Umman Manda

Umman Manda (Akkadian: 𒂟𒌋𒌋𒁕, romanized: Ummān Manda lit. 'the horde from who knows where'^[1]) is a term used in the early second and first millennia BC for a poorly known people in the Ancient Near East. They have been identified in different contexts as Hurrians, Elamites, Medes, Cimmerians, and Scythians.^[2] The homeland of Umman Manda seems to be somewhere from Central Anatolia to north or northeastern Babylonia, possibly in what later came to be known as Mitanni, Mannae, or Media.^[3] Zaluti, whose name seems to have an Indo-Iranian etymology, is mentioned as a leader of Ummanda Manda. He is even suggested to be identified with Salitis the founder of the Hyksos, the Fifteenth dynasty of Egypt.^[4]

During the middle-6th century BC, the term Ummān Manda was used to designate the Cimmerians and the Scythians.^[5]

By the time of the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, it was used to designate the Medes.^[5]

References

1. "Umman-manda [1] (EN)". Corpus of Ancient Mesopotamian Scholarship/Geography of Knowledge. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus, University of Pennsylvania.
2. S. Ferruh Adalı (2011). The Scourge of God: The Umman-manda and Its Significance in the First Millennium BC. Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. ISBN 978-9521013355.
3. Drews, Robert. The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East. Princeton University Press. 1988. p. 226.
4. Drews, Robert. The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East. Princeton University Press. 1988. p. 227.
5. Spalinger 1978a, p. 401-402.

Bibliography

• The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East, Robert Drews, Princeton University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-691-03592-X, ISBN 978-0-691-02951-1, 276 pages, see pages 226-230.
• Spalinger, Anthony J. (1978a). "The Date of the Death of Gyges and Its Historical Implications". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 98 (4): 400–409. doi:10.2307/599752. JSTOR 599752. Retrieved 25 October 2021.