Maryannu Explained

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. Maryannu is a Hurrianized Indo-Aryan word, formed by adding Hurrian suffix -nni to Indo-Aryan root márya, meaning "(young) man"^[1] or a "young warrior".^[2] Philologist Martin West suggested that the name Meriones, a character in Homeric epic, is "identical" to maryannu.^[3] Thus, Mērionēs would be the Homeric Greek version of the term, reflected in pre-Mycenaean poetic verse as Mārionās.^[4]

The term is attested in the Amarna letters written by Haapi. The majority of the Maryannu had Semitic and Hurrian names.^{[5] [6]}

See also

• Bronze Age Collapse: changes in warfare

Further reading

• Abbas . Mohamed Raafat . The Maryannu in the Western Desert during the Ramesside Period . Abgadiyat . 8 . 1 . 2013 . 128–133 . 10.1163/22138609-90000015.
• Albright . W. F. . Mitannian maryannu, " chariot-warrior ", and the Canaanite and Egyptian Equivalents . Archiv für Orientforschung . 1930 . 6 . 217–221 . 41661828 .
• Book: O'Callaghan . R. T. . New Light on the Maryannu as 'Chariot Warrior' . Jahrbuch für kleinasiatische Forschung . 1951 . 309–324 . 55568033 .
• REVIV . H. . Some Comments on the Maryannu . Israel Exploration Journal . 1972 . 22 . 4 . 218–228 . 27925358 .

Notes and References

1. von Dassow, Eva, (2014). "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
2. Book: Drews . Robert. Robert Drews . The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East . 1994 . Princeton University Press . Princeton, NJ . 978-0-691-02951-1 . 59 . 22 July 2019.
3. Book: West, Martin L. . The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth . Oxford . Clarendon Press . 1997 . 612 . 0-19-815042-3.
4. Book: Teffeteller, Annette . Greek Athena and the Hittite Sungoddess of Arinna . Susan Deacy . Alexandra Villing . Athena in the Classical World . Leiden, The Netherlands . Brill . 2001 . 355 . 10.1163/9789004497290_022.
5. Drews, p. 155
6. Book: Watson . Janet . Khan . Geoffrey . The Semitic Languages An International Handbook . 2011 . De Gruyter . 9783110251586 .