Magan

Magan was an ancient region which was referred to in Sumerian cuneiform texts of around 2300 BC as a source of copper and diorite for Mesopotamia.

The location of Magan is not known with certainty, but most of the archeological and geological evidence suggests that Magan was part of what is now Oman. [cite web |url=http://www.archaeology.org/9705/abstracts/magan.html |title=Digging in the Land of Magan |author=M. Redha Bhacker and Bernadette Bhacker |publisher=Archaeological Institute of America] However, some archaeologists place it in the region of Yemen known as Ma'in [F. Hommel, Ethnologie und Geographie des alten Orients, (Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft von W. Otto, III. Abtl. I, Teil, Bd. I, Munich 1926), 550, 578 ff.] , in the south of Upper Egypt, in Nubia or the Sudan, and others as part of today's Iran or Pakistan. [cite journal |url=http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198303/oman-the.lost.land.htm |title=Oman - The Lost Land |author=John Lawton |journal=Saudi Aramco World |pages=18-19 |issue=May/June 1983] Dr. Ranajit Pal holds that Oman and part of Iran was Magan. In his view king Manium of Magan who, according to Poebel, was also known as Mannu, was the famed Manu, the first sacrificer in the Indian sacred text Rigveda. The name Oman may, in fact, be a memory of Ooumi Manu, one of the several Manus. Dr. Pal also states that Magan is the ancient Magadha of the Indian texts. [Ranajit Pal, "Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander", New Delhi 2002, p.37.] The Indian texts name the Sishunaga and Kakavarna kings of Magadha who have no trace in the Patna area but in the Magan area kings named In-Susinak and Kak-siwe-Tempti etc are well known.

With the disappearance of trade from the Indus region, the copper from Magan was later replaced by copper imports from ancient Cyprus.

Trade was common between Magan and Ur before the reigns of the Gutian kings over Ur. After they were deposed, Urnammu of Ur restored the roads and trade resumed between the two nations (c. 2100 BC). [Hamblin, William J. "Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC". New York: Routledge, 2006.]

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