Ignace Jay Gelb 1944

Marco De Pietri – July 2019

Hurrian and Subarians.
Studies in ancient Oriental Civilization, 22,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pagina Web

This volume was one of the first works about the problem of the identification of Hurrian and Subarians people and the relationships between them.

Chapter 1 presents an overview on previous studies on the topic (including Speiser’s ‘early’ and ‘new’ interpretation and Ungnad’s theory about Subartu), displaying the main textual sources (Amarna letters, Hurrian personal names from Kirkuk, Nippur and Dilbat, Hittite texts, tablets from Nuzi and Gasur documents). Further comments about recent (at that time) excavations and studies are reported in the last two paragraphs.

Chapter 2 discusses the equation of Hurrians with Subarians: firstly, the author provides a definition of terms ‘Mittannian’, ‘Hurrian’ and ‘Subarian’; then, he moves on exposing the pars construens and the pars dextruens about this alleged identification, supporting in the end a distinction between the two ethnonyms.

Chapter 3 retraces the paths of Subarian history from the early traces (ḪA.A^KI Dynasty) to the Late Bronze age, always referring to textual sources (from Mesopotamia, Syria, the Levant, Anatolia and Egypt).

Chapter 4 summarizes the history of the Hurrians, redefining the terminology (‘Mittanni’, ‘&#7722anigalbat’, ‘Ḫurri’ and ‘Naḫrīma’) from the earliest attestations, throughout the Old Assyrian and Old Babylonian periods, the middle and second millennium BC until the late Bronze Age and the last attestations of Hurrian personal names in Early and Middle Iron Age (considering, as for the previous chapter, sources of different provenience).

Chapter 5 traces the conclusion about the distinction between Hurrians and Subarians.

Three appendices are also added at the end of the volume: 1) Subartu in synonyms lists and syllabaries (discussing the terms ‘ḪA.A^KI‘, ‘A.ḪA^KI’ and ‘bur_x‘); 2) Subarian personal names of the Ur III period and the First Dynasty of Babylon; 3) Hurrian personal names of the Ur III period.