Urmia > Orumiyeh Azarbayjan-e Gharbi Iran
681 BCE to 670 BCE
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People called Mannaeans live in Iran’s present Azerbaijan province in the second millennium BCE.
Their kingdom is situated east and south of the Lake Urmia, roughly centered around the present-day city of Orumiyeh in the Azerbaijan region of Iran.
Excavations that began in 1956 succeeded in uncovering the fortified city of Hasanlu, once thought to be a potential Mannaean site.
More recently, the site of Qalaichi (possibly ancient Izirtu/Zirta) has been linked to the Mannaeans based on a stela with this toponym found at the site.
The Mannaeans' kingdom begins to flourish around 850 BCE.
They are mainly a settled people, practicing irrigation and breeding cattle and horses.
Their capital is another fortified city, Izirtu (Zirta).
They have expanded by the 820s BCE to become the first large state to occupy this region since the Gutians, later followed by the unrelated Iranic peoples, the Medes and the Persians.
They have developed a prominent aristocracy as a ruling class, who somewhat limit the power of the king.
The region becomes contested ground beginning around 800 BCE between the people of Urartu, who build several forts on the territory of Mannaea, and Assyria.
Esarhaddon takes the towns of Sissu and Kundu in the Taurus Mountains in 676 BCE.
The Mannaeans, the Scythians under their king Ishpakaia, and the "Gutians" of the Zagros prove to be a nuisance as well, as is attested by numerous oracle-texts.
The Mannaeans, former vassals of the Assyrians, are no longer restricted to the area around Lake Urmia, but have spread into Zamua, where they have interrupted the horse trade between Parsuash and Assyria and refused to pay further tribute.
A daughter of Esarhaddon had been wedded to the Scythian prince Bartatua of Sakasene after the fall of Phrygia in order to improve relations with the nomads.
Perkins is an American Presbyterian missionary in Urmia, Persia.