Of the tribes which he overran and conquered on this
occasion the most important was the Kuti, who probably dwelt in the
districts to the east of the Lower Zab. They were a turbulent race and
they had already been conquered by Arik-den-ilu and Adad-nirari I, but
on neither occasion had they been completely subdued, and they had soon
regained their independence. Their subjugation by Tukulti-Ninib was
a necessary preliminary to any conquest in the south, and we can well
understand why it was undertaken by the king at the beginning of his
reign. Other conquests which were also made in the same region were the
Ukumani and the lands of Elkhu-nia, Sharnida, and Mekhri, mountainous
districts which probably lay to the north of the Lower Zab. The country
of Mekhri took its name from the mekhru-tree, a kind of pine or fir,
which grew there in abundance upon the mountainsides, and was highly
esteemed by the Assyrian kings as affording excellent wood for building
purposes. At a later period Ashur-nasir-pal invaded the country in the
course of his campaigns and brought back beams of mekhru-wood, which he
used in the construction of the temple dedicated to the goddess Ishtar
in Nineveh.
The second group of tribes and districts enumerated by Tukulti-Ninib as
having been subdued in his early years, before his conquest of Babylon,
all lay probably to the northwest of Assyria.
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