Nuzi

Nuzi (more precisely Nuzu , also Ga-Sur ) was an ancient Hurrian town in the Kingdom of Arrapcha , which today forms the settlement hill ( Tell ) Jorgan Tepe , part of Kirkuk . It is located in what is now Iraq, east of the Tigris and southeast of Nineveh .

Find history

Since the beginning of the 19th century, clay tablets from the Kirkuk area , which had been excavated by local farmers, were traded at the art market . In search of the origin of these tablets, Edward Chiera Nuzi / Jorgan Tepe discovered in 1925 , then 16 km southwest of Kirkuk, and began excavations, together with the Archaeological Museum in Baghdad and ASOR , Chicago, which was then carried out by Robert H. Pfeifer, Richard FS Starr, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia .

topography

Nuzi contained a royal palace under a šakin bīti . Among other things, a royal harem was housed there, the highest palace lady held the title of queen. In the walled upper town was the palace complex, which also included a warehouse, a temple of the Šawuška and Nergal and magazines. But there were also private houses there. A lower town ( adaššu ) is archaeologically proven. The head of the city was a azannu .

Archives

The palace of Nuzi contained extensive archives with a total of around 20,000 clay tablets . They are written in Akkadian , but contain Hurrian loanwords with clear references to the Hurrian mother tongue of the writers, which was probably also mainly used by the population.

Private and government archives contained legal, business, and administrative records. The cuneiform tablets give countless details about life in the Middle Babylonian period, including legal matters such as adoption, marriage, inheritance law and wills, and the financial system (e.g. the system of installment payments was already known ).

The oldest map was also found there on a clay tablet, which can be dated to the Akkad period (approx. 2340–2200 BC). Mountains, the Rahium river with its tributaries and cities are drawn on the 7.5 cm × 6.5 cm clay tablet. The main theme of the map is likely to be the Azala's land holdings marked in the middle. On the upper (east) and lower edge (west) the board is provided with the designation of cardinal directions. The existing cities (e.g. Dur-ebla) ensure that the map shows the immediate vicinity of Nuzi.

Previous assumptions about a direct connection to biblical texts, e.g. B. wills as a comparison with the Teraphim Gen 31 , could not be confirmed after detailed investigations; however, the Nuzi texts offer a documentation of legal practices in Mesopotamia , which make biblical legal texts and biblical practices understandable.

Special legal forms that only appeared in Nuzi represent the fake purchase and real estate adoptions. The background to these contracts was the attempt to establish a client relationship between the wealthy adoptive and the financially distressed adoptive. The adoptant cultivated the field given to him and in return made a contribution from the harvest. In Nuzi some daughters were adopted as sons in order to ensure the cult of the ancestors and the cult of the family gods ( ilāni, kišpu ).

history

The oldest finds come from the Halaf period . In the Middle Babylonian period, Nuzi belonged to the Kingdom of Arrapcha and was founded around 1350 BC. First destroyed by the Assyrians and Babylonians (Stratum II). Around 900 BC Nuzi was annexed to the Assyrian Empire under Adad-nirari II . 615 BC It was destroyed again by the Medes .

Individual evidence

^ Wolfgang Röllig : Maps. In: Dietz-Otto Edzard et al. (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Assyriologie and Near Eastern Archeology . Volume 6: Lamentation - Lebanon. de Gruyter, Berlin 1980–1983, ISBN 3-11-010051-7 , p. 464, with further literature.
^ Barry L. Eichler: Nuzi and the Bible: A Retrospective. In: Hermann Behrens (Ed.): DUMU-E2-DUB-BA-A. Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjoberg (= Occasional publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund 11). University Museum, Philadelphia PA 1989, ISBN 0-934718-98-9 , pp. 107-119; Barry L. Eichler: Another Look at the Nuzi Sistership Contracts. In: Maria de Jong Ellis (Ed.): Essays on the Ancient Near East in Memory of Jacob Joel Finkelstein (= Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 19). Archon Books, Hamden CT 1977, ISBN 0-208-01714-3 , pp. 45-59.

literature

Excavations at Nuzi. Conducted by the Semitic Museum and the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, with the cooperation of the American School of Oriental Research at Bagdad. 8 volumes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 1929-1962.
- Volume 1: Edward Chiera: Texts of varied contents (= Harvard Semitic Series 5, ZDB -ID 421519-9 ). 1929;
- Volume 2: Robert H. Pfeiffer: The archives of Shilwateshub, son of the king (= Harvard Semitic Series 9). 1932;
- Volume 3: Theophile James Meek: Old Akkadian, Sumerian, and Cappadocian texts from Nuzi (= Harvard Semitic Series 10). 1935;
- Volume 4: Robert H. Pfeiffer: Miscellaneous texts from Nuzi (= Harvard Semitic Series 13) Part 1. 1942;
- Volume 5: Ernest R. Lacheman: Miscellaneous texts from Nuzi (= Harvard Semitic Series 14) Part 2: The palace and temple archives. 1950;
- Volume 6: Ernest R. Lacheman: The administrative archives (= Harvard Semitic Series 15). 1955;
- Volume 7: Ernest R. Lacheman: Economic and social documents (= Harvard Semitic Series 16). 1958;
- Volume 8: Ernest R. Lacheman: Family law documents (= Harvard Semitic Series 19). 1962.
Mirko Novák : A typology of Nuzi's houses. In: Baghdader Mitteilungen 25, 1994, pp. 341–446 ( PDF; 36.3 MB ).
Wayne T. Pitard: Care of the dead at Emar. In: Mark W. Chavalas (Ed.): Emar. The history, religion and culture of a Syrian town in the late Bronze Age. CDL Press, Bethesda MD 1996, ISBN 1-883053-18-8 , pp. 123-140.
Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians. CDL Press, Bethesda 1981ff., ZDB -ID 1420104-5 .
Karel van der Toorn: Gods and ancestors in Emar and Nuzi. In: Journal for Assyriology and Near Eastern Archeology 84, 1994, ISSN 0084-5299 , pp. 38-59, doi : 10.1515 / zava.1994.84.1.38 .

Gernot Wilhelm : Studies on Ḫurro-Akkadian by Nuzi (= Old Orient and Old Testament 9). Butzon & Bercker, Kevelaer 1970 (at the same time: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 1969).

Web links

Nuzi Studies. (English)
Research Briefs. Boston University (English)

35.302495 44.247624Coordinates: 35 ° 18 ′ 9 " N , 44 ° 14 ′ 51.4" E

[1] Wolfgang Röllig : Maps. In: Dietz-Otto Edzard et al. (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Assyriologie and Near Eastern Archeology . Volume 6: Lamentation - Lebanon. de Gruyter, Berlin 1980–1983, ISBN 3-11-010051-7 , p. 464, with further literature.

[2] Barry L. Eichler: Nuzi and the Bible: A Retrospective. In: Hermann Behrens (Ed.): DUMU-E2-DUB-BA-A. Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjoberg (= Occasional publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund 11). University Museum, Philadelphia PA 1989, ISBN 0-934718-98-9 , pp. 107-119; Barry L. Eichler: Another Look at the Nuzi Sistership Contracts. In: Maria de Jong Ellis (Ed.): Essays on the Ancient Near East in Memory of Jacob Joel Finkelstein (= Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences 19). Archon Books, Hamden CT 1977, ISBN 0-208-01714-3 , pp. 45-59.