Biblical Archaeological Studies

Nuzi     Houses of Shilwi-Teshub and Zigi

 

koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

25 October 2011

 

           The site of Nuzi in Mesopotamia is important in many ways for our understanding of the Bible. Many articles appeared to compare the customs of Nuzi with those of Abraham and his sons, but this comparison is biblically way too remote since Abraham came to Canaan in 2154 BCE. There is a clear distance here. On the other hand, some 200+ texts were Old Akkadian texts in vertical circular ovens in Temple C at strata V, IV and III. The city then was Ga.Sur or the Akkadian city. At the time Richard F. S. Starr published Nuzi Vol. I, Text (Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1939) 12 strata were exposed by archaeological activities.

           As one can see in the diagram provided by us, strata XII to XA contained pottery that corresponds to Middle Bronze I at Tel Bit Mirsim/Bethel in Israel. Stratum X had painted ware the same as strata VI. The horizontal ovens were in strata IX-VII. It was ended by an oval oven. At Temple G in strata VI-III there were vertical ovens with texts. One text came from the horizontal ovens in strata VII. 200 Old Akkadian texts came from the strata V-III and Temple C. They were post-Sargonic. Our date for Sargon the Great is 2305 BCE so these text post-date that time. Abraham came to Canaan in 2154 BCE as we have indicated. So when ANE articles on law at Nuzi describe and compare Abraham and Nuzi, one must always ask the question, which texts are used and from which strata. It appears that texts from strata VII-III can be used for comparisons but texts from strata IIB-II is too remote since it is the fifteenth century BCE. Most of the texts were found in stratum IV and less in stratum III above it and stratum V below it. Stratum III was seen to be destroyed by Hittites in 1670 BCE and Stratum VI was seen to be in 1850 BCE. Strata XII-XI were seen as between 2100-1900 BCE. The pottery in the test pit L4 at strata XII and XI called for a Middle Bronze date. If this is the case, the 200 Old Akkadian texts cannot be from the time of Abraham since Joseph died in 1880 BCE. Many articles in the past by scholars comparing customs of the Patriarchs and Nuzi will have to be revised.    What H. W. Eliot indicated in his chronology article “Appendix A: Chronology” in Starr 1939: 507-522, especially 514, is that stratum IV was disappointing for pottery but in the 2 meter ashes and rubble by the Hittites, a Ur III tablet was found. The Ur III dynasty was between 2112-2004 BCE. If stratum III was ended in the Ur III dynasty one may look for stratum IV as in the Ur III period or before in the period after Sargon of Agade 2305 BCE. The article of Eliot should be consulted for more discussions and uncertainty about this.   At the G Temple in the courtyard of G50 they found a shaft of 5.48 meters. Starr concluded: “It could not have been anything other than wanton and mischievous destruction that led the invaders to throw so much of their loot down the shaft in the center of the courtyard” (Starr 1939: 104). Interesting finds were an elephant leg in C35, a crocodile skull in N120 Pav. VIII, chariots at L4, H7 and S317, bull and boar iconography stamp seals at M of the Palace. In area A of the city map of Nuzi one can find the house of Zigi and Shulwi-Teshub.

           In the house of Shulwi-Teshub a tablet was found with the seal impression of King Shausattar of Mitanni which according to Michael Astour’s dating (Astour 1989: 77) must be placed around 1450-1440 BCE. It was found in room 26. Both Zigi and Shulwi-Teshub were Hurrians.

           Archaeologists have found in the house of Shilwi-Teshub in rooms 23 and 26 several hundred inscribed clay business documents. It is in room 26 that the dating of Shausattar is made to be contemporaneous with the Exodus from Egypt date in 1450 BCE under pharaoh Thutmosis III. Inscribed tablets were also found in the house of Zigi in room 33 of the map (Starr 1939: 345). 2 Ishtar figurines were in room 35 of Zigi. Many tablets were in room 30 and 34. Also in the room 26 where king Shausattar’s letter was found in Shulwi-Teshub’s house, were 26 arrow heads, 2 spearheads (plate 125 N). There were 3 needles, a bowl with carbonized barley, and fragments of wire. There were also nails and fragments of a knive. There was a bone spindle staff in which one could see the carbonized thread which was used the last time before the destruction. It was thus a general storage room for footstuffs, business documents, weapons and tools. It was destroyed by fire. We know that the Hittites and Hurrians had a power seesaw over the centuries.

           It appears that during the period of Egyptian slavery of Israel, Egypt held dominance over the Levant and used the Hurrians as their representatives rather than the Hittites. The Hittite fury at the death of Thutmosis III, the end of the Egyptian empire, seems to be seen in this fire debris. Starr said that in room 35 of Zigi’s house there is evidence of a “great fire at the time of destruction” (Starr 1939: 346).

           In the open courtyard of Shilwi-Teshub’s house, 15, they found 23 bowls, vases, cups and 2 stone weights and a limestone frog (Plate 103J). Inscribed clay tablets were also in rooms 14B, 14A, 13 and 23.

           A bake brick toilet was found in room 1. In room 6 was a copper door apparently. The kitchen seems to have been in room 10 where practical objects were found. In the storerooms of 14B and 14A a clay tablet was found inside a pot of splendid proportions of unique red ware (Plate 68C). The largest glassed vessel found at Nuzi (plate 68K) was also found there.

           Underneath 3 large storage jars in room 18 of Shulwi-Teshub’s house was hidden corselet of 26 armor plates (plate 126 A and B and plate 126 L). Starr wondered if the Hurrian was hiding his coat at the arrival of the Hittite foes (Starr 1939: 343).

           We are not exactly sure if our analysis is correct, but bringing Astour’s chronology and our biblical chronology to the site of Nuzi, seems to be valuable for a better understanding what happened after the Exodus in Egyptian controlled areas of Mesopotamia through the Hurrian presence there. We tend to think that Hittites were kept at bay by Hurrians and also suffered oppression for a long period due to Egyptian alliances and that the death of the Napoleon of Egypt, Thutmosis III in 1450 BCE, triggered off the domino effect of joy and created a kind of Hittite “Spring” in which they went to cast of the rulership of the oppressors in their own domain, which were also connected to Egypt.  

 

The Word of God and archaeology are not in conflict. Humans are because of their fragmentary data of the past

 

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