Šimānum

Šimānum was an ancient Near East city-state whose location is not yet known. Its areal location is known to be in the northernmost part of Mesopotamia or the southernmost part of Anatolia, in the vicinity of the Tigris river, north of the Upper Zab river, and near the confluence of the Tigris and eastern Habur river. It is well documented during the time of the Ur III Empire in the late 3rd Millennium BC. It has been proposed that Šimānum was known, under different names, in other periods. If those proposals are correct the site was active from the Akkadian Empire period though the Old Babylonian period. Šimānum is also the name of an Old Babylonian month.

History

The first ruler of Ur III, Shulgi, conducted a number of military campaigns in the northeast region of the empire around Šimānum. Šimānum itself appears to been a vassal rather than a tributary state. Records, in Shugi year 45 and Amar-Sin year 6, report bears being sent to Ur by the ruler of Simanium.
Late in the reign of Shulgi, continuing into the reign of the Amar-Sin, the daughter of Shu-Sin, Kunši-matum was given to the son of the then ruler of Simanum, Pušam/Bušam, in marriage. Pušam is noted, as ruler of Šimānum, in various Ur III records from the 2nd year of Amar-Sin until the 1st year of Shu-Sin. Pušam is also known from a seal found at Urkesh. In the first year of Shu-Sin Kunši-matum is recorded as being the bride of Arib-atal of Šimānum. Arib-atal was the son of Pušam and brother of Ipḫuḫa. Ipḫuḫa later became ensi of Šimānum, noted in a text from the 1st year of Ibbi-Sin. Arib-atal was denoted as being the "man" of Šimānum. There is some debate on the status of Pušam and Arib-atal, ranging from ensi under Ur to vassal to ruler of an independent though strongly allied state.
In the second year of his reign, Ur III ruler Shu-Sin launched an attack on polities to the north, including Simanum, Habura, and Mardaman.
Royal inscriptions record that this attack resulted from the royal family of Šimānum, allied to and intermarried with Ur, being overthrown. Success was reported to the capitol and a reward "for the messenger Lugal-sisa who brought the good news of the defeat of Simanum". This attack was marked in two of his year names.

mu ^Dszu-^Den.zu lugal ur₂i^ki-ma-ke₄ si-ma-num₂^ki mu-hul - Year Shu-Sin the king of Ur destroyed Šimānum
mu us₂-sa ^Dszu-^Den.zu lugal ur2i^ki-ma-ke₄ si-ma-num₂^ki mu-hul - Year after the year Shu-Sin the king of Ur destroyed Šimānum

The later year name was only used for the early part of the year before being superseded. One record reports that daughter Kunši-matum was restored to the throne of Šimānum after the successful attack. In any event, correspondence between Ur and Šimānum continue until the early part of the reign of Ibbi-Sin.
Ur III ruler Shu-Sin, after destroying Šimānum settled the prisoners of that war in a town he founded near Nippur that he called Šimānum. This practice for disposition of prisoners continued into the first millennium. Texts from Drehem, near Nippur, record a number of cases of "individuals of " being used as guarded workers, some of them acquired for a price. A tablet from Irisaĝrig dated to the 5th year of Shu-Sin recorded rations going to "ĝuruš from Simanum".
Early during the reign of the next, and last, Ur III ruler, Ibbi-Sin, Ur lost control of the Nippur area and the last record from this prisoner town is dated to the 4th year of Ibbi-Sin.

Ašimānum/Asimānum

Asimānum is known from the Akkadian Empire period and is typically assumed to be Šimānum. A fragmentary text of ruler Naram-Sin reports

Šināmum

The poorly attributed Šināmum, active during the Old Babylonian period, has been pointed to as possibly being Šimānum i.e. "Although it seems probable that Ur III Shimanum, Old Assyrian Shimala, Old Babylonian Shinamum and Neo-Assyrian Sinabu are one and the same place" though this has now lost favor. One of the few textual references was found at Tell Shemshara.

Šibaniba/Šibānum

It has been proposed that Šibaniba, known in the Middle Assyrian period and thought to be at the site of Tell Billa, was earlier known as Šimānum though scant Ur III or Akkadian Empire period remains were known from there, the excavations being thinly published, and the areal location is not favorable.

Location

While the rough areal location of Šimānum is known and a number of sites have been proposed all that is known about its specific location is that it was very near the 3rd millennium BC city of Habüra which was in turn near to the city of Maridaman.

Near Habura

Šimānum is known to be near the city Ur III period city of Habüra which lay on the Habur river a tributary of the Tigris river, at or near this confluence. In one text it is called "apqum sa Habür". In particular the large site of Basorin Tepe has been proposed. Basorin has also been proposed as the site of Kipšūnu and of Šabīrēšu. Shamsi-Adad I, ruler of Ekallatum, campaigned against a city of Haburâtum, generally thought to be Habüra. Haburâtum is also known from Mari texts and was near to Razama and Burullu. The location of Haburâtum was near the Habur, off the Tigris. It has also been speculated that the god Ḫabūrītum was from the city of Habüra. In a text of Samsi-Addu found at Tell Shemshara it states

Near Mardaman

The linkage with Mardaman is based on its listing with Habura in a later Shu-Sin military campaign primarily against Simaski.
A location for Mardaman north of the modern city of Mardin in the Cizre region of Anatolia early on proposed based on the similarity in names but has since been discounted. More recently, the site of Bassetki has become generally accepted based on tablet found there in 2017.

Other proposals

Assuming the correspondence to Asimānum is correct, the location is thought to be near to the cities of Sisil and Talmuš, also unlocated.
Sinan on the confluence of Batman River and Tigris near the present Bismil in Turkey has been proposed.
A location in the "vicinity of Assur" has been proposed. A related suggestion was "north of Nineveh".
At one time Tell Hamoukar was suggested based on its size and location.
A recent proposal, based on the location and the similarity of names Šibaniba and Šimānum, is the site of Tell Billa