NUZI AND THE HURRIANS — PFEIFFER 539 



shape that became common in the later city of Nuzi. Certainly dur- 

 ing the period represented by levels 8-10, and presumably for the 

 whole period of levels 5-13, the name of the city was Ga-sur, and its 

 population, as well as its culture, was predominantly Semitic Akka- 

 dian. Signs of a marked change begin after level 11 and continue 

 through level 12 : this period is a time of transition, with a mixture 

 of old and new types of pottery and figurines. Level 13 marks clearly 

 the end of the city of Ga-sur and the beginning of the city of Nuzi. 



Hurrian Culture. — Levels 14 and 15: Though the Hurrians lived 

 at Nuzi from about 1900 to about 1300 B. C, levels 14 and 15 in 

 room L4 belong undoubtedly to the great palace of Nuzi and are 

 therefore dated about 1550-1450 B. C. 



The stratification of the other test pit, in room N120, confirms 

 these conclusions, except for the absence in it of the aeneolithic levels 

 (L4, levels 1-4). The four lowest levels of N120 (5.24 to 1.94 meters 

 below the plain) correspond to levels 5-11 of L4 and belong to the 

 city of Ga-sur. The present writer was amazed to find on the lowest 

 level a complete skull, measuring 0.73 meter in length, of a large 

 crocodile. The space between levels 5 (1.94 meters below the plain) 

 and 6 (1.5 meters above the plain) corresponds to the transition 

 period between levels 11 and 12 of L4. The topmost levels (7 and 

 8, 1.95 and 2.76 meters, respectively) correspond to levels 14 and 

 15 of L4. 



After the Assyrians destroyed the city of Nuzi in the fourteenth 

 century, the site of Yorghan Tepe was virtually abandoned and 

 was used principally as a burial ground in Sassanian and Moslem 

 times. There are, however, traces of sporadic and insignificant 

 settlements. An Assyrian house could barely be identified from its 

 indefinite remains. After the beginning of the Christian Era a 

 few Parthian houses stood on the mound. Though some of these 

 modest dwellings were built on the foundations of the ruined houses 

 of Nuzi, they could be dated by the pottery with stamped decorations 

 and by a few Parthian coins, drachms and tetradrachms of Vola- 

 gases III (147-191 A. D.) One of these tetradrachms is dated in 

 the month Dios of the year 153/4 A. D. 



BURIALS 



Two infant burials discovered in the L4 pit (below pavement 4) 

 are indubitably aeneolithic. The body of one child was placed 

 within a coverless jar and that of the other rested over a large 

 potsherd over which a wall had been erected. 



No infant burials of the Ga-sur period have been found. The 

 graves of two adults seem to date from the very beginning of the 

 Ga-sur period. Though no pottery was placed in the tombs, as in 



