Gutians: The Great Villains of the Sumerian Scribes

Q: Who were the Gutians?

The Gutians are described by Sumerian and later Assyrian scribes as a barbaric people who invaded the region of ancient Mesopotamia and toppled the Akkadian Empire. Who they were and where they came from is unknown.

Q: Did the Gutians really cause the fall of the Akkadian Empire?

Sumerian scribes attribute the fall of the Akkadian Empire to the Gutians but modern scholarship challenges this long-held assumption and suggests that climate change weakened Akkad so that anyone - including the Gutians - could have encouraged its fall.

Q: Where did the Gutians come from?

Sumerian scribes claim they arrived in the region from the east, around the Zagros Mountains, modern-day Iran.

Q: What happened to the Gutians?

No one knows what happened to the Gutians because no one knows who they were. Historians routinely note that the "Gutians" said to have brought down Akkad are almost certainly not the same "Gutians" who attacked later Sumerian or Assyrian or Babylonian cities. "Gutian" seems to have become a term for "barbarian" or "foreign invader" and so there is no telling what became of the people who toppled Akkad.

Joshua J. Mark

Gutians

The Great Villains of the Sumerian Scribes

Definition

The Gutians were a West Asiatic people who are thought to have lived around the Zagros Mountains in a region referred to as Gutium. They had no written language and all that is known of them comes from their enemies, including the Akkadians, Sumerians, and Assyrians, who blame them for the destruction and desolation of the land prior to their rule of the region in the Gutian Period of circa 2141-circa 2050 BCE.

More about: Gutians

Timeline

2217 BCE - 2193 BCE
Reign of Akkadian king Shar-Kali-Sharri; Gutians first mentioned in written accounts.
c. 2141 BCE - c. 2050 BCE
The Gutian period in Sumer.
c. 2119 BCE - c. 2112 BCE
Gutian power in Sumer is challenged by Utu-Hegal, King of Uruk.
c. 2094 BCE - c. 2046 BCE
Gutians driven from Sumer during the reign of Shulgi of Ur, son of Ur-Nammu.

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