Meluhha

Template:Transliteration or Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx Template:Transliteration) is the Sumerian name of a prominent trading partner of Sumer during the Middle Bronze Age. Its identification remains an open question, but most scholars associate it with the Indus Valley Civilisation.Template:Sfn

Etymology

Asko Parpola identifies Proto-Dravidians with the Harappan Culture and the Meluhhan people mentioned in Sumerian records. In his book Deciphering the Indus Script. Parpola states that the Brahui people of Pakistan are remnants of the Harappan culture.<ref>Asko Parpola (1994), Deciphering the Indus script, Cambridge University Press</ref> According to him, the word "Meluhha" derives from the Dravidian words mel ("elevated") and akam ("place"). Parpola also relates Meluhha with Balochistan, which he calls the "Proto-Dravidian homeland". He also relates Meluhha with the transient word Mleccha, a Vedic word used to mean "barbarian" and used by the incoming Aryan speaking population for the native Harappan population.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Another piece of possible evidence that points to the people of Meluhha as being Proto-Dravidian is the fact that sesame oil believed to be exported to Mesopotamia by the Harappans, was known as ilu in Sumerian and eḷḷu in Akkadian. One theory is that these words derive from the Dravidian word for sesame (eḷḷ or eḷḷu).<ref>Template:Cite book (See Appendix C.)</ref> However, Michael Witzel, who associates IVC with the ancestors of Munda speakers, suggests an alternative etymology from the para-Munda word for wild sesame: jar-tila.Template:Clarify Munda is an Austroasiatic languageTemplate:Sfn

Trade with Sumer

Sumerian texts repeatedly refer to three important centers with which they traded: Magan, Dilmun, and Meluhha.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Eisenbrauns">Template:Cite book</ref> The Sumerian location of Magan is now accepted to be the area currently encompassing the United Arab Emirates and Oman.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> Dilmun was a Persian Gulf civilization which traded with Mesopotamian civilizations, the current scholarly consensus is that Dilmun encompassed Bahrain, Failaka Island and the adjacent coast of Eastern Arabia in the Persian Gulf.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=saed>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Inscriptions

File:Gudea cylinder A (IX 19) Magan Meluha with transcription.jpg

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In an inscription, Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BCE) referred to ships coming from Meluhha, Magan and Dilmun.<ref name="SCHO"/> His grandson Naram-Sin (2254–2218 BCE) listing the rebel kings to his rule, mentioned "(..)ibra, man of Melukha".<ref name="SCHO"/> In an inscription, Gudea of Lagash (Template:Circa) referred to the Meluhhans who came to Sumer to sell gold dust, carnelian, etc.<ref name="SCHO"/><ref name="Eisenbrauns"/> In the Gudea cylinders, Gudea mentions that:

"I will spread in the world respect for my Temple, under my name the whole universe will gather in it, and Magan and Meluhha will come down from their mountains to attend."{{#if:Inscription of cylinder A, IX:19<ref>"{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" (cylinder A, IX:19)" in {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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In cylinder B, XIV, he mentions his procurement of "blocks of lapis lazuli and bright carnelian from Meluhha".<ref name="Eisenbrauns"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Meluhha is also mentioned in mythological legends such as Enki and Ninhursag:

"May the foreign land of Meluhha load precious desirable cornelian, perfect mes wood and beautiful aba wood into large ships for you"{{#if:Enki and Ninhursag<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>|{{#if:|}}

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There are no known mentions of Meluhha after 1760 BCE.<ref name="SCHO"/>

"Meluhha dog"

In one of his inscriptions, Ibbi-Sin mentions that he received as a tribute from Marhasi a Meluhha red dog:<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

"Ibbi-Sîn, the god of his country, the mighty king, king of Ur and king of the four world quarters, his speckled Meluḫḫa 'dog', from Marḫaši brought by them as tribute, a replica of it he fashioned, and for his life he dedicated it to him (Nanna)."{{#if:Meluhha dog inscription of Inni-Sin.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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The qualifier used to describe the dog is Template:Cuneiform, which can be read either Template:Transliteration "red" as an adjective,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or Template:Transliteration "speckled" as an intransitive verb,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and interpretations vary based on these two possible meanings.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

It is thought that this "red dog" could be a dhole, also called "Asiatic red dog", a type of red-colored dog native to southern and eastern Asia.<ref name="JMC">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Meluhhan trading colony in Sumer

Towards the end of the Sumerian period, there are numerous mentions in inscriptions of a Meluhha settlement in southern Sumer near the city-state of Girsu.<ref name="VF"/> Most of the references seem to date to the Akkadian Empire and especially the Ur III period.<ref name="VF">Template:Cite journal</ref> The location of the settlement has been tentatively identified with the city of Guabba.<ref name="VF"/> The references to "large boats" in Guabba suggests that it may have functioned as a trading colony which initially had direct contact with Meluhha.<ref name="VF"/>

It seems that direct trade with Meluhha subsided during the Ur III period, and was replaced by trade with Dilmun, possibly corresponding to the end of urban systems in the Indus Valley around that time.<ref name="VF"/>

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Artifacts

Several Indus seals with Harappan script have been found in Mesopotamia, particularly in Ur, Babylon and Kish.<ref>For a full list of discoveries of Indus seals in Mesopotamia, see Template:Cite book</ref><ref>For another list of Mesopotamian finds of Indus seals: Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Still, the archeological record for the existence of the trade with the Indus civilization in Mesopotamia is meager. According to Andrew Robinson:

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Animal figurines

Various figurines of exotic animals in gold or carnelian are thought to have been imported from Meluhha. Many such statuettes have been found in Mesopotamian excavations.<ref name="JMC"/> The carnelian statuette of an Asian monkey was found in the excavation of the Acropolis of Susa, and dated to circa 2340–2100 BCE. It is thought that it may have been imported from India. It is now in the Louvre Museum, reference Sb5884.<ref name="AMS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Maritime materials trade

File:Disha Kaka Boat with Direction Finding Birds, model of Mohenjo-Daro seal, 3000 BCE.jpg

Model of a Mohenjo-daro tablet, 2500–1750 BCE (National Museum, New Delhi),Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> depicting a boat with a central cabin, possibly carrying land-seeking birds for navigation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfnp Flat-bottomed river row-boats appear in two Indus seals, but their seaworthiness is debatable.<ref name=robinson>Template:Citation</ref>

Specific items of high volume trade are timber and specialty wood such as ebony, for which large ships were used. Luxury items also appear, such as lapis lazuli mined at a Harappan colony at Shortugai (modern Badakhshan in northern Afghanistan).Template:Citation needed In the 1980s, important archaeological discoveriesTemplate:Which were made at Ras al-Jinz (Oman), located at the easternmost point of the Arabian Peninsula, demonstrating maritime Indus Valley connections with Oman, and the Middle East in general.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>Template:Better source needed

Conflict with the Akkadians and Neo-Sumerians

File:AO 5476 (front, with transcription).jpg

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According to some accounts of the Akkadian king Rimush, he fought against the troops of Meluhha, in the area of Elam:<ref name="WLH93">Template:Cite book</ref>

"Rimuš, the king of the world, in battle over Abalgamash, king of Parahshum, was victorious. And Zahara<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Elam and Gupin and Meluḫḫa within Paraḫšum assembled for battle, but he (Rimush) was victorious and struck down 16,212 men and took 4,216 captives. Further, he captured Ehmahsini, King of Elam, and all the nobles of Elam. Further he captured Sidaga'u the general of Paraḫšum and Sargapi, general of Zahara, in between the cities of Awan and Susa, by the "Middle River". Further a burial mound at the site of the town he heaped up over them. Furthermore, the foundations of Paraḫšum from the country of Elam he tore out, and so Rimuš, king of the world, rules Elam, (as) the god Enlil had shown..."{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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Gudea too, in one of his inscriptions, mentioned his victory over the territories of Magan, Meluhha, Elam and Amurru.<ref name="SCHO">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Identification with the Indus Valley

Most scholars suggest that Meluhha was the Sumerian name for the Indus Valley Civilisation.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Finnish scholars Asko and Simo Parpola identify Meluhha (earlier variant Me-lah-ha) from earlier Sumerian documents with Dravidian mel akam "high abode" or "high country". Many items of trade such as wood, minerals, and gemstones were indeed extracted from the hilly regions near the Indus settlements. They further claim that Meluhha is the origin of the Sanskrit word mleccha, meaning "barbarian, foreigner".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:British Museum Middle East 14022019 Gold and carnelian beads 2600-2300 BC Royal cemetery of Ur (composite).jpg

The etched carnelian beads in this necklace from the Royal Cemetery of Ur dating to the First Dynasty of Ur (2600-2500 BCE) were probably imported from the Indus Valley.<ref name="BM Carnelian">British Museum notice: "Gold and carnelians beads. The two beads etched with patterns in white were probably imported from the Indus Valley. They were made by a technique developed by the Harappan civilization" Photograph of the necklace in question</ref>

Early texts, such as the Rimush inscription describing combat against Meluhha troops in the area of Elam circa 2200 BC, seem to indicate that Meluhha is to the east, suggesting either the Indus valley or India.<ref name="WLH93"/> However, much later texts, such as the Rassam cylinder documenting the military exploits of King Assurbanipal of Assyria (668–627 BC), long after the Indus Valley civilization had ceased to exist, seem to imply that Meluhha is to be found in Africa, in the area of Egypt.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="WLH93"/>

There is sufficient archaeological evidence for the trade between Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent. Impressions of clay seals from the Indus Valley city of Harappa were evidently used to seal bundles of merchandise, as clay seal impressions with cord or sack marks on the reverse side testify. A number of these Indian seals have been found at Ur and other Mesopotamian sites.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Persian-Gulf style of circular stamped rather than rolled seals, also known from Dilmun, that appear at Lothal in Gujarat, India, and Failaka Island (Kuwait), as well as in Mesopotamia, are convincing corroboration of the long-distance sea trade network, which G.L. Possehl has called a "Middle Asian Interaction Sphere".<ref>Possehl, G.L. (2007), “The Middle Asian Interaction Sphere”, Expedition 49/1</ref> What the commerce consisted of is less sure: timber and precious woods, ivory, lapis lazuli, gold, and luxury goods such as carnelian and glazed stone beads, pearls from the Persian Gulf, and shell and bone inlays, were among the goods sent to Mesopotamia in exchange for silver, tin, woolen textiles, perhaps oil and grains and other foods. Copper ingots, certainly, bitumen, which occurred naturally in Mesopotamia, may have been exchanged for cotton textiles and chickens, major products of the Indus region that are not native to Mesopotamia—all these have been instanced.

"Meluhha" as Meroe, in the 14th–2nd centuries BCE

Meluhha appears in EL-AMARNA letters, as a place at Kush/Nubia, near Egypt (EA70, EA95, EA108 ,EA112, EA117, EA132, EA133).

File:Meroe 9 October 2020.jpg

A modern satellite view of the region of Meroe.

In the Assyrian and Hellenistic eras, cuneiform texts continued to use (or revive) old place names, giving a perhaps artificial sense of continuity between contemporary events and events of the distant past.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> For example, Media is referred to as "the land of the Gutians",<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> a people who had been prominent around 2000 BC.

Meluhha also appears in these texts, in contexts suggesting that "Meluhha" and "Magan" were kingdoms adjacent to Egypt. In the Rassam cylinder, Ashurbanipal writes about his first march against Egypt: "In my first campaign I marched against Magan and Meluhha, and Taharqa, king of Musur (Egypt) and Kûsu ("Kingdom of Kush", ie Nubia), whom Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, the father who begot me, had defeated, and whose land he brought under his sway."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Original text and translation: lines 51 and 52 of the Rassam cylinder</ref> In this context, "Magan" has been interpreted as "Muṣur" (ancient name of Egypt) and "Meluhha" as "Meroe" (capital of Nubia).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Meluhha as mentioned by Ashurbanipal in the Rassam cylinder in 643 BCE.jpg

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In the Hellenistic period, the term was used archaically to refer to Ptolemaic Egypt, as in an account of a festival celebrating the conclusion of the Sixth Syrian War, or in reference to the campaigns of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Egypt ("Antiochus the King marched triumphantly through the cities of Meluhha").<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="The Land of the Elephant Kings">Template:Cite book</ref>

These references do not necessarily mean that early references to Meluhha also referred to Egypt. Direct contacts between Sumer and the Indus Valley had ceased even during the Mature Harappan phase when Oman and Bahrain (Magan and Dilmun) became intermediaries. After the sack of Ur by the Elamites and subsequent invasions in Sumer, its trade and contacts shifted west and Meluhha passed almost into mythological memory. The resurfacing of the name could simply reflect cultural memory of a rich and distant land, its use in records of Achaemenid and Seleucid military expeditions serving to aggrandize those kings. This kind of re-attribution of archaic geographical terms was a regular occurrence during the 1st millennium BCE.<ref name="The Land of the Elephant Kings"/>

Rulers

• (..)ibra (between 2300 BC – 2200 BC), possibly contemporary to Naram-Sin of Akkad.

See also

• Ancient Greece–Ancient India relations
• Buddhism and the Roman world
• Dilmun
• Economic history of India
• Indus–Mesopotamia relations
• Indo-Roman trade relations
• Indian maritime history
• Magan (civilization)
• Names for India

References

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Meluhha and Agastya: Alpha and Omega of the Indus Script by Iravatham Mahadevan