Gutian rule in Mesopotamia
The Gutian dynasty, also Kuti or Kutians (Sumerian: , gu-ti-um) was a dynasty that came to power in Mesopotamia "c." 2199—2119 BC , or possibly "c." 2135—2055 BC , after displacing the Akkadian Empire. It ruled for roughly one century; however, some copies of the "Sumerian King List" ("SKL") vary between 4 and 25 years. The end of the Gutian dynasty is marked by the accession of Ur-Nammu (founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, which "fl." "c." 2112 BC or 2055 BC ). The Gutian people (Guti) were native to "Gutium", presumably in the central Zagros  Mountains. History. The Gutians were described as part of the horde that toppled the kingdom of Akkad (or Agade). It was a conglomeration of tribes that descended from the Zagros Mountains, possibly drawn to the plains for its prosperity. The ancient Mesopotamians treated them as subnormal beings who were unwilling to conform to customs and laws of their civilization. Chronicles written around the end of the third millennium BC, for instance, described the Gutians as barbarians, having the intelligence of dogs and the appearance of monkeys while speaking a language similar to a confused babble. The Gutians practiced hit-and -run tactics, and would be long gone by the time regular troops could arrive to deal with the situation. Their raids crippled the economy of Sumer. Travel became unsafe, as did work in the fields, resulting in famine. The Sumerian king list indicates that king Ur-Utu of Uruk was defeated by the barbarian Guti, perhaps around 2150 BC. The Guti swept down, defeated the demoralized Akkadian army, took Akkad, and destroyed it around 2083 BC. However, they did not supplant all of Akkad, as several independent city-states remained alongside them, including Lagash, where a local dynasty still thrived  and left numerous textual and archaeological remains. The first Guti ruler was a nameless king. Ultimately Akkad was so thoroughly destroyed that its site is still not known. The Guti proved to be poor rulers. Under their crude rule, prosperity declined. They were too unaccustomed to the complexities of civilization to organize matters properly, particularly in connection with the canal network. This was allowed to sink into disrepair, with famine and death resulting. Thus, a short "dark age" swept over Mesopotamia. Akkad bore the brunt of this as the center of the Empire, so that it was in Akkad that  the Guti established their own center in place of the destroyed Akkad. Some of the Sumerian cities in the south took advantage of the distance and purchased a certain amount of self-government by paying tribute to the new rulers. Uruk was thus able to develop a fifth dynasty. Even in the city of Akkad itself, a local dynasty was said to have ruled. The best known Sumerian ruler of the Gutian period was the ensi of Lagash, Gudea. Under him, c. 2075 BC (short), Lagash had a golden age, and seemed to enjoy a high level of independence from  the Gutians. After a few kings, the Gutian rulers became more cultured. Guti rule lasted only about a century — around 2050 BC, they were expelled from Mesopotamia by a coalition of rulers of Uruk and Ur, when Utu-hengal of Uruk defeated Gutian king Tirigan: Utu-hengal's victory revived the political and economic life of southern Sumer. The year 11 of king Ur-Nammu also mentions "Year Gutium was destroyed". Weidner Chronicle. 1,500 years later, the Weidner Chronicle (ABC 19) accounts for the Gutian period as follows: There are scholars who state that the description of the Gutian rule  over parts of Mesopotamia was fiction or that it at least gave undue importance to the Guti horde. This is believed to be perpetuated by the chroniclers of Uruk to turn Utu-hegal's minor victory into an event of universal significance for the purpose of solidifying support for his emergent regime. This view is based on the varying accounts of the surviving manuscripts, with many of them in total disagreement as to the length of the king's reign and even the identities of the Guti kings. List of Gutian kings. According to the "SKL": Gutian kings on the  SKL. The listed reign lengths throughout much of the Gutian period are comparatively short and uniform: Section::::: Kurds and Gutian dynasty. The historical Guti have been regarded by many scholars as having contributed and proven to the ethnogenesis of the Kurds. In the abstract, Kurdish highland split up between today's Iran and Iraq is considered as the original settlement area of Guteans. Some sources even mention Gutium and Kurdistan interchangeably. For instance: “Under Cyrus the Great of Persia Gobryas I is counted as governor of Kurdistan (Kutium).” According to Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov, the Gutian language  was close to the Tocharian languages of the Indo-European family.