686 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



inferior in power, since Tushratta has been in possession even of 

 Nineveh. From other documents it can be seen that a people such as 

 are shown to have been in Mitani was spread as far as the borders of 

 Babylonia and since, according to the Amarna letters, the same fact 

 may be assumed for Palestine, it may be concluded that previous to 

 the Amarna period a people to whom the name of '' Mitani " was 

 applied had carried on a large migration or conquest. 



The treaties between Subbiluliuma and the successor of Tushratta 

 partly confirm these conclusions and partly put them in a new light. 

 In particular a new^ light is shed on the question of the composition 

 of the pojDulation of Mesopotamia and Syria. 



In the first place the political conditions are fully explained 

 through the treaties. Their historical introductions contain accounts 

 of the development of affairs and, in a measure, give a survey of the 

 history of the state of Mitani. The cessation of information concern- 

 ing Tushratta in Tel el-Amarna becomes clear; he must soon have 

 found his end of which the treaty speaks. That there should be no 

 correspondence between the successors of Tushratta and the Egyp- 

 tian King is understood wdien one reads in the treaties that Mitani 

 after a period of anarchy came under the supremacy of Chatti and 

 therefore could not hold direct diplomatic relations w^ith the Egyp- 

 tian court. Thus these data form a commentary to those letters of 

 Tel el-Amarna wdiich bear on the affairs of Mitani and Chatti, that is, 

 north Syria, The same countries and the same persons are met with 

 in them, and we see how the individual princes are drawn hither and 

 thither between the great powers, shaping their conduct according 

 to the condition of affairs. 



The narrative part of the treaty relates how Tushratta, the King 

 of Mitani, rose against the King of Chatti, whereupon the latter in- 

 flicted depredations on the left bank of the Euphrates (the territory 

 of Tushratta) and annexed the mountain range of Niblani. But 

 Tushratta was defiant and threatened to retaliate by plundering the 

 right bank of the Euphrates (the territory of Chatti). The record 

 then goes on to say : 



The great King (of Chatti) defied him. For at the time of the fatlier of the 

 King of Chatti (that is Hattusil I) the country of Isuwa rebelled. People of 

 Chatti went to Isuwa (because) the people of the city * * * had rebelled 

 at the time of my father. But the sun (designation of the King of Chatti) 

 Subbiluliuma defeated them. At that time the people who escaped my hand 

 went to Isuwa * * *. 



But the sun Subbiluliuma undertook an expedition against the defiant liing 

 Tushratta. I crossed the Euphrates. I marched against Isuwa and visited pun- 

 ishment upon the entire Isuwa. I made them a second time my subjects. I 

 infiicted punishment upon all the people and lands that at the time of my father 

 went to Isuwa * * * and subjected them to Chatti. The lands which I 

 captured I released, they remained in their place. But the people whom I 

 released migrated to their people and the Chatti took possession of their country. 



