The Hurrians () ;also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri) were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria, upper Mesopotamia and southeastern Anatolia.
The Hurrians were first documented in the city of Urkesh, where they built their first kingdom. The largest and most influential Hurrian kingdom was Mitanni. The population of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia included a large population of Hurrians, and there is significant Hurrian influence in Hittite mythology.[H. A. Hoffner, Jr., ed]H. A. Hoffner, Jr., ed, "Perspectives on Hittite Civilization: Selected Writings of Hans G. Güterbock.", Assyriological Studies 26 Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1997 By the Early Iron Age, the Hurrians had been assimilated with other peoples. The state of Urartu later covered some of the same area. Gelb, Ignace J., "Hurrians and Subarians", Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization No. 22. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944 A related people to the Hurrians are the Urarteans.
History
Origins The Hurrians are believed by some historians to have originated in the Armenian highlands or the Caucasus, from where they later migrated southward into the Fertile Crescent. The spread of Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry may thus be associated with the movements of Hurrian-speaking populations during the fourth and third millennia BC.
Several scholars have proposed that populations associated with the Kura-Araxes culture were ancestral to the Hurrians. Historian Ronald Grigor Suny states that Transcaucasia and eastern Anatolia were inhabited during the fourth millennium BC by a population that was probably ethnically related to the Hurrians. The archaeological culture associated with this population was referred to as the "Early Transcaucasian culture" by British scholars and as the "Kura-Araxes culture" by Soviet historians. Charles A. Burney similarly argues that the Hurrians, whose homeland he places in the highlands, left behind the Early Trans-Caucasian culture as they irrupted into the surrounding regions. He maintains that no theory suggesting that the Hurrians passed through the highlands without leaving any trace of themselves can withstand scrutiny, despite the possibility for nomads to leave little to no evidence of their passing.
Other scholars have suggested that the Hurrians were aborigines of Mesopotamia, and connected the prehistoric Tell Halaf () or Samarra cultures () with the Proto-Hurrian population to which, according to this theory, the Subarians originally belonged. H. W. F. Saggs also suggested that the Hurrians could have been native to northern Mesopotamia. Igor M. Diakonoff, on the contrary, claimed it is more likely that the Hurrians were newcomers who migrated into Syria and Mesopotamia during the third millennium BC.
Trevor Bryce notes that, although some scholars identify the Kura-Araxes region of Transcaucasia or eastern Anatolia as the original homeland of the Hurrians, their precise homeland remains uncertain.
Early Bronze Age
The Khabur River valley, located in modern-day Syria and Turkey, became the heart of the Hurrian lands for a millennium.Steinkeller P., "The historical background of Urkesh and the Hurrian beginnings in northern Mesopotamia", In: Buccellati G, Kelly-Buccellati M, eds. Mozan 3: Urkesh and the Hurrians Studies in Honor of Lloyd Cotsen. Malibu: Undena Publications, pp. 75–98, 1998 The first known Hurrian kingdom emerged around the city of Urkesh (modern Tell Mozan) during the third millennium BC.Maiocchi, Massimo, "A Hurrian Administrative Tablet from Third Millennium Urkesh", vol. 101, no. 2, pp. 191-203, 2011 There is evidence that they were initially allied with the Akkadian Empire of Mesopotamia, indicating they had a firm hold on the area by the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2254–2218 BC). A king of Urkesh with the Hurrian name Tupkish had a queen with the name Uqnitum, Akkadian for "girl of lapis lazuli".Lawler, Andrew, "Who Were the Hurrians?", Archaeology, vol. 61, no. 4, pp. 46–52, 2008 By the Third Dynasty of Ur, Hurrian presence extended from the Zagros mountains to Tur Abdin, and from Subartu towards Ebla. This extensive presence had a major impact on both the political and cultural life in upper Mesopotamia.
Middle Bronze Age Hurrian names occur sporadically in northwestern Mesopotamia and the area of Kirkuk in modern Iraq by the Middle Bronze Age. Their presence was attested at Nuzi, Urkesh and other sites. They eventually occupied a broad arc of fertile farmland stretching from the Khabur River valley in the west to the foothills of the Zagros Mountains in the east. By this point, during the Old Babylonian period in the early second millennium BC, the Amorite kingdom of Mari to the south had subdued Urkesh and made it a vassal state.Kupper, J.-R., "Lettres royales du temps de Zimri-Lim", Archives royales de Mari 28, Paris, 1998 Urkesh later became a Mitanni religious center. Kelly-Buccellati, Marilyn. "The Urkesh Mittani Horizon: Ceramic Evidence." talugaeš witteš (2020): 237-256
The Hurrians also migrated further west in this period. By 1725 BC, they are found also in parts of northern Syria, such as Alalakh. The mixed Amorite–Hurrian kingdom of Yamhad is recorded as struggling for this area with the early Hittite king Hattusilis I around 1600 BC.Hamblin, William J., "Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC", Routledge, 2006 Hurrians also settled in the coastal region of Adaniya in the country of Kizzuwatna, southern Anatolia. Yamhad eventually weakened vis-a-vis the powerful Hittites, but this also opened Anatolia for Hurrian cultural influences. The Hittites were influenced by both the Hurrian cultures over the course of several centuries.
The city of Shibaniba (Tell Billa) may have also played an important role at that time. Possible Hurrian occupation was identified at Tell Billa during the middle of the second millennium BC. In 2022, Tell Billa was proposed as the possible site of the city of Šimānum (possibly known as Asimānum during the Akkadian Empire). Šimānum was important during the Ur III period (ca 2100 BC).Edmonds, Alexander Johannes, and Petra M. Creamer, "More to Tell About Billa!", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1515/za-2022-0011 p.44
Late Bronze Age
The Hurrians who entered northern Syria at the end of the 17th century BC were responsible for bringing important political, strategic and cultural changes to the population in the region, eventually establishing feudal states led by a chariot-warrior aristocracy. The Mitanni Empire was a strong regional power established by the Hurrians, and was limited by the Hittites to the north, Egyptians to the southwest, Kassites to the southeast and, later, by the Assyrians to the east. At its maximum extent, Mitanni ranged as far as west as Kizzuwatna by the Taurus mountains, Tunip in the south, Arraphe in the east, and north to Lake Van. Their sphere of influence is shown in the spread of Hurrian place names and personal names.von Dassow, Eva, (2022). "Mittani and Its Empire", in Karen Radner, Nadine Moeller, D. T. Potts (eds.), The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, Volume III: From the Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BC, Oxford University Press, pp. 467, 469. Eventually, after an internal succession crisis, Mitanni fell to the Hittites, later to fall under the control of the Assyrians.Pruzsinszky, Regine. "Emar and the Transition from Hurrian to Hittite Power". Representations of Political Power: Case Histories from Times of Change and Dissolving Order in the Ancient Near East, edited by Marlies Heinz and Marian H. Feldman, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2021, pp. 21-38Devecchi, Elena. “Details That Make the Difference: The Akkadian Manuscripts of the ‘Šattiwaza Treaties.’” Die Welt Des Orients, vol. 48, no. 1, 2018, pp. 72–95 The Hurrians of Syria would continue to migrate even further, reaching as far south as Palestine.
The Hurrian entity of Mitanni, which first rose to power before 1550 BC,Barjamovic, Gojko, (2012). "Mesopotamian Empires", in: P.F. Bang, and W. Scheidel (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Ancient State in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean, Oxford University Press, p. 125: "...The Mitanni empire covered northern and western Syria and northern Iraq (ca. 1600-1340 BCE) but succumbed to internal strife and the pressure of an expanding Assyrian empire..."Barjamovic, Gojko, (2020). "The Empires of Western Asia and the Assyrian World Empire", in: The Oxford World History of Empire: Volume Two: The History of Empires, Oxford University Press, p. 76: "After 1600 BCE the area between Iran and Egypt was united into a dynamic regional system of empires, Mitanni covered northern and western Syria and northern Iraq circa 1550-1340 BCE..." was first mentioned in the records of Egyptian pharaohs Thutmose I (1506–1493 BC) and Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC), the later most notably associated with the Battle of Megiddo in that pharaoh's 22nd regnal year.Redford, Donald B. “A Gate Inscription from Karnak and Egyptian Involvement in Western Asia during the Early 18th Dynasty.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 99, no. 2, 1979, pp. 270–87His memoir was published by L. Borchardt, "Altägyptische Zeitmessung" in E. von Basserman-Jordan, Die Geschichte der Zeitmessung und der Ühre, vol. I. (Berlin/Leipzig) 1930, pp 60ff, noted in Astour 1972:104, notes 25,26. Most of the time, Egyptians referred to the kingdom as Naharin. Later, Mitanni and Hanigalbat (the Assyrian name for Mitanni) are mentioned in the Amarna Letters during the time of Pharaoh Akhenaten (1353–1336 BC). Domestically, Mitanni records have been found at a number of places in the region, including several Hittite sites as well as Tell Bazi, Alalakh, Nuzi, Mardaman, Kemune, and Müslümantepe among others.Ay, Eyyüp, (2021). "A Hurrian-Mitanni Temple in Müslümantepe in The Upper Tigris and New Findings", in Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, April 27, 2021.A. Otto, "The Late Bronze Age Pottery of the Weststadt of Tall Bazi (North Syria)", in: M. Luciani, A. Hausleitner (Eds.), Recent Trends in the Study of Late Bronze Age Ceramics in Syro-Mesopotamia and Neighbouring Regions. Proceedings of the International Workshop in Berlin, 2 – 5 November 2006, OrA 32, Rahden/Westf., pp. 85-117, 2014
Another major center of Hurrian influence was the kingdom of Arrapha. Excavations at Yorgan Tepe, ancient Nuzi, proved this to be one of the most important sites for our knowledge about the Hurrians. Hurrian kings such as Ithi-Teshup and Ithiya ruled over Arrapha, yet by the mid-fifteenth century BC they had become vassals of the Great King of Mitanni.Speiser, E. A., "Notes to Recently Published Nuzi Texts", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 432–43, 1935
Urartu At the end of the second millennium BC, the Urartians around Lake Van and Mount Ararat rose in power forming the Kingdom of Urartu. During the 11th and 10th centuries BC, the kingdom eventually encompassed a region stretching from the Caucasus Mountains in the north, to the borders of northern Assyria and northern Ancient Iran in the south, and controlled much of eastern Anatolia. Some scientists consider Urartu to be a re-consolidation of earlier Hurrian populations mainly due to linguistic factors, but this view is not universally held.Benedict, Warren C., "Urartians and Hurrians", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 100–04, 1960
Shubaru/Shubria