Samnuha or Samanuha was the tutelary deity of Shadikanni (Šadikanni; modern Tell 'Ağağa) in the lower Habur area.[1] It is generally accepted that he had Hurrian origin.[2] It is assumed that Šamanminuḫi, a god known from a treaty of Shattiwaza, is the same deity.[2][3] In this document, he occurs before "Teshub, lord of Washukanni," and after KASKAL.KUR.(RA).[4]
Bel-Eresh, a ruler of Shadikanni who was a contemporary of Ashur-resh-ishi I,[5] renovated the temple of Samanuha and a deity identified by Stephanie Dalley as Kubaba, the Hurrian goddess of Carchemish,[6] but whose name was actually spelled dGu-ba-ba.[2] Whether Gubaba, known also from the Assyrian Tākultu ritual, and Kubaba were the same deity is uncertain, and there are also proposals that this name refers to a masculine deity similar to either Nergal or Amurru.[7]
Many attestations of Samanuha come from neo-Assyrian sources.[2] He appears in an inscription of Ashurnasirpal II, where he is acknowledged as the personal god of the provincial governor Mushezib-Ninurta,[8] the son of a ruler of Shadikanni who bore the theophoric name Samanuha-shar-ilani.[2] He continued to be worshiped in Shadikanni at least until the ninth century BCE.[9] He is also attested as one of the Hurrian deities from Taite (originally a major Mitanni city[4]) in Tākultu, alongside Kumarbi and Nabarbi.[10]
Personal names attest that Samanuha continued to be worshiped at least until the Achaemenid period.[2]
