The
Mannaeans (country name usually
Mannea;
Akkadian:
Mannai, possibly Biblical
Minni, מנּי) were an ancient people who lived in the territory of present-day northwestern
Iran south of
lake Urmia, around the 10th to 7th centuries BC. At that time they were neighbors of the empires of
Assyria and
Urartu, as well as other small buffer states between the two, such as
Musasir and
Zikirta.