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Subartu Exhibit

Urkesh poster 7

Laerke Recht – August 2017

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     Writing
     Cuneiform tablets from Urkesh: The texts that were found in Mozan and pertaining to Urkesh are relatively few. But they reflect the dynamic cultural environment of the city through different types of texts. The 2 royal inscriptions that were found outside the regular excavation of the mission, pertain to Urkesh, to kings Atal-shen and Tish-atal. A school text was also found and it includes a school exercise with 7 lines of a lexical list known also from Ebla, Abou Salabikh and Gassur. Two fragments from a tablet were also found during excavations. A number of letters were found in Mari. Their source is Urkesh. These letters were written by Tiru and Hazarian, the rulers of Mari king Zimri-lim.

     Door seal with the impression of king’s Ishar-napshum seal

     Seal of the cook: This seal pertains to the cook (the head chef and the person responsible for the main meals and banquets). The seals were found in the kitchen, and we have about 70 fragments of 2 different seals, with similar scenes, but different details.
     The seal of the nurse: The queen’s nurse had 2 seals. She was responsible for the education of the crowned prince, the son of the king, who appears on this seal to the right. Although the queen has an Akkadian name, both the cook and the nurse have Hurrian names.