Samnuha

Samnuha or Samanuha was the tutelary deity of Shadikanni (Šadikanni; modern Tell 'Ağağa) in the lower Habur area.[1] It is generally accepted that he had Hurrian origin.[2] It is assumed that Šamanminuḫi, a god known from a treaty of Shattiwaza, is the same deity.[2][3] In this document, he occurs before "Teshub, lord of Washukanni," and after KASKAL.KUR.(RA).[4]

Bel-Eresh, a ruler of Shadikanni who was a contemporary of Ashur-resh-ishi I,[5] renovated the temple of Samanuha and a deity identified by Stephanie Dalley as Kubaba, the Hurrian goddess of Carchemish,[6] but whose name was actually spelled ^dGu-ba-ba.[2] Whether Gubaba, known also from the Assyrian Tākultu ritual, and Kubaba were the same deity is uncertain, and there are also proposals that this name refers to a masculine deity similar to either Nergal or Amurru.[7]

Many attestations of Samanuha come from neo-Assyrian sources.[2] He appears in an inscription of Ashurnasirpal II, where he is acknowledged as the personal god of the provincial governor Mushezib-Ninurta,[8] the son of a ruler of Shadikanni who bore the theophoric name Samanuha-shar-ilani.[2] He continued to be worshiped in Shadikanni at least until the ninth century BCE.[9] He is also attested as one of the Hurrian deities from Taite (originally a major Mitanni city[4]) in Tākultu, alongside Kumarbi and Nabarbi.[10]

Personal names attest that Samanuha continued to be worshiped at least until the Achaemenid period.[2]

References

1. Kühne 2017, pp. 285–286.
2. Krebernik 2011, p. 612.
3. Wilhelm 2011, p. 611.
4. Haas 2015, p. 543.
5. George 1993, p. 169.
6. Dalley 2002, pp. 190–191.
7. Hawkins 1983, pp. 260–261.
8. Karlsson 2016, p. 146.
9. Kühne 2017, p. 286.
10. Wilhelm 1989, p. 52.

Bibliography

• Dalley, Stephanie (2002). Mari and Karana: Two Old Babylonian Cities. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. doi:10.31826/9781463207731. ISBN 978-1-4632-0773-1.
• George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-80-3. OCLC 27813103.
• Haas, Volkert (2015). Geschichte der hethitischen Religion. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East (in German). Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-29394-6. Retrieved 2022-03-06.
• Hawkins, John D. (1983), "Kubaba A. Philologisch · Kubaba A. Philological", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-03-06
• Karlsson, Mattias (2016). Relations of Power in Early Neo-Assyrian State Ideology. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9781614516910. ISBN 978-1-61451-691-0.
• Krebernik, Manfred (2011), "Sam(a)nuḫa/u", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-03-06
• Kühne, Hartmut (2017). "The Temple of Salmānu at Dūr-Katlimmu, Nergal of Hubšalum, and Nergal-ereš". At the Dawn of History. Penn State University Press. doi:10.1515/9781575064741-020.
• Wilhelm, Gernot (1989). The Hurrians. Warminster, England: Aris & Phillips. ISBN 978-0-85668-442-5. OCLC 21036268.
• Wilhelm, Gernot (2011), "Šamanminuḫi", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-03-06