Menes and Naram-Sin
Year: 1920
Type: article
Abstract: BEFORE proposing a synchronism between the first dynastic king of Egypt and the greatest of early Babylonian kings, one cannot but hesitate, fearful of seeming reckless.It may possibly be that we are dealing with a mere coincidence, extraordinary perhaps, but fallacious, and that the supporting indications will reveal themselves as conspirators against the truth.Yet the lines of evidence, geographical, historical, chronological and archaeological, converge so remarkably in the direction of our thesis that we ought not to shrink from the test--o bere o affogare !Naram-Sin, fifth monarch of the Dynasty of Akkad, says in a triumphal inscription on a statue found at Susa by the Delegation en Perse, that he defeated Mani of Magan: Magan indr u Maniu[m] bel Magan [ ]1, 'Magan he smote and Mani lord of Magan [ ].' In a Babylonian chronicle2 we read (ii, 10, 4): ana lIagana illik-ma Mannu danzm saar Magan [qdtsu iksud] = (, 38, 17 f.)[ana Ma]gdna illiku-ma Magdana ibatu-ma [ ] sar Magdna q'tsit iksud[t], '(Naram-Sin) who wenrit to Magan, and vanquished (not 'captured ') [Mannu, the mighty], king of Magan.'The fact that king Mannu is here called dannu, 'mighty,' is very important, as no other of the princes conquered by Naram-Sin has this honorific title in his inscriptions except the latter himself, who, in common with the others of his dynasty, affixes dan(n)um to his name: Nardm-Sin dan(n)um saar kibrdtim7 arba'im', ' Naram-Sin, the mighty, king of the four quarters.'The lord of Magan must have been a powerful ruler to receive so illustrious an appellative.The forms Manilum and Mannu indicate a basic *Manni; itrn is the nominative ending, affixed regularly, like Lat. us, to stems ending in i (cf.Guti, Gutium; Suti, Sutium) in Old Akkadian.The name *Manni is, I believe, as exact an equivalent as attainable in cuneiform of the early pronunciation of Mtn = Mivips.The late translation of the name as distoq, if approximately correct, shows that Mni is a qualitative from mn, 'be stable, remains,' with the pronunciation Mannei4, and the meaning 'steadfast' (Ar.Uatltq), or the like.Magan nmay now be identified beyond reasonable doubt with Egypt, despite the general
DOI: 10.2307/3853610
Author: W. F. Albright
Language: English
Topic: Ancient Near East History
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4230822264