Mesopotamian Origins. The Basic Population of the Near East.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; London: Oxford University Press.
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In this volume, Speiser retraces the different cultures who inhābited Mesopotamia and its neighbouring areas.
Chapter 1 is a general methodological introduction about the many different theories about population in that area.
Chapter 2 is about Elam and Sumer in the epigraphical sources.
Chapter 3 deals with the earliest civilizations of the Near East.
Chapter 4 presents Lullu and Guti.
Chapter 5 is the most related to Urkesh, since it is focused on the Kassites and the Hurrians, discussing also the names ‘Subartu’, ‘Mittani’, ‘Hanigalbat’ and presenting the contacts between Hurrians and the Levant, Syria-Palestine (speaking about a ‘Hurrian substratum’), Elam, Assyria and Babylon, crossing textual-mythological sources (Gilgamesh, flood and pre-flood stories), ending with a paragraph on the relations between the Hābiru and the Hurrians.
Chapter 6 concludes the volume with other contacts: Anatolia and Armenia, ‘Haldian’, Eurasia, ‘Japhetithes’, crossing topics related to ethnic origins, physical characteristics and struggles.
More in detail, Urkesh is quoted in the following spots:
- on p. 130, quoting Mittanian linguistic elements outside the middle-Euphrates area;
- on p. 148, regarding documents of Ur III period mentioning proper names hinting to a Hurrian presence in areas to the east of the Tigris, such as Urbilum, Nawar, Urkesh, Kakmi. On the latter page also a reference to Arisen, king of Urkesh, is presented.
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