Turukkaeans
bronze and Iron Age people of the Zagros Mountains
The Turukkaeans were likely a Bronze and Iron Age tribe of Hurrians, who lived south of Lake Urmia in the northwestern Zagros Mountains. Their endonym has sometimes been reconstructed as Tukri.
History
Origins
The region of Turukkum, which was located south of Lake Urmia in the valleys of the northwestern Zagros mountains, consisted of different kingdoms with a population that was predominantly Hurrian and significantly Semitic. The Turukkaeans are considered by most scholars today to have been a Hurrian and Hurrian-speaking tribe, often commanded by Hurrian military leaders.
Middle Bronze
Turukkum was regarded by the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia as a constant threat, during the reign of Amorite Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1782 BCE) and his son and successor Ishme-Dagan I (1781-1750 BCE). The Turukkaeans were allied to the Land of Ahazum, and they gathered at the town of Ikkallum to face the army of Ishme-Dagan, as Shamshi-Adad wrote in a letter to his other son Yasmah-Adad. Ishme-Dagan destroyed the army reporting "Not one man escaped".
The Turukkaeans were reported to have sacked the city of Mardaman, apparently under Hurrian rule, around the year 1769/68 BCE. Babylon's defeat of Turukku was celebrated in the 37th year of Hammurabi's reign (c. 1773 BCE).
A significant early reference to them is an inscription by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, (r.
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