Suteans
Suteans
Semitic people who lived throughout the Levant and Canaan c. 1350 BC
The Suteans (Akkadian: Sutī’ū, possibly from Amorite: Šetī’u[1]) were a nomadic Semitic people[2] who lived throughout the Levant, Canaan and Mesopotamia, specifically in the region of Suhum, during the Old Babylonian period. They were famous in Semitic epic poetry for being fierce nomadic warriors, and like the ʿApiru, traditionally worked as mercenaries.[3][4] Unlike Amorites, the Suteans were not governed by a king.[5] They may have been part of the Ahlamu.[5] Hypotheses regarding their identity variously identify them as Arameans, proto-Arabs or a unique Semitic people.[5]
During the reign of Zimri-Lim (c. 1775–1761), they inhabited the vicinity of Terqa (modern-day Tell Ashara, Syria).[5] They are mentioned in eight of the 382 Amarna letters. They are listed in documents from the Middle Assyrian Empire (1395-1075 BC) as being extant in the Amorite city of Emar, in what is now northeast Syria. Together with the Chaldeans and Arameans, they overran swaths of southern Mesopotamia c. 1100–900 BC.[6][7]