
The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East, who apparently originated in the Caucasus and entered Mesopotamia from the north approximately 2500 BC. Their known homeland was centred in the Khabur River valley, and later they established themselves as rulers of small kingdoms throughout northern Mesopotamia and Syria. The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni, which lasted from ca. 1450 BC until its destruction by Assyria in ca. 1270 BC. ==History== Like most aspects of Hurrian society, their origins are still a mystery. The Hurrians spoke an agglutinative language, conventionally called Hurrian language, unrelated to neighboring Semitic languages or Indo-European languages languages, but clearly related to Urartian language — a language spoken about a millennium later in northeastern Anatolia — and possibly, very distantly, to the present-day Northeast Caucasian languages. By about 2400 BC, the Hurrians had expanded, perhaps southward from the Zagros Mountains, or from the highlands of Anatolia. In the following centuries, Hurrian names occur sporadically in northern Mesopotamia and the area of Kirkuk in modern Iraq. Their presence was attested at Nuzi, Urkesh and other sites. They eventually infiltrated and occupied a broad arc of fertile farmland stretching from the Khabur River valley to the foothills of the Zagros. Around 1775 BC, in the reign of Hammurabi, Hurrians are recorded as entering the Babylonian Empire in the region of Chagar Bazar. By 1725 BC they are found also in parts of northern Syria, such as Alalakh. The Hurrian city-state of Yamkhad (Aleppo) is recorded as struggling for this area with the early Hittite king Hattusilis I around 1650 BC; and around 1590 BC, Hurrians seized the coastal region of Adaniya from the Hittites and renamed it Kizzuwadna (later known as Cilicia). The Hurrian states apparently became a more politically prominent after being dominated by an elite of foreign rulers. These foreigners spoke either Avestan, Vedic Sanskrit, or a closely-related precursor of those languages from Central Asia. They cremated their dead, and introduced the use of the horse and chariot in the battlefield — a situation that has obvious similarities to the events in northern India at about the same time. While this foreign aristocracy eventually abandoned their language in favor of those of their Hurrian subjects, they retained Indo-European names, complete with references to Vedic gods. Under these "foreign" rulers, the Hurrians expanded considerably towards the south and west. There was no single Hurrian Empire, but by 1540 BC-1520 BC a number of Hurrian-dominated states had been established in northern Mesopotamia, centered on the upper Tigris River to the north of Assyria. By 1530 BC the state of Mitanni, still with a mostly-Hurrian population and foreign-named aristocracy, was founded between the Euphrates and Balikh rivers with its capital at Washshukanni (thought to have been in northern Syria). Mitanni rapidly became the centre of Hurrian power and culture, and soon dominated central Mesopotamia and the Upper Tigris, including Assyria. Following pressures from Hittites and other Anatolians, this kingdom collapsed and fell to Assyria around 1270 BC. The Hurrian population of Syria in the following century seems to have begun speaking a dialect of Assyrian Akkadian language that developed into Aramaic. Interestingly enough, it is around this same time that an aristocracy speaking Urartian, similar to old Hurrian, seems to have first imposed itself on the native Indo-European speaking population around lake Van, and formed the Kingdom of Urartu - much as the Indo-European Mitanni, probably also from the Van region, had apparently done to the Hurrians centuries earlier. Archaeological knowledge of the Hurrians is still fairly scanty, relying mostly on cuneiform tablets from Hattusas, the capital of the Hittites, whose civilisation was greatly influenced by the Hurrians. Thousands more Hurrian tablets have been found at Nuzi, Hattusa, Ras Shamra, and Alalakh. I. J. Gelb & E. A. Speiser believed Subarians had been the linguistic and ethnic substratum of northern Mesopotamia since earliest times, while Hurrians were merely late arrivals. ==Material culture== The Hurrians were masterful ceramists; their pottery is a common find in Mesopotamia and in the lands west of the Euphrates, and was appreciated in distant Egypt, by the time of the New Kingdom. ==Impact== Hurrian speakers formed the majority population of the kingdom of Mitanni, though they appear to have been governed by a class of foreign nobility. Their literature had a deep influence on the Hittites, and the Indo-European Hittite language exhibits many Hurrian loanwords, including most of the religious vocabulary. Two episodes from Hesiod's Theogony may be derived from Hurrian myths: the castration of Uranus (mythology) by Cronus may be derived from the castration of Anu by Kumarbi, while Zeus's overthrow of Cronus and Cronus's regurgitation of the swallowed gods is like the Hurrian myth of Teshub and Kumarbi. ==Connections and origin theories== It is believed by some scholars that the Hurrians mixed with their neighbors, such as the Armenians after arriving in the Caucasus around 2700 BC from an unknown place. Another theory is that the Armenians came to the Caucasus with the Hurrans from the Indo-European homeland. Tolstov identified the Hurrians as the founders of Khwarezmia, which he explained as meaning ''Hurri-Land''. Bible scholars often identify them as the biblical Horites, Hivites and Jebusites, though there is little factual basis for such a connection. Ironically, there is much more evidence for the Hurrian origin of Biblical Hebrew culture (but not the Hebrew language) which is otherwise at odds with its linguistically related Canaanite surroundings. Several other ancient peoples of the region, including the Kesedim, Subarians, Gutians, Kassites and Lullubi have all been described at one time or another as Hurrian peoples. Recently (and especially after the discovery of the Tikunani Prism) there has been growing support for the theory that the Habiru, who were for a time believed to be the ancient Hebrews, may have been a Hurrian people, too. ==See also== * Mitanni. * Horites. * Kassites. * Tikunani Prism. ==Notes== Güterbock, Hans Gustav: "Hittite Religion"; in ''Forgotten Religions: Including Some Living Primitive Religions'' (ed. Vergilius Ferm) (NY, Philosophical Library, 1950), pp. 88–89, 103–104 == Books == *Ignace J. Gelb, 1944, Hurrians and Subarians, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization No. 22, Illinois, University of Chicago Press. == External links == * [http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/pies/pdfs/IESV/1/VVI_Horse.pdf Vyacheslav V. Ivanov, "Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian"] discusses the difficulties and disagreements faced by linguists working in this area, the term Alarodian being created especially for the Hurro-Urartian-Nakh-Avar languages as a family. * [http://www.lib.washington.edu/NearEast/hurrlang.html A bibliography on Hurrian] * [http://www.lib.washington.edu/NearEast/urartlang.html A bibliography on Urartian] * [http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Hurrian_Kingdom_of_Mitanni.html The Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni] Ancient peoples Middle East Eurasian nomads Mitanni Syrian history
(( ''The following was copied from the Talk:Hurrian page. User:Jorge Stolfi 14:49, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)'' )) ''They spoke an agglutinative language unrelated to neighboring Semitic or Indo-European languages but showing some affinity with other Subarean languages & Kiengi-Sumerian.'' Quite authoritative, considering all one has to build on is a handful of Hurrian names found on inscriptions at Nuzi, some lists of sacrifices and what else? http://www.lib.washington.edu/NearEast/hurrlang.html Is this built on Emmanuel Laroche, ''Glossaire de la Langue Hourrite''? Or I.M. Diakonoff and S.A. Starostin, ''Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language'' 1986?
The ''Encyclopedia of World History'' has this to say of Hurrians: :'The Hurrians had lived in Mesopotamia in small numbers from the late 3rd millennium, but the major Hurrian invasion of the region began around 1700. By 1500, they had penetrated into all of Mesopotamia, as well as Syria-Palestine and eastern Anatolia. There are indications that they had been influenced by Aryans somewhere outside the Near East. The Hurrians worshipped gods later associated with the Iranians and Indians (such as Mithra and Varuna) (See Economy, Technology, Society, and Culture)—the names of some Hurrian rulers and certain technical expressions in Hurrian texts (particularly in connection with the chariot) are Indo-European. The Hurrians adopted Mesopotamian religion and culture, utilizing Babylonian as an administrative language and cuneiform script to write the Hurrian language. Despite the large number of surviving texts, the Hurrian language remains undeciphered.' User:Wetman 01:29, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC) Hi Wetman! The info above pertains to the "Hurrian" kingdom of Mitanni who were at first thought to have been identical with the Hurrians. The real question is where the conviction that there was a substantial Hurrian common population in Mittani came from (e.g. why do we assume Herodotus was talking about Hurrians?). I have not found this source yet and so I cannot criticize it as invalid. (But just because I do not know about the details of the connection it does not mean that it cannot exist). I will put your reference into the article but your conviction about "a handful" is misleading (though I suppose it depends upon which font size you mean :-P ). User:Zestauferov 02:21, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC) :Hi Zestauferov! all I know is what I read. It's always risky to build over-arching linguistic connections about languages that haven't been deciphered. Hurrian and Mitanni, Hittite, Urartu etc. all do need good clear reports on the current status of mainstream professional opinion, with some links pointing to further information. The ancient Near East is a field in flux. Wikipedia needs to offer a core of dependable information, with an idea of how it has been arrived at. Then there could be a final section of broad-ranging hypotheses, also mentioning what they are based on. User:Wetman 02:41, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC) ::Well there is a large Hurrian-Hittite bilingual text K Bo XXXII which has been used to expand upon the ideas of Diakonoff and is the reason behind the Uralaltaic speculations by the likes of Neu. I am not very familiar with where this sort of up-to-date info might be available on the net but will do my best to find out.User:Zestauferov 02:50, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC) ----- This entry needs an introductory section that gives the current ''mainstream'' description of Hurrians. That could be followed by some of this imaginative speculation, if any of it can be attributed to a printed or on-line source. Trying to edit the existing text, which is the product of Zestauferov's enthusiasms is not feasible. User:Wetman 20:10, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC) For anyone who does not know already, Wetman's insecurity does not allow him to believe in editing anything I have contributed but is on a campaign to have anything contanimated by me re-written entirely. User:Zestauferov 02:20, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC) (Pooh! perfect nonsense.) User:Wetman 10:46, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC) Oh then in that case please list the articles I have made any major contributions to which you think do not need re-writing?User:Zestauferov 12:38, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC) _____ ''Hesiod's theogony seems to owe significant episodes to Hurrian paragons.'' Say this in the mirror three times with jelly beans in your mouth. This is self-important owlish jargon. Can some information be transmitted here, or should we drop this sentence? User:Wetman 10:46, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC) Now I've seen everything. I think I am getting a clear picture of the kind of person you are now, forgive me please but if I'm right I can't believe someone like you has the gall to approach criticizing any of my contributions. The contributer means the genealogies of the gods given by Hesiod seems to have significant parralels in Hurrian mythology. User:Zestauferov 12:38, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC) "Significant"— but not identifiable apparently. Hesiod's ''Theogony'' we know. But what's this Hurrian version? There is no Hurrian literature or surviving mythology. Some names of gods, are there?... and what ''is'' this "Tikunani Prism" so authoritatively being referred to here? A misprint? A paperweight? Google reveals no genuine usages. User:Wetman 02:10, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC) (( ''End of contents from old Talk:Hurrian page. User:Jorge Stolfi 14:49, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)'' )) Jorge please edit back in the Tikunani reference when you have time. Thanks User:Zestauferov 04:47, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC) Jeorge, why don't you want to mention the Alarodian languages? User:Zestauferov 03:11, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC) Levzur what are Khurits?User:Zestauferov 01:49, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) == Avestan == did Hurrians actually use the Avestan script - most of the edits by the anonymous user who put this in have been vandalism but I don't know enough about this subject to revert. 16:46, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Hurrians:
Hurrians
Hurrians
Hurrians
The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East, who apparently originated in the Caucasus and entered Mesopotamia from the north approximately 2500 BC. Their known homeland was centred in the Khabur River valley, and later they established themselves as rulers of small kingdoms throughout northern Mesopotamia and Syria. The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni, which lasted from ca. 1450 BC until its destruction by Assyria in ca. 1270 BC. ==History== Like most aspects of Hurrian society, their origins are still a mystery. The Hurrians spoke an agglutinative language, conventionally called Hurrian language, unrelated to neighboring Semitic languages or Indo-European languages languages, but clearly related to Urartian language — a language spoken about a millennium later in northeastern Anatolia — and possibly, very distantly, to the present-day Northeast Caucasian languages. By about 2400 BC, the Hurrians had expanded, perhaps southward from the Zagros Mountains, or from the highlands of Anatolia. In the following centuries, Hurrian names occur sporadically in northern Mesopotamia and the area of Kirkuk in modern Iraq. Their presence was attested at Nuzi, Urkesh and other sites. They eventually infiltrated and occupied a broad arc of fertile farmland stretching from the Khabur River valley to the foothills of the Zagros. Around 1775 BC, in the reign of Hammurabi, Hurrians are recorded as entering the Babylonian Empire in the region of Chagar Bazar. By 1725 BC they are found also in parts of northern Syria, such as Alalakh. The Hurrian city-state of Yamkhad (Aleppo) is recorded as struggling for this area with the early Hittite king Hattusilis I around 1650 BC; and around 1590 BC, Hurrians seized the coastal region of Adaniya from the Hittites and renamed it Kizzuwadna (later known as Cilicia). The Hurrian states apparently became a more politically prominent after being dominated by an elite of foreign rulers. These foreigners spoke either Avestan, Vedic Sanskrit, or a closely-related precursor of those languages from Central Asia. They cremated their dead, and introduced the use of the horse and chariot in the battlefield — a situation that has obvious similarities to the events in northern India at about the same time. While this foreign aristocracy eventually abandoned their language in favor of those of their Hurrian subjects, they retained Indo-European names, complete with references to Vedic gods. Under these "foreign" rulers, the Hurrians expanded considerably towards the south and west. There was no single Hurrian Empire, but by 1540 BC-1520 BC a number of Hurrian-dominated states had been established in northern Mesopotamia, centered on the upper Tigris River to the north of Assyria. By 1530 BC the state of Mitanni, still with a mostly-Hurrian population and foreign-named aristocracy, was founded between the Euphrates and Balikh rivers with its capital at Washshukanni (thought to have been in northern Syria). Mitanni rapidly became the centre of Hurrian power and culture, and soon dominated central Mesopotamia and the Upper Tigris, including Assyria. Following pressures from Hittites and other Anatolians, this kingdom collapsed and fell to Assyria around 1270 BC. The Hurrian population of Syria in the following century seems to have begun speaking a dialect of Assyrian Akkadian language that developed into Aramaic. Interestingly enough, it is around this same time that an aristocracy speaking Urartian, similar to old Hurrian, seems to have first imposed itself on the native Indo-European speaking population around lake Van, and formed the Kingdom of Urartu - much as the Indo-European Mitanni, probably also from the Van region, had apparently done to the Hurrians centuries earlier. Archaeological knowledge of the Hurrians is still fairly scanty, relying mostly on cuneiform tablets from Hattusas, the capital of the Hittites, whose civilisation was greatly influenced by the Hurrians. Thousands more Hurrian tablets have been found at Nuzi, Hattusa, Ras Shamra, and Alalakh. I. J. Gelb & E. A. Speiser believed Subarians had been the linguistic and ethnic substratum of northern Mesopotamia since earliest times, while Hurrians were merely late arrivals. ==Material culture== The Hurrians were masterful ceramists; their pottery is a common find in Mesopotamia and in the lands west of the Euphrates, and was appreciated in distant Egypt, by the time of the New Kingdom. ==Impact== Hurrian speakers formed the majority population of the kingdom of Mitanni, though they appear to have been governed by a class of foreign nobility. Their literature had a deep influence on the Hittites, and the Indo-European Hittite language exhibits many Hurrian loanwords, including most of the religious vocabulary. Two episodes from Hesiod's Theogony may be derived from Hurrian myths: the castration of Uranus (mythology) by Cronus may be derived from the castration of Anu by Kumarbi, while Zeus's overthrow of Cronus and Cronus's regurgitation of the swallowed gods is like the Hurrian myth of Teshub and Kumarbi. ==Connections and origin theories== It is believed by some scholars that the Hurrians mixed with their neighbors, such as the Armenians after arriving in the Caucasus around 2700 BC from an unknown place. Another theory is that the Armenians came to the Caucasus with the Hurrans from the Indo-European homeland. Tolstov identified the Hurrians as the founders of Khwarezmia, which he explained as meaning ''Hurri-Land''. Bible scholars often identify them as the biblical Horites, Hivites and Jebusites, though there is little factual basis for such a connection. Ironically, there is much more evidence for the Hurrian origin of Biblical Hebrew culture (but not the Hebrew language) which is otherwise at odds with its linguistically related Canaanite surroundings. Several other ancient peoples of the region, including the Kesedim, Subarians, Gutians, Kassites and Lullubi have all been described at one time or another as Hurrian peoples. Recently (and especially after the discovery of the Tikunani Prism) there has been growing support for the theory that the Habiru, who were for a time believed to be the ancient Hebrews, may have been a Hurrian people, too. ==See also== * Mitanni. * Horites. * Kassites. * Tikunani Prism. ==Notes== Güterbock, Hans Gustav: "Hittite Religion"; in ''Forgotten Religions: Including Some Living Primitive Religions'' (ed. Vergilius Ferm) (NY, Philosophical Library, 1950), pp. 88–89, 103–104 == Books == *Ignace J. Gelb, 1944, Hurrians and Subarians, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization No. 22, Illinois, University of Chicago Press. == External links == * [http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/pies/pdfs/IESV/1/VVI_Horse.pdf Vyacheslav V. Ivanov, "Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian"] discusses the difficulties and disagreements faced by linguists working in this area, the term Alarodian being created especially for the Hurro-Urartian-Nakh-Avar languages as a family. * [http://www.lib.washington.edu/NearEast/hurrlang.html A bibliography on Hurrian] * [http://www.lib.washington.edu/NearEast/urartlang.html A bibliography on Urartian] * [http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Hurrian_Kingdom_of_Mitanni.html The Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni] Ancient peoples Middle East Eurasian nomads Mitanni Syrian history
Hurrians
(( ''The following was copied from the Talk:Hurrian page. User:Jorge Stolfi 14:49, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)'' )) ''They spoke an agglutinative language unrelated to neighboring Semitic or Indo-European languages but showing some affinity with other Subarean languages & Kiengi-Sumerian.'' Quite authoritative, considering all one has to build on is a handful of Hurrian names found on inscriptions at Nuzi, some lists of sacrifices and what else? http://www.lib.washington.edu/NearEast/hurrlang.html Is this built on Emmanuel Laroche, ''Glossaire de la Langue Hourrite''? Or I.M. Diakonoff and S.A. Starostin, ''Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language'' 1986?
The ''Encyclopedia of World History'' has this to say of Hurrians: :'The Hurrians had lived in Mesopotamia in small numbers from the late 3rd millennium, but the major Hurrian invasion of the region began around 1700. By 1500, they had penetrated into all of Mesopotamia, as well as Syria-Palestine and eastern Anatolia. There are indications that they had been influenced by Aryans somewhere outside the Near East. The Hurrians worshipped gods later associated with the Iranians and Indians (such as Mithra and Varuna) (See Economy, Technology, Society, and Culture)—the names of some Hurrian rulers and certain technical expressions in Hurrian texts (particularly in connection with the chariot) are Indo-European. The Hurrians adopted Mesopotamian religion and culture, utilizing Babylonian as an administrative language and cuneiform script to write the Hurrian language. Despite the large number of surviving texts, the Hurrian language remains undeciphered.' User:Wetman 01:29, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC) Hi Wetman! The info above pertains to the "Hurrian" kingdom of Mitanni who were at first thought to have been identical with the Hurrians. The real question is where the conviction that there was a substantial Hurrian common population in Mittani came from (e.g. why do we assume Herodotus was talking about Hurrians?). I have not found this source yet and so I cannot criticize it as invalid. (But just because I do not know about the details of the connection it does not mean that it cannot exist). I will put your reference into the article but your conviction about "a handful" is misleading (though I suppose it depends upon which font size you mean :-P ). User:Zestauferov 02:21, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC) :Hi Zestauferov! all I know is what I read. It's always risky to build over-arching linguistic connections about languages that haven't been deciphered. Hurrian and Mitanni, Hittite, Urartu etc. all do need good clear reports on the current status of mainstream professional opinion, with some links pointing to further information. The ancient Near East is a field in flux. Wikipedia needs to offer a core of dependable information, with an idea of how it has been arrived at. Then there could be a final section of broad-ranging hypotheses, also mentioning what they are based on. User:Wetman 02:41, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC) ::Well there is a large Hurrian-Hittite bilingual text K Bo XXXII which has been used to expand upon the ideas of Diakonoff and is the reason behind the Uralaltaic speculations by the likes of Neu. I am not very familiar with where this sort of up-to-date info might be available on the net but will do my best to find out.User:Zestauferov 02:50, 7 Jan 2004 (UTC) ----- This entry needs an introductory section that gives the current ''mainstream'' description of Hurrians. That could be followed by some of this imaginative speculation, if any of it can be attributed to a printed or on-line source. Trying to edit the existing text, which is the product of Zestauferov's enthusiasms is not feasible. User:Wetman 20:10, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC) For anyone who does not know already, Wetman's insecurity does not allow him to believe in editing anything I have contributed but is on a campaign to have anything contanimated by me re-written entirely. User:Zestauferov 02:20, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC) (Pooh! perfect nonsense.) User:Wetman 10:46, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC) Oh then in that case please list the articles I have made any major contributions to which you think do not need re-writing?User:Zestauferov 12:38, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC) _____ ''Hesiod's theogony seems to owe significant episodes to Hurrian paragons.'' Say this in the mirror three times with jelly beans in your mouth. This is self-important owlish jargon. Can some information be transmitted here, or should we drop this sentence? User:Wetman 10:46, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC) Now I've seen everything. I think I am getting a clear picture of the kind of person you are now, forgive me please but if I'm right I can't believe someone like you has the gall to approach criticizing any of my contributions. The contributer means the genealogies of the gods given by Hesiod seems to have significant parralels in Hurrian mythology. User:Zestauferov 12:38, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC) "Significant"— but not identifiable apparently. Hesiod's ''Theogony'' we know. But what's this Hurrian version? There is no Hurrian literature or surviving mythology. Some names of gods, are there?... and what ''is'' this "Tikunani Prism" so authoritatively being referred to here? A misprint? A paperweight? Google reveals no genuine usages. User:Wetman 02:10, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC) (( ''End of contents from old Talk:Hurrian page. User:Jorge Stolfi 14:49, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)'' )) Jorge please edit back in the Tikunani reference when you have time. Thanks User:Zestauferov 04:47, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC) Jeorge, why don't you want to mention the Alarodian languages? User:Zestauferov 03:11, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC) Levzur what are Khurits?User:Zestauferov 01:49, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC) == Avestan == did Hurrians actually use the Avestan script - most of the edits by the anonymous user who put this in have been vandalism but I don't know enough about this subject to revert. 16:46, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
H
HA | HB | HC | HD | HE | HF | HG | HI | HJ | HK | HL | HM | HN | HO | HP | HR | HS | HT | HU | HW | HX | HY | HZ |Words begining with Hurrians:
Hurrians
Hurrians
These materials are based on Wikipedia and licensed under the GNU FDL
YouTube.com videos better site than Turbo Tax 2007
