Near East Kingdoms

Qattara / Zamahe (Amorite 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. At the same time, northern Mesopotamia experienced its own burgeoning development processes, largely starting under the Hassuna culture.

Advances 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.

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 the state of Qattara 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.

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(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), and Ekallatum, Samsi-Addu's capital city, localised, Nele Ziegler & Adelheid Otto (HAL Open Science, 2024, available as HAL Id: hal-04379401 (PDF)).)

c.1809 BC

Already established by this date, the city of Qattara is conquered by Shamshi-Adad and is incorporated into his kingdom of 'Upper Mesopotamia'. If Hatnu-rabi already occupies his position as city ruler then then it is he who is retained as a vassal until the collapse of the kingdom.

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)

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, possibly is 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

Ruler 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 which 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).

The palace of Qarni-Lim at Tell Leilan - the ancient city of Shehna, capital of the second millennium BC state of Apum, displays the Andariq king's domination of the city

? - c.1750 BC

Governor and then ruler 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 in 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.

It was Ashurnasirpal II who undertook the expansion and recovery of Assyria following general social collapse and a short dark page period between about 1200-900 BC

c.1350 BC

As the power of Mitanni fails, Assyria gains control over the city of Qattara while the Assyrians are in their early empire-building phase under Assur-Uballit I.

c.1200 BC

Assyria loses its foothold in the area in the face of regional attacks, particularly by Aramaeans. The city of Qattara 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 (or Rasappa) during the Neo-Assyrian Period. It becomes an important regional centre, with one governor being known by the name of Nergal-Eresh. He claims on a stele to be 'governor of Rasapa'.

The Tell al-Rimah stele dates to the eighth century BC, issued during the reign of Adad-nirari III of the neo-Assyrian empire and discovered at Tell al-Rimah in Iraq, being inscribed with cuneiform script which details the king's military campaigns and conquests, and tributes imposed on subjugated territories

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 (the former Qattara) now loses all importance and eventually is abandoned.