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Kumme (Akkadian Kummu or Kummum, Hittite Kummiya) was a Hurrian city, known from textual sources from both second and first millennium BCE. Its precise location is unknown, but it is mentioned in cuneiform texts from multiple other sites. It might have been located close to modern Zakho or Beytüşşebap. From the Old Babylonian period until Neo-Assyrian times it served as a religious center of transregional significance due to its association with the Hurrian weather god, Teshub. Its religious role is first mentioned in texts from Mari, and later recurs in Hurrian and Hittite sources. In the Neo-Assyrian period, it was apparently the center of a small independent buffer state on Assyrian borders. Its ultimate fate remains unknown, as from the reign of Sennacherib onward it is no longer mentioned in any texts. As argued by Gernot Wilhelm, the toponym Kumme has a plausible Hurrian etymology, and can be interpreted as a combination of the root kum-, which according to him refers to building activity, and the suffix -me, well attested in other Hurrian words. This explanation is also accepted by Daniel Schwemer and Volkert Haas, who suggests meanings “to build” or “to pile up” for kum-. The same root is presumed to form the basis of the reconstructed toponym *Kumar, from which the theonym Kumarbi was likely derived. It is also attested in the word kumdi, “tower”, and in personal names in the texts from Nuzi. An alternate proposal is to link it with the Akkadian term kummu, “cella” or “sanctuary”. The name of Kumme is also attested in Akkadian texts as Kummu or Kummum and in Hittite ones as Kummiya. An additional Hittite form might be Kumma, though it is possible an unrelated city named Kumma existed in the proximity of Ḫurma in southern Anatolia. Karen Radner additionally lists Qumenu as an Urartian form of the name. However, according to Schwmer, while this view is commonly accepted in scholarship, it is doubtful if these two names refer to the same city.

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Related concepts (8)

Kumme

Aranzaḫ

Aranzaḫ (alternatively romanized as Aranzah), also known as Aranziḫ or Araššiḫ was a Hurrian deity who represented the river Tigris. He was believed to be one of the deities born as a result of Kumarbi biting off the genitals of Anu during a battle over kingship in heaven. He also appears in a myth focused on a hero named after him, Gurparanzaḫ, in which he acts as his ally. He is also attested in numerous Hurrian theophoric names. A handful of attestations of his name have been identified in Ugaritic and Mesopotamian texts as well.

Kumarbi

Kumarbi, also known as Kumurwe, Kumarwi and Kumarma, was a Hurrian god. He held a senior position in the Hurrian pantheon, and was described as the "father of gods". He was portrayed as an old, deposed king of the gods, though this most likely did not reflect factual loss of the position of the head of the pantheon in Hurrian religion, but only a mythological narrative. It is often assumed that he was an agricultural deity, though this view is not universally accepted and the evidence is limited.