Nuzi

Nuzi (more precisely Nuzu, also Ga -Sur ) is an ancient Hurrian city. She was a small town in the Kingdom Arrapcha that today the settlement mound (tell) Jorgan Tepe forms, now a part of Kirkuk. It is located east of the Tigris River, southeast of Nineveh.

Fund history

Since the beginning of the 19th century clay tablets were traded from the area of Kirkuk on the art market, which had been excavated by the local farmers. On the search for the origin of these panels discovered in 1925 Edward Chiera Nuzi / Jorgan Tepe, then 16 km southwest of Kirkuk, and began excavations, together with the Iraq Museum in Baghdad and the ASOR, Chicago, then by Robert H Pfeifer, Richard FS Starr, Harvard University and the University Museum of Philadelphia were continued. .

Topography

Nuzi contained a royal palace, which was under a Sakin Biti. Here, among other things, a royal harem was housed, the supreme court lady bore the title of queen. The town, surrounded by a wall upper town, the palace complex, which also included a warehouse, a temple of Šawuška and Nergal and magazines was. Here, however, there were also private homes. A lower town ( adaššu ) is proved archaeologically. Head of the city was a ḫazannu.

Archive

The Palace of Nuzi contained large libraries with a total of about 20,000 clay tablets. They are written in Akkadian, but included Hurrian loanwords with clear references to the Hurrian mother tongue of the writer, which was probably mainly used by the population.

Private and public archives contain legal, commercial and administrative documents. The cuneiform tablets give countless details to life in mittelbabylonischer time, including on legal matters such as adoption, marriage, inheritance and wills, and to the financial system (for example, you already knew the system of payment by installments ).

Here was found the oldest map display on a clay tablet that can be (about 2340-2200 BC) dated to the Akkadian period. On the 7.5 cm × 6.5 cm clay tablet are mountains, the river marked Rahium with its tributaries and cities. Main theme of the map is probably the designated land in the middle of / the Azala. At the upper (east) and the bottom (west) is provided the board with directions. Due to the existing cities ( eg major ebla ) it is ensured that the map reflects the surroundings of Nuzi.

Earlier assumptions of a direct connection to biblical texts, such as Testament documents as compared with the teraphim gene 31, could not be confirmed after detailed investigations; but probably offer the Nuzi texts a documentation of legal practices in Mesopotamia, make the biblical texts and biblical practices understandable.

Special legal forms that occurred only in Nuzi, put the fake purchase and real estate adoptions dar. background of these contracts was the attempt to establish a client relationship between the adoptee and the wealthy financially distressed Adoptanten. The Adoptant managed the field passed him and made in return for a proportionate tax on the crop yield. In Nuzi partially daughters were adopted as sons, by the ancestor worship and the worship of the family gods ( Ilani, kišpu ) ensure.

History

The oldest finds are from the Halaf period. In mittelbabylonischer time Nuzi belonged to the Kingdom Arrapcha and was about 1350 BC by the Assyrians and the Babylonians both first destroyed ( Stratum II). Around 900 BC, Nuzi was annexed to the Assyrian empire under Adad - nirari II. 615 BC it was again destroyed by the Medes.