Northern Birecik (Southeastern Turkey) during the Middle Bronze Age. The Kingdoms of Uršu and Mamma in the Old Assyrian route during Kultepe Ib

The Uršu kingdom is one of the outstanding archaeological questions in the Middle Bronze Age I-II of the Middle-Upper Euphrates region, which connects with the Abarsal problem, more typical of the EB III/IV period in the same area. The Uršu (Ur-šu) kingdom, cited in Ur III texts as an important kingdom, is located in Samsat Höyük, Kazane Höyük, and traditionally in the Gaziantep area, on the right bank of the river. That is, it is located within a 40-50 km stretch around the middle Euphrates, from Carchemish to further north. Right in the middle lies the pass between Tilbes and Zeugma, where theories suggest there were two cities along the Anatolian route on either bank: Abrum on the left bank and Zaqaria (Zuqarru). The point about Kazane Höyük is that this site is associated with both Uršu and Abarsal, as well as the Amorite leader Shamshi-Adad (c. 1808-1776 BC), who is thought to have conquered the area sometime during the Middle Bronze Age (MB). Materials from MB I and MB II north of Birecik modern town (in special two cylinder seals found at Tilbes Höyük) do provide evidence of a link with the caravan route and its possible connection with the kingdom of Uršu and specially the kingdom of Mamma, and suggest the hypothesis that Tilbes Höyük was a wabartum during Kultepe Ib. The occupation of Tilbes Hoyuk during the Middle Bronze Age appears to be long-lasting, but it is interrupted before the Late Bronze Age, with no occupation until an early period of the Achaemenid presence in the region, during the Late Iron Age. One of the seals from Tilbes Höyük is anepigraphic and could well date between 19th and early 17th centuries BC, connected to the karum of Kultepe, due to its style, and therefore prior to the time of Shamshi-Adad I. The other seal bears an inscription with Middle Babylonian ductus, characteristic of a period after the disappearance of Shamshi-Adad, that is, between the mid-18th and 17th centuries BC, and characteristic of a Middle Bronze II context