Maryannu

{{Short description|Caste of Near Eastern warrior nobility in the Bronze Age}} right|thumb|450px|Possible Maryannu from the Tomb of Userhet The '''Maryannu''' were a caste of chariot-mounted hereditary warrior nobility that existed in many of the societies of the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age, in particular between 1700 and 1200 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Boyce |first=M. |title=Priests, cattle and men |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |date=1987 |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=508–526 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00039483 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/priests-cattle-and-men/655321A8F2C7A907740BB43223D2774B |access-date=July 14, 2025 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''Maryannu'' is a Hurrianized Indo-Aryan word, formed by adding the Hurrian suffix ''-nni'' to the Indo-Aryan root ''márya'', meaning "(young) man"<ref name="Dassow2014">von Dassow, Eva, (2014). "[https://www.academia.edu/7479998/Levantine_Polities_under_Mittanian_Hegemony Levantine Polities under Mittanian Hegemony]". In: Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Nicole Brisch and Jesper Eidem (eds.). ''Constituent, Confederate, and Conquered Space: The Emergence of the Mittani State'', p. 27</ref> or a "young warrior".<ref name="Drews">{{cite book |last1=Drews |first1=Robert|author-link=Robert Drews |title=The Coming of theGreeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East |date=1994 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0-691-02951-1 |page=59 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fcVIcaJxgdUC&q=new+light+on+the+maryannu+as+chariot-warriors&pg=PA59 |accessdate=22 July 2019}}</ref> Philologist Martin West suggested that the name ''Meriones'', a character in Homeric epic, is "identical" to ''maryannu''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=West |first=Martin L. |title=The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1997 |page=612 |isbn=0-19-815042-3}}</ref> Thus, ''Mērionēs'' would be the Homeric Greek version of the term, reflected in pre-Mycenaean poetic verse as ''Mārionās''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Teffeteller |first=Annette |chapter=Greek Athena and the Hittite Sungoddess of Arinna |editor1=Susan Deacy |editor2=Alexandra Villing |title=Athena in the Classical World |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |publisher=Brill |date=2001 |page=355 |doi=10.1163/9789004497290_022}}</ref>

The term is attested in the Amarna letters written by Haapi. The majority of the Maryannu had Semitic and Hurrian names.<ref>Drews, p. 155</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Janet |last2=Khan |first2=Geoffrey |title=The Semitic Languages An International Handbook |date=2011 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=9783110251586 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMzgBLT87MkC}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Asia}} * Late Bronze Age collapse: Warfare * Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== {{refbegin}} * {{Cite journal |last=Abbas |first=Mohamed Raafat |title=The Maryannu in the Western Desert during the Ramesside Period |journal=Abgadiyat |volume=8 |issue=1 |date=2013 |pages=128–133 |doi=10.1163/22138609-90000015}} * {{cite journal |last1=Albright |first1=W. F. |title=Mitannian maryannu, " chariot-warrior ", and the Canaanite and Egyptian Equivalents |journal=Archiv für Orientforschung |date=1930 |volume=6 |pages=217–221 |jstor=41661828 }} * {{cite book |last1=O'Callaghan |first1=R. T. |chapter=New Light on the Maryannu as 'Chariot Warrior' |title=Jahrbuch für kleinasiatische Forschung |year=1951 |pages=309–324 |oclc=55568033 }} * {{cite journal |last1=REVIV |first1=H. |title=Some Comments on the Maryannu |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |date=1972 |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=218–228 |jstor=27925358 }} {{refend}}

Category:Amarna letters Category:Indo-Aryan peoples Category:Mitanni Category:Ancient warfare