A Toponymic Research on Batir: An Ancient Name from Anubanini Reign in Sar Pol-e Zahab, Kermanshah

The city of Sar Pol-e Zahab is located in the western part of Kermanshah province close to the Iraqi border. Due to its geographical location it has played particularly an important role in the Iranian history since it has opened the gate entering the central Zagros and to the Iranian central plateau while as archaeological and historical records witnessed the region of Sar Pol-e Zahab targeted by Mesopotamians as for invading or trading through time. There have been two bas reliefs remained from Anubanini and Idin-Sin, which are located near the Sar Pol-e Zahab city, both historically are of significant. On the inscriptions engraved on both reliefs, those are referred to a name as Batir. Batir is a single mountain has more likely portraited on the Anubanini reliefs. This mountain, as a defensive wall divided the Sar Pol-e Zahab plain into the eastern and western parts. It is important to cite here that the name of Batir is not limited to the name of the mountain in Sar Pol-e Zahab, but the name is also mentioned by some texts obtained from Tel al-Salimeh, that is located in 75 km west of Sarpol-e Zahab, and near the Hamrin Lake, There have been tablets representing the city’s name as “Batir or Batiri” along with a manifestation of a temple was given to the goddess of Batiritum. The presence of two names, could give rise to the question of what relation might be between these two places? Can these two names refer to a single place? Is it possible that Batir could be a holy Mesopotamian name? It seems that, because of the importance of the land of Khelman / Helman (Sar pol-e Zahab) for the Mesopotamians the name of Batir was given by them to a city located near the Batir Mountain. In this paper we trid to provide a clear interpretation of this ancient name based on the texts obtained from Tel al-Salimeh, Anubanini and Idin-Sin inscriptions as well as other Mesopotamian texts. . 
Keywords: Batir, Sar Pol-e Zahab, Hamrin, Tal al-Salimeh, Khalman Land, Namri Land.
 
Introduction
Sarpol-e Zahab, located in the west of Central Zagros and Kermanshah province, is a border region between Zagros Mountains and Mesopotamian Plains. This region is known as the gateway to Asia by some Orientalists due to the strategic location and location along the main Khorasan highroad. The Alvand River passes through the Sar Pol-e Zahab plains, Hezar Gereh and Kal Gareh Mountains. In the late 19th century, De Morgan identified two rock reliefs on the both sides of a narrow strait for the first time. Both reliefs conveyed inscriptions which named by Herzfeld as Anubanini I and II (1976). Given the similarity of both images, Herzfeld introduces them to have been the Lulubian Kings. Sometimes later, there have been many challenges concerning the translation problems of these inscriptions as well as their artistic nature. In 1973, Edzard published a translation of Anubanini inscription, based on a photo provided by Leo Trumpelman. After that, Hrouda tried to decipher and clarify the so-called Anubanini inscription by commenting on according to a corrected text by which he assigned the inscriptions to be belonged to Idin-sin and pointed out that unlike Herzfeld belief these inscriptions were not made by Lulubian king, but by a Simurrum King known as Idin-sin. In 2000, Mofidi Nasrabadi was able to read two carved names on the body of two captives depicted on this relief. The most important point that can be understood from two inscriptions of the Anubanini and Idin-sin reliefs is that both pointed to a mountain was called as Batir, where the Anubanini reliefs have been created. The inscriptions show that the old name of the Hezar Gereh Mountain was also Batir, but there is no guaranty to ensure whether or not Kal Gareh Mountain was also called Batir. The proposed dates for this inscription may confirm its coincident with some texts of Isin Larsa period. Moreover, on the Lulubi and Simurrumian inscriptions located in Sar-e Pol-e Zahab and also on the Sargonic tablets which were found at Tel al-Salimeh, all pointed to a city name which was called Patir/Patiri so that it may suggest to speculate that Batir and Patir could be of the same origin and both more likely indicate a single city state.
Discussion
In addition, there has been an inscribed brick discovered from the region was dated back to the Old Babylonian period. In the text of this inscription it is referred to the great ruler who built the temple of the Batiritum goddess thus, the name of Batir has also seen from some texts of the Akkadians. By reviewing the above mentioned discussions some questions may be raised as what is the relationship between these two places? Could these two names refer to a single place? To some extent is it possible that the Mesopotamians intended to use Batir as the name of a scared place? Following ancient texts, the name of Bātir was firstly appeared on the Tal al-Salimeh tablets from Akkadian era on about 2250 BC. This name was then also seen in Ur III, period which reflects the Simurrum respect to the Batiritum goddess since the Batiritum goddess was supporter of the Simurrumians power in Batir. On the inscription of the Anubanini, Batir was used to name a mountain above which portrait of the goddess was presented and it is also mentioned in the latest text which probably reflects the worship of Batiritum in various places within the territorial boundaries of Khalman and Namri. According to inscriptions, the Simurrum of Khalman or of modern Sar Pol-e Zahab, defeated Lulubians at the end of the Ur III, as the Tel-al-Sib text may refer to this event. The event that Idin-Sin was able to conquer Lulubians. The domination of Idin-Sin on the land of Khalman resulted in creating a memorial rock relief with the image of Ishtar to indicate conquest on the city as well as temple of Batiritum. This victory were inscribed on the Simurrum relief representing Simurrumians respects and sacrifice to the goddess of Batiritum Batiritum is a local image of the goddess Ishtar, which on the both Anubanini and Idin-Sin relief it was depicted in the manner in which the power ring was offered.
 
Conclusion
In summary, what have been resulted from this research is that Batir was the name of place before the name of a mountain in Sar Pol-e Zahab. Further it was the name of a city in the land of Khalman near Batir Mountain where a temple was built for Batiritum goddess as for respecting her there have been made several similar temples like Simudar, Aval and Tel-al-Sib of Hamrin. The future studies would reveal more evidence to clarify various aspects of the issue that we tried to address here.