Download PDF version of article - UCL

17. BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE 261
some 25 km to the north of the confluence with the Tigris. Its location also matches the scenario of Anhitte’s
flight from the Assyrian army which advanced from Mount Kasiari, the modern Tur Abdin, to the inner
regions of his kingdom.
Fig. 17.08. The city of Uppume (top right) depicted on Band VIII of the Balawat Gates of Shalmaneser III.
It is possible that the city in the lower register was also in Subria. Drawn by Cornelie Wolff.
In Middle Assyrian texts, Hurrian-speakers – whether they lived in Assyria or elsewhere – are designated
as Subarû / Subrû 145 and already this detail alerts us to the fact that first millennium Subria may also be termed
a Hurrian state: the Subrian language required the assistance of interpreters to be understood by Assyrians 146
(some Hurrian words, with translations, are preserved in a letter from Sargon’s correspondence). 147 That the
kingdom preserved the ancient heritage of the Hurrian tradition into the 8th and 7th century BC, when Assyrian
sources offer us some insight, is clear from the fact that the members of the royal house bore Hurrian
names, like Sargon’s ally Hu-Tessub, Esarhaddon’s contemporary Ik-Tessub and his son […]gi-Tessub. The
Tigris Grotto, perhaps Subria’s most important sanctuary (see below), was a natural shrine, combining the
attractions of a spring and a mountain cave, and this fits well with Hurrian concepts of the divine. 148 Furthermore
the scholars of Subria pursued Hurrian disciplines: they performed the ancient art of augury and the
scapegoat rituals typical of the Hurrian tradition. 149
Augury was a branch of learning typical of Northern Syria and Anatolia, rather than of Mesopotamia, and
when augurs are attested in Assyria 150 their origins are usually specified: these augurs from Hamath, Kummuhhu
(Commagene) and Subria are the heirs of a well documented second millennium tradition practised
already by Idrimi of Alalah and the experts in the service of the Hittite kings. 151 Our earliest evidence for
Subrian augury dates to the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC). Subria was then allied with Assyria, and
we encounter Parnialdê, a scholar in the service of the Subrian king, not only as an informer of the Assyrian
officer active in the region but also as a potential advisor to Tiglath-pileser himself. After urging the king to
144 Algaze 1989: 243 (with map on p. 257 and contour plan of the site on p. 259); survey results indicate that the site was inhabited
during the Late Chalcolithic period, the Middle and Late Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Classical period: Algaze 1989: 244-245.
145 For references see Nashef 1982: 234-236.
146 For Subrian translators (targumannu sa Subrê) in Assyria see Ulshöfer 2000: 166.
147 SAA 5 35 l. 31 a-ba-ti; r. 11: te-bal a-da.
148 As reflected by the evocative title ‘Hethitische Berggötter und hurritische Steindämonen’ of Haas 1982; for a discussion of the Tigris,
the birth of the Tigris and Tigris Grotto see Haas 1982: 146-147.
149 For the rituals performed by the augurs of Arzawa in the Hittite period see Bawanypeck 2005: 126-148, 241-264, 293-295. For the
first millennium evidence see Janowski & Wilhelm 1993.
150 Discussed in detail by Radner 2009: 226-238.
151 For in-depth discussions see Ünal 1973 and Archi 1975; for a recent summary see Bawanypeck 2005: 1-11.