NUZI
![](Meso2mil-English.jpg)
A
map of Mesopotamia in 2nd millennium BC, showing Nineveh, Qattara
(or Karana), Dur-Katlimmu, Assur, Arrapha, Terqa, Nuzi, Mari, Eshnunna,
Dur-Kurigalzu, Der, Sippar, Babylon, Kish, Susa, Borsippa, Nippur,
Isin, Uruk, Larsa and Ur, from north to south.
Nuzi
(or Nuzu; Akkadian Gasur; modern Yorghan Tepe, Iraq) was an ancient
Mesopotamian city southwest of the city of Arrapha (modern Kirkuk),
located near the Tigris river. The site consists of one medium-sized
multiperiod tell and two small single period mounds.
History
:
In the middle second millennium the Hurrians founded the town and
called it Nuzi. The history of the site during the intervening period
is unclear, though the presence of a few cuneiform tables from Old
Assyrian Empire indicates that trade with nearby Assur was taking
place. After the fall of the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni to Ashur-uballit
I of the Middle Assyrian Empire, Nuzi fell back into the hands of
the Assyrians and went into gradual decline. Note that while Hurrian
period is well known because those levels of the site were fully
excavated, the earlier history is less firm because of only scant
digging. The history of Nuzi is closely interrelated with that of
the nearby towns of Eshnunna and Khafajah.
Archaeology
:
While tablets from Yorghan Tepe began appearing back as far as 1896,
the first serious archaeological efforts began in 1925 after Gertrude
Bell noticed tablets appearing in the markets of Baghdad. The dig
was mainly worked by Edward Chiera, Robert Pfeiffer, and Richard
Starr under the auspices of the Iraq Museum and the Baghdad School
of the American Schools of Oriental Research and later the Harvard
University and Fogg Art Museum. Excavations continued through 1931.
The site has 15 occupation levels. The hundreds of tablets and other
finds recovered were published in a series of volumes. More finds
continue to be published to this day.
To
date, around 5,000 tablets are known, mostly held at the Oriental
Institute, the Harvard Semitic Museum and the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.
Many are routine legal and business documents and about one quarter
concern the business transactions of a single family. The vast majority
of finds are from the Hurrian period during the second millennium
BC with the remainder dating back to the town's founding during
the Akkadian Empire. An archive contemporary to the Hurrian archive
at Nuzi has been excavated from the "Green Palace" at
the site of Tell al-Fakhar, 35 kilometres (22 mi) southwest of Nuzi.
![](592px-CD-001a-Tablette_de_Ga-Sur.jpg)
Sketch
of the Nuzi map with French legends
Perhaps the most famous item found is the Nuzi map, which is the
oldest known map ever discovered. It is unknown exactly what the
Nuzi map charts, even though the majority of the tablet is preserved.
The Nuzi map is actually one of the so-called Gasur texts, and predates
the invasion of the city of Gasur by the Hurrians, who renamed it
Nuzi. The cache of economic and business documents among which the
map was found date to the Old Akkadian period (ca. 2360–2180
BC). Gasur was a thriving commercial center, and the texts reveal
a varied business community with far reaching enterprises. It is
possible that Ebla was a trading partner, and that the tablet, rather
than a record of land-holdings, might indeed be a road map. The
tablet, which is approximately 6 × 6.5 cm., is inscribed only
on the obverse. It shows the city of Maskan-dur-ebla in the lower
left corner, as well and a canal/river and two mountain ranges.
Nuzi,
a provincial town in the 14th century BC :
The best-known period in the history of Yorghan Tepe is by far one
of the city of Nuzi in the 15th-14th centuries BC. The tablets of
this period indicate that Nuzi was a small provincial town of northern
Mesopotamia at this time in an area populated mostly by Assyrians
and Hurrians, the latter a people well known though poorly documented,
and that would be even less if not for the information uncovered
at this site.
Administration
:
Nuzi was a provincial town of Arrapha. It was administered by a
governor (šaknu) from the palace. The palace, situated in the
center of the mound, had many rooms arranged around a central courtyard.
The functions of some of those rooms have been identified: reception
areas, apartments, offices, kitchens, stores. The walls were painted,
as was seen in fragments unearthed in the ruins of the building.
Archives
that have been exhumed tell us about the royal family, as well as
the organization of the internal administration of the palace and
its dependencies, and the payments various workers received. Junior
officers of the royal administration had such titles as sukkallu
(often translated as "vizier", the second governor), "district
manager" (halsuhlu), and "mayor" (hazannu). Justice
was rendered by these officers, but also by judges (dayanu) installed
in the districts.
Free
subjects of the state were liable to a charge, the Ilku, which consisted
of a requirement to perform various types of military and civilian
services, such as working the land.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Nuzi