Political and Cultural Relations between the Kingdom of Mittani and its Subordinated Polities in Syria and Southeast Anatolia

Changing

Faces

of

Kingship

in

§yria-Palestine

1S00-S00

_BCE

Edited by

Agustinus

_Gianto

_and

peter

_Dubovs§

2018

Ugarit-Verlag

Mùnster

Alter

Orient und

Altes

Testament

verÒffentlichungen zur Kultur und

Geschichte

des

Arten orients

und

des

Ahen

Testaments

Band 459

Herausgeber

Manfried

Dietrich.

Ingo Kottsieper.

Hans Neumann

Beratergremium

Rainer Albertz

.

Joachim

Bretschneider.

Stefan

Maul

Udo

Rùterswòrden. Wahher

Sallaberger

.

Gebhard Selz

Political

and

Cultural

_{Relations between the}

Kingdom

of

Mittani

and

Its subordinated

porities

in

Syria and

Southeast

Anatolia

Stefilno de

Mafiino

_ tlniversity of Turin

The

Kingdom

of

Mittani

The earliest attestation of the toponym

Mittani

comes

from

an Egyptian source,

an inscription

from

Thebes on the grave

of

a state

official

cdleJ-Amen-hemet.

The inscription refers to the syrian

military

expedition this

official

had taken part in, which advanced as far as the country of

Mtn

(Mittani). AlthoughAmen-hemet

se.ed

under three

pharaohs-Ahmosis

_I,

Amenophis

_t,

and

tùhmosis

l-we

presume that this expedition was the one led by Tuthmosis

I

(1493-14g3 BCE).

If

this is the case, then

Mittani

_{already existed at the beginning of the fifteenth} cen-tury BCE

(wilhelm

1994,287

de Marrino _{2004, 35). Indeed, a}

_Hu*ian

_polity

_on

the Upper

Khabur-the

"progenitor"

of the Mittanian

state-might

have fomred in _{the sixteenth century BCE, although the lack}

_of

_{any mention}

Af

Mittani

in the documentation of this period demonsffates that it was not yet known by this name.

The

_{term $anigalbat}

_flrst

_occurs

_in

_the

_Akkadian

_version

_of

the

Annals

of

$atm§ili

I

(Devecchi _{2005, 39), whereas the}

_Hittite

_{version uses the generic}

ex-pression "the Hurrian enemy," as do fwo

old

Babylonian texls (van

Kolpen

2004,

21); perhaps this term refers to the Hurrian "progenitor,,

of Mittani

_1àà

uartino

2014a,63).

_{However, we have}

_no

_{direct evidence that}

_this

_polity

_{actuaily took}

part in the struggles that occurred in eastem Anatolia and Syrià in connection

with

or as a consequence of the

military

campaigns of the first

Hittite

kings,

_flattu§ili

I

and

Mur§ili

I.

The participation _{of another eastern Hurrian principalify, the polity of}

_rigunani,

is

well

documented; this kingdom, rocated north of the

uppe.

xlauur,

was an

aily

ofthe

Hittites _{in the campaign against the kingdom of}

tlaiùum

(Salvini 1996; Du_ rand _{2006)' Hence, we cannot exclude that other centers in the upper}

Khabur region might have been involved in the wars between the Hittites

*a

ine local syrian

rul-ers' Fufthermore, the Hurrian literary composition

"song of

Release,,

mlntions

a

certain

Piziganaof

Niniveh who was involved _{in the desf,uction of}

_Ebla

_although

we do not know the nafure

ofhis

activity (de

Martino

2014b, IZS_l2g).

The name

Mittani

means

"the (land)

of Mitta,,,l

and

Mitta

may

have been the eponymous _{founder of the dynasty}

_(wilherrn

_r9g4,

_{zg0).In my}

_opinion,

the ' Maitta is the older form of this name (Wilhelm lgg4.2g7,2g0).

38 Stefano de Martino

emergence

of Mittani

could have been the result

of

a

military

leader's

acquisi-tion of civil

power. The

Hittite

teÉs of

the Old Kingdom

document that

Hur-rian chiefs and mercenary armies were recruited

by

some Syrian

polities in

the

skuggle against the

Hittites

(de

Martino

2014a,

6749).

Some bands of Hurrian

mercenaries who were active

in

the region of the Upper Khabur might have co-alesced

into

a

unified

army led

by

the ancestors

of

the

Mittanian royal dynas§

(Forlanini 2009,57).

As

E. von Dassow

_{{2A08,77-9A;2014,}

12) correctly pointed out, the emer-gence and

grouth

of

Mittani

cannot be seen as a result of the

Irdo-Aryan military

supremacy that earlier historians attributed to this ethnic group; in fact, there is no evidence

of

any consistent presence

of

Indo-Aryan

_$oups

in Mittanian

society.

It

is

fue

that the kings

of Mittani

bore Indo-Aryan names, but the names of the

Mittanian kings, as

well

as the few divine names and words of Indo-Aryan origin,

are

only relics

of

interactions between one

or

more

Hurrian

clans and a group

of Indo-Aryans. 'W'e can

only

guess that some Indo-Aryan-speaking mercenaries

joined

such

Hurrian

groups and later became

their

leaders after integrating into

Hurrian

society;

it

is possible that these Indo-Aryans were charioteers and thus contributed to improving proficiency ìn chariot warfare Ermong the Hunians

(An-thony 2007, 50; Schwartz 2014,272).

Mittani,

at the zenith

of

its

political

power in the fifteenth century BCE,

con-trolled a large area; the recent German archaeological excavations at Tell Fekheriye support the assumption that fhe capital of

Mittani,

\Ma§§ukl<anni, was located there

§ovrik

2013,346; Bonatz 2014). The heartland

ofthe

countrywas the Upper

Kha-bur region, but

Mittani

extended easfward to the kingdom

ofArrap[e,

northwest to

I5uw4 westward to Kizzuwatna and western Syria (A1eppo, Karkemi§

[Carchem-ishl, Tunip, Ekalte, Nu$a§§e,

_QaF4

_{and Qid§u [Kadesh]), and southward to Terqa.}

Mittani

lost control over Kizzuwatna

in

the last decades of the fifteenth

cen-tury

when the

Hittites took

over this region; I§uwa was,

for

a long

time,

a site

of

contention between }_{afii and

Mittani.

We may assume thai

Miuani

also

con-trolled Nu§a§§e

(Klengel

1969,

35-37),

although this can

only

be inferred from indirect evidence.2 The extent of Mittanian authority over Terqa is

difficult

to as-certain; QI§-Addu, ruler of Terqa, is mentioned in some contracts found at Terq4

together

with

three Mifianian kings. Even though the names of two of these kings

do not corespond exactly to those of Mittanian sovereigns, we presume that they

are §uttarna, Parattarnaq and Sau§tatar (von Dassow 2014,

18*19

see below). The kingdom

of Mittani did

not extend over contiguous territories; the arid region between Terqa and

Arraple

presumably was of no interest to

Mittani

and remained out

of

its control. As von Dassow (2014, 1,1.-15) wrote, the map of the

kingdom

of

Mittani

seems to be

"a

network

of

points

of

control, each

point

the seat of a kingdom or province and each situated

within

its own cluster of points; 2 _{The treaty concluded by the Hittite king Mur§ili}

_II

with Talmi-Sarruma, king ofAleppo,

states that §uppiluliumaÈ took Karkemi§, Aleppo, and Nula§§e from the same enemy king, whose name is lost due to a break in _{the tatìlet fDevecchi 2015,236). The mention}

of

Karkemi5 and Aleppo clearly indicates that these countries wer€ under Mittanian

Relations between the Kingdom olMitanni and lts subordinated

polities

39

the space between or beyond these linked _{nodes can scarcely be counted}

_for

_the

domain of

Mittani."

The

Written

Sources

The archives ofwa§§ukkanni have not yet _{been discovered, and very}

_few

docu-ments

from

other archives _{provide information concerning the}

_political

_and

ad-ministrative structure of

Mittani.

The

following

texts, presented below in

chrono-logical ordeq are the

official

documents that shed the most

light

on this topic (von

Dassow 2014; de

Martino

2015).

Parattarna

I

The inscription on the

Idrimi

statues is the oldest

syrian

document that mentions

a Mittanian king. Parattarna bears the

title "king

of the Hurrian troops,,

(LUGAT

ÉRrN*s

_Surr{.).

This

text

documents _{the suùordination of}

_Alalakh

_to

_Mittani

already at the time of

King

Parattarna L

TabletAlr

3 (von Dassow 2008,

23J4)

shows thatboth

Idrimi ofAlalakh

and

Pilliya

of Kizzuwatna were under Mittanian authority.

Sau§tatar

A1T 13

_§iedorf

2008,239

244;von

Dassow

2008,4gJ9;2014,23)records

rhe

legal decision taken try sau§tatar concerning the case of a man who claimed

Mit-tanian citizenship. The tablet is sealed

with

the dynastic seal

of

§uttama

I.

AIT

14

_{§iedorf 2008,245147;}

_{von Dassow 2008,}

_48-49;

_{20t4, ti)records}

Niqmepa's claim against sunassura, king of Kizzuwatna, concerning the posses-sion of a borderland (the region near the town of

Alawari);

this text demonstrates

that both countries, namely Alalakh and Kizzuwatna, were under

Mittanian

con-trol.

This tablet is sealed

with

the dlmastic seal of §uftarna I.

Alr

2

fromAlalakh

(Kitchen _{and Lawrence 2012,}

_3a71l3;von

_{Dassow 200g,}

4647,51-54;

de Martìno 2015,26) prsselves a parity treaty that Niqmepa, king of

Alalakh,

signed

with

Ir-Tesob

of

runip.

von

Dassow (200s,

52-53)

assumed

that

two

copies

of

this ffeaty were

written:

Alr

2 preserves Niqmepa's copy

of

the agreement, whereas Ir-Te§ob's copy is no longer extant. since treafy partners

regularly wrote their own copies of the treaty and then exchanged them, we may assume that the copy found at

Alalakh

is the version

written

by lr-Tesob. Hence, the clauses of

Alr

2 should be considered as statements formulated

by

k-Tesob

and addressed _{to his paftner Niqmepa.}

_If

_this

_{is the case, then}

§12

ofìhis

treaty might refer to an oath sworn by Ir-Tesob to the Mittanian

king:

,.[The

king]

of the

Hurrians is rny (

:

of Ir-Tesob)

_{lord" {line}

_{72). Thus, both} Niqrnepa and Ir-Tesob

would

be

Hurrian

vassals.

If,

on the

contrary

one

follows

the

traditional

inter-3 See _{von Dassow 2008, 24-26 with}

context ofthe statue, see Fink 2007.

40 Stefano de Maltino

pretation of this

text-narnely,

that the first-person singular pronoun .,I', refers to

Niqmepa-then

he was the ruler

who

declared

his

subordination to the Hurrian

sovereign, and Ir-Te§ob did

not

depend on

Mittani

(schwemer

2005,

lg4).

De-spite the fact that the name of the Mittanian

king

does not occur

in

this text, the assumption that

it

is sau§tatar seems plausible; in fact, this king was a

contempo-rary of

Niqmep4

as documented in the two aforementioned texts

Alr

13 and 14.

The tablet from Tell

BaziBz

51123.21(sallaberger et

al.2006,78-g0)

records

that sau§tatar gave the syrian town of Baidalì to the people of BasTru. In this text

Sau§tatar bears only the title

"king"

(LUGAL).

Thìs tablet, sealed

with

saustatar's seal, is the oldest attestation of his seal (de

Martino

2015,26).

The text from Terqa

TQ

12-6 (Rouault _{2004, si,) mentions saustatar alongside}

the ruler of rerqa _{Qr§-Addu. The name} of the Mittanian

king

is written

in

a

pecu-liar

form: sausadatra

(charpin

_{2002,78n121; von Dassow 200g, 47n110)}

Artatama

I

King Artatama gave a town to the people of Basrru, as recorded in the tablet

flom

Tell Bazi Bz 50 123 :32 (sallaberger et al. 2a0 6, g _I

-93 ; von Dassow 2 00g, 47

nl12

;

20 14, 19). This tablet is sealed

with

the dlmastic seal

of

Saustatar;

it

is the same seal _{whose impression appears on the aforementioned tablet}

_Bz

_51123:21.

§uttarna

II

The tablet from

Umm

el-Marra

UEM

T1

(cooper

et al. 2005) records a legal act executed in the presence of suttarna

II.

This tablet is sealed

with

the dynastic seal

of Sau§tatar.

Ql§-Addu also occurs alongside the

Mittanian king

§uttarna

II

in the already mentioned Terqa tablets _{(Charpin 2002,78; Rouault 2004, 56-57).}

Arta§umara

The tablet from Tell Brak

TB

6002

(Finkel

1985,

19r-r94;

Eidem

1997, 41) re-cords

a

legal act executed

in

the presence

ofArtasumara.

The dynastic seal

of

Sau§tatar was impressed aiso on this tablet.

Tu§ratta

The

Tell

Brak tablet

TB

8001

(rtingwofih

1988,

99-105; Eidem

1997,41)

is

a

will

that was validated by Tusratta. This tablet too is sealed

with

saustatar,s seal. El Amama (EA) tablets 17, 18, 19,

20,2r,23,

and24 are letters sent by Tusraffa to Amenophis

iII;

EA

27,28,29

were sent

by

the

Mittanian king

to Amenophis

rv;

the addressee of

EA26

_{is Queen}

Teye;EA22

and 25 are lists of

luxury

items sent by Tu§ratta to the Egyptian court; and in

EA

30 the

king

of

Mittani

asks the pharaoh

to

provide a permit

to

enter Egypt

for

a

Mittanian

messenger

(Liverani

Relations between the Kingdom of Mitanni and Its Subordinated

Polities

4l

Undated

Ibxts

Other documents cannot be dated

with

any certainty. _QT§-Addu,

ruler of

Terqa, is mentioned in the date formulas of some tablets discovered at this site (Rouault

2OO4,

56-57),

alongside

not only

Sau§tatar and

§uttam4

as noted above, but

also a Mittanian king named Parattarna; this ruler might be either Paratkma

I,

as

G.

§/ilhelm (1994,293)

assumed, or Parattama

II,

as suggested by

von

Dassow (2008, 39). Hence, Qì§-Addu would have ruled his country

for

a long period that

overlapped

with

the reigps

of

three

Mittanian

kings, namely (according

to

von

Dassow's assumption), Sau§tatar, §ufiama

II,

and Parattarna

II.

The Alalakh

textAlT

108 (von Dassow 2008, 54) is a letter sent by a

Mittanian

king to

a certain

Utti,

who might

have been an

official of Alalakh;

the Hurrian

king

informs

Utti

that the passage of Niqmepa's herd of donkeys at the state

bor-der was exempted from taxation.

The Nuzi tablet HSS 9, 1 is a letter sent by a Mittanian king to lt§i-Te§ob, ruler

ofArrap§e (Wilhelm

2001,

101-102);the

Mittanian king, unidentified in the

let-ter, sealed it with the dynastic seal of Sau§tatar. The letter records the reallocation of a town formerly given to the

wife

of the crown prince

ofArrap$e

(von Dassow

2014,

t7).

Three letters found

atAlalakh

(AlT

I10, 111, I 12; von Dassow 2008, 54) were sent

by

a certain Tiris-ra, a

Mittanian

state

official,

to Niqmepa

king

of

Alalakh;

Tiriq-ra transmitted to Niqmepa either the Mittanian

king's

orders or his personal instructions.

Mittanian Administrative

§tructure

The

polities

that were part

of

the

kingdom

of

Mittani

had different systems

of

government (von Dassow 2014; de

Martino

2015);

in

fact

some of these subor-dinated polities, such as

Kizzuwafir4

Alalakh, and Arraplge, were ruled by a local

king

and were palace-based societies. Other countries, such as Bas-rrulTell Bazi

and presumably also Ekalte, were collectively governed polities; in the latter case

the

king

of

Mittani

did not interact

with

a'ovassal

king"

but

with

an assembly

of

elders

(Otto

20L2;2014). Lustly, there were regions where a great part of the

in-habitants were not sedentary, such as I§uwa and Nu$a§§e,

The lack

of

any

Mittanian

document

from

Wa§§ukkanni and the

aforemen-tioned articulate structure

of

the kingdom

might give

a false impression

of

the

political

control maintained

by this Hurrian

state over

its

subordinated polities.

C. Kiihne (1999,206), for example, described

Mittani

as a confederation of states

while

M.

Van de

Mieroop

QA04,144) labeled

Mittani

a loose

political

structure,

In my

opinion, the

political

structure of

Mittani

rtras no different from that

of

any other Near Eastem kingdom of the Late Bronze Age. The subordinated

king

or ruler or assembly

of

elders had

to

swear an oath to the Hurrian overlord; this

was the case

with ldrimi,

king

ofAlalakh,

as documented by the

tabletAlT

3 (von

Dassow 2008, 34). The well-known inscription of

Idrimi

states that his forefathers had established a binding oath

with

the kings of

Mittani

(Giorgieri 2005, 80).

42 _{Stefano de Martino}

one passage of the treaty signed bv the

Hittite

king

Tut[aliya

I

with

suna§sura,

king

of Kizzuwatna (§59), states that the tablet of the treary that was previously concluded between

this king

and the sover-eign

of

Mittani

had

to

be discarded, since Kizzuwatna had become a

Hittite ally (Devecchi2015,

g7; _{also see}

Gior-gieri

2005, 81). This passage proves that the binding oath sworn to the kings

of

Mittani

was recorded in written documents.

The

king

of

Mittani

supervised the agreements that were concluded betw-een

two polities

subordinated

to

him,

as documented

in

textAlr

3. The

aforemen-tioned tablet

Alr

_{3 preserves the treat-y signed} by

idrimi

of

Alalakh with

pilliya,

king of

Kizzuwatn4

rvhich rvas concluded under

tlie

supervision of parattarna I.

The

subordinaied

polities

presumably

paid

a

tribute

to

the

Mittanian

king;

this

can be inferred

in

a

few

documents

oniy.

we

may

quote

EA

l0l,

sent by

the ruler

of

Gubla (Byblos) to the pharaoh; the sender of the letter states that the

Eglptians

shall easily conquer

Amurru,

because

Abdi-A5irta

does not have any precious goods

to

give

to

Mittani

as a tribute

(Liverani

1ggg,

lg1,-lgg;

Rainey 2015,552-555). _{Evidence concerning the payrnent of tribute also comes from the} kingdom

ofArap[e

(Zaccagnini 1979, 15-16; Lòhnerr 2015, 335).

other

infor-mation concerning tribute paid to

Mittani

might also be found in the Alatakh text

Alr

395 and the four F.mar texts known as arana documents, but the

interpreta-tion ofthese documents remains doubtful (von Dassow 20 15, 1g and

nnl9,20;

de

Marlino

2015. 28).

The polities under Mittanian overlordship _{probably had to provide}

_military

as-sistance when required by the king of Mittani. A passage on the Gebel Barkal stele records that Pharaoh ruthmosis

III

overthrew the "vast army', of

Mittani

(Redford 2003,

i05);

this

might

refer

to

a coalition army summoned

by

the sovereign

of

Mittani,

assembled

from

troops recruited

by

his

subordinated

kings

and rulers

(von Dassow 2015.

l8).

when

small countries under the authority of

Mittani

were attacked

by

a more

powerful

_{kingdom, they relied on} the intervention

of

the army

of

the Mittanian

king for their

defense (Lòhnert 201s,336).

A

tabtet found at

Nuzi

and now pre-served at the Louvre

(AO

15551

+

_{15552) describes the fortifications of}

_Nuzi;

_a passage on this tablet states that the

towel

_{located near the Tissae Gate was}

_built

by "the men of _{Hanigalbat," destroyed, and later} rebuilt. The mention of ..the men

of

_$anigalbat"

_{supports the assumption that the king of}

_Mittani

_{contributed to tlre} building of the city walls in Nuzi by sending a group of workers (Lion 2010).

we

cannot say whether this tablet and

the

important

information

it

contains on the defense system of Nuzi was given only to the

king

ofArraple

or was also sent to

the

king

of

Mittani.

conflicts might

sometimes arise between

fwo

countries sharing a border, as

the aforementioned text

Alr

2

documents;

this

tablet preserves the treaty con-cluded between Niqmepa

ofAlalakh

and Ir-Tesob of Tunip.

sometimes the king

ofMiftani

directly _{intervened in disputes between} polities

under his control, as docnmented in text

AlT

14, which records the verdict given

by

sau§tatar

in

the quarrel between Niqmepa of

Alalakh

and sunassura

of

Relations between the Kingdom of Mitanni and Irs Subordinared

Polities

43

The two tablets found at Tell Bazi

(Bz

50123.2, 51:123:31) relate rhat fwo

Mitta-nian kings, namely sau§tatar and _{Artatama I, gave territories to the people of Basrru;}

these two texts demonstrate that

it

was the

king

of

Mittani

who decided

to

assign territories and defined the borders between the local polities under his overlordship.

The

documentation

from

Nuzi

suggests that the

kingdom

of

Araple

con-ducted its own diplomatic relations,

with

the Kassite kingdom and

with

Assyria,

for

example (Zaccagnini 1919,15-19; LÒhnert 2015, 335-336). This rnight have been a privilege granted to the court

ofArraple

in consideration

ofthe

prestige

of

this country and its royal family.

The

Mittanian

monarch sometimes validated

private legal

acts, as

is

docu-rnented in the tablet TB 6002 found at Tell Brak. This tablet records the transfer

of

a man's properly to a w-oman and her sons. The donor retained for himself the use

ofthe

surrendered estates.

lhis

act concerns atransfer ofproper-ty

intervivos;

the king's validation might have been required, since this was not the regular practice and deviated from the traditional models (de

Martino

2015,28).

Only the king of

Mittani

could grant Mittanian citizenship, i.e.. hanigalbatùtu.

The conferral of this status on an individual is documented in three texts: the

Ala-lakh text

AIT

1 3, during the reign of Sau§tatar; the text from Umm _{el-Man a}

UEM

T1, during the reign of §utarna

II;

and the tablet from Tell Brak

TB

8001, during

the reign of ru§ratta.

other

information on the _{fianigalbatùtu} can be found in the

Nuzi

texts (von Dassow

2008,24).I

agree

with

von Dassow's assumption (2008,

2316)

that

_{lanigalbatùttt}

was the practice that granted citizenship

in

Mittani.

Those who obtained Mittanian citizenship could

live

in any paft of the kingdom,

but owed service only to the king of

Mittani.

Some of the aforementioned documents were executed in the presence of the

king

of

Mittani

(AlT

13,

14;UEMTl;TB

6002;TB 8001).Iwonderwhetherthe

statement regarding the presence

ofthe

Mittanian king should be taken literally. J.

Cooper, G. Schwartz, and R. Westbrook (2005) dealt with this problem in rhe case

of

the tablet

UEM

T1.

It

records a contract that was executed ir.r the presence

of

King

§uttarna

II

and sealed with the dynastic seal of Sau§tatar. Neutron-activation

analysis of the tablet from

umm

el-Marra revealed similarities to the clay of the

tablets found

atTell

Btak.

Moreover, the syllabary

of this text

can be assigned

to

the

Middle

Babylonian scribal

tradition.

These observations support the

hy-pothesis that the

Umm

el-Marra tablet

might

indeed be "a product of the

Mittanì

heartland, or, at the very least

written

in

Mittani

chancellery sfyle" (Cooper et al.

2005,52). According to these scholars, rhe two tablets

AIT

13 and 14, which had been

written

in the presence

of

sau§tatar, might also be products of the Mittanian

central chancellery.

The use

of

dynastic seals is not an exclusive

ffait

of

the

Mittanian

court but

is documented also

in

other states, such as

ugarit

and

Alalakh.

The aim of using dynastic seals (such as those of §uttarna I,

AIT

13 and 14, and Saustatar,

UEM

T1,

TB

6002, and

TB

8001) might have been to confer an enduring legitimacy on acts

and on the tablets that recorded them. In fact, the dynastic seal carried the weight of not

onlythe living

king, but also the whole

ruling

dynasty (postgate 2013, 386 and n9).

a

44 Stefano de Martino

Dynastic seals were precious and the excrusive propeffy

of

the

ruli,g

royal

family. In my opinion,

it

is unlikely that a state

official

would have been allowed

to travel

with

one of the Mittanian dynastic seais when an important act needed to

be validated. Hence,

I

assume _{that all the aforementioned texts were written either}

in wa§§ukkani or

in

the

city

where the

king

and the court resided when the acts recorded on the tabiets were executed.

Mittanian

cultural

Influence

on

the subordinated polities

The _{most evident results of Mittanian domination are the systems of social groups} documented in different parts of the Hurrian kingdom.

von

Dassow,s (200g) ex-haustive study on the society of

Alalakh

concludes that

Mittani

was responsible

for _{organizing society in subordinated} polities. Both Alalakh and Arrapbe, located

very far from eac}r _{other, show similar social strucfures (von Dassow 200g.}

351-366) and thus support von Dassow's premise. The "noblemen,' of the kingdoms

and polities belonging to

Mittani

were members of the social

group

called,

mari-yanni

_{:

the

rakib

nttrkabti in the kingdom of

Arrapfe). At Alalakh

the presence

of

a consistent number

of

members

of

the

mariyanni

grosp is documented from the

time of

Niqmepa; hence, the process

of foiming

ihe

mariyanni

erite seems, indeed,

to

be a consequence

of Mittanian

domination (von Dassow 200g,269).

People of high social status, regardless of their ethnos atfi,language, were mem-bers

of

an enlarged, _{privileged internationar community that}

_io,ned

_{the elite}

_of

Mittanian society.

Local coutts may have maintained strict relations with the court of

Mittani,

but

this is

well

documenred

only in

the case

ofArrapbe (zaccagnini

1979). The ex-change of high

officials

among the various courts and the fact that all high-status people were acknowledged as members

of

the

mariyanni

elite fostered a spirit

of

emulation among the members of the "upper class" in the peripheral regions

of

the Mittanian state.

Painted

Nuzi

ware is a distinctive pottery that has been associated

u,ith

Mit-tani. The origin of this decorated pottery remains an unsolved question; a possible connection

with

Aegean Kamares ware has been assumed (pecorelia 2000, 357;

Soldi 2006, 88; Pftilzner 2008).

s.

Soldi (20061 2008) put forward the hypothesis

that

Tell

Brak was one

of

the

first

centers specializing

in

the production

of

this

pottery. some time later, appreciation for _{this decorated pottery may have resulted} in the

diffirsion

of the style

to

other production centers.

In

fact, the

archaeomet-ric

analyses

caried

out on samples of

Nuzi ware

support the assumption that

it

was produced locally _{in various centers scattered throughout the}

_Mittani

_kingdom (Satullo, shortland, and Eremin 201 I

_,

I 190).

Nuzi

ware was particularly appreci-ated _{in the Jazirah region, whereas}

_it

_{appears onry sporadically in westàrn Syrian} cities such as

Alalakh

and Ugarit

(piÌilzner

1995; Soldi 2006, g3).4

o _{rwo Nuzi wa.e}

beakers were found in the Royal romb of eatna; they may have been

Relations betw-een the Kìngdom of N,{itanni and lts Subordinated

polities

45

As

G.

schwartz

_Q014,267)

wrote-

Nuzi \!'are might

even be considered a

"marker

ofMittani

elite identity tying diverse local authorities to the imperial

cen-ter" (see also Akkermans and schwart22003.3 32). s. Soldi analyzed the

archaeo-logical

contexts

in

which

Nuzi

ware vessels were found.s several pieces

of

this

kind of pottery were discovered in palace contexrs, which supports the hypothesis that it _{indeed suited the tastes of the Mittanian}

_political

_{and economic elite.}

on the other hand,

Nuzi

ware vessels were also found

in

dornestic contexts, suggesting that this _{ware was also appreciated by the so-called sub-elites and even common_}

ers, who _{presumably wanted}

_to

_{imitate the models in vogue in wassukkanni}

and the other main cities of

Miuani.

The diffrrsion

of

Hurrian

personal names

is

another

sign of

the

cuirural

in-fluence

of

Mittani

on its subordinate countries and, at

thelame

time,

a marker

of

their

desire

to

emulate _{the dominant Hurrian elite. The popularity}

_of

_Hurrian names was not restricted to the upper social class; in fact, such names were also

distributed among the

middle

and

lower

classes.

About

55 percent

of

personal names documented in the Nuzi texts are Hurrian

_segri

scafa 2005,

2a7i;

at

Ala-lakh the number of people bearing Hurrian names rose

to

include more than

half

of the population under Mittanian domination, as documented in the texts

ofAlal-akh

IV

(Draffkorn

1959, 117-120; von Dassow 2008, 71_il6).

Hurrian _{names are even documented among the syrian rulers of the countries} that were subordinated to

Mittani

at the

time

Àr suppitutiumas I,s

military

canr_

paigns, such as Agi-Tesob

ofNiya-Tunlp; A}izzi,ruler

_of

eatna;6 §arrupse, who is

mentioned in the treaty concluded by §uppiluliumas

I with

Tette of Nuhasse (De-vecchi 201-5, 186) and in the _earna archive (Richter and Lange

2012,i64_l6s):

and

ragib-§arri,

to whom suppiluliumas

I

gave the country

oiukrtrui

to rule.7

unfortunately

no archive has been discovered

in

Kizzuwatna and u,e do not

know

with

any certainty rvhether

Hurrian

names were documented also

in

this

region. Despite

the lack

of

any

direct

evidence,

we may

suppose that Hurrian

names were also popular

in

this

region,

at

least among the elites:

King

Efeya

bore a

Hurrial

name! and palliya, the name of another king of the Kizzuwatnean

dynasty,

might

also be interpreted as a

Hurrian form

(de

Martino

2011,20n99). As is

well

known, the

Hittite

king Tutbaliya

I

annexed Kizzuwatna to Hatti:

Hit-titologists _{assume that he was married to a Kizzuwatnean princess,}

_Niktal-Madi,

whose name was Hurrian. It was she who introduced Hurriarr names to the

Hittite

court, and several royal princes in the followir.rg generations bore Hurrian names.

At this time Hurrian texts, mostly magic rituals, become known in the

Hittite

capi-tal as

well

as in other centers of the

Hittite

kingdom; we know the Hurrian names

of

some

of

the Kizzuwatnean

rituar

experts, such as

Madi,

Turbiya, paba-nigri, Naniyanni, and §alasu (de

Martino

zoit;.

me

Hurrian itkarzi

riiuai,performed

for

the

Hittite royal

couple Tutl,raliya

II

and

radu-fleba,

and the

Hunian

prayers

@astianoSoldiatBologaaUniversity;thisr'vorkhas

not yet been published and I warmly thank Dr. Soldi for sharing with me the results of his

study on the distribution of Nuzi Ware.

6 _As

is well known. Akizzi tume,ri to Egypt for help; see Richter and Lange 2012. 166. 7 _{See the treary}

-46 _{Stefano de Martino}

recited by members of the royal

family

_{lead us to believe that members of the Hit_} tite court spoke both Hurrian and

Hittite,

although we do not know the extent

of

their competence in either language.

*

only

a very few personal names are documented in the tablex

ofrell

Munbàqa/

Ekalte, which were recently _{pubrished by E. Torrecilla (2014). The onomasticon} of the Ekalte tablets reflects a profound \v'est semitic tradition, and Hurrian

influ-ence san tre seen

in

only

a

few

cases (Torrecilra

z0r4,

z3g). The

chronologr

of

the Tell _{Munbàqa tablets is}

_still

_{a subject of debate; Torrecilla (2014,}

_xiii)

consid-ered the corpus

of

Ekalte texts to be contemporary

with

the Emar syrian tablets.

one

of the oldest Ekalte tablets is Ek 2glìr,IBQ-T 24;

itis

the only

te*t

where

w"

find

_{certain individuals bgaring}

_Hurrian

_{rames, such as the witnesses listed}

on

the tablet, namely

Tulbi-§arri,

the scribe, and Tagiya

(Torreciila

za14,

z41s).

Assuming that this is indeed one of the oldest texts in the Ekalte so{pus,

it might

have been produced near the end of Mittanian domination.

It

is _{wortir noting that}

Hurrian

influence

did

not persist

in

Ekalte after the collapse of

Mittaai.

Hurrian

names are present in the tablets of _{Emar, although they represent a}

_minority

_{in t]1e}

onomasticon of this country

(pruzsinsz§

2003,222--2Si).

The contrast between the diffi.rsion of Hurrian personal names at

Alalakh

and

in the kingdom

ofArraple,

on _{the one hand, and ai}

_rkalte

_{and Emar, on the other} hand,

might

lead us

to

assume _{that the trend toward choosing}

_Hurrian

_personar names ìÀras stronger in _{palace-based societies than}

_{in collectivJ$}

_govemed coun-tries such as Ekalte,

for

example.B sharing

this

assumption,

*à

àight

conclude

that the rise

in

Hurian

_{personal names was not connscted}

_to

_{an increase}

_in

_the

number

of

Hurrian-speaking people

in syria

during the Late Bronze Age, but to

cultural and

political

factors.

Hurrian _{personal names continued}

_to

_{be used after the}

_fall

of Mittani

and in

countries that had not been under

Mittanian

_{authority. Hurrian names are docu_} mented

in

the texts

of ugarit;

t],ey were

in

vogue

mostly

among state officials

(van

soldt

2003), although this might be explained u, u

"on*"qu"ice

of the

pres-tige and influence

ofthe

court ofKarkemis, _{where the rulers}

_{ofthe Hittite}

_dynasty,

who took

power after the conquest

of this

country, bore

Hurrian

names, as did

several high officials.

The case of Karkemis is particularly significant, _{because it shows that the}

Hur-rian cultural tradition survived there, even when

Mittani

was no longer a powerful

and independent _{kingdom. A similar situation might be assumed}

_foi

_Kizzuwatna;

in

fact

the memory of the Hurrian

tradition

remained alive

in

southeastem

Ana-tolia until

the thirteenth century. _{eueen pudu-geba, the}

_wife

_{of the}

_{Hittite king}

I-Iattu§ili

II,

was born in Kizzuwabra. pudu-fleba _{bore a Hurrian name, as did her} father Pendib-§arri; she gave some

of

her children

Hurrian

names too. she was also active in collecting the tablets

ofthe

_{Hurrian fuismnaoriginally stored in}

Kiz-zuwatna and had them copied. This _{happened at} a moment when Hurrian was no Ionger spoken at the

Hittite cour!

the Hurrian texts

written in

this period show several mistakes and, seemingly, Hurrian is considered to be a cult ranguage onry.

8 _{On the}

Relations between the Kingdom of Mitanni and Its Subordinated

Polities

47

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