Gutians

The Gutians were an ancient people associated with the Zagros Mountains who entered Mesopotamia during the Akkadian Empire’s decline and ruled parts of the region.

Zagros Mountains: A mountain range extending across western Iran and parts of neighboring countries. Ancient sources associate the Gutians with this region east of Mesopotamia.
Gudea: A ruler of Lagash known from inscriptions and statues, who governed in southern Mesopotamia around the twenty-second century BCE. His reign belongs to the period when Gutians held regional power.
Sargon of Akkad: The founder of the Akkadian Empire, who ruled Mesopotamia in the twenty-fourth century BCE. His empire’s eventual collapse created the political opening associated with Gutian expansion.
Akkadians: An ancient Semitic-speaking people who founded and inhabited the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia. They formed the imperial power whose decline enabled the Gutians’ rise.
Gutium: An ancient geographical name associated with the Gutians and the Zagros region. Mesopotamian texts used this name for the Gutians’ homeland or territory.
Utu-hengal: A king of Uruk credited in a Sumerian inscription with defeating the Gutians. His victory is presented as the turning point that ended Gutian rule.
Uruk: An ancient Sumerian city in southern Mesopotamia and a major center of early urban life. Utu-hengal’s city became the base for the campaign against the Gutians.
Sumerians: The people of ancient southern Mesopotamia who spoke Sumerian and built early city-states. Sumerian literary sources supply many later judgments about Gutian rule.
Sumerian King List: A Sumerian literary composition listing rulers and dynasties in a sequence of kingship. It preserves the tradition of Gutian rule between Akkadian and Ur III kings.
Tirigan: A king identified by the Sumerian King List as the last Gutian ruler. The list says Utu-hengal defeated him and captured him.

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Gutian rule in MesopotamiaBroader topic: Gutian rulers gave the period its name and occupied parts of the former Akkadian realm.