NUZI AND THE HURRIANS — PFEIFFER 555 



found at Nuzi. It deals with omens derived from earthquakes and 

 begins with the words, " If the earth trembles in the month Nisan, 

 the ruler's country will rebel against him." 



Although the tablets from Nuzi make no direct reference to mili- 

 tary operations, there are among them some reports on the inspection 

 of troops and of weapons. The two main divisions of the army, the 

 right and left flank, comprised chariotry, cavalry, and archery. 

 Individual companies were under the command of an officer. A large 

 tablet lists more than 2,500 men of various garrisons, belonging to 

 various subdivisions of the army, who were demobilized. The inven- 

 tories of military equipment enumerate weapons damaged or lost, 

 cither before or after the battle, and weapons removed from arsenals 

 for delivery to officers. The war material listed in these reports 

 comprises bows, quivers, and arrows; axes and adzes; trappings for 

 horses; shields and spears; coats of mail for men and for horses. 

 The complete breast piece of a coat of mail, made of copper scales 

 sown on a leather jacket, and many isolated scales of various sizes, 

 were found at Nuzi — the earliest examples of such defensive armor 

 known to us. Some coats of mail, particularly those for horses, had 

 leather scales. 



The military organization and equipment of the Nuzians did not 

 save their city from conquest and destruction. Soon after the end of 

 the Kingdom of Mitanni about the middle of the fourteenth century, 

 the Assyrians, presumably under Enlil-nirari (about 1340), or Adad- 

 nirari I (about 1300), sacked and destroyed Nuzi with frightful 

 ruthlessness, as shown by the condition of the ruins uncovered in the 

 course of the excavations. Shortly before the fall of Nuzi, a grand- 

 son of Tehiptilla named Takku recorded with stolid objectivity the 

 spoliation and deportation of the Hurrians of Tursha, a town not 

 far from Nuzi; the Assyrians pursued them into the inhospitable 

 recesses of the forests, enslaved the captives, and slew those that 

 offered the slightest resistance. The fall of Tursha was but the pre- 

 lude of the fall of Nuzi. Only a handful of Nuzian families, for- 

 tunate enough to escape the disaster, were bold enough to return to 

 their city, rebuilding a few houses on its ruins. But this miserable 

 remnant soon disappeared, and Yorghan Tepe, under which the for- 

 gotten city of Nuzi lay buried, forsaken by the few Parthian families 

 who had settled on it for a time, became a Sassanian and Moslem 

 cemetery — and eventually the grazing ground for sheep and goats. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Aecheologicai. Repoets 



(The final and complete report on the excavations at Nuzi, prepared by R. F. S. 

 Starr, has not yet been published) 



