Armanum, was a city-state in the ancient Near East whose location is still unknown. It lies in the same general area as Mari and Ebla. It is known from texts of the Akkadian period, during the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad. The proposed site of Armanum is Tall Bazi. An earlier suggestion linking Armanum with the Armi of Ebla texts has now been largely discounted.[1][2]
Armanum is mentioned in three contemporary sources:
Year Name of Naram-Sin - Rulers of that period named the years of their reign after major events that occurred in them, in this case "The year in which Naram-Sin conquered Armanum and tore d[own its] walls".[3]
Royal Tutelary - Afterwards, Naram-Sin added "conqueror of Armanum and Ebla" to his tutelary.[4]
Statue Inscription - A Old Babylonian table fragment (UET 1 275) was found in Ur which was a copy of an inscription on a statue of Naram-Sin which at that time stood in the Temple of Sin next to a statue of Sin-Eribam, a ruler of Larsa. It described the military campaign during which Armanum was defeated.[5][6] The text begins:
"As to the fact that from immemorial time, since the creation of mankind, no king among kings had plundered Armanum and Ebla with the axes of Nergal, he (= Dagan) opened the path of Naram-Sin the mighty and gave him Armanum and Ebla."
It includes a detailed description of Armanum as being on a high hill with three concentric city walls:
"From the fortification wall to the great wall: 130 cubits is the height of the hill (and) 44 cubits is the height of the wall. From the quay wall to the fortification wall: 180 cubits is the height of the hill (and) 30 cubits is the height of the wall. Total: 404 cubits in height, from ground (level) to the top of the wall."[7]
Tulul al-Baqarat text - In 2009, an Akkadian Period inscription fragment (IM 221139) was found during excavations by Iraqi archaeologists at Tulul al-Baqarat which also carried part of the Naram-Sin Syrian military campaign and permitted a more complete reconstruction including the capture of 80,508 prisoners. One passage reads
"[Indeed,] with the weapon of Dagan, the one who magnifies his kingship, Naram-Sin the mighty conquered Armanum and Ebla. (120–230) Moreover, from the edge of the Euphrates as far as Ulisum, he smote the peoples whom Dagan had newly bestowed upon him so that they (now) carry the (work) basket of Ilʾaba, his god and took full control of the Amanus, the cedar mountain."[8]
Gula-AN and the Seventeen Kings against Naram-Sin - In the much later literary composition "Gula-AN and the Seventeen Kings against Naram-Sin", among the list of rulers defeated by Naram-Sin is "Madagina, king of the Land of Armanum".[9] The same source refers to a "Ris-Adad" as the king of Apisal while the contemporary historical record lists him as the king of Armanum that Naram-Sin defeated.[10]
It has been proposed that Hamran, Armuti(um) and Armanum are all names for the same city.[11] ANother proposal is that Armarnum was the 3rd Millenium BC name of Halpa (Alleppo).[6]
^Archi, Alfonso, "In Search of Armi", Ebla and Its Archives: Texts, History, and Society, Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 435-477, 2015
^Alfonso Archi, "In Search of Armi", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 63, 2011, pp. 5–34
^E. Salgues, “Naram-Sin's Conquests of Subartu and Armanum,” in Akkade Is King: A Collection of Papers by Friends and Colleagues Presented to Aage Westenholz on the Occasion of His
70 th Birthday 15 th of May 2009, ed. G. Barjamovic et al., PIHANS
118 (Leiden, 2011) ISBN978-90-6258-329-4
^W. Sommerfeld, “Große Zahlen in den altakkadischen Königsinschriften,” AoF 35 [2008]:
^[1] Otto, Adelheid, "Archeological Perspectives On The Localization Of Naram-Sin's Armanum", Journal of Cuneiform Studies vol. 58, pp. 1-26, 2006
^ abFoster, B. R., "The siege of Armanum.", Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, vol. 14, no. 1, pp 27-36, 1982
^[2]Douglas R. Frayne, "Akkad", The Sargonic and Gutian Periods (2334–2113), University of Toronto Press, pp. 5-218, 1993 ISBN0-8020-0593-4
^Nashat Alkhafaji and Gianni Marchesi, "Naram-Sin's War against Armanum and Ebla in a Newly-Discovered Inscription from Tulul al-Baqarat", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 1-20, 2020
^Westenholz, Joan Goodnick, "The Great Revolt against Naram-Sin", Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 221-262, 1997
^Westenholz, Joan Goodnick, "Naram-Sin and the Lord of Apišal", Legends of the Kings of Akkade: The Texts, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 173-188, 1997
^ ,"Ebla through Huwawa’s Gaze: Inner and Outer Perspectives on Early Syria, between Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Anatolia", in Bramanti, Armando / Kraus, Nicholas L. / Notizia, Palmiro (Hg.): Current Research in Early Mesopotamian Studies. Workshop Organized at the 65th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, Paris 2019. Münster: Zaphon, pp. 171–190, 2021
