Page "Hurrian language" Paragraph 3

The earliest Hurrian text fragments consist of lists of names and places from the end of the third millennium BC.

The first full texts date to the reign of king Tish-atal of Urkesh, at the start of the second milliennium BC.

Archeologists have discovered the texts of numerous spells, incantations, prophecies and letters at sites including Hattusha, Mari, Tuttul, Babylon, Ugarit and others.

Early study of the language, however, was entirely based on the Mitanni letter, found in 1887 at Amarna in Egypt, written by the Hurrian king Tushratta to the pharaoh Amenhotep III.

The Hurro-Urartian relation was recognized as early as 1890 by Sayce ( ZA 5, 1890, 260-274 ) and Jensen ( ZA 6, 1891, 34-72 ).