I Gelb provides us with a valuable ancient cuneiform testimony that proves to be most important for our topic under study. In his book Hurrians and Subarians, in the chapter entitled Subarian Personal Names of the Ur III Period and the First Dynasty of Babylon, he lists a number of names that belonged to the Subarian people of the Ur III period, among which there is one particular personal name, Madatina (Madakina), by which the king of Armani was called in the time of Naram-Sin. Here are the names mentioned by Gelb:
…animals offered by Ki-ma-ni , Si-ni-ni, Ku-zu-zu, the messenger of Ba-ar-ba-ra-gi, Ad-da-bu-ni the messenger of Sheeb-ba, She-bi the messenger of Ra-shi, Ma-da-ti-na, and Bu-ul-ba-at and presumably by another man whose name is omitted, following by the term lu SU-me. … lu Su-me means “they are (or “who are”) SU” and evidently defines the preceding group as SU people.
This statement explicitly proves that Madatina as mentioned here was a man of Su(=Subari).
Examining one by one the Subarian names mentioned in this inscription, Gelb writes the following about Madatina:
…in a Hittite tale from Bogazkoy describing a war of Naram Sin against a coalition of seventeen kings a certain Ma-da-di!-na, king of Ar-ma-ni, is mentioned. All the scholars who have worked on this text have read the name of this king as Ma-da-ki-na, in spite of the fact that the copy by H. Figulla suggests the reading Ma-da-di-na instead.
The name Madatina (Madadina) occurs in the Resume of the chapter where Gelb offers a summary of the 29 Subarian names examined.
Here we wish to draw the particular attention of scholars who desire to study the national identity of Armani to this very important fact, that in the time of Naram-Sin, Madadina (Madakina), the king of Armani, had Subarian name, that is, he was a “man of Subari” and, consequently, he belonged to the Subarian and not the Semitic people.
In addition to this inscription that testifies to Madadina’s being Subarian, there is also the fact, that the ending -na of the name Madadina (Madakina) is not Semitic and it belongs to the series of Subarian-Mitannian-Nairian names of similar ending.
Compare the following personal names: Shuttarna (king of Mitanni), Erimena (king of Urartu/Ararat), Urzana ( king of Musasir), Hukkana (king of Hayasa), Datana (king of Hupashkia), Tilusina (king of Andia), Suna (Urartian/Araratian governor). This last name Su-na is interesting also because of its root su (=Subari).
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Armani and the Name of Her King
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