Tin Road between Ashur-Kultepe and Meluhha hieroglyphs
I suggest that early 3rd millennium BCE Bronze-age, Meluhhans were involved in the tin trade for tin-bronzes, between Ashur and Kultepe and used Meluhha language of Indian linguistic area, to represent their merchandise as hieroglyphs. A lineage of the Assur can be traced to Assur (Munda), metal explorers and metal workers par excellence, in India.
After Fig. 8.1 Map of the Near East in the time of the Old-Assyrian colonies (Aubet, Maria Eugenia, 2013, Commerce and colonization in the ancient near East, Cambridge University Press, p.269)
Meluhha colonies in Ancient Near East
“...the point of intersection between the two great trading networks of Mesopotamia and the Indus, along which the lapis lazuli and the chlorite vessels passed and which no doubt operated through various intermediary centres like Aratta and Tepe Yahya. This would explain the appearance at the same dates in central Asia of a host of fortified centres engaged in lapis lazuli and turquoise production, as in Dashly, where a palace showing traces of metal production and of contacts with Harappa and Mesopotamia through Iran was discovered. Leaving aside Tepe Yahya, Susa, the Indus and the Persian Gulf, it is certain that all this wealth flowed into Sumer and, in particular, to the city of Ur. The prosperous urban centre of Shar-i-Sokhta (or Shahr-Sokteh) sitting on the caravan route between Elam and Sumer bears witness to a high degree of specialisation in the working of semi-precious stones. The craftsmen of the place imported the stone raw – lapis lazuli, turquoise and cornelian – and worked and polished it for export. Some Sumerian texts allude to the acquisition of lapis lazuli and gold in Meluhha (the Indus valley), which suggests simultaneous use of the sea route through the Persian Gulf. Many of these trans-regional routes must have been very ancient and left traces in the collective memory of Sumer and Akkad in the form of heroic myths with couriers who come and go and ‘carry lapis lazuli and silver from the mountains. In another Sumerian myth about Enki and Ninhursag, the country of Dilmun (the modern island of Bahrein) figures as the main transit point for merchandise from the Gulf and as a clear alternative to the overland route through Yahya and Susa. Dilmun-style seals have been discovered in Tepe Yahya, as have weights from the Indus in Bahrein. The Sumerian texts are unanimous in stressing timber as one of the principal commodities from Meluhha/Harappa and they allude to the existence of a ‘colony’ of merchants from Meluhha in the territory of Lagash. In Qala’at al Bahrein, a fortified town on the north coast of Bahrein with temples and a surrounding necropolis with tumuli, evidence of contacts with the Indus is seen in the presence of seals, systems of weights and pottery from Meluhha, with signs of the presence of a community of merchants from the Indus in Dilmun. Elsewhere, on the fortified site of Al-Maysar, local production of copper is combined with a local chlorite vessel industry and the importing of Mohenjo Daro-style seals. In exchange, Dilmun imported Mesopotamian cereals and textiles...karum at Kanesh in Cappadocia. The long stay of these colonists and merchants in Anatolia stimulated great creativity in the business sphere, in the drawing up of contracts and mercantile protocols...the Assyrian karu in Anatolia formed part of the provinces of the Assyrian empire, and in Landsberger’s opinion, they had functioned as colonies of merchants dependent on Assur.” (Aubet, Maria Eugenia, 2013, Commerce and colonization in the ancient near East, Cambridge University Press, p.191, 266, 268).![]()
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“In the time of King Ziri-Lin of Mari (ca. 1780-1760BCE), the chief centres for the transit of tin to the West were the cities of Sippar, Eshnunna and Susa. Before that, however, the city of Assur was responsible for the supply of metal to the regions in the West and south. In the days of Hammurabi, the Babylonin merchants were still going north to buy tin. It is known that there were rich deposits of tin in the Kardagh Mountains in northeastern Iran, east of Tabriz, and also in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. In a letter from the time of Samshi-Adad I, it is stated that large quantities of tin could be got in Susarra in the plain of Rania in Iran, an important commercial centre on the road from Tabriz to Assur…We only know that in the time of level Ib in Kanesh (ca. 1800-1776BCE), the export of tin to Kanesh was interrupted, probably because of the closure of the Zagros route when Susarra was destroyed and abandoned. The Kanesh correspondence reveals a considerable volume of tin dispatched to Anatolia during the second period of the karum. Veenhof has calculated that over a period of some sixty years, a total of 27,000 minas – that is some 450 talents – of tin, equivalent to 13.5 tons, was dispatched to Kanesh; this would be equivalent to some 80 tons during the whole of the colonial period and to some 200 caravans carrying tin on the backs of mules from Assur to Kanesh. However, a Old-Assyrian tablet preserved in Berlin would double that quantity because it mentions a lod of 410 talents of tin transported in a single caravan, the property of the merchant Imdilum.” (Aubet, opcit., p.292).
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Reconstruction of the gate and walls of Assur (after drawing by Walter Andrae, 1938, from Marzahn, Joachim and Beate Salje, 2003, Again getting instant Assur, Savern: fig. 4)
Karum could be from a substrate language: e.g. कारकुन [ kārakuna ] m ( P A factor, agent, or business-man.) A clerk, scribe, writer. सवा हात लेखणीचा का0 A term of ironical commendation for a clerk. कारु [ kāru ] m (S) An artificer or artisan. 2 A common term for the twelve बलुतेदार q. v. Also कारुनारु m pl q. v. in नारुकारु. (Marathi)
The streams of water flowing the naked, bearded person are the signature tune of the times in Ancient Near East. This glyptic or overflowing pot held by Gudea, appears on hundreds of cylinder seals and friezes of many sites.
Overflowing water from a pot is a recurrent motif in Sumer-Elam-Mesopotamian contact areas – a motif demonstrated to be of semantic significance in the context of lapidary-metallurgy life activity of the artisans.
The rebus readings are:
కాండము [ kāṇḍamu ] kānḍamu. [Skt.] n. Water. నీళ్లు (Telugu) kaṇṭhá -- : (b) ʻ water -- channel ʼ: Paš. kaṭāˊ ʻ irrigation channel ʼ, Shum. xãṭṭä. (CDIAL 14349). kāṇḍa ‘flowing water’ Rebus: kāṇḍā ‘metalware, tools, pots and pans’. lokhaṇḍ (overflowing pot) ‘metal tools, pots and pans, metalware’ lokhãḍ ‘overflowing pot’ Rebus: ʻtools, iron, ironwareʼ (Gujarati) Rebus: लोखंड lokhaṇḍ Iron tools, vessels, or articles in general. lo ‘pot to overflow’. Gu<loRa>(D) {} ``^flowing strongly''.கொட்டம்¹ koṭṭam Flowing, pouring; நீர் முதலியன ஒழுகுகை. கொடுங்காற் குண்டிகைக் கொட்ட மேய்ப்ப (பெருங். உஞ்சைக். 43, 130) கொட்டம் koṭṭam< gōṣṭha. Cattle- shed (Tamil)
koṭṭam flowing, pouring (Tamil). Ma. koṭṭuka to shoot out, empty a sack. ? Te. koṭṭukonipōvu to be carried along by stream or air current.(DEDR 2065).
Gudea’s link with Meluhha is clear from the elaborate texts on the two cylinders describing the construction of the Ninĝirsu temple in Lagash. An excerpt: 1143-1154. Along with copper, tin, slabs of lapis lazuli, refined silver and pure Meluḫa cornelian, he set up (?) huge copper cauldrons, huge …… of copper, shining copper goblets and shining copper jars worthy of An, for laying (?) a holy table in the open air …… at the place of regular offerings (?). Ninĝirsu gave his city, Lagaš
Chlorite vessel found at Khafajeh: Ht 11.5 cm. 2,600 BCE, Khafajeh, north-east of Baghdad (Photo from pg. 69 of D. Collon's 1995 Ancient Near Eastern Art).
Impressions of seals on tablets from Kanesh (After Larsen, Mogens Trolle and Moller Eva, Five old Assyrian texts, in: D. Charpin - Joannès F. (ed.), Marchands, Diplomates et Empereurs. Études sur la civilization Mésopotamienne offertes à Paul Garelli (Éditions research sur les Civilisations), Paris, 1991, pp. 214-245: figs. 5,6 and 10.)
Karum meant literally ‘quay’ or ‘port’ for river trading or transport activities.
Durhumid, the old Assyrian colony (northeast of Kanesh) was rich in copper deposits, the exploitation of which depended on arrival of tin from Assur. Copper of Assur came from the mines of Magan (Persian Gulf) and from the third millennium BCE, Dilmun is referred to as a place of transit perhaps from Gulf, Arabia and the Indus valley (Meluhha). A Ur text refers to one consignment of over 18 tons of copper arriving by ship from Magan. Texts document the intensive trade with Dilmun from the start of the second millennium BCE with southern Mesopotamian merchants travelling to obtain copper, cornelian and ivory. These merchandise arrived in the north of Mesopotamia through Sumer and intermediaries. (Eidem and Hojlund, 1993, Trade of diplomacy? Assyria and Dilmun in the 18th century BCE, World Archaeology 24 (1993): 441-442). Larsen notes how old Assyrian monarchs attracted those merchants from south who went to Assur to sell copper and Akkadian cloth in exchange for tin (Larsen, MT, 1976, The Old Assyrian City-state and its Colonies, Mesopotamia 4, Copenhagen: 78).
“For some 200 years (ca. 1974-1776 BCE), the Kanesh karum was at once the main colony, the headquarters of the Anatolian branch of family firms in Assur and the administrative centre for the whole Old-Assyrian commercial circuit. Once the first tablets were known, we understood that one institution, the karum, had played a central part in managing Assyrian external trade. In Anatolia, the term karum has a dual meaning: topographical – commercial colony and district where the merchant community resides – and organizational – organism that manages the activity of the merchants abroad. The Old-Assyrian texts make it quite clear that the lower city in Kanesh was a karum, inhabited by a permanent colony of merchants and managed by a corporate structure with executive, judicial and fiscal powers. In that sense, the karum represents the merchant community; in other words, that part of the population of Assur removed to Anatolia…the Old-Assyrian karu possessed a pyramidal and hierarchical organization because all the colonies depended on the authority of the central karum, situated in Kanesh…The Old-Assyrian karum was a multi-ethnic community. A large part of the Kanesh karum was inhabited by Anatolians. Their dwellings have been identified with their archives written in a Old-Assyrian dialect. According to the documentation, however, these residents did not acquire imported commodities but acted as moneylenders in the buying and selling of slaves and grain. They probably operated on the margins of the Assyrian commercial activity and we do not know the status of these native traders residing in the lower city…A common trading practice in Kanesh was to entrust batches of merchandise to employees of the commercial firm or to a commercial agent, the tamkarum, who sold it in distant parts of the country. The tamkarum acted as a kind of commission agent or commercial traveler who had to reimburse to the owner the value of the merchandise consigned to him on credit. For that, he signed – that is to say, sealed – a document in the form of an acknowledgement of debt, in which the quantity owed was specified in silver and also the terms of the payment or refund. This is the type of contract that figures most frequently in the Kanesh archives…Tin was a commodity of huge strategic value to the Anatolian kingdoms, whereas Assyrian priorities were silver and the security and stability of the routes, which only the local authorities could guarantee…(The two communities – Anatolian and Assyrian) certainly had the benefit of bilingual interpreters and, as some of the letters show, some of the Anatolians could write in cuneiform Assyrian, naturally with mistakes in translation. It is known that the Assyrians often called the Anatolians nu’aum, which means ‘silly, stupid’, an expression typical of people who think themselves superior.”(Aubet, Maria Eugenia, Commerce and colonization in the ancient Near East, p.331, 337, 344, 345).![]()
Seal of Imdilum, a leading merchant of Kanesh (from Ichisar, Metin, 1981, Les Archives cappadociennes du marchand Imdilum (Recherche sur les grandes civilisations) (French Edition) by Metin Ichisar ,1981, Paris, Editions ADPF: fig. 2). “The firm had numerous collaborators, associates and scribes and it is known that it bought huge quantities of tin and textiles on Imdilum’s account. One case alludes to the dispatch of a caravan consisting of seven mules carrying eight talents and forty minas of tin for the two partners, Imdilum and Pusu-ken…On two occasions, Imdilum sends a talent of silver (30 kg) to Assur to buy tin, when we know of Assyrian merchants who needed a whole lifetime to accumulate one talent of silver! There is likewise a mention of a load of fifty-seven talents of tin for Imdilum, bought in Assur for four talents of silver and sold in the Anatolian market for eight talents of silver. These are undoubtedly huge sums, so we can consider Imdilum to be a genuine millionaire in his day.”(pp.353-355).
Images on many cylinder seals of ancient Near East were Meluhha hieroglyphs. (S. Kalyanaraman, 2013, Meluhha—A visible language Herndon, Sarasvati Research Center). Rebus readings provide new light on the ancient Tin Road between Ashur and Kultepe, Turkey which has yielded over 20,000 cuneiform tablets of merchants’ letters.
Cylinder seal. Provenience: KhafajeKh. VII 256 Jemdet Nasr (ca. 3000 - 2800 BCE) Frankfort, Henri: Stratified Cylinder Seals from the Diyala Region. Oriental Institute Publications 72. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, no. 34. karaḍa ‘panther’; karaḍa tiger (Pkt); खरडा [ kharaḍā ] A leopard. खरड्या [ kharaḍyā ] m or खरड्यावाघ m A leopard (Marathi). Kol. keḍiak tiger. Nk. khaṛeyak panther. Go. (A.) khaṛyal tiger; (Haig) kariyāl panther Kui kṛāḍi, krānḍi tiger, leopard, hyena. Kuwi (F.) kṛani tiger; (S.) klā'ni tiger, leopard; (Su. P. Isr.) kṛaˀni (pl. -ŋa) tiger. / Cf. Pkt. (DNM) karaḍa- id. (DEDR 1132).
Pkt. karaḍa -- m. ʻ crow ʼ, °ḍā -- f. ʻ a partic. kind of bird ʼ; S. karaṛa -- ḍhī˜gu m. ʻ a very large aquatic bird ʼ; L. karṛā m., °ṛī f. ʻ the common teal ʼ(CDIAL 2787). Rebus: karaḍa‘hard alloy’.
Allographs: Pk. karaḍa -- m. ʻ safflower ʼ; M. karḍī, °ḍaī f. ʻ safflower, Carthamus tinctorius and its seed ʼ (CDIAL 2788). Pk. karaṁḍa -- m.n. ʻ bone shaped like a bamboo ʼ, karaṁḍuya -- n. ʻ backbone ʼ (CDIAL 2670). S. karaṅgho, kaṇgho m. ʻbackbone, ridgepole ʼ; P. karaṅg m. ʻ skeleton ʼ (→ H. karaṅg m. ʻ skull, rib ʼ); N. karaṅ ʻ rib, rafter ʼ, karaṅge ʻ like a skeleton ʼ;with unexpl. ā: (CDIAL 2784).
Ka. mēke she-goat; mē the bleating of sheep or goats. Te. mē̃ka, mēka goat. Kol. me·ke id. Nk. mēke id. Pa. mēva, (S.) mēya she-goat. Ga. (Oll.)mēge, (S.) mēge goat. Go. (M) mekā, (Ko.) mēka id. ? Kur. mēxnā (mīxyas) to call, call after loudly, hail. Malt. méqe to bleat. [Te. mr̤ēka (so correct) is of unknown meaning. Br. mēḻẖ is without etymology; see MBE 1980a.] / Cf. Skt. (lex.) meka- goat. (DEDR 5087). Meluhha, mleccha (Akkadian. Sanskrit). Milakkha, Milāca‘hillman’ (Pali) milakkhu ‘dialect’ (Pali) mleccha ‘copper’ (Prakrit).
Ta. takar sheep, ram, goat, male of certain other animals (yāḷi, elephant, shark). Ma. takaran huge, powerful as a man, bear, etc. Ka. tagar, ṭagaru,ṭagara, ṭegaru ram. Tu. tagaru, ṭagarů id. Te. tagaramu, tagaru id. / Cf. Mar. tagar id. (DEDR 3000). Allograph: tagaraka ‘tabernae montana’ fragrant tulip (Sanskrit) Rebus: tagara ‘tin’ (Kannada): Ta. takaram tin, white lead, metal sheet, coated with tin. Ma. takaram tin, tinned iron plate. Ko. tagarm (obl. tagart-) tin. Ka. tagara, tamara, tavaraid. Tu. tamarů, tamara, tavara id. Te. tagaramu, tamaramu, tavaramu id. Kuwi (Isr.) ṭagromi tin metal, alloy. / Cf. Skt. tamara- id.(DEDR 3001).
kundopening in the nave or hub of a wheel to admit the axle (Santali)
Ka. kunda a pillar of bricks, etc. Tu. kunda pillar, post. Te. kunda id. Malt. kunda block, log. ? Cf. Ta. kantu pillar, post.(DEDR 1723).
Br. kōnḍō on all fours, bent double. (DEDR 204a) khōṇḍa A stock or stump (Marathi); ‘leafless tree’ (Marathi). khoṇḍ square (Santali) khoṇḍ 'young bull-calf' (Marathi) कोंड [kōṇḍa] A circular hamlet; a division of a मौजा or village, composed generally of the huts of one caste (possibly, a turner’s hamlet)(Marathi). Ku. koṭho ʻlarge square houseʼ Rebus: kõdār ’turner’ (Bengali); kõdā‘to turn in a lathe’ (Bengali).कोंद kōnda‘engraver, lapidary setting or infixing gems’ (Marathi) khū̃ṭ ‘community, guild’ (Mu.); kunḍa ‘consecrated fire-pit’.
kāṇḍa ‘flowing water’ Rebus: kāṇḍā ‘metalware, tools, pots and pans’.
kul ‘tiger’ (Santali); kōlu id. (Telugu) kōlupuli = Bengal tiger (Te.) कोल्हा [ kōlhā ] कोल्हें [kōlhēṃ] A jackal (Marathi) Rebus: kole.l'temple, smithy' (Kota.) kol = pañcalōha, a metallic alloy containing five metals (Tamil): copper, brass, tin, lead and iron (Sanskrit); an alternative list of five metals: gold, silver, copper, tin (lead), and iron (dhātu; Nānārtharatnākara. 82; Mangarāja’s Nighaṇṭu. 498)(Kannada) kol, kolhe, ‘the koles, iron smelters speaking a language akin to that of Santals’ (Santali)
Bronze Mycenean dagger with scene of warriors fighting lions done in gold, silver, and niello. (1500-1200BC)
“Lion as both hunter and hunted” (detail of two sides of niello dagger blade)
Tin bronzes appear in the Levant at the end of third millennium BCE. An early Minoan III dagger analyzed by Buccholz was a true tin bronze.
Cappacodian tablets were evidence of trade in tin from Ashur to Kultepe. Later Mari became the tin route from Elam to the Levant. Akkadian word, annaku was translated variously as ‘lead’ or ‘tin’. It might also have denoted bronze ingots or torques/rings.
Buchholz, H.G., 1967, Analysen prahistorischer Metallfunde aus Zypern und den Nachbarlandern. Berliner Jahrbuch fur Vor und Frithgeschichte U:189-256.
Source: Dayton, JE, 1971, The problem of tin in the ancient world, in: World Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 1, Technological Innovations, June 1971, pp. 49-70.
Bass, George F., Throckmorton, Peter, Taylor, Joan Du Plat, Hennessy, J. B., Shulman, Alan R., Buchholz, Hans-Günter, “Cape Gelidonya: A Bronze Age Shipwreck”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series 57 (8), 1967, pp. 1-177.
In Cape Gelidonya wreck, bun ingots and also slab ingots with 7% tin (bronze) were found.
“The Assyrians who had for centuries previously traded in the region, and possibly ruled small areas bordering Assyria, now established significant colonies in Cappadocia, (e.g., at Kanesh (modern Kültepe) from 2008 BC to 1740 BC. These colonies, called karum, the Akkadian word for 'port', were attached to Hattian and Hurrian cities in Anatolia, but physically separate, and had special tax status. They must have arisen from a long tradition of trade between Assyria and the Anatolian cities, but no archaeological or written records show this. The trade consisted of metal (perhaps lead or tin; the terminology is not entirely clear) and textiles from Assyria, that were traded for precious metals in Anatolia.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria
“Archaeologists now present evidence that dates the earliest international trade convoys to 2700 B.C. This trade of 5,000 years ago involved cargos of tin, brought from the mountains of Afghanistan overland across Iran to the city of Eshnunna (Tel Asmar in current-day Iraq) on the Tigris river in Mesopotamia. From there the cargos were transported overland, via the city of Mari on the Euphrates, to the port of Ugarit (current-day Ras Shamra) in northern Syria, and finally from there shipped to various destinations in the Middle East. Tin was an important commodity, as it was vital ingredient in the production of bronze. The bronze alloy formulated in the eastern Mediterranean in the 3rd Millennium BC brought about a revolution in economics, civilization and warfare. At that time, there were only two known sources of tin in the world: Afghanistan and Anatolia. Anatolian tin was used locally and the surplus was exported. The increased demand for tin for bronze production opened up trade with Afghanistan, and thus the first known trade route, the Tin Road, was born… Anatolia's connection with the Tin and Silk roads was not overland, but through its Mediterranean ports. The harbors on the Mediterranean coast were important junction points on this trade route. A route from the Syrian port of Ugarit passed through modern-day Antakya to Adana in Turkey. Tin mined in the Taurus mountains of southern Turkey was brought here for sale as well. In time, this route extended inland to Konya, by way of Niğde, eventually reaching as far as the Asian shore of the Bosphorus.THE ASSYRIAN TRADE ROADIn the 2nd Millennium BC, a well-developed trade route between Anatolia and Mesopotamia was used by Assyrian merchants. About 500 years after the establishment of the Tin Road, a second trade route developed, still in use today. It originated in upper Mesopotamia and reached Kayseri via Mardin, Diyarbakir and Malatya. Created by Assyrian merchants who were the first to initiate trade between Anatolia and the Middle East, the route later was extended from Kayseri south to Niğde and north to Sivas. It eventually connected to Persia and was responsible for making Kayseri a leading trading center of the age. ” http://www.turkishhan.org/trade.htm
Technological advances in sailing and ship building were almost certainly developed and exploited in this highly competitive environment. Iconographical evidence and the evidence of stone anchors suggest that the large round-hulled merchant ships of the type familiar from a painting in the 18th Dynasty tomb of Kenamun in Egypt and from the remains of the 14th century BC Uluburun wreck (replica shown here) were already plying the East Mediterranean in the Middle Bronze Age. It is probably only a matter of time before the wreck of a Middle Bronze Age cargo ship, similar to that of Uluburun off the coast of southern Turkey, is found.
A particularly important phenomenon of the Middle Bronze Age period (already referred to in passing) was the foundation of the Old Assyrian trading centre at Kültepe-Kanesh in Central Anatolia, where the textual archive tells us of a network of larger and smaller trading stations (karums and wabartums) throughout central Anatolia and northern Syria. This must have some bearing, directly or indirectly, on the maritime centres of the northern Levant, but its effects on these have rarely been explored.
Although the claims of Kestel, as opposed to much more distant sources in Afghanistan, to have supplied tin in the Middle Bronze Age are still the subject of heated debate, lead isotope analysis of tin ingots from the later Uluburun shipwreck points to the source of this tin being in the Taurus mountains, as does isotopic analysis by Seppi Lehner of a crucible from recent excavations in the workshop quarter of Tell Atchana (Alalakh) in the Amuq (see also Yener 2003; 2007).
A particularly important phenomenon of the Middle Bronze Age period (already referred to in passing) was the foundation of the Old Assyrian trading centre at Kültepe-Kanesh in Central Anatolia, where the textual archive tells us of a network of larger and smaller trading stations (karums and wabartums) throughout central Anatolia and northern Syria. This must have some bearing, directly or indirectly, on the maritime centres of the northern Levant, but its effects on these have rarely been explored.
Ancient tin mines, with evidence of exploitation by contemporary Andronovo groups probably in the early-mid 2nd millenium, have been identified in the Zerafshan region, to the north-east (Parzinger and Boroffka 2003); and previous work suggested Afghanistan may have been a major source of tin in antiquity (Cleuziou and Berthoud 1982).
Kalyanaraman
Sarsvati Research Center
December 22, 2013
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BY RSN SINGH
Two news developments in last few days have been significant with regard to India’s cyber warfare capabilities. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on December 15 urged the IT professionals of Bangalore to join the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) team. On December 16, a newspaper report based on a Telecom Department note revealed that the Indian government was ready to launch a spy system for internet surveillance.
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