Mitannian

"Archaeological excavations of Mesopotamian palaces usually give us a monochrome image faded by time. Rare discoveries of plaster whose colours are well preserved allow us to reconstruct the original colours of these images. The second millennium BC provides more examples of palatial wall paintings belonging to the three prominent cultures of the Late Bronze period: Mitannian, Kassite and Middle-Assyrian. The respective palaces at the sites of Nuzi, Dur Kurigalzu and Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta have in fact preserved some of the wall paintings which originally decorated their rooms. By analysing these fragmentary painted plasters and the careful reconstructions made by different scholars, it is possible to note some differences in the use of colours and in drawing patterns according to the different cultures.
The aim of this paper is: a) to analyse and compare wall paintings belonging to these three main cultures and attempt to find analogies and differences, and b) to investigate, within the context of each culture, the role of colours and their significance."

The earliest evidence of an Indo-Iranian culture is actually the influence of this culture in the Hurrian culture of Mitanni kingdom in the west of West Asia and also Uralic culture in the north of Eurasia, but we see almost nothing from Hurrian and Uralic cultures in the descendents of Indo-Iranian culture in modern Indo-Iranian lands, so it can be said that Indo-Iranian culture didn't come from the west of West Asia or north of Eurasia but it spread to those lands.

In II millennium BC Mesopotamia, astral representations
spread in art, assuming an important role as a symbolic
representation of deities and a mirror of real sky
observations. This book focuses on symbols with an astral
value as represented on Mitannian, Cassite, and Middle
Assyrian seals and seal impressions. Starting from the
analysis of the symbols on a corpus of 1090 seals and seal
impressions, those with an astral value have been detected
and individually analyzed, also according to their position
in the scene. Furthermore, the study of the relationship
between the symbols - both astral and non-astral - allowed
the identifi cation of some recurring patterns. Their
comparison with textual sources (e.g. astral omina and
astronomical compendia) and with the reconstruction of
the Mesopotamian sky in the Late Bronze Age period
allowed the understanding of the Mitannian, Cassite, and
Middle Assyrian perception of heavens and its link with
religious behaviour and divination.
The fi rst part of the volume (Chapter 1 and Chapter 2)
focuses on a preliminary analysis of the idea of symbols,
signs, emblems, and attributes, both theoretically and in
relationship with Mesopotamian religion, thanks to the
study of the passage from the anthropomorphic to the nonanthropomorphic
and symbolic representation of deities.
The study of the symbolic heritage of the Late Bronze
Age glyptic and the link between deities and astral bodies,
allowed to identify of 20 symbols, divided into four groups
- astral bodies; geometrical shapes; fauna and fl ora; and
composite beings - with an astral value.
Chapter 2 focuses on the analysis of the symbolic groups
with an astral value and their symbols, both generally
and within the Mitannian, Cassite, and Middle Assyrian
cultures. Each symbol is described and analyzed from an
iconographical point of view as well as linked to its previous
representations in Mesopotamian art, in order to identify
both the continuity and the innovation as compared to the
previous symbolic tradition, and the relationship with the
divine world. The frequency of each symbol, its position
in the scene and its relationship with the other symbolic
elements present on the same seal, are the nucleus of the
analysis, allowing to defi ne of the Mitannian, Cassite, and
Middle Assyrian astral symbolic heritage.
In Chapter 3 the symbolic associations of astral value, yet
identifi ed through the study described in Chapter 2, are
individually analyzed, in order to identify their meaning
and their relationship with the astral world. Furthermore,
each symbolic association has been compared both with
textual sources (e.g. omina and astronomical compendia),
and with several reconstructions of the Late Bronze Age
sky, carried out with softwares able to reconstruct changes
in the sky through the calculation of the equinoctial
precession, the proper motion of the stars, and the position
of the planets, using kinematic models of the Solar System
(Solex v10.0, Stellarium v0.14.1).
Finally, Chapter 4 analyzes the polysemantic value of
symbols, identifying the symbolic elements that seem to
have diff erent meanings, depending on their position in the
scene, the cultural horizon to which they belong and the
historical period taken into account, such as the rosette, the
lozenge, the fi sh, the cross and the seven dots or globes.
Furthermore, the symbol of the tree has been analyzed,
representing the connection of the astral and chtonic
worlds, linking the sky, the earth, and the underworld.
In the concluding chapter (Chapter 5), a synthesis of
results obtained in previous chapters is off ered, identifying
the characteristics of Mitannian, Cassite and Middle
Assyrian symbolic heritages, each analyzed identifying
its characteristics, its innovations and its connections with
the previous Mesopotamian symbolic heritage. Finally,
the connections and the relationships between the cultural
horizons have been identifi ed, taking into account the
biunivocal relationship of cultural interactions. In this
synthesis the meaning of the astral symbols and their
associations are directly linked to the artistic expression
connected with the religious behaviour and the conception
of the sky, typical of each culture.

This paper deals with the second millennium BC ceramics, and a short excursus regarding the settlement pattern, in the region east of the Tigris and north of the Upper Zab, delimited to the north by the Dohuk plain and the Zagros foothills, to the west by the Mosul Lake and the Tigris river, and to the east and south by the Navkur Plain and the Bardarash region, the so-called Land behind Nineveh. This is the survey area of the Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project, led by Daniele Morandi Bonacossi and active since 2012. The focus of this paper is the Middle and Late Bronze Age, which surface ceramic assemblages will be illustrated and discussed along with problematics that arise from their analysis, especially concerning the definition of Mittanian and Middle Assyrian ceramic assemblages. The picture emerging from the assemblages combined with results from the analysis of the settlements pattern allow to assert the strategic importance of the Land behind Nineveh in the landscape of settlements from the Middle Bronze Age to the formation of the Middle Assyrian state.