HURRIANS

HURRIANS
   A people originating from the south Caucasus region who settled along the northeastern borders of Mesopotamia and southern Anatolia in the last quarter of the third millennium B.C. Their language is not related to any of the other known groups of languages. It was agglutinative, which means that chains of suffixes and infixes were added to generally monosyllabic stem words to create meaning. It is not well known, since only relatively few texts were rendered in a cuneiform system of writing, either in Hittite or Mesopotamian contexts.
   Hurrian personal names were already recorded in the texts from the Akkad period, and Hurrians were present in all parts of the Near East for most of the second and first millennia, especially in southeast Anatolia, northern Mesopotamia, and eastern Iran. They achieved the greatest political importance between 1500 and 1200, within the framework of a kingdom called Mitanni where an IndoEuropean elite exercised political control. After the demise of Mitanni, smaller Hurrian principalities survived for a while in Upper Mesopotamia.
   Hurrian influence was particularly strong in religious matters. They are also thought to have brought various Mesopotamian ritual practices to the Hittite realm, where Hurrian magicians enjoyed high esteem. Most of the information concerning their social practices and legal norms comes from archives discovered at the site of the city of Nuzi.

Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia. . 2012.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Hurrians —    A Mesopotamian people who seem to have come from the Caucasus region lying west of the Caspian Sea. Based on linguistic studies and other evidence, some scholars think that they may have been related to the Aryan peoples who eventually settled …   Ancient Mesopotamia dictioary

  • Hurrians — The Hurrians (also Khurrites; [http://www.bartleby.com/65/hi/Hittites.html Hittites] on Bartleby.] cuneiform Ḫu ur ri unicode| …   Wikipedia

  • Hurrians — see Hyksos, Mitanni, Tushratta. Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Rosalie and Antony E. David …   Ancient Egypt

  • HURRIAN — The term Hurrian denotes a language of the ancient Near East and the people who spoke it. The core area inhabited by Hurrian speaking people was the region of the upper Ñabur and Tigris Rivers, together with the piedmont beyond, extending into… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Mesopotamia, history of — ▪ historical region, Asia Introduction  history of the region in southwestern Asia where the world s earliest civilization developed. The name comes from a Greek word meaning “between rivers,” referring to the land between the Tigris and… …   Universalium

  • The Gentle Vultures — Infobox Short story name = The Gentle Vultures title orig = translator = author = Isaac Asimov country = United States language = English series = genre = Science fiction short story publication type = Periodical published in = Super Science… …   Wikipedia

  • Mitanni — Map of the near east circa 1400 BCE showing the Kingdom of Mitanni at its greatest extent Ancient Mesopotamia …   Wikipedia

  • Nuzi — Mesopotamia in 2nd millennium BC Coordinates …   Wikipedia

  • Nakh peoples — Vainakhs on a wedding 1870 1886 …   Wikipedia

  • History of Chechnya — The History of Chechnya refers to the history of Chechens, Chechnya, and the land of Ichkeria. Chechen society has traditionally been organized around many autonomous local clans, called taips. The traditional Chechen saying goes that the members …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”