UCLA Appointments

Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC)

Research Interests

Stratigraphic theory; application of structural methods of analysis to specific aspects of ancient culture, and in particular to language (Akkadian and Amorite); political institutions; religious experience; literary expression; Syro-Mesopotamia in the third and second millennium BC

Research Summary

The ancient city of Urkesh is known as one of the major political centers in the third millennium, and also as the holy city of Hurrian mythology. To be able now to identify it with the actual archaeological site of Tell Mozan means that Urkesh is a real city which is at the same time the stage for mythical action. Conversely, every other find from Mozan can be placed within a much more specific cultural perspective. Urkesh as the religious stage of myth and Urkesh as the political seat of power are, at the same time, Mozan as this particular, concrete mound of our archaeological landscape. The evidence for identification of the site has been put together through a painstaking study of more than 600 seal impressions, almost 200 of which were inscribed in cuneiform. The seals were used to guarantee the contents of containers that are stored in what appears to have been the royal storehouse of ancient Urkesh.

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