Harvey Weiss

     Akkadian administrative fortresses were established in northern Mesopotamia and subsequently extended into a network exploiting the dry-farming plains that surround southern Mesopotamia (fig. 30): Susa, Kirkuk (Nuzu), Erbil (Arbilu), Mosul (Ninua), and the eastern Habur Plains (Leilan / Shekhna / Apum, Mozan / Urkesh, and Brak / Nagar) [p. 85].
     At Tell Mozan we do not know the extent of post-Akkadian collapse settlement but, with Tell Brak, the site was probably reorganized as the “Kingdom of Urkesh and Nagar [sic!]” [p. 87].
[There is no indication of an Akkadian imperial presence at ancient Urkesh, and rather the evidence points in the direction of Urkesh having remained independent. Certainly it was a major city long before the Akkadian empire. – The post-imperial Akkadian and the Ur III periods are actually well attested for ancient Urkesh, and there is no indication of a gap in occupation, much less of a long abandonment period. Also, we do not believe that “Urkesh and Nawar” (not Nagar in the original text) subsumes Nagar.– No reference is given in the article to our excavations and/or publications].

[G. Buccellati – January 2002]