A New Suggestion on the Location of Tukrish Based on the Mesopotamian Inscriptions

Simultaneously with the formation of class societies and civilizations in Mesopotamia, there was an increasing need for various sources. The civilizations in the Mesopotamian Plain, due to their limited and in some cases the lack of such sources, were forced to establish extensive connections with another areas. Tukrish is one of the areas that has been considered by the Mesopotamians in this regard. In Most of the researches that have been done on the approximate location of Tukrish, scattered references to this area in the inscriptions, have led researchers to consider only a few limited inscriptions for the final conclusion. In addition, there is an imbalance in the investigation of inscriptions and ancient works, among the researches related to Tukrish. For these reasons, various ancient areas and cultures have been proposed for this toponymy. In this research, an attempt has been made to investigate about the inscriptions related to Tukrish, ancient mining and trade routes, in order to suggest the most suitable area for it. In the Mesopotamian inscriptions, Tukrish is introduced as a mountainous land, with a political system of princely settlements, with various mines and as a commercial intermediary. Tukrish is first attested in Ur III period. According to archaeological findings, a lapis lazuli and tin trade route was formed in the north of the Iranian plateau in the Ur III period. According to the available evidence, Tukrish was located somewhere on this trade route, in the northwest on Iran and the east of Assyria. According to the mentioned mines for Tukrish, its more precise location can be considered as the boundary between the two mining axes of Astana-Sarband and Takab-Dashkasen. This placement guarantees access to gold, silver and tin mines in the Sanandaj-Sirjan orogenic axis, especially Takab and Shazand mines, which have many ancient mining artifacts.