The Amorite god Amurru (Akkadian) or Martu (Sumerian) is revered since the third millennium BCE. Strong centers of worship in Babylon and Assyria ensure his name lives on long after the Amorites are gone.
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Amurru is a deific representation of the Amorite people, who battle the Egyptians and everyone else to rule the lucrative lands of the Levant.
READ: Cult of the Fire God - Bronze Age Adventure
The Amorites first appear in c. 2000 BCE as a specific type of people. As hunter-gatherers and fierce warriors they've been around longer.
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They settle into a more permanent type of existence near the coveted coasts and trade cities of today's northern Lebanon and north-west Syria. They forge the kingdom of Amurru,
Although the Amorite conqueror calls himself King, the Amorites are not a unified people under one ruler. In this they resemble the Phoenicians, whose settlements are run by oligarchies of wealthy independent merchant families without an overlord.
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Expanding along the coast and inland to the grave consternation of the current residents, they threaten Byblos and attack Tyre. The King of the Amorites befriends and organizes the Habiru, the lowest classes of society. They're outlaws, outcasts, fugitives and "workers of inferior status."
READ: Cult of the Fire God - Bronze Age Adventure
One surviving myth of Amurru as personification of the Amorite people involves his victory in competition at a festival of Inab. The city god, Numushda, with his wife Namrat and daughter Adgarkidu, is in attendance.
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Amurru wins the contests. Instead of taking the gold and riches offered, he asks to marry Adgarkidu, daughter of the city god. She seems to have no objection, but a friend tries to dissuade her:
"Now listen, their hands are destructive and their features are those of monkeys; (An Amorite) is one who eats what (the Moon-god) Nanna forbids and does not show reverence.
"They never stop roaming about ... they are an abomination to the gods’ dwellings. Their ideas are confused; they cause only disturbance. (The Amorite) is clothed in sack-leather ... lives in a tent, exposed to wind and rain, and cannot properly recite prayers.
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"He lives in the mountains and ignores the places of gods, digs up truffles in the foothills, does not know how to bend the knee (in prayer), and eats raw flesh. He has no house during his life, and when he dies he will not be carried to a burial-place. My girlfriend, why would you marry Martu?"
She marries Amurru anyway. It's thought this deific marriage symbolizes the acceptance of the god Amurru into the Mesopotamian pantheon.
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In Babylon, Amurru comes to power in the Iron Age, after the destruction of parts of the Levant coast. Before then he's more a figurehead, a stereotype or the Amorite people. He has cult centers in Babylon and is also worshipped in mystical Sea-land.
After the fall of the region Amurru, the God Amurru sheds his Amorite identity. He gains popularity as a divine exorcist. This remains his chief role until the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib in c. 750 BCE.
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Amurru is connected to the Steppe, as with the nomadic Amorites. One of his epithets being "Lord of the Steppe." His pastoral influence extends to the mountains, as he also assumes the role of a mountain god. Another of his epithets is lu hursagga or man of the mountains.
As his symbol, Amurru carries a crooked staff, or gamlu. It's thought to be a shepherd's crook. His sacred animal is the gazelle, or possibly the mountain goat. He's also associated with storms and weather.
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He's also connected to mice and prayers are given to Amurru for protection of the crops. Some believe the mice are a negative portrayal of Amorites, the pests who will eat all the grain. The Sumerian pestilence god is Ninkilim, Lord Rodent.
Amurru might also carry a sickle sword or khopesh. Although it's most famous as an Egyptian weapon, the manufacturing techniques of the khopesh are thought to be Canaanite.
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During the First Dynasty of Babylon, Amurru is a popular god. Although he appears only on a handful of official god lists, he's also worshipped in Assyria, Nippur and Larsa.
Two temples exist in Babylon in his name. One is "the house which undoes guilt", or Enamtaggaduha on the east side of the city and Emesikil or "house of pure mes" to the west. A 'me' is the decree of a deity, usually regarding human behavior.
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Amurru is also worhipped in Assyria, as a divine guardian of oaths; in Assur, the Assyrian capital, he's given offerings at Enindabadua or "house where bread portions are baked". It's thought this is part of the main temple complex of goddess Gula.
Ashur, tutelary god of the Assyrians, and Amurru, are sometimes worshipped together. At the same time, Amurru's name begins to show up in West Semitic languages.
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He's the fourth most popular god attached to given names. The others are Bel (Marduk) hero god; Nabu, god of scribes, and Nanaya, goddess of erotic love.
It's probable he also has a cult center in Sealand at this time. A Sealand text mentions a scribe and priest from the temple of Amurru act as witnesses of legal proceedings between two citizens.
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The parents of Amurru are Anu, the oldest god and earth mother Urash. His consorts are Ashrtum or Adgarkidu, and possibly Geshtinanna. He has no known children.
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