Sutean
Encyclopedia
The Suteans were a tribe who lived throughout the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...

 and Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...

 circa 1350 BC. They are mentioned in eight of the 382 Amarna letters
Amarna letters
The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Egyptian administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom...

. Like the Habiru
Habiru
Habiru or Apiru or ˁpr.w was the name given by various Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia and Iran to the borders of Egypt in Canaan...

, they traditionally worked as mercenaries.

One letter mentioning the Suteans is entitled "Waiting for the Pharaoh's words", from Biryawaza
Biryawaza
Biryawaza was king of Damascus in the middle fourteenth century BC. In the Amarna letters, he was ordered by his Egyptian overlords to take armed action against Labaya's sons ....

 of Dimasqu
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

-(Damascus) to pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...

:
"I am indeed, together with my troops and chariot
Chariot
The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...

s, together with my brothers, my 'Apiru
Habiru
Habiru or Apiru or ˁpr.w was the name given by various Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni, and Ugaritic sources to a group of people living as nomadic invaders in areas of the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia and Iran to the borders of Egypt in Canaan...

 and my Suteans, at the disposition of the archers
Archers (Egyptian pítati)
The Pítati were a contingent of archers in the Egyptian Empire, often requested and dispatched, to support the Egyptian vassalage in Canaan, or northern Canaan...

, wheresoever the king, my lord, shall order (me to go)."

EA 195 (EA for el Amarna), lines 24-32.

This usage is somewhat atypical of the usage of Habiru and external mercenary forces in the Amarna letters, since this letter quotes them as being necessary and beneficial to the efforts of Biryawaza.

The Sutean language
Sutean language
The Sutean language is mentioned by a clay tablet from the Middle Assyrian period, presumably originating from the city of Imar, among a list of languages spoken in the region. The other languages are Akkadian, Amorite, Gutian, "Subarean" , and Elamite. The Sutean people may have lived in the...

 appears to have been Semitic.

External links

  • http://www.christiansofiraq.com/syria9265.html"Nihsanu tribe" of the Suteans, others south to Palestine
    Palestine
    Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

    .]
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