Samnuha or Samanuha was the tutelary deity of Shadikanni (Šadikanni; modern Tell 'Ağağa) in the lower Habur area. It is generally accepted that he had Hurrian origin. It is assumed that Šamanminuḫi, a god known from a treaty of Shattiwaza, is the same deity. In this document, he occurs before "Teshub, lord of Washukanni," and after KASKAL.KUR.(RA).
Bel-Eresh, a ruler of Shadikanni who was a contemporary of Ashur-resh-ishi I, renovated the temple of Samanuha and a deity identified by Stephanie Dalley as Kubaba, the Hurrian goddess of Carchemish, but whose name was actually spelled Gu-ba-ba. 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.
Many attestations of Samanuha come from neo-Assyrian sources. He appears in an inscription of Ashurnasirpal II, where he is acknowledged as the personal god of the provincial governor Mushezib-Ninurta, the son of a ruler of Shadikanni who bore the theophoric name Samanuha-shar-ilani. He continued to be worshiped in Shadikanni at least until the ninth century BCE. He is also attested as one of the Hurrian deities from Taite (originally a major Mitanni city) in Tākultu, alongside Kumarbi and Nabarbi.
Personal names attest that Samanuha continued to be worshiped at least until the Achaemenid period.
References
- Kühne 2017, pp. 285–286.
- ^ Krebernik 2011, p. 612.
- Wilhelm 2011, p. 611.
- ^ Haas 2015, p. 543.
- George 1993, p. 169.
- Dalley 2002, pp. 190–191.
- Hawkins 1983, pp. 260–261.
- Karlsson 2016, p. 146.
- Kühne 2017, p. 286.
- Wilhelm 1989, p. 52.
Bibliography
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- 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