In Search of HURRIAN URKESH

GIORGIO BUCCELLATI and MARILYN KE LLY-BUC C E LLAT I

he thousands of mid-second-millennium B.C. documents unearthed at Boghazkoy, Turkey, the T site of the Hittite capital of Hattusha, include several collections of myths dealing with ancient heroes and gods. In the most important group of these myths, however, the heroes and gods are not Hittite; they are Hurrian, and their stories are set , not in but in Syro-Mesopotamia, where ’ Hurrian-speaking people lived. These myths, the so- called Cycle, are Hittite translations of 7 Hurrian stories. Some of them are even inscribed on bilingual tablets in both Hittite and Hurrian. 16 MAY/JUNE 2001 I ODYSSEY 1

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Preceding pages: Tish-atal, king of The Kumarbi Cycle consists of stories appeared on the antiquities market; the Urkesh, reads part of the Hurrian about one of the principal Hurrian gods, lions are inscribed with a text in which a inscription on this 5-inch-high bronze Kumarbi, and his family. (The fittites took kmg by the name of TEh-atal boasts of hav- foundation peg, now in the Louvre. Kumarbi’s son , the storm god, as ing bdt a temple in Urkesh. But since the About 5,000 years ago, the their main god.)” Kumarbi rules over a city provenance of these lions is not known, the entered Mesopotamia, settling in location of the city until recently was also present-day northern Syria. They named Urkesh. In one story, Kumarbi’s son adapted cuneiform script to write their Silver is sent to live with his mother in the Unknown. language, and by the mid-second mountainous countryside, where another Our excavations, however, have proved millennium B.C.-with the rise of the child, an orphan, torments him by telhg that Urkesh was located at the remote north Hurrian Mittani kingdom-their myths him that he has been abandoned by his Syrian site of Tell Mozan. There we have and gods were known from the father and that he, too, is just an “orphan”: found a number of short Hurrian inscrip- River to the Mediterranean and central tions, mostly on seal impressions, or bul- Anatolia. Weeping, Silver went into his house. lae-lumps of moist clay impressed with The most prominent city in Hurrian Silver began to repeat the words to his seals (which, at Tell Mozan, are cylindrical lore is Urkesh, home of the god mother His mother turned around and ... in shape) to secure documents or shipments Kumarbi. Until this bronze figurine began to reply to Silver, her son ... turned up on the antiquities market, in of goods. The name “Urkesh” appears on “Your father is Kumarbi, the Father of 1948, it was not known whether several seal impressions that also give the the city of Urkesh ... Your brother is Urkesh was an actual city. Even then, name and Hurrian title of the king: Teshub. He is king in . Your however, since no one knew where the “Tupkish, the endan (king) of Urkesh.” statue came from, the location of sister is Shauska, she is queen in and Here, then, is the city made famous in the ancient Urkesh remained a mystery. Nineveh. You must not fear any other ancient Near East by the elegant religious Just a few years ago, authors Giorgio god; only one deity (Kumarbi) must you Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati lore of the Hurrians. fear” ... Silver listened to his mother’s found tiny seal impressions stamped We began looking for a Hurrian site to I words. He set out for Urkesh, but he did with the place-name ”Urkesh“ at Tell excavate in the early 1980s. Although we not find Kumarbi in his house. Kumarbi Mozan (shown above, looking from the were interested in the Hurrians, we were had gone off to roam the lands.’ north), in northern Syria, confirming not specifically looking for Urkesh-just the existence and the location of the Hurrian city of myth. We know that Urkesh was not just the for a third-millennium B.C. city that might central city of Hurrian myth. It was a real tell us about Hurrian urban civilization. At city as well. In 1948, two bronze lions that time, very little was known about the enigmatic Hurrians, and there are still *See E.C. Krupp, “Sacred Sex in the Hittite Temple of Yazilikaya,” Archaeology Ck&ssey, MarcWApril 2OOO. many gaps in our knowledge. The name "Hunian" refers to a language found in Syro-Mesopotamia during the third and second millennia B.C. Its only known rel- ative is Urartian, a language attested in eastern Anatolia in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C." As a result of our excava- tions, we believe that Hurrian speakers, or Hunians, were present in northern Syro- Mesopotamia at least by the beginning of the third millennium B.C. They adapted the cuneiform script devised by the Sumeri-and used by the Babylonians and Assyrians to write forms of Akkadian- to write their own language. Until recently, almost nothing was known about the Hurrians as an ethnic group (see writer Agatha Christie, surveyed the site in - box, p. 24) or a political entity. That is one 1934. He dug three trenches and noted some *2auc reason we hoped to hdan early Hurrian surface remains. The most detailed account city that might enhghten us about the ori- of Mallowan's work at Tell Mozan is in gins of these people. Christie's memoir Come Tell Me Hqw You Tell Mozan was promisii. It was the only Liue, in which she reports that he interpreted large third-millennium B.C. site in the gen- the tell as Roman and moved on to another eral area from which the lions of TEh-atal site. For years, on the strength of Agatha were reputed to have come and where Christie's brief description, Tell Mozan had Hurrian myths seemed to situate Urkesh. a reputation as a Roman-period site. Tell Mom had previously been investigated, In 1984 we began excavations at the tell. but only briefly. The British archaeologist Almost immediately we discovered a large Max Mallowan, husband of the mystery temple lying near the surface at the top of the mound, which rises some 80 feet above "Most dohbelieve that Hunian and Urartian derive h the surroundmg plain. From associated seal asinglelanguageandthattheseiwobranchesbmkeoffsome- time in the late fourth or early third millennium B.C. impressions and pottery we dated this tem-

ODYSSEY 1 MAYlJUNE 2001 19 Ip 1 -f

610RGIO AND YARILYN KELLY IUCCELLAlI

In 1990 the Buccellatis began ple to about 2500 B.C. Enclosing the tell We now have seven impressions belong- uncovering a substantial building was a city wall more than 20 feet high and ing to the king. In one fragment, courtiers at the foot of the westem end of 25 feet thick, dating to around 2600 B.C. offer the king presents or tribute, including the tell. After several seasons of Although our initial surveys turned up only what appears to be a skein of wool. Another work they could identify the build- scant architectural remains and few extremely elaborate bulla (see pp. 24-25) ing as a palace, largely because of shows the king seated, with a lion crouched the numerous seal impressions objects-a stone lion, a stone relief associ- they found scattered on the build- ated with the temple and some seal impres- under the throne. At Urkesh, as throughout ing’s floor. (All of the seal impres- sions-we knew that this was just what we the Near East, lions often represented royal sions from Tell Mozan were made were loohfor. authority. On our bull+ a child stands on by rolling a cylindrical seal, proba- Our major discovery came six years later. the lion’s mane and touches the kmg‘s lap. bly carved of semiprecious stone, In the 1990 season we cut a stepped trench The child‘s association with the lion prob- over a lump of moist clay, thus on the western side of the mound, which ably identifies him as the crown prince; in sealing a document or a shipment a touchmg the kq‘s lap, he is confirming a of goods.) The impressions exca- ends in large flat area at the base of the vated at the palace are all royal; tell. Here the line of squares forming our pledge made to the king, his father (Si- they show various activities per- trench traversed a series of moms. It was B larly, in Genesis 24:2, Abraham instructs his formed at court, from gatherings well-preserved building, which we later servant to confirm a vow by placing his of the royal family to the preporo- determined was the royal palace. The accu- hand “under his [Abraham’s] thigh”). One tion of royal meals. Some of the mulation above the floor contained numer- last element completes the scene on the impressions have inscriptions in ous seal impress;onS. By 1998 we had found impression: Standing before the king is a Humanincluding references to rigid, formal, humanlike figure holdmg an the king, the queen and, most almost 2,000 seahngs, about 170 of them important of all for the identifica- insrribed. AU the inscribed seals me %yd”- offering cup over a larger bowl. Given that tion of the site, the city itself that is, they refer to the lang, the queen or this elegant figure is associated with an Urkesh. one of their courtiers-and they present an eight-pointed star, and that a bull behind intimate tableau of Hurrian court life toward the king is looking not at the lung but at the end of the third millennium B.C. the stan+ (remember that the orig-

20 MAYlJUNE 2001 1 ODYSSEY I 9 Day in the Ute: Hurrian Nuzi A government official is embroiled in a sex famous Nuzi ceramic lions, marbleized glass scandal and accused of misappropriating vessels, brass jewelry and an unusual capper government propew. A strong-willed woman tablet dealing with a transfer of land. sues her mistress for her freedom. A poor The exhibit also contains foreign objects fellow loses his mother, sister and household excavated at Nwi, including Egyptian blue gods to his creditors. beads. In addition, a frieze from the mayor‘s Just the daily fare of your supermaket palace showing the Egyptian Hathor tabloids? Not at all. These stories were and Mycenaean-style bulls has been reproduced recoded some 3,500 years ago on cuneiform on the walls of the exhibition gallery. These tablets in the north Mesopotamian town of serve as a reminder that while Nuri may have Nuzi-now the subject of an ongoing exhibition been a quiet, provincial, agricultural town, it at Howard‘s Semitic Museum, NUU’ and the flourished at a time when large powers were Hunians: Fmgmenb from a Forgotten post. forming alliances with one another. Egyptian Archives and objects excavated at Nuzi pharaohs corresponded not only with Hi’& and provide a picture of small-town life in the Canaanite kings, but also with the rulers of the ancient Near East. The 14inch-high, house- Human Miani kingdom. Mittani kings sent shaped object shown at right, for example, was their daughters to many Egyptian princes (see r used to make divine offerings-pehaps to the Gemot Wilhelm, ‘When a MiniPrincess v goddess lshtor (called Shauska by the Joined Pharaoh’s Harem,” p. 28). Hittite and fi Hunians). Found in a modest dwelling, the cult Assyrian kings worshiped Human gods, and stand may have once held incense, fruit or musicians at , on Syria’s Mediirmnean grain. Also on display at the museum are the coast, performed Hunian compositions.

inal seal was cylindrical), it may be that the If, as was usually the case in Near figure represents a deity. The image on the Eastern royal families, Tupkish had more bda, then, provides an intimate view of than one wife, the queen’s seals may have future dynastic succession, with the son ful- served as campaign ads, so to speak. llhg the wishes of the father. If the stand- Uqnitum would naturally have wanted her ing figure is divine in nature, then it also own son to succeed to the crown, so she suggests a more cosmic theme: The gods may have had seals carved depicting the fill the bowl from which the lion, symbol of royal family as an ensembl-d inscribed kingly power, drinks. not only with “wife of Tupkish” but also Ten seal impressions belong to the with the more regal “queen,” or the mother queen. One is inscribed “Uqnitum, the wife of the crown prince. of Tupkish”-and we know that Tupkish We have bdae showing a whole range is the king, so Uqnitum is his queen. This of court activities. One belongs to the king’s bulla (see pp. 22-23) contains a lovely majordomo (literally, the throne-bearer) ; family portrait: On the right side, the another, to Queen Uqnitum’s ’nurse, crown prince-almost identical to the Zamena. We found a sealing depictmg the youngster in the king’s seal-again touches royal cook churning butter and the royal the lap of the enthroned king; on the left, butcher slaughtering a goat. Another intngu- the mother-queen, seated on a level with ing scene on one of our seal impressions the king, holds a small child on her lap. shows a lively animal combat scene, a In another seal, which reads “Uqnitum, theme frequently found in the Akkadian the queen,” the frame with the inscription south-possibly this seal was carved in runs horizontally over the bent back of the Akkad and belonged to a visiting Akkadian queen’s servants, as if to declare visually dignitary. In short, the entire royal court is her power. involved in this assemblage of sealugs with

ODYSSEY MAY/JUNE 2001 21 the use of the Hurrian language in a the inscriptions-suggests that it was the product of a single, organized Hurrian polity. The most critical evidence, however, has to do with where the impressions were excavated. We found them in the accumulation on the first floor of the building-

_- - fmm various parts of the hgdom, or some- times from foreign kingdoms (we found a bulla with the impression of a seal that 'probably had been carved in southern Mesopotamia, showing an Akkadian motif of the sun god Shamash rising). These con- tainers were marked for the kmg, the queen or the royal administration, and then they "Uqnitum, the wife of Tupkish" its rich and complex typology. The multi- were pt into storage. When they were (elsewhere identified 0s the "endon plicity of examples suggests that Urkesh was opened for use, fragments of the sealings (king) of Ulkesh") is inscribed on indeed the central city of a Hurrian king- were scattered over the floor-for us to find the seal impression above (see the dom, just as the myths describe. Although some 42 centuries later. There can be no top drawing opposite). This bulla we do not yet know how far Urkesh's power doubt that the "Urkesh" mentioned in the shows on intimate scene in the life reached, this kingdom was a substantial, sealings is the site where they were found. of Urkesh's royal family, with the king and queen seated on a level complex political entity in the third millen- Our excavation of these seal impressions with one onother, the princess nium B.C. is emblematic of our work, and possibly of perched on Uqnitum's lop, and the How do we know that the sealings were the work of archaeologists in general. We young prince reaching for his not simply dumped at Mozan? Could they have uncovered a large area, and yet so father's knee. A very different have come from somewhere else? No. The much of our information comes from these court scene is shown in the bot- coherence of the assemblage-including tiny fragments. The cylinder seals (and tom drawing opposite: Here the several depictions of the crown prince, impressions) from Urkesh are never more royal butcher slaughters a goat and the royal cook chums butter. repeated references to "Uqnitum" and than an inch high; and since we find only The drawing at right shows o "Urkesh," the seals' similarity in design, and' fragments, we generally deal with pieces group of fighting animals, which WOE a common motif in southem Mesopotamiccpossiblyindicating that this seal belonged to a travel- ing Akkadian dignitary. L

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about the size of a thumbnail. We have col- Besides identifymg Tell Mozan as Hurrian lected about 10,000 clay lumps resembling Urkesh, our excavations demonstrate that seal impressions. These lumps are found in Hurrian civhzation developed in northern a matrix of clay not unlike the clay from Mesopotamia much earlier than formerly which the sealings were made, so we can- believed. For example, a distinguished ency- not clean or study them on the spot, but clopedia of Near Eastern archaeology, pub- must wait until they dry out in the labora- lished just four years ago, observes that the tories of our field house. Of the 10,000 evidence indlcates “a Hurrian presence in lumps collected, so far some 2,000 have northern Syria and Anatolia as early as 2000 turned out to be impressionsand onlyfiur B.C.E.”* That is the common view: that of these contained the name “Urkesh,” the first Hurrian kingdoms, including allowing us to identify the site. The daunt- Urkesh, came into existence at the very end ing contrast between the vastness of the dig, of the thd millennium B.C. as a result of with tons of excavated material, and the the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in minuteness of the key fragments is a source southern Mesopotamia. of pride: Only trained archaeologistswork- The evidence we continue to uncoveq how- ing with our methods could retrieve and ever, keeps pushing back the origins of make sense of these data. Hunian civilization in northern Mesopotamia.

ODYSSEY I MAYIJUNE 2001 23 tical to that found in the temple. For the farmer, this meant that he could not dig his well (a decision he accepted most gra- ciously). For us, it meant that by the mid- dle of the third millennium B.C. this Hurrian site was not confined to official buildmgs on the high mound but extended down to the plain. By 2500 B.C., Urkesh was a formidable urban center occupying almost 300 acres, one of the largest in Syna during this period. This may not seem very big to a modern city dweller, but it was big- ger than , one of the great centers of ancient Syro-Mesopotamia. In a gesture of absolute obedi- The temple built at the summit of the tell, as Also in 1998 we were joined by a team ence, the crown prince touches his we have seen, dates to 2500 B.C. Moreover, from the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft father's lap on the bulla shown this temple was not an isolated smcture, as (German Oriental Society), directed by Peter above. Fedmwing opposite was acavations &ed out in 1998 showed. Pfrilzner of Tiibingen University, which has constructed from a number of On the plain at the northern edge of the undertaken a three-year project to investi- bullae fmgments impressed with the same seal.) The prince site, we had to make a sounding because a gate domestic architecture in ancient Urkesh. on a lion, which is a common local farmer wanted to dig an irrigation well. The German team cut a long trench from Near Eastem symbol of royal Here we discovered evidence of an admin- the temple to its own excavations south of authority. Facing the king is a the temple. This trench uncovered evidence istrative building containingv material iden- solemn standing figure, probably a j - deity, associated with a star and 1 i______. holding a cup. The rich imagery I on this seal suggests that the Trait Clusters, or How to Find a Hurrian City tableau represents a kind of royal , We hove been culling Tell MomnAJrkesh an Earfv trait, in and of itsew, defines ethnic identity. ideology: The gad-like figure Bronze 4e(3150-2200 B.C.) Hurrian city. But Worshiping o certain deity, speaking a common replenishes the bowl from which how can you identify an archaeologicul site as language, cooking a particular dish or wearing a the lion, symbol of kingly authority, belonging to a specific ethnic group? distinctive garment may be powerful symbols drinks. In other words, the gods 1 of Material culture is little use, for there is ethnicity, but none alone constitubs ethnic themselves nourish and sustainr ' of Urkesh's rulers. no brood consensus as to what, if anything, identity. What is specifically ethnic involves might be distinctively "Human" in ceramic clusters of hits. There might also come a point manufacture, artistic style, architeduml when a trait cbrevolves into something quite design-in the things you find in excavations. different and, therefore, ethnic identification How can you identify a city's material remains altek-for example, from English to American as Human until you've already found a Human or Australian. The point is that ethnic identity is city to use as an exemplar? a slippery concept, especially in dealing with the Ethnic solidarity involves the awareness of a. material remains of o longgone civiliion. special type of self-identity on the part of a We have fodcuneiform texts at Ukesh social group. It spans many genemtions. It is not with Humon names. But a few nomes are not necessarily linked to specific organizational a sufficient indication of ethnic idem, mechanisms, such as an adminimotive particularly when just as many other names in appamtus. It develops an ideology of solidarity the texts are not Human. For example, the that is rooted m kinship. And it is rich in symbols names of the king (liupkish), the nurse affirm its Cdresiveness. (Zamena) ond the cook (Tuli) are Human, but gi.All these factors contribute to the the names of the queen (Uqnitum) and another development of shared cultural traits, which we official (Innin-shadu) are Akkadian. can observe and recognize. However, no single In the end, we must look at recurring dusters

24 MAY/JUNE 2001 I ODYSSEY '%"' \

of a huge stone and brick plat- + form (or terrace), which dates to about 2700 B.C. The ancient platform rose, ziggurat-like, to a 5: height only slightly lower than the 32' i present summit of the tell. On top of +: the platform, presumably, rested an .$@$:-T earlier temple, which would have -2 been visible for miles. As early as 2700 B.C., then, a Hurrian tern- ple may have soared into the k$ 1;8::. .Y Syrian sky from a magnificent _.. . ?, .. *y;T*i.. .,,;..k,??:.::.-:.:.3~.~~;*:..-$.f::,y: pedestal. *:-: . This is as far as our excavations have *..**;-.. ... :. :~2~~~;G$?$$.... +.. -:.. . ..$...$.* taken us. We suspect, however, that the plat- 1. *:...:A& , .:,:. .-- form, too, was built on top of an even earlier * .*.....A * * *' smcw+-pmhg the origins of Hurrian l&an life back to the early rninennium %,...-; ..,,. ;..&.;*3F,F B.C. If so, the H& began bd&-,g their ..:n.-t.r:.::;cS? .i:... ,,. :. . --$*fl?Q&;{* Cities mund the same time the Egyptians, - k-.. . ;x ; that .. ..:?.%?&... 'hundreds of miles to the southwest, began to 6'*%o IN build their dynames. So far, only a few Hurrian urban centers -

of tmits in order to identify a site as belonging to original landrcope--yvherethe congruence of one ethnic group or another. Following are mountains and cities-is central, and where several tmits that identify Ubhas Human: phenomena like voldnic eruptions are described Besides having Human names, the kings of with a vividness that suggests direct experience. Urkesh beor the distinctively Human title (This rootedness in a certain landscape may endan, not used elsewhere in ancient Sp- explain why the Hittite translations of Human Mesopotamia. Urkesh's rulers, and perhaps m*s keep so faiilly to the north Meso- their subjects, identified themselves as a potamian seth'ngs.) These texts, in other words, specifically Human political entity. are not only written in Human; they also reflect More importantly, there are political and a distinctive physical world. It is the myths, not religious texts written in Human and referring just their language, that is Human. And Urkesh to Urkesh. This implies not only a common plays a central role in this mythology. language and some level of liiracy but also Once we establish a basic Human duster'of shared social and cultural tmdtions. Tectt like traits, other characteristicsfall into line. The the Kumahi Cycle develop over tim-ot only realism of the Human glyptic style (the practice does the language have to find a script (in this of carving or engm'ng on cylinder seals); the case, cuneiform) but the oral stories have to be peculiar recunence of gestures, such as the collected, written down, and perhaps edited. touching of the lap; the suggestion that a special The Human stories were eventually passed on meal of lamb and cream may have been to other cultures, meaning that something important to the royal house (as shown on the specifically Human lasted long enough to COOKSseal); the stone architecture. If some or become known to its neighbors. all of these traits are found at a site, then it, too, Moreover, the mytl emselves describe an may well be Human.-G .B

ODYSSEY I MAY/JUNE 2001 25 have, been found. There is a narrow strip of land flanking the lower ridges of the Taurus mountains that we call the Hurrian “urban ledge.” All of the Hurrian cities of the third millennium B.C.-especially Tell 1 Chuera, Urkesh, Nineveh and (further east) Kumme, as they are named in Hurrian myths-were located along this ledge. So little is known about7 the Hurrians that This urban ledge forms an arc at the the excavators are sometimes at loss to southern edge of a mountainous area explain their finds. That’s true of the deli- ‘ extending north into the Anatolian plateau. cote small bone carving at right: Not much can be said about it because there is noth- It thus lies at the border of a vast hinter- ing to compare it to. land, where materials that were essential to Much of what we do know about Urkesh early urban civilization were found: copper comes from hundreds of seal impressions. for malung weapons,* and timber and stone But these bullae do not yield their informa- for building houses, temples, walls and tion easily. Most of them are now almost- palaces. The Hurrian cities were, in a sense, illegible fragments smaller than a fingemail. gateways to the southern Mesopotamian They must also be carefully separated from the earth in which they were found-a urban centers. There were relatively few of painstaking duty performed by the exma- them, but they were strategically located tors at Tell Mozan’s excavation field house along the arc that controlled access to the (author Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati examines mountain hinterland. This hinterland, we sherds in the photo below). believe, is the Nawar mentioned in an inscription of another king, Atal-shen, “king of Urkesh and Nawar.” In the third millennium B.C., the moun- tainous hinterland adjacent to the Hurrian ~ e cities had no large urban settlements. Probably the inhabitants were also Hurrian -living in villages or small towns, but tied by language and tradition to the cities on the urban ledge, includmg Urkesh. The “Song of Silver,” we believe, ie Hurrian can be read =“an allegory describing pre- cisely this ethnic situation. The boy Silver is 3 sent from Urkesh to live with his mother in 1:z the mountainous countryside, where he plays - with the other boys but also comes into con- - flict with them. His father, the god Kumarbi, f resides in Urkesh, a sort of ancestral home. The story suggests a kind of kinship relation between the people of the mountains and the people of the city. Ancient Hurrians may well have recogIllzed their own hpstic and ethnic ties to the mountain loggers and cop-

26 MAY/JUNE 2001 I ODYSSEY per miners in Silver’s pilgrimage to Urkesh. The lungs of Urkesh could count on their ethnic ties with the mountain populations to mure access to resourm-even if the lungs rted no direct administrative or military r the rural hinterland. This kind

territories are con- I not transferable to the con This may account for the any Hurrian cities. With our excavations, one of those cities is gradually coming to light. As we learn more about Urkesh, we also learn more about the amazing, if largely unknown (at least to the non-archaeological world), Hurrian civilization. Some 5,000 years ago, when the Sumerians and the Akkadians were building new urban cultures in the south, so were the Hurrians in the north. And their influence continued long into the second mil- lennium and spread to wider geographical areas. In late-second-dennium B.C. Ugarit on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, archaeolo- gists have found the world’s first known musical score, used to record the tune of a Hurrian religious hymn. Our excavations at Urkesh will continue to bring even more about the Hurrians to light! Archaeolgist Peter Pfalzner of ThL article L .d.pt.dJ;.rn a longer manuscript Tiibingen University, in Germany, by the authors. has uncovered portions of a plat- form (above) beneath the temple ’ Adapted from Hany A. Hoffner, Jr., trans., “Song of Silver,” in Hittite Myths (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998), at the top of the tell. From associ- p. 49. ated pottery, this platform can be ’ Diana L. Stein, “Hunians,” in The OzfidE~h& dated to about 2700 B.C., hun- ofhhaeology in the Near East, ed. Eric. M. Meyers dreds of years earlier than the (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997, vol. 3, p. 126. Hurrians once were thought to be building cities.

ODYSSEY I MAYIJUNE 2001 27