WashukanniGERNOT WILHELM

Washukanni, sometimes considered the capital

of MITTANI, was one of that kingdom’s most

important cities and the location of a royal

residence (see MITTANIAN KINGS).

In the late fifteenth century BCE, Saushtatar,

king of Mittani, brought booty from ASHUR to

his palace at Washukanni. A century later,

when the Hittite king SUPPILULIUMA I attacked

the core regions of Mittani, he approached

Washukanni without being able to capture it.

Soon thereafter, in the turmoil following the

violent death of TUSHRATTA, king of Mittani, the

Assyrians took Washukanni and put their

protege Shuttarna III on the throne. Some

years later a Hittite army conquered the western

regions of Mittani, including Washukanni, and

established Shattiwazza, a son of Tushratta, as

king there. In the early thirteenth century BCE,

Washukanni was reconquered by the Assyrians

and integrated into their kingdom. In texts of

this period the city’s name took the form

Ushukanu or Ashukannu, and in the neo-

Assyrian period, Sikanu.

Washukanni may probably be identified

with Tall Fakhariyah on the river Habur, close

to Ra’s el-ʿAyn in present-day Syria. Excava-

tions show that Tall Fakhariyah was already

settled in the early second millennium BCE

and that it was an important city in the later

second and early first millennium BCE; the

Middle Assyrian levels have yielded ivories

and cuneiform tablets, and from the Neo-

Assyrian period comes the inscribed statue of

Hadad-yisʿi, the Assyrian governor of Guzana.

In the Roman period the colony of Resaina was

founded there, marked by a castellum. In

the Byzantine period the city, now called

Theodosiopolis, became an important border

fortress.

SEE ALSO: Hanigalbat.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Bonatz, D., Bartl, P., Gilibart, A., and Jauß, C. (2008)

“Bericht uber die erste und zweite

Grabungskampagne in Tell Feheriye 2006 und

2007.” Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-

Gesellschaft 140: 89–135.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner, print page 7062.

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah24220

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