Mannaea (, sometimes written as Mannea; Akkadian: Mannai, Biblical Hebrew: Minni, (מנּי)) was an ancient kingdom located in northwestern Iran, south of Lake Urmia, around the 10th to 7th centuries BC. It neighbored Assyria and Urartu, as well as other small buffer states between the two, such as Musasir and Zikirta. Etymology of name The name of Mannaea and its earliest recorded ruler Udaki were first mentioned in an inscription from the 30th year of the rule of Shalmaneser III (828 BC). The Assyrians usually called Manna the "land of the Mannites", Manash, while the Urartians called it the land of Manna. Describing the march of Salmanasar III in the 16th year (843 BC), it was reported that the king reached the land of Munna, occupying the interior of Zamua. However, the chronicle does not mention any march or taxation on the state of Mannaea. It is possible that the Assyrians either failed to conquer Mannaea, or advanced only to the border of Mannaea, and then changed course and marched on the neighboring country of Allarabia. In the Bible (Jeremiah 51:27), Mannaea is called "Minni", and is mentioned with Ararat and Ashkenaz as some of the future destroyers of neo-Babylon. The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), identified Minni with Armenia: It can also relate to one of the regions of ancient Armenia, such as Manavasean (Minyas). Together with Ararat and Ashkenaz, this is probably the same Minni from the Assyrian inscriptions, corresponding to Mannea. The name "Armenia" has been theorized by some scholars as possibly deriving from "ḪAR Minni," meaning, the “mountains of Minni.” According to examinations of the place and personal names found in Assyrian and Urartian texts, the Mannaeans, or at least their rulers, spoke a non-Semitic and non-Indo-European language related to Urartian, with no modern language connections. Location Their kingdom was situated east and south of the Lake Urmia. Excavations that began in 1956 succeeded in uncovering Ziwiyeh and its branches the fortified city of Hasanlu, once thought to be a potential Mannaean site. More recently, another branch of Ziwiyeh, the site of Qalaichi has been linked to the Mannaeans based on a stela with this toponym found at the site. After suffering several defeats at the hands of both Scythians and Assyrians, the remnants of the Mannaean populace were absorbed by the Matieni and the area became known as Matiene. It was then annexed by the Medes in