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17
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE:
MU∑A∑IR, KUMME, UKKU AND SUBRIA – THE BUFFER
STATES BETWEEN ASSYRIA AND URARU
KAREN RADNER
The relationship between Assyria and Biainili was an uneasy one ever since the initial contacts in the 9th
century BC, and the two states frequently clashed over conflicts of interest. While this resulted in the two
rivals’ successive annexation of territories in south-eastern Turkey and north-western Iran, the mountainous
regions between the headwaters of the Tigris and of the Lower Zab remained independent and a group of small
kingdoms was allowed to survive: Countries like Subria, Kumme, Ukku and Musasir separated Assyria from
Urartu and formed a string of ‘buffer states’ between the two powers (Fig. 17.01). These kingdoms are certainly
not the only independent regions inside the Assyro-Urartian corridor: Hubuskia (whose location is still
fiercely contested) 1 and the various Habhu countries 2 may be mentioned but I shy away from treating them
here precisely because of the problems to put them on the map and will instead focus on four of the better
documented states. In order to appreciate more fully the respective roles of Subria, Kumme, Ukku and Musasir,
I will not limit myself to the situation during the 9th to 7th century but will try to trace the history of these
territories leading up to the period when we see them caught up in the Assyro-Urartian conflict.
Although certainly not among the most prominent of Near Eastern states, Subria, Kumme, Ukku and
Musasir have found their share of attention in the recent past. Musasir is of course discussed in any context
that concerns Urartian royal ideology and / or the ‘homeland’ of the royal dynasty of Ispuini. The relationship
of Assyria with some of these states, specifically Subria, Kumme and Ukku, has more than once been studied
within the theoretical framework of frontier studies by Bradley J. Parker 3 , the regional focus due to his work
being based on the analysis of the results of Guillermo Algaze’s surveys in the Turkish Tigris region between
1988 and 1992. Walter Mayer’s study of Kumme 4 , on the other hand, was written in the context of an interdisciplinary
research project on transregional sanctuaries yet he focuses ultimately (like Parker whose work he
does not seem to be aware of) on the impact of the close relationship with Assyria.
In this paper, I will attempt to study these small kingdoms ‘from within’, consciously avoiding the Assyrian
or Urartian perspective. This is from the start a somewhat flawed endeavour; the most serious obstacle is
the lack of autochthonous sources which can only to a degree be overcome by using the materials left by the
scribes of their two powerful neighbours: The official accounts preserved in the Assyrian and Urartian royal
inscriptions are supplemented by the wealth of information found in the correspondence of Sargon of Assyria
(721-705 BC) with his top officials and other materials from the Assyrian state archives of Kalhu and Nineveh.
1 See Zimansky 1990: 19, Lanfranchi 1995: 127 and Salvini 1995b: 43 for a brief overview of the debate. Lanfranchi 1995 proposed –
convincingly, in my mind – to place Hubuskia in ‘the upper valley of the Lower Zab, that long and narrow strip of land which extends northsouth
from its springs, around Khaneh, to Sardasht’ (p. 136) yet Salvini 1997 remained undecided while the latest treatment by Medvedskaya
1997 again championed Hubuskia’s location in the area of Hakkari, despite the resulting serious difficulties for reconstructing Urartian history
highlighted by Reade (1994: 185-187). The discovery of 13 stone steles at Hakkari in 1998 has stimulated an interest in the historical
geography of the area, but it is not helpful to automatically assume a connection with Hubuskia, as Sevin & Özfirat (2001c: 19-20) seem to
do.
2 Fuchs 2000 distilled five Habhu countries out of the multitude of attestations; I am still tempted to see the term simply as a generic word
for mountain region (cf. Radner & Schachner 2001: 761-762).
3 Parker 2001, 2002.
4 Mayer 2002. Note that the section dealing with the second millennium situation suffers from the fact that Kumme is merged with
Qumanu which cannot be maintained for geographical reasons.