Rimush

Rimush (or Rimuš, Ri-mu-uš; died 2270 BC) was the second king of the Akkadian Empire. He was the son of Sargon of Akkad. He was succeeded by his brother Manishtushu, and was an uncle of Naram-Sin of Akkad. Naram-Sin posthumously deified Sargon and Manishtushi but not his uncle.William W. Hallo, "Royal Titles from the Mesopotamian Periphery", Anatolian Studies 30, pp. 89–19, 1980 His sister was Enheduana, considered the earliest known named author in world history.Helle, Sophus, "Enheduana’s World", Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World's First Author, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 103-133, 2023 Little is known about his brother Shu-Enlil. There was a city, Dur-Rimuš (Fortress of Rimush), located near Tell Ishchali and Khafajah. It was known to be a cult center of the storm god Adad.Harris, Rivkah, "The Archive of the Sin Temple in Khafajah (Tutub)", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 31–58, 1955Green, Alberto R. W., "Mesopotamia: The Land between Two Rivers", The Storm-God in the Ancient Near East, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, pp. 8-88, 2003

Biography According to the Sumerian King List, his reign lasted nine years (though variant copies read seven or fifteen years).Poebel, A., "Ein neues Fragment der altbabylonischen Königsliste", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 34, no. Jahresband, pp. 39-53, 1922 There is one surviving year-name for an unknown year of his reign: mu ud-nun{ki} / adab{ki} hul-a "year in which Adab was destroyed". Tradition gives that he was assassinated, as recorded in the Bārûtu, a compendium of extispicy dated to the first millennium BC: "If the heart is like a testicle—an omen of king Rimuš, whom his courtiers killed with their cylinder seals".Van De Mieroop, Marc, "The Structure of Knowledge of the Universe", Philosophy before the Greeks: The Pursuit of Truth in Ancient Babylonia, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 113-140, 2015 He was succeeded by his brother Manishtushu. The Ur III version of the Sumerian King List inverts the order of Rimush and Manishtushu.Steinkeller, P., "An Ur III manuscript of the Sumerian King List", in: W. Sallaberger [e.a.] (ed.), Literatur, Politik und Recht in Mesopotamien. Festschrift für Claus Wilcke, OBC 14, Wiesbaden, 267–29, 2003Thomas, Ariane, "The Akkadian Royal Image: On a Seated Statue of Manishtushu", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 105, no. 1-2, pp. 86-117, 2015

To some extent, his reign was typical of a ruler of Mesopotamia with proper attention paid to the various deities and their temples. A number of his votive offerings have been found in excavated temples in several Mesopotamian cities including Ur, Sippar, Khafajah, and Brak. Henri Frankfort, "Tell Asmar, Khafaje and Khorsabad: Second Preliminary Report of the Iraq Expedition", Oriental Institute Communication 16, 1933Eppihimer, Melissa, "Assembling King and State: The Statues of Manishtushu and the Consolidation of Akkadian Kingship", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 114, no. 3, pp. 365–80, 2010 After the conquest of Elam, he dedicated 30 mana (a mana was about a half kilogram) of gold, 3,600 mana of copper, and 360 slaves to Enlil, the chief deity of Nippur.E. Sollberger and J.R. Kupper, "Inscriptions royales sumeriennes et akkadiennes", Paris, 1971Ratnagar, Shereen F., "Theorizing Bronze-Age Intercultural Trade : The Evidence of the Weights", Paléorient, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 79–92, 2003 Another example of devotional activity was a statue given by Rimush at Nippur (known only from an inscription). The statue's composition is subject to how it is translated. Tin has been suggested, as well as bronze (a tin and copper alloy) as well as meteoric iron.B. R. Foster, The Age of Agade, Inventing Empire in Ancient Mesopotamia, London, New York 2016 Dayton, J. E., "The Problem of Tin in the Ancient World", World Archaeology, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 49–70, 1971

Various texts indicated economic activity continued during his reign, despite military activity, which was possibly encompassed by a short period of time.Foster, B. R., "Management and Administration in the Sargonic Period", in: M. Liverani (ed.) Akkad, the First World Empire: Structure, Ideology, Traditions HANES 5, Padova: Sargon srl., pp. 25–39, 1993Foster, Benjamin R., "New Light on the 'Mu-Iti' Texts", Orientalia, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 153–62, 1979

Most of his short reign was taken up consolidating the empire created by his father, Sargon, first ruler of the Akkadian Empire. This empire stretched in the west to Syria in places like Tell Brak and Tell Leilan, to the east in Elam and associated polities in that region, to southern Anatolia in the north, and to the "lower sea" in the south encompassing all the traditional Sumerian powers like Uruk, Ur, and Lagash. All of these political entities had long histories as independent powers and would periodically re-assert their interests throughout the lifetime of the Akkadian Empire.Weiss, Harvey, "Excavations at Tell Leilan and the Origins of North Mesopotamian cities in the Third Millennium B.C.", Paléorient, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 39–52, 1983

Consolidation of Sumerian cities

According to his inscriptions, he faced widespread revolts, and had to reconquer the cities of Ur, Umma, Adab, Lagash, Der, KI.ANki, and Kazallu from rebellious ensis (KI.ANki is thought to be at the site of Tell Shmet):Foster, B., "Umma in the Sargonic Period", Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science 20, Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1882Salman Fahad, Sa’ad and Abdul-Qadir Abbas, Raghad, "Cuneiform Tablets from Shmet from the Excavation Season of 2001", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 110, no. 1, pp. 1-13, 2020

Rimush introduced mass slaughter and large scale destruction of the Sumerian city-states, and maintained meticulous records of his destructions. Most of the major Sumerian cities were destroyed, and Sumerian human losses were enormous: It appears that the city of Shuruppak was spared.Frahm, Eckart, and Elizabeth E. Payne, "Šuruppak under Rīmuš: A Rediscovered Inscription", Archiv Für Orientforschung, vol. 50, pp. 50–55, 2003

Sumerian casualties from the campaigns of RimushFouts, David M., "Another Look at Large Numbers in Assyrian Royal Inscriptions", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 205–11, 1994Destroyed cities:Adab and ZabalaUmma and KI.ANUr and LagashKazallu(Three battles in Sumer)TOTAL Killed15,7188,9008,04912,05211,32256,041 Captured and enslaved14,5763,5405,4605,862_29,438 "Expelled and annihilated"_5,6005,985_14,10025,685

Campaigns against Elam and Marhashi There are also records of victorious campaigns against Elam and Marhashi (Sumerian name for the Akkadian "Parahshum") in a longer (CBS 13972 and Ni 3200) and shorter (AO 5476) version. G. A. Barton, "The Royal Inscriptions of Sumer and Akkad", Yale Univ. Press, pp. 100-150, 1939 According to the account, troops from (Meluhha) also participated in the conflict: After the victorious campaigns of Rimush, under his successor Manishtushu, Elam would be ruled by Akkadian Military Governors, starting with Eshpum, and Pashime, on the Iranian coast, was ruled by an Akkadian Governor named Ilshu-rabi. IN another version of the text Rimush is called "king of Kish" like his father.Michalowski, Piotr, "New Sources Concerning the Reign of Naram-Sin", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 233–46, 1980 Maeda, Tohru, "'King of Kish' in Pre-Sargonic Sumer", Orient 17, pp. 1-17, 1981

Inscriptions of Elamite campaign

Victory Stele of Rimush over Lagash

A Victory Stele in several fragments, possibly three in total. Two (found in Tell K at Girsu) are in the Louvre Museum, AO 2678 (34 cm high, 28 cm wide) for the relief and AO 2679 (9 cm high, 26 cm wide) for the inscriptions are generally thought to be part of the same stele, though this is not certain. The inscription is much damaged and the only readable portion of AO 2679 not pertaining to land distribution reads "after Akkade received the kingship". Another fragment, of unknown provenance but thought to be from the Lagash region, from the Yale Babylonian Collection YBC 2409 (20 cm high, 21 cm wide, 12 cm deep) has been proposed as a join to the first two but this is in dispute. The stele has been attributed to Rimush on stylistic and epigraphical grounds but this is also in dispute with a counter proposal dating it to the time of Naram-Sin.Z. Bahrani, "Rituals of War: The Body and Violence in Mesopotamia", New York: Zone Books, 2008 One of the fragments mentions Akkad and Lagash. One fragment in the main inscription probably contains parts of the name of Rimush himself.

It is thought that the stele represents the defeat of Lagash by the troops of Akkad. The prisoners depicted in the relief are visibly Mesopotamian, and their slaughtering at the hand of Akkadian soldiers is consistent with the known accounts of Rimush. The stele was excavated in ancient Girsu, one of the main cities of the territory of Lagash. The inscription acts as a land kudurru and describes the attribution of large plots of land (totaling an area of about 40 kilometers by 40 kilometers) from Lagash to the Akkadian nobility, following the victory. Almost all the personal names in the inscription are known from the Lagash and Girsu areas.I. J. Gelb, P. Steinkeller, and R. M. Whiting Jr, "OIP 104. Earliest Land Tenure Systems in the Near East: Ancient Kudurrus", Oriental Institute Publications 104 Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1989, 1991 ISBN 978-0-91-898656-6 Text Plates

Fragments from stele

Artifacts in the name of Rimush

Rimush

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