Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati 2005

“Urkesh and the North: Recent Discoveries,”
Studies on the Civilization and Culture of the Nuzi and the Hurrians 15, General Studies and Excavations at Nuzi 11/1, pp. 3-28.

The geographical position of Urkesh implies that the city was “a meeting point for cultural traditions both northern and southern” (p. 29, abstract). This paper investigates the connection of Urkesh with Southern Mesopotamia and with the ETC in the North, in the light of archaeological evidences.

After an introduction, summarising the importance of the sealings of Tupkish, Uqnitum, Tarāam-Agade and their courtiers found at the site, the author describes (in paragraph 1) seal iconography as a distinctly Hurrian element [Zamena’s sealings are specifically analysed].

Paragraph 2 presents the main, potentially cultural indicators of Hurrian culture: 1) the andirons [as for the ‘ethnical’ interpretation of the andirons, see Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 2007 and Buccellati 2010, paragraph 4; for the conservation of the andirons, see Bonetti and G. Buccellati 2003] and 2) the ETC pottery [see mostly Buccellati and Kelly-Buccellati 2007].

Paragraph 3 presents a unique cylinder seal (A15.270) discovered in 2003 in a deposit of the palace [“an accumulation of phase 3 (which we have called the Palace Dependency Period, dating to Tar’am-Agade” (p. 36, n. 15)], displaying “a unique iconography of a ritual scene depicted as it was taking place, a snapshot as it were of the ritual. The iconography is very distinctive and may give experience of a Hurrian religious setting” (p. 36) [see here for pictures of the seal: A15 items]; about the interpretation of the scene, “while it is impossible to know what specific ritual is taking place here, the closeness of this seal to the iconographic style of the seals of Tupkish, the Hurrian king of Urkesh, suggests that this might very well reflect a Hurrian ritual enactment. In the later Hurrian-Hittite texts the usual offering to the weather-god was a sacrificed bull” (p. 39).

Comparisons with other Anatolian (e.g. from Kültepe) seals and sealings strengthens this idea.

In conclusion, “this juxtaposition of Hurrian and Akkadian cultural traditions is what makes the culture of the city of Urkesh during the later part of the third millennium so intriguing and unique” (p. 40).