Zuḫra
From ArchaeoWiki
| Representative writings and transliterations | |
|---|---|
| Akkadian | Zuḫra |
| Egyptian | |
| NW Semitic | |
| Greek | |
| Latin | |
| Arabic | |
| Other | |
| Contemporary | currently unidentified |
The cuneiform toponym Zuḫra refers to a Levantine city-state and territory known from the Amarna Letters to have been a subject polity of Egypt. The toponym remains currently unidentified with any known site.
Epistolary evidence (clay, syntax) broadly indicates a northern Canaanite provenance, whilst petrographic examination more specifically suggests a general location within the Transjordanian Bashan region, in the vicinity of Aštartu.
Contents |
Documentation
Primary
- EA 334 - letter too fragmentary for useful translation, despite preserving the name of the city—Zuḫra—from which it originated
- EA 336 - a fragmentary letter to the king, preserving only the opening address and the name of the sender, Ḫiziru
- EA 337 - Ḫiziru to the king, a well-preserved letter
Secondary
There is no extant reference to Zuḫra in contemporaneous non-indigenous texts.
Leadership and Administration
At least one ruler of Zuḫra is known from the Amarna Period:
- Ḫiziru
- not preserved [EA 334:2-3]: "Message of [ ... ], the ru[ler?] of Zuḫra”, perhaps identical with Ḫiziru
Discussion
The single preserved reference to Zuḫra is found in EA 334:2-3, where the author's name is unfortunately missing ("Message of [ ... ], the ru[ler?] of Zuḫra”).
An identification with the Biblical city of Zoar, south of the Dead Sea, was suggested by Riedel [1920:24] and subsequently accepted by Aharoni [1967:159]. Although initially beyond testing, significant problems existed with this identification, on account of the region of the Dead Sea being uninhabited during the Late Bronze Age.
Observations
Bibliography
Prosopography
Identification
- Riedel, W. [1920], Untersuchungen zu den Tell-el Amarna-Briefen, Tübingen, 1920.
