| Niqmaddu III | |
|---|---|
| King of Ugarit | |
| King of Ugarit | |
| Reign | 1220-1210s BC |
| Predecessor | Ibiranu |
| Successor | Ammurapi |
| Died | c. 1210 BC Ugarit? |
| Spouse | [...], daughter of [...] of Hatti. |
| Ugarit |
|---|
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| Places |
| Kings |
| Culture |
| Texts |
Niqmaddu III was the seventh known ruler and king of Ugarit, an Ancient Syrian citystate in northwestern Syria, reigning from 1225 to 1220 BC, [1] succeeding king Ibiranu.
He took his name from the earlier Amorite ruler Niqmaddu, meaning "Addu has vindicated" to strengthen the supposed origins of his Ugaritic dynasty in the Amorites. [2]
A text from the Urtenu archives mentions that he was married to an unnamed Hittite princess. He is mentioned in many juridical texts, most notably in a lawsuit between him and "Kumiya-Ziti", probably a rich merchant from Ura. The author of the tablet is "Nu?me Rašap?", which is detailed as a well-known scribe who was known from the days of Ammittamru II, and another legal text details him, the "Case of Kililya the priest of Istar", which is witnessed by the same witnesses and written by the same scribe. [1]
Resheph was a god associated with war and plague, originally worshiped in Ebla in the third millennium BCE. He was one of the main members of the local pantheon, and was worshiped in numerous hypostases, some of which were associated with other nearby settlements, such as Tunip. He was associated with the goddess Adamma, who was his spouse in Eblaite tradition. Eblaites considered him and the Mesopotamian god Nergal to be equivalents, most likely based on their shared role as war deities.
Dagon or Dagan was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attestations of his cult come from cities such as Mari and Emar as well. In settlements situated in the upper Euphrates area, he was regarded as the "father of gods" similar to Mesopotamian Enlil or Hurrian Kumarbi, as well as a lord of the land, a god of prosperity, and a source of royal legitimacy. A large number of theophoric names, both masculine and feminine, attests that he was a popular deity. He was also worshiped further east, in Mesopotamia, where many rulers regarded him as the god capable of granting them kingship over the western areas.
Ugarit was an ancient port city in northern Syria about 10 kilometers north of modern Latakia. At its height it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. It was discovered by accident in 1928 with the Ugaritic texts. Its ruins are often called Ras Shamra after the headland where they lie.
Yamhad (Yamḫad) was an ancient Semitic-speaking kingdom centered on Ḥalab (Aleppo) in Syria. The kingdom emerged at the end of the 19th century BC and was ruled by the Yamhad dynasty, who counted on both military and diplomacy to expand their realm. From the beginning of its establishment, the kingdom withstood the aggressions of its neighbors Mari, Qatna and the Old Assyrian Empire, and was turned into the most powerful Syrian kingdom of its era through the actions of its king Yarim-Lim I. By the middle of the 18th century BC, most of Syria minus the south came under the authority of Yamhad, either as a direct possession or through vassalage, and for nearly a century and a half, Yamhad dominated northern, northwestern and eastern Syria, and had influence over small kingdoms in Mesopotamia at the borders of Elam. The kingdom was eventually destroyed by the Hittites, then annexed by Mitanni in the 16th century BC.
Amurru, also known under the Sumerian name Martu, was a Mesopotamian god who served as the divine personification of the Amorites. In past scholarship it was often assumed that he originated as an Amorite deity, but today it is generally accepted that he developed as a divine stereotype of them in Mesopotamian religion. As such, he was associated with steppes and pastoralism, as evidenced by his epithets and iconography. While this was initially his only role, he gradually developed other functions, becoming known as a god of the mountains, a warlike weather deity and a divine exorcist.
Anat, Anatu, classically Anath was a goddess associated with warfare and hunting, best known from the Ugaritic texts. Most researchers assume that she originated in the Amorite culture of Bronze Age upper Mesopotamia, and that the goddess Ḫanat, attested in the texts from Mari and worshiped in a city sharing her name located in Suhum, should be considered her forerunner.
Yarikh, or Yaraḫum, was a moon god worshiped in the Ancient Near East. He is best attested in sources from the Amorite city of Ugarit in the north of modern Syria, where he was one of the principal deities. His primary cult center was most likely Larugadu, located further east in the proximity of Ebla. His mythic cult center is Abiluma. He is also attested in other areas inhabited by Amorites, for example in Mari, but also in Mesopotamia as far east as Eshnunna. In the Ugaritic texts, Yarikh appears both in strictly religious context, in rituals and offering lists, and in narrative compositions. He is the main character in The Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh, a myth possibly based on an earlier Hurrian composition. The eponymous goddess was regarded as his wife in Ugarit, but she is not attested in documents from most other Syrian cities, and most likely only entered the Ugaritic pantheon due to the influence of Hurrian religion.
Baalshamin, also called Baal Shamem and Baal Shamaim, was a Northwest Semitic god and a title applied to different gods at different places or times in ancient Middle Eastern inscriptions, especially in Canaan/Phoenicia and Syria. The title was most often applied to Hadad, who is also often titled just Ba‘al. Baalshamin was one of the two supreme gods and the sky god of pre-Islamic Palmyra in ancient Syria. There his attributes were the eagle and the lightning bolt, and he perhaps formed a triad with the lunar god Aglibol and the sun god Malakbel. The title was also applied to Zeus.
Niqmaddu II was the second ruler and king of Ugarit, an ancient Syrian city-state in northwestern Syria and succeeding his father, Ammittamru I. He was a vassal ruler of Suppiluliuma I of Hatti.
Ar-Halba was a King of Ugarit, an Ancient Syrian city state in northwestern Syria.
Ammittamru II was a king of the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit who ruled from 1260 to 1235 BC. He reigned for 25 years, being the son of former king Niqmepa, who was famously forced to sign a treaty of vassalization to the Hittites.
The Suteans were a nomadic Semitic people who lived throughout the Levant, Canaan and Mesopotamia, specifically in the region of Suhum, during the Old Babylonian period. They were famous in Semitic epic poetry for being fierce nomadic warriors, and like the ʿApiru, traditionally worked as mercenaries. Unlike Amorites, the Suteans were not governed by a king. They may have been part of the Ahlamu. Hypotheses regarding their identity variously identify them as Arameans, proto-Arabs or a unique Semitic people.
Shapshu or Shapsh, and also Shamshu, was a Canaanite sun goddess. She also served as the royal messenger of the high god El, her probable father. Her most common epithets in the Ugaritic corpus are nrt ỉlm špš, rbt špš, and špš ʿlm. In the pantheon lists KTU 1.118 and 1.148, Shapshu is equated with the Akkadian dšamaš.
Amurru was an Amorite kingdom established c. 2000 BC, in a region spanning present-day Northern Lebanon and north-western Syria.
The Royal Palace of Ugarit was the royal residence of the rulers of the ancient kingdom of Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast of Syria. The palace was excavated with the rest of the city from the 1930s by French archaeologist Claude F. A. Schaeffer and is considered one of the most important finds made at Ugarit.
The Amorites were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people from the Levant. Initially appearing in Sumerian records c. 2500 BC, they expanded and ruled most of the Levant, Mesopotamia and parts of Egypt from the 21st century BC to the late 17th century BC.
Didanu was a legendary Amorite ruler or ancestral figure attested in Mesopotamian and Ugaritic texts. His name is presumed to be derived from the term Tidnu, which in the third millennium BCE referred to a specific tribal group among the Amorites, as attested in sources from the times of Gudea and Shu-Sin. After the Ur III period, variants of this term only appear in literary texts, by the end of the Bronze Age they were only ever used to designate a purely mythical figure. Various dynasties claimed descent from Didanu, including the kings of Assyria, the First Dynasty of Babylon, and the monarchs of Ugarit. In the last of these states, Didanu was also considered a deity.
Adad-Nirari or Addu-Nirari was a king of Nuhašše in the 14th century BC. The Land of Nuḫašše was located southeast of Aleppo and north of Qatna.
Pidray was an Ugaritic goddess of uncertain character. She is first attested as an Amorite deity in a bilingual Mesopotamian lexical list, but she is otherwise almost exclusively from Ugaritic texts. While she is well attested in this text corpus, her role in Ugaritic religion remains uncertain. It has been proposed that she was one of the tutelary deities of the kings of Ugarit. Another proposal connects her with the weather, though this assumption is not universally accepted. The meaning of her name also continues to be disputed. In Ugaritic myths, she is described as a daughter of the weather god Baal. In the Baal Cycle, she appears alongside the goddess Tallay, regarded as her sister. In a single passage they are also joined by Arsay. Pidray alone is also mentioned in the myth Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh.
Shatiqatu, also vocalized as Shaʿtiqatu or Shataqat, was a figure in Ugaritic mythology, most commonly interpreted as a minor goddess by modern researchers. She is only attested in the Epic of Kirta. In this literary text, she is described as a creation of El tasked with healing the eponymous king, Kirta.
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