal until the collapse of the kingdom.

fl c.1780s/70s BC

Vassal of 'Upper Mesopotamia'. Later ally of Zimri-Lim of Mari.

c.1776 BC

The 'Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia' is attacked simultaneously by Yamkhad and Eshnunna. Following this latest attack and seeming defeat, Shamshi-Adad dies soon afterwards, either in battle or of natural causes. His broad northern Mesopotamian empire quickly falls apart.

Much of the previous order is re-established, but Hatnu-rabi is able to grab control of Karana. The governor there, Samu-Adad, is possibly driven into exile in Eshnunna along with his whole family, something which certainly happens to his daughter, Iltani.

Sumerian script remained the Latin of ancient Mesopotamia long after the fall of Sumerian civilisation itself. This tablet contains a record of beer

c.1770 BC

Hatnu-rabi's hold on Karana has been brief, with the town being seized by Asqur-Addu. Now Hatnu-rabi's death means that Asqur-Addu is able to extend his control to include Qattara, thereby uniting or reuniting the two locations into a single state.

fl c.1770 BC

King of Karana. Captured Qattara.

He hands over day-to-day control of Qattara to his own man, a military leader and soothsayer by the name of Aqba-Hammu. This new governor is also given the hand in marriage of Asqur-Addu's sister, Iltani.

At this time, the city is protected by a bulwark of six hundred metres in diameter. At the centre of the enclosure is a sacred area which is the city's main temple, and is probably dedicated to Ishtar. Its facade is decorated with mud bricks which reproduce the appearance of palm tree trunks (as at the contemporary temple of Shehna).

Governor and then king of Qattara.

Not content with governing Qattara, Aqba-Hammu rises up against his master to seize the throne of Karana. Asqur-Addu is forced to flee, seeking refuge in Mari.

Wife. Sister of Asqur-Addu. Queen of Qattara & Karana.

Iltani is referred to as queen of Qattara in an Old Babylonian letter (part of the 'Iltana Archives') which is addressed to her, and mention is made of the fact that she had previously lived in exile in Eshnunna.

c.1762 BC

Qattara's brief period of independence is ended by the occupation of northern Mesopotamia by Hammurabi of Babylon. Aqba-Hammu is retained on the throne for a time, a vassal to Hammurabi but, after the latter's death around 1750 BC, the region slowly declines. The city is apparently never again worthy of note, and its history down to the mid-Assyrian period is known only through archaeology.

c.1350 BC

As the power of Mitanni fails, Assyria gains control over the city of Qattara.

c.1200 BC

Assyria loses its foothold in the region in the face of regional attacks, particularly by Aramaeans. The city is abandoned at some point around this time, probably due to those attacks.

8th century BC

The city is partially re-occupied and is known as Zamahe within the province of Rasapa during the Neo-Assyrian Period. It becomes an important regional centre.

fl c.800 BC

Governor under Assyria's Adad-Nirari III.

c.612 - 600 BC

The Assyrian empire collapses with the fall of Kalakh and Nineveh to Media and Babylonia, supported by Egypt and groups such as the Scythians, who divide the spoils between them.

King Sin-shar-ishkun dies in his burning palace in Babylon, where Ashurbanipal's great library crashes into the room below, with many of the baked clay tablets surviving to be discovered by later archaeologists.

The city of Zamahe (former Qattara) now loses all importance and is eventually abandoned.