Nuzi and Tigunanum

chapter 5 Nuzi and Tigunanum

As a consequence of post-colonial theory, attention has increased for topics such as resistance, appropriation and ‘modes of contact’. Rather than seeing the development of writing methods as the direct outcome of new manage- ment structures, it should be seen as the continuous transformation of communication. That is why this chapter will begin by considering the regional centre of Nuzi – located in Arrapḫa (see Maps) and one of the most eastern vassals of the Mittani Empire. It was a Hurrian speaking entity, incorporated into the Mittani sphere of influence, near Aššur. Yet, the development of its writing and, as far as it is known, outward communication differed notably. Next, we will go back in time a few centuries, to the mysterious northern city of Tigunanum. Again, a probably Hurrian entity – with a script that no one has quite been able to classify as (Late) Old Babylonian. So where did the people of cities like Nuzi and Tigunanum come from, and who did they identify with? What is the significance of the Hurrian identity in their communication, and what do their scripts look like from a Mittanian point of view?

5.1 Introduction to Nuzi

The available socio-economic information on Nuzi from its tablets makes the settlement an appropriate case-study for comparative palaeography. Where it is traditionally assumed that writing habits were imposed from above (by large Imperial powers), it is likewise possible they arose through other contacts (smaller neighbours, trade, immigration) (Van de Mieroop 1999: 37). The scribes at Nuzi had a unique style, featuring elements borrowed from other areas, and potentially carried across their own influence elsewhere. The world system as well as the acculturation model (Binford & Binford 1968) wrongly view periph- eries or recipient cultures as passive groups, lacking in agency or the capacity to act in pursuit of their own goals or interests. Local systems of power and authority coexisted with, and often resisted, centralised governments, allowing room for the expression of individual identity (Yoffee 2005).1 Especially with regard to the Hurrians, it has been suggested that smaller communities selec- tively borrowed elements from other cultures, by their own choice, rather than being dominated by a larger power (Stein 2002).

1 Also see Goody (1986) on connections between literacy and state formation.

Notably, in his PhD thesis on Hurrian orthographic interference in Nuzi Akkadian, Smith concluded that the situation in Nuzi shifted towards Hurrian: second generation scribes show more Hurrian tendencies than their predeces sors (2007: 209). In the past, it was believed that the native Nuzi language was a relative of Elamite (Oppenheim 1936: 63), but it was quickly recognised as Hurrian instead (Speiser 1936: 136). However, the texts found at Nuzi are composed in a spe- cial form of Akkadian (Berkooz 1937: 5). As in the Mittanian heartland, Akkadian was used for official purposes, while Hurrian was used in everyday conversation (Wilhelm 1989). The majority of Nuzi personal names are Hurrian and Hurrian elements appear in many of the documents (Gelb et al. 1943).2 Hurrian influence shines through in vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and orthography and phonology, and language at Nuzi has tentatively been called a ‘third Akkadian dialect’ (Goetze 1938: 143) or ‘Peripheral Akkadian’ (Morrison et al. 1993: 3).3 Because of the availability of so many interconnected personal names, emphasis in Nuzi studies has been on reconstructing family trees. For instance, Purves highlighted the need to classify Nuzi texts by chronological order and scribal group as early as 1940 (although this task still awaits completion today). Since the tablets were discovered in structures ranging from administra- tive buildings to private houses, personal names have also been analysed to trace a variety of backgrounds (Jankowska 1969). Furthermore, the density of documentation in space and time at Nuzi (circa 7,000 tablets, circa 100 years) allows us to view local phenomena from different perspectives. Notably, Nuzi’s legal formulary differs from its Babylonian, Assyrian and Hittite neighbours (Maidman 2010). It is possible to reconstruct socio-economic life by taking into account the distribution of scribes and archives, and the composition of different areas of the town (Negri Scafa 2005: 134). As Starr writes in the introduction to his excavation report “the Nuzians may be seen as human beings, rather than as ciphers in a chronological list” (R. F. S. Starr, August 31, 1938). This is also where questions about palaeography arise. It is significant to con- sider the extent to which writing at Nuzi differed from its contemporary neighbours; how Nuzi tablets compare to those considered in the previous chapters; whether this helps to find boundaries between larger script-groups; what the difference is between early and later writing at Nuzi; and what the boundaries are between individual scribal hands.

2 A name is considered Hurrian when it is composed of one or more elements that have no obvious Semitic etymology but are clearly attested in continuous Hurrian texts, Hurrianisms in Akkadian texts, Hurrian entries in cuneiform vocabularies, or elements in characteristi- cally Hurrian personal and geographical names (Astour 1987: 3). 3 Of particular interest are signs with syllabic values consisting of a CV (stop consonant plus vowel). Hurrian did not distinguish voice and voiceless stops, and the scribes tended to use one set of signs for any CV value, especially pa/ba and pe/be (Smith 2007).