TEXTS

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Categories of texts

The texts found at Mozan, or originating from Urkesh, are relatively few, but they offer a varied typology.

• Royal Inscriptions. – There are only two, of Atal-šen and Tiš-atal, neither found during regular excavations, and they are attributed to Urkesh because of their content. The publication of the first of these, the one by Atal-šen, marks the first time the name of Urkesh appeared in print (see Thureau-Dangin 1912).
• Seal legends. – The short inscribed legend on seals have provided the larger amount of information from material excavated at Tell Mozan. A comprehensive edition is given elsewhere, that includes a few as yet unpublished.
• Administrative texts. – Two medium size tablets have been published from the residential area F1. Others were found from the Palace AP and from the residential quarter C2. Only two small tablets are complete (A7.341 and A10.377): the first of these is of major importance, because it attests the use of Hurrian as the language in which administrative texts were read. There is also a large number of small fragments, which are published here for the first time.
• Letters. – Two small fragments were found in the excavations. Otherwise, there is a number of letters originating from Urkesh but found at Mari and written by the vassal rulers Terru and Haziran, vassals of Zimri-Lim. They do not seem to have resided in Urkesh on a regular basis.
• School texts. – A small school text (A1j1) was found in the Palace AP. It is a complete exercise tablet with 7 lines from a lexical list known from Ebla, Abu Salabikh and Gasur. A number of other small fragments and of anepigraphic tablets attest to an active school in the Palace area.
• Other texts. – The only other text consists of two signs (É.LUḪ) written on a sherd found on the surface.

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Presentation format

The texts are given here with a full edition (cf. section TYPOLOGY/Texts”). Within each respective typological category, they are sorted by order of publication, followed by the unpubished ones.

The presentation consists of three parts, explained below, with an example for each.

(1) One or more thumbnails photo. Clicking on the thumbnail opens a separate full window.

(2) Descriptive information. The “date” entry gives the date that is considered most suitable by the entry author, with a link to the chronological chart where bibliographical details are given. Additional categories are added as needed, for instance to refer to special publication numbers where available. If required, footnotes are appended immediately below the table.

(3) The text, in four columns, is arranged as follows:

1. the sequential number of lines,
2. the graphemic transliteration,
3. the phonemic transcription (occasionally this is omitted),
4. a morpho-lexical translation.

If required, footnotes are appended immediately below the table, with reference to the line number.

¹⁴ Lines 14-17 and 18-20 are written on the left and right border.
²⁰ The last two signs are written one above the other.
²¹ Line 21 is written on the right edge. It is given by Salvini, and omitted in Frayne.

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Diacritics

Special diacritics used in transliteration:

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Concordance

A full concordance is offered here of all transliterated texts, following the system that has been applied to the texts from Ebla and to the Old Babylonian royal letters.