Akkadian Cylinder Seal with inscription Shu-ilishu, interpreter of Meluhhan language … The seal reads: ‘su-i-li-su / eme-bal me-luh-ha’, which translates as: ‘Su-ilisu –
Meluḫḫa (Me-luḫ-ḫaKI) is Sumerian name of a prominent trading partner of Sumer during Middle Bronze Age. Its identification remains an open question, but most scholars associate it with Indus Valley Civilisation. (Meluha is identified as Indus (India) by historians. Reference to Meluha go as far back as 2334 BC, in Akkadian inscriptions. Mention of Meluha disappeared with decline in trade).
Finnish scholars Asko and Simo Parpola identify Meluhha (earlier variant Me-lah-ha) from earlier Sumerian documents with Dravidian mel akam “high abode” or “high country”. Many items of trade such as wood, minerals, and gemstones were indeed extracted from the hilly regions near Indus settlements. They further claim that Meluhha is origin of sanskrit word Mleccha, meaning “barbarian, foreigner”. However Panjabi word Malah (sailor) is much closer to Meluhha. Malah has no root in Indo-European language family. Sailors from Panjab and Sindh area regularly travelled to Mesopotamia. It makes sense that country of Malahs would be called Meluhha, unlike English in Panjabi language both sound very similar.
Sumerian texts repeatedly refer to three important centers with which they traded: Magan, Dilmun, and Meluhha. Sumerian location of Magan is now accepted to be area currently encompassing UAE and Oman. Dilmun was a Persian Gulf civilization which traded with Mesopotamian civilizations, current scholarly consensus is that Dilmun encompassed Bahrain, Failaka Island and adjacent coast of Eastern Arabia in Persian Gulf.
In inscription, Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC) referred to ships coming from Meluhha, Magan and Dilmun. His grandson Naram-Sin (2254–2218 BC) listing rebel kings to his rule, mentioned “(..)ibra, man of Melukha”. In an inscription, Gudea of Lagash (21st Century BC) referred to Meluhhans who came to Sumer to sell gold dust, carnelian etc. In Gudea cylinders, Gudea mentions that:
“I will spread in the world respect for my Temple, under my name the whole universe will gather in it, and Magan and Meluhha will come down from their mountains to attend.”
– Inscription of cylinder A, IX:19
In cylinder B, XIV, he mentions his procurement of “blocks of lapis lazuli and bright carnelian from Meluhha”.
Meluhha is also mentioned in mythological legends such as Enki and Ninhursag:
“May the foreign land of Meluhha load precious desirable cornelian, perfect mes wood and beautiful aba wood into large ships for you”
– Enki and Ninhursag
There are no known mentions of Meluhha after 1760 BC.
In one of his inscriptions, Ibbi-Sin mentions that he received as a booty from Marhasi a Meluhha red dog:
“Ibbi-Sîn, god of his country, mighty king, king of Ur and king of four world quarters, his speckled Meluḫḫa ‘dog’, from Marḫaši brought by them as tribute, a replica of it he fashioned, and for his life he dedicated it to him (Nanna).”
– Meluhha dog inscription of Inni-Sin
Towards the end of Sumerian period, there are numerous mentions in inscriptions of a Meluhha settlement in southern Sumer near city-state of Girsu. Most of references seem to date to Akkadian Empire and especially Ur III period. Location of settlement has been tentatively identified with city of Guabba. References to “large boats” in Guabba suggests that it may have functioned as trading colony which initially had direct contact with Meluhha. It seems that direct trade with Meluhha subsided during Ur III period and was replaced by trade with Dilmun, corresponding to end of urban systems in Indus Valley around that time.
Several Indus seals with Harappan script have been found in Mesopotamia. Various figurines of exotic animals in gold or carnelian are thought to have been imported from Meluhha. Many such statuettes have been found in Mesopotamian excavations. Carnelian statuette of an Asian monkey was found in excavation of Acropolis of Susa, dated 2340–2100 BC. Specific items of high volume trade are timber and specialty wood such as ebony, for large ships. Luxury items also appear, such as lapis lazuli mined at Harappan colony at Shortugai (Badakhshan), Afghanistan.
In Assyrian and Hellenistic eras, cuneiform texts continued to use (revive) old place names, giving a perhaps artificial sense of continuity between contemporary events and events of the distant past. Media is referred to as “land of the Gutians”, a people who had been prominent around 2000 BC. Meluhha also appears in these texts, in contexts suggesting that “Meluhha” and “Magan” were kingdoms adjacent to Egypt. In Rassam cylinder, Ashurbanipal writes about his first march against Egypt: “In my first campaign I marched against Magan and Meluhha, and Taharqa, king of Musur (Egypt) and Kûsu (Kingdom of Kush, ie Nubia) whom Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, father who begot me, had defeated, and whose land he brought under his sway.” In this context, “Magan” has been interpreted as Muṣur (ancient name of Egypt) and “Meluhha” as “Meroe” (capital of Nubia).
In Hellenistic period, term was used archaically to refer to Ptolemaic Egypt, as in an account of a festival celebrating conclusion of 6th Syrian War or in reference to campaigns of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Egypt (Antiochus King marched triumphantly through cities of Meluhha). These references do not necessarily mean that early references to Meluhha also referred to Egypt. Direct contacts between Sumer and Indus Valley had ceased even during Mature Harappan phase when Oman and Bahrain (Magan and Dilmun) became intermediaries. After sack of Ur by Elamites and subsequent invasions in Sumer, its trade and contacts shifted west and Meluhha passed almost into mythological memory. Resurfacing of name could simply reflect cultural memory of rich and distant land, its use in records of Achaemenid and Seleucid military expeditions serving to aggrandize those kings. This kind of re-attribution of archaic geographical terms was a regular occurrence during 1st Millennium BC
