"The Hurritological Archive"

The Hurrian people were located in the Upper Habur area in Northern Syria beginning in the third millennium BCE. Around 1550 BCE the Hurrian Mittani state extending from Northern Syria to Northern Mesopotamia came into existence but lost its independence around 1330 BCE when it was conquered by the Hittite Empire. The Hurrian language is closely related to the Urartaen language, which is attested in the first millennium BCE in Eastern Turkey. Both languages are ergative as well as agglutinative and suffixing. Additional features are anti-passive and Suffixaufnahme (suffix copying).

The Hurritological Archive at the Institute for Assyriology of the Freie Universität Berlin represents a complete collection of Hurrian texts written in cuneiform covering the period from c. 2500-1200 BCE. The archive contains transliterations of these texts as well as a grammatical index.

The goal of this project, which began its work in 1968, is the compilation of the Corpus of Hurrian Written Materials, a study of Hurrian grammar, a Hurrian dictionary, as well as studies on the history and cultural history of the Hurrians.

The project is headed by Dr. Ilse Wegner and closely collaborates with Prof. Dr. M. Salvini of the Istituto di Studi sulle Civiltà dell’Egeo e del Vicino Oriente of the Consiglio Nationale delle Recerche in Rome.

Publications:

1. CORPUS DER HURRITISCHEN SPRACHDENKMÄLER (PDF)

2. Hurritologische Studien I-III.

3. I. Wegner, Hurritisch. Eine Einführung, Wiesbaden 2000.

Courses:

Dr. Ilse Wegner regularly offers introductory and advanced classes for the Hurrian language and culture.