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Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati is an American archaeologist (married to Giorgio Buccellati), who focused her research on the Caucasus and ancient Syria in the third and second millennium B.C. (and specifically on the ancient Urkesh, the modern Tell Mozan, as well as the Kura-Araxes culture in the South Caucasus).
She has excavated at Nippur in Iraq, Korucutepe in Turkey, Terqa [2] in Syria where she was co-director from 1976 to 1988.
At Urkesh/Mozan [3] she was Director from 1983 to 2020. She organized surveys in Iraq, Syria and the Caucasus, and she has been a member of the Italian-Georgian excavations at Aradetis Orgora from 2013 to 2017 and at Lagodekhi from 2018.
Her focus has been on stratigraphy, architecture and ancient ceramics connected with sites where she has excavated. She was able to identify the use of a large ancient underground shaft [4] excavated in Tell Mozan/Urkesh as a Hurrian ritual shaft for rituals used in communicating with the Underworld. She has written a number of publications on ancient cylinder seals and seal impression iconography [5]
Her work on style has led her to establish criteria for the identification of what may be called Hurrian art; it has further helped define major trends in Syro-Mesopotamian art, such as the development of a new attention for realism in the rendering of the human figure. She has also worked extensively on statistical analysis, in particular with regard to ceramic typology: she is currently producing a digital book on the very extensive ceramic corpus of Urkesh,.
Combining her interest in stratigraphy and iconography she worked on the many thousands of fragmented seal impressions found in the Mozan excavations so that she could determine the iconographic motifs they contained which embodied a new Hurrian style. By connecting scenes and inscriptions on these seal impressions it was possible to identify Tell Mozan as the site of ancient Urkesh, and to describe the original seals as belonging to several kings, queens, and servants of the royal court. Urkesh is one of the oldest and largest cities of Syria, dating back to the early fourth millennium and reaching an extent of some 130 hectares in the third millennium. It was a major center of the Hurrians, important politically but especially for its religious significance. The reconstruction of the Urkesh iconography led to her research on the position and power of the royal Urkesh women and the women connected with them.
She is retired from the Art Department of California State University Los Angeles where she taught ancient art and archaeology for 30 years. Presently she is an Associated Researcher of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology [6] at University of California, UCLA.
Her work has been recognized in a volume of studies published in her honor, [7] alongside her husband, Giorgio Buccellati.
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The Hurrians were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria, upper Mesopotamia and southeastern Anatolia.
Mitanni, c. 1550–1260 BC, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or Naharin in Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian-speaking state with Indo-Aryan linguistic influences in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia. Since no histories or royal annals/chronicles have yet been found in its excavated sites, knowledge about Mitanni is sparse compared to the other powers in the area, and dependent on what its neighbours commented in their texts.
The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian.
Urkesh, also transliterated Urkish, is a tell, or settlement mound, located in the foothills of the Taurus Mountains in Al-Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria. It was founded during the fourth millennium BC, possibly by the Hurrians, on a site which appears to have been inhabited previously for a few centuries. The city god of Urkesh was Kumarbi, father of Teshup.
Tell Brak was an ancient city in Syria; its remains constitute a tell located in the Upper Khabur region, near the modern village of Tell Brak, 50 kilometers north-east of Al-Hasaka city, Al-Hasakah Governorate. The city's original name is unknown. During the second half of the third millennium BC, the city was known as Nagar and later on, Nawar.
Allani, also known under the Akkadian name Allatu was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld. She was also associated with the determination of fate. She was closely linked with Ishara, and they could be invoked or receive offerings together. She also developed connection with other underworld deities from neighboring cultures, such as Mesopotamian Ereshkigal, Anatolian Sun goddess of the Earth and Lelwani, and possibly Ugaritic Arsay. It is presumed she was chiefly worshiped in western areas inhabited by the Hurrians, though the location of her main cult center is uncertain. She is attested in texts from sites such as Tigunani, Tuttul and Ugarit. She was also incorporated into the Mesopotamian pantheon, and was venerated in Ur, Nippur and Sippar. Hittite sources mentioning her are known too.
Amuda is a town in Al Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria close to the Syria–Turkey border. As a result of the ongoing civil war, Amuda is currently under the civil control of the AANES and military control of the SDF and Syrian Army.
Hamazi or Khamazi was an ancient kingdom or city-state which became prominent during the Early Dynastic period. Its exact location is unknown.
Ekallatum (Akkadian: 𒌷𒂍𒃲𒈨𒌍, URUE2.GAL.MEŠ, Ekallātum, "the Palaces") was an ancient Amorite city-state and kingdom in upper Mesopotamia.
Terqa is the name of an ancient city discovered at the site of Tell Ashara on the banks of the middle Euphrates in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria, approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the modern border with Iraq and 64 kilometres (40 mi) north of the ancient site of Mari, Syria. Its name had become Sirqu by Neo-Assyrian times.
Jeanne E. Arnold, Ph.D., was an archaeologist who taught in the anthropology department at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her fields of research covered many topics, but she specialized in the prehistoric and early contact era of the Pacific Coast of North America, in California and British Columbia. Her work in these areas was directed to resolving the economies and political evolutionary trajectories of complex hunter-gatherer groups. She died on November 27, 2022 following a long illness.
Giorgio Buccellati is an Italian archaeologist, best known for having discovered the ancient city of Urkesh, capital of the Hurrians, in Syria.
Tish-atal was endan of Urkesh during the Third Dynasty of Ur. He was one of the earliest known Hurrian rulers, but the archaeological record is fragmentary for this period, and no precise date can be ascribed to his reign.
The Hurrian foundation pegs, also known as the Urkish lions, are twin copper foundation pegs each in the shape of a lion that probably came from the ancient city of Urkesh in Syria. The pegs were placed at the foundation of the temple of Nergal in the city of Urkesh as mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions on them. The inscription on the two pegs and the associated stone tablet is the oldest known text in the Hurrian language. One of the lions is now housed, along with its limestone tablet, in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The second lion is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The Kingdom of Khana or Kingdom of Hana was the Syrian kingdom from Hana Land in the middle Euphrates region north of Mari, which included the ancient city of Terqa. The kingdom emerged during the decline of the First Babylonian Dynasty. A newer view is that only the initial six rulers lived during that time and that after an interregnum, Khana re-emerged in the Middle Babylonian period under the last six kings. The Low Chronology dating scheme for Hana has gained much support. The kingdom was located in the middle Euphrates close to the junction of Khabur River. Its capital was the town of Terqa.
Gregory Areshian was an Armenian-American archeologist and historian who was a professor at American University of Armenia. He was the co-director of the international team of archeologists who, led by Boris Gasparyan, found the 5,500 years old shoe in and the oldest winery in Areni of which Areshian said:
For the first time, we have a complete archaeological picture of wine production dating back 6,100 years.
Aštabi, also known as Aštabil, was a god worshiped in the third millennium BCE in Ebla, later incorporated into Hurrian beliefs in locations such as Alalakh and Ugarit and as a result also into the religion of the Hittite Empire.
Tell Kashashok is an archaeological site in the Khabur River Valley, of Northern Syria. The site is dated by pottery finds to the latter neolithic era, and early Dynastic era. The site was excavated by the Directorate General of Antiquities of Syria in 1987 and 1988. The Early Dynastic era includes a destruction layer, and an early adoption of cuneiform. It may have been known in antiquity as Kiš. A few clay numerical tablets from the EB III were found.
Tell Hazna I is a Syrian archaeological site located in al-Hasakah, to the north east of Al-Hasakah, inhabited during the Early Dynastic I–II Periods, and Uruk and Ubaid periods.
