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106-728: It is often assumed that the Hurro-Urartian languages, or a pre-split Proto-Hurro-Urartian language, were originally spoken by people of the Kura-Araxes culture which existed in Eastern Anatolia , the Caucasus , northwestern Iran and northern Levant from the late 5th millennium BC to late 3rd millennium BC. While the genetic relation between Hurrian and Urartian is undisputed, the wider connections of Hurro-Urartian to other language families are controversial. After

212-403: A 100,000 years, and may our mistress grant both of us great joy. And let us act as friends. Is Šauška for me alone my god[dess], and for my brother not his god[dess]? The likeliest explanation is that the statue was sent to Egypt "to shed her blessings on the wedding of Amenhotep and Tadukhepa, as she had been sent previously for Amenhotep and Gilukhepa ." Moran agrees that this explanation

318-564: A chronological place of the Sioni culture at around 4000 BCE. Some scholars consider the Kartli and Kakheti areas as key to forming the earliest phase of the Kura–Araxes culture. To a large extent, this appears as an indigenous culture of Caucasus that was formed over a long period, and at the same time incorporating foreign influences. There are some indications (such as at Arslantepe ) of

424-669: A city dedicated to his new deity, the Aten . Amenhotep built extensively at the temple of Karnak , including the Luxor temple with two pylons , a colonnade behind the new temple entrance, and a new temple to the goddess Ma'at . Amenhotep dismantled the Fourth Pylon of the Temple of Amun at Karnak to construct a new Third Pylon — and created a new entrance to this structure where he erected two rows of columns with open papyrus capitals down

530-546: A complex religious system. In the central part of the Mokhrablur settlement III construction horizon, a volume-spatial creation was uncovered: a structure-tower with a rectangular plan (7,4x5,5 m) constructed with hard tuff, in the eastern part of which a 3,9 m long one-piece basalt altar was placed. Near this stone structure, clay buildings and ash pits were uncovered, in which the ashes of the sacred hearths had been accumulated. Many tufa idols and clay hearths were excavated in

636-442: A country that I love, and then return." Now I herewith send her, and she is on her way. Now, in the time, too, of my father,...[she] went to this country, and just as earlier she dwelt there and they honored her, may my brother now honor her 10 times more than before. May my brother honor her, [then] at [his] pleasure let her go so that she may come back. May Šauška (i.e., Ishtar ), the mistress of heaven, protect us, my brother and me,

742-655: A cultural influence from the more ancient civilizations of the Fertile Crescent to the south. In the 3rd millennium B.C., one particular group of mounds of the Kura–Araxes culture is remarkable for their wealth. This was the final stage of culture's development. These burial mounds are known as the Martqopi (or Martkopi) period mounds. Those on the left bank of the river Alazani are often 20–25 meters high and 200–300 meters in diameter. They contain especially rich artefacts, such as gold and silver jewelry. While it

848-536: A diameter of 4-10 m and rectangular floorplan were widespread. The latter had a flat, log roof, and the buildings with round floorplan had primitive roofs of “hazarashen” type, covered with clay mud-bricks with reed, with a skylights hole in the centre of the roof, that solved the issues of light and ventilation of the house (Shengavit, Mokhrablur). The floors were of rammed earth. There were also plaster covered, up to 10 cm thick (Shengavit) and red painted (Garakepek-Tepe) floors. There are found samples of attempts to enliven

954-468: A forensic examination of his mummy revealed worn and cavity-pitted teeth which must have inflicted constant pain. An examination of the mummy by the Australian anatomist Grafton Elliot Smith concluded that the pharaoh had died at between the age of 40 and 50. He was survived by at least one child, his successor Amenhotep IV. His wife Tiye is known to have outlived him by at least twelve years, as she

1060-450: A minor wife, Mutemwiya . His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and splendour, when Egypt reached the peak of its artistic and international power, and as such he is considered one of ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs. When he died in the 38th or 39th year of his reign he was succeeded by his son Amenhotep IV, who later changed his name to Akhenaten . Amenhotep was the son of Thutmose IV and his minor wife Mutemwiya . He

1166-611: A nearly undamaged 6 feet (1.8 m)-high pink quartzite statue of the king wearing the Double Crown . It was mounted on a sled, and may have been a cult statue. Only the name of the god Amun had been hacked out wherever it appeared in the pharaoh's cartouche , clearly part of Akhenaten's campaign against the god of his father. One of Amenhotep's most popular epithets was Aten-tjehen which means "the Dazzling Sun Disk"; it appears in his titulary at Luxor temple and

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1272-597: A number of settlements on the island, and they exported copper and other raw materials from Cyprus to Egypt in exchange for luxury goods and other commodities. However, the Egyptian presence on Cyprus was at times interrupted by incursions of other powers, including the Hittites and the Mycenaeans. Thutmose, the eldest son of Amenhotep III with his wife Tiye, became Crown Prince, but died before his father. Amenhotep

1378-433: A series of tests that demonstrated the pharaoh's fitness for continuing as ruler of Egypt. Based on indications left by Queen Tiye's steward Khenruef, the festival may have lasted two to eight months. Amenhotep wanted his Sed Festivals to be far more spectacular than those of the past. He appointed Amenhotep, son of Hapu to plan the ceremony, potentially because he was one of the few courtiers still alive to have served at

1484-739: A significant increase in the use of metal objects occurred at Kura-Araxes sites. Also the variation in copper alloys increased during this time. The rich tomb of a woman at Kvazchela is a good example of this, which is quite similar to the 'royal tomb' from Arslantepe . The use of an arsenical component up to 25% in copper objects resulted in a shiny greyish, silvery colour. So it's quite possible that these unusually high arsenical alloys were intended to imitate silver. The Kura–Araxes culture would later display "a precocious metallurgical development, which strongly influenced surrounding regions". They worked copper , arsenic , silver , gold , tin , and bronze . Their metal goods were widely distributed, from

1590-642: A small ruling class and was not the primary language of the majority of the population. Although Hurro-Urartian languages gradually became extinct with the collapse of the Urartu empire collowing its subjugation by Assyria , Diakonoff and Greppin suggested that traces of its vocabulary survived in a small number of loanwords in Old Armenian , a later arriving Indo-European language. More recent scholarship by Arnaud Fournet, Hrach Martirosyan , Armen Petrosyan, and others has proposed more extensive contacts between

1696-568: A small temple with a colonnade (dedicated to Thutmose III ) at Elephantine , a rock temple dedicated to Amun "Lord of the Ways" at Wadi es-Sebuam, and the temple of Horus of Miam at Aniba ...[as well as founding] additional temples at Kawa and Sesebi . His enormous mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile was, in its day, the largest religious complex in Thebes , but the king built too close to

1802-457: A special suffix -až- , which only survives in fossilized form merged into some case endings in Urartian. Hurrian clearly marks tense or aspect through special suffixes, the unmarked form is the present tense. Urartian has not been shown to do so in the attested texts. The unmarked form functions as a past tense. Hurrian has special negative verbal suffixes that negate a verb and are placed before

1908-489: A switch from agriculture to pastoralism and that it serves as possible proof of a large-scale arrival of Indo-Europeans , facts such as that settlement in the lowlands remained more or less continuous suggest merely that the people of this culture were diversifying their economy to encompass crop and livestock agriculture . Shengavit Settlement is a prominent Kura-Araxes site in present-day Yerevan area in Armenia . It

2014-613: Is Year 38, which appears on wine jar-label dockets from Malkata . He may have lived briefly into an unrecorded Year 39 and died before the wine harvest of that year. Reliefs from the wall of the temple of Soleb in Nubia and scenes from the Theban tomb of Kheruef , Steward of the King's Great Wife, Tiye, depict Amenhotep as a visibly weak and sick figure. Scientists believe that in his final years he suffered from arthritis and obesity. Further,

2120-461: Is a sister family to Indo-European. The poorly attested Kassite language which was certainly not Semitic or Indo-European may have belonged to the Hurro-Urartian language family. Hurrian was the language of the Hurrians , occasionally called "Hurrites". It was spoken in the northern parts of Mesopotamia and Syria and the southeastern parts of Anatolia between at least the last quarter of

2226-417: Is attested from the late 9th century BC to the late 7th century BC as the official written language of the state of Urartu and was probably spoken by the majority of the population in the mountainous areas around Lake Van and the upper Zab valley. It branched off from Hurrian at approximately the beginning of the second millennium BC. Scholars, such as Paul Zimansky, contend that Urartian was only spoken by

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2332-486: Is attested only once, on a colossal limestone group of statues from Medinet Habu, and Beketaten only appears in Amarna . Amenhotep is also sometimes credited as the father of Smenkhkare or Tutankhamun , with varying proposals for their mothers, but these theories are not as accepted as his other, known children. In addition to Tiye, Amenhotep had several other wives . In Regnal Year 10, Amenhotep married Gilukhepa ,

2438-469: Is characterized by the apparent reduction of some word-final vowels to schwa, e.g. Urartian ulə vs Hurrian oli "another", Urartian eurišə vs Hurrian evrišše "lordship", Hurrian 3rd person plural enclitic pronoun -lla vs Urartian -lə . As the last two examples shows, the Hurrian geminates are absent in Urartian. In the morphology, there are differences. Hurrian indicates the plural of nouns through

2544-720: Is closer to the so-called Old Hurrian variety, mostly attested in Hittite documents, than to the Hurrian of the Mitanni letter. For example, both use -o-/-u- (rather than -i- ) as the marker of transitive valency and both display the plural suffix -it- , expressing the number of the ergative subject and occupying a position before the valency marker. Below are some Hurrian and Urartian lexical cognates, as listed by Kassian (2010). Kura-Araxes culture The Kura–Araxes culture (also named Kur–Araz culture, Mtkvari–Araxes culture, Early Transcaucasian culture, Shengavitian culture )

2650-633: Is evidence of trade with Mesopotamia as well as Asia Minor . It is, however, considered above all to be indigenous to the Caucasus , and its major variants characterized (according to Caucasus historian Amjad Jaimoukha) later major cultures in the region. It was at this period that the irrigation systems built on the slopes of the Aragats and Geghama mountains were formed and at the sources of canals, artificial water pools and springs, dragon stones (vishapakar) made from one piece basalt were erected. Another prerequisite for unprecedented economic development

2756-480: Is mentioned in several Amarna letters dated from her son's reign, as well as depicted at the royal dinner table in Akhenaten's years 9 and 12, in scenes from the tomb of Huya . Foreign leaders communicated their grief at the pharaoh's death, with Tushratta saying: When I heard that my brother Nimmureya had gone to his fate, on that day I sat down and wept. On that day I took no food, I took no water. Amenhotep

2862-530: Is no evidence of them being Semitic or Indo-European. The Kassite language was possibly related to Hurro-Urartian. Francfort and Tremblay on the basis of the Akkadian textual and archaeological evidence, proposed to identify the kingdom of Marhashi and Ancient Margiana . The Marhashite personal names seems to point towards an Eastern variant of Hurrian, or another language of the Hurro-Urartian language family rather than to Indo-European or Semitic. There

2968-519: Is noteworthy with its stone foundations, reinforced with rectangular masonry walls and a tiled secret passage leading to Hrazdan river . The central urban areas, which are characterized by dense construction (Shengavit, Mokhrablur, etc.), were surrounded by satellite residences. The Kura-Araxes built mud-brick houses, originally round, but later developing into subrectangular designs with structures of just one or two rooms, multiple rooms centered around an open space, or rectilinear designs. The mud-brick

3074-580: Is satisfied" ), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenized as Amenophis III , was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty . According to different authors following the "Low Chronology", he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, after his father Thutmose IV died. Amenhotep was Thutmose's son by

3180-490: Is signalled by a special suffix, the so-called "class marker". The complex morpheme "chains" of nouns and verbs follow roughly the same morpheme sequences in both languages. In nouns, the sequence in both languages is stem – article – possessive suffix – plural suffix – case suffix – agreement ( Suffixaufnahme ) suffix. In verbs, the portion of the structure shared by both languages is stem – valency marker – person suffixes. Most morphemes have fairly similar phonological forms in

3286-474: Is unknown what languages were present in Kura-Araxes, the two most widespread theories suggest a connection with Hurro-Urartian and/or Anatolian languages . The Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian languages were likely spoken in the region as well. Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( Ancient Egyptian : jmn-ḥtp(.w) Amānəḥūtpū , IPA: [ʔaˌmaːnəʔˈħutpu] ; " Amun

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3392-1023: The Arpaçay river . Rather quickly, elements of Kura–Araxes culture started to proceed westward to the Erzurum plain, southwest to Cilicia , and to the southeast into the area of Lake Van , and below the Urmia basin in Iran, such as to Godin Tepe . Finally, it proceeded into the present-day Syria ( Amuq valley ), and as far as Israel . Its territory corresponds to large parts of modern Armenia , Azerbaijan , Chechnya , Dagestan , Georgia , Ingushetia , North Ossetia , and parts of Iran and Turkey . At Sos Hoyuk , in Erzurum Province , Turkey, early forms of Kura-Araxes pottery were found in association with local ceramics as early as 3500-3300 BC. During

3498-547: The Early Bronze Age . These weapons that are found were arrows, daggers, battle axes, spears and other weapons made of obsidian, flint, bone and bronze. Archaeological evidence of inhabitants of the Kura–Araxes culture showed that ancient settlements were found along the Hrazdan river , as shown by drawings at a mountainous area in a cave nearby. Structures in settlements have not revealed much differentiation, nor

3604-650: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties , where it lay until discovered by Victor Loret in 1898. For the 18th dynasty, the mummy shows an unusually heavy use of subcutaneous stuffing to make the mummy look more lifelike. The mummy has museum inventory number CG 61074. In April 2021, his mummy was moved from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization , along with those of 17 other kings and 4 queens in an event termed

3710-612: The Kartvelian languages , Elamite , and other non-Semitic and non-Indo-European languages of the region. Igor Diakonoff and Sergei Starostin suggested that Hurro-Urartian and the Northeastern Caucasian language family can be included in a macro-family; this grouping was provisionally dubbed the Alarodian languages , by Diakonoff. Several studies argue that the connection is probable. Other scholars doubt that

3816-604: The Khirbet Kerak-ware culture found in the Levant and Trialeti culture of the South Caucasus and Armenian Highlands . In Nakhchivan region and nearby areas, Kura-Araxes culture was followed by Nakhchivan culture . This civilization was characterized by an agricultural sedentary economy with more than a thousand settlements covering the fertile riverside valleys, high plateaus and high mountain zones of

3922-454: The Pharaohs' Golden Parade . Amenhotep has the distinction of having the most surviving statues of any Egyptian pharaoh, with over 250 identified. These statues provide a series of portraits covering the entire length of his reign. When Amenhotep died, he left behind a country at the very height of its power and influence, commanding immense respect in the international world. However, it

4028-527: The Sumerian which was a Language Isolate , indicating an early contact. Besides their fairly consistent ergative alignment and their generally agglutinative morphology , despite a number of not entirely predictable morpheme mergers, Hurrian and Urartian are both characterized by the use of suffixes in their derivational and inflectional morphology, including ten to fifteen grammatical cases , and postpositions in syntax. Both are considered to have

4134-623: The Volga , Dnieper and Don - Donets river systems in the north to Syria and Palestine in the south and Anatolia in the west. Their pottery was distinctive. The spread of their pottery along trade routes into surrounding cultures was much more impressive than any of their achievements domestically. It was painted black and red, using geometric designs. Examples have been found as far south as Syria and Israel , and as far north as Dagestan and Chechnya . The spread of this pottery, along with archaeological evidence of invasions, suggests that

4240-523: The floodplain , and less than two hundred years later it was reduced to ruins. Much of the masonry was purloined by Merneptah and later pharaohs for their own construction projects. All that remained standing was the gateway with the Colossi of Memnon — two massive stone statues depicting Amenhotep,18 m (59 ft) high. Amenhotep also built the Third Pylon at Karnak and erected 600 statues of

4346-480: The viziers Ramose , Amenhotep , Aperel , and Ptahmose . Other officials included the treasurers Ptahmose and Merire; the high stewards, Amenemhat Surer and Amenhotep (Huy) ; and the Viceroy of Kush, Merimose. Amenhotep, son of Hapu held many offices during the reign of Amenhotep the pharaoh, but is best known for receiving the right to build his mortuary temple behind that of the king. Amenhotep, son of Hapu,

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4452-446: The "marriage scarabs," Amenhotep affirmed his divine power and the legitimacy of his wife. With Tiye, Amenhotep fathered at least two sons, Crown Prince Thutmose and Amenhotep IV (later called Akhenaten) . In addition, several daughters are frequently credited to the couple: Sitamun , Henuttaneb , Iset , Nebetah , and Beketaten . Most of the daughters appear frequently on statues and reliefs from Amenhotep's reign. However, Nebetah

4558-588: The 'Late Uruk Collapse' (end of the Uruk period ), taking place at the end of Uruk IV phase c.  3100 BC . There are many important Kura-Araxes sites located along the Araxes river, south of which is modern Iran. Kultepe, Azerbaijan , in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic close to Araxes river, has already been known for a long time. In Iran, the excavations especially accelerated in

4664-463: The 21st century. Kul Tepe Jolfa , a related site, is seen as an important gateway for Kura-Araxes culture on its way south towards Lake Urmia area. Ancient obsidian trade and distribution are particularly revealing of cultural connections, and Kul Tepe Jolfa was an important transshipment point for the movement of Caucasian obsidian to Iranian sites. This trade was probably conducted by groups of mobile pastoralists from Iran. Also in Iran downstream

4770-463: The Araxes river, two additional sites from the same period have recently been excavated, Kohne Pasgah and Kohne Tepesi. Many other Iranian sites have come to light recently and have been excavated already. Kura–Araxes culture is closely linked to the approximately contemporaneous Maykop culture of the North Caucasus. The two cultures seem to have influenced one another. The economy

4876-461: The Armenian highlands and neighboring regions. The Early Bronze Age artificial hill-settlements were characterized by multiple cultural layers, which in some places spread to tens of meters (Mokhrablur of Nakhijevan , Norsun-Tepe ). The formative processes of the Kura-Araxes cultural complex, and the date and circumstances of its rise, have been long debated. Shulaveri-Shomu culture preceded

4982-469: The Babylonian monarch may indeed have followed from Egyptian royal custom, which allowed a claim upon the throne through descent from a royal princess. It could also be viewed as a diplomatic stratagem to enhance Egypt's prestige, as Amenhotep himself married the daughters of several foreign rulers while refusing them his own daughters. The Amarna Letters also reference the exchange between Amenhotep and

5088-466: The Caucasus and nearby territories. Late Kura-Araxes sites often featured Kurgans of greatly varying sizes, with larger, wealthier kurgans surrounded by smaller kurgans containing less wealth. These kurgans also contained a wide assortment metalworks. This trend suggests the eventual emergence of a marked social hierarchy. Their practice of storing relatively great wealth in burial kurgans was probably

5194-541: The Caucasus. Köhne Shahar is a very large Kura-Araxes archaeological site in Iran located close to the Turkish border. Situated in a narrow valley at the altitude of 1905m asl, it was excavated in 2012-2014. It was located on the trade route between Iran and Anatolia. Viticulture and wine-making were widely practised in the area from the earliest times. Viticulture even goes back to the earlier Shulaveri-Shomu culture . The earliest evidence of domesticated grapes in

5300-555: The Colossi of Memnon as well as from Tanis in the Delta. In 2014, two giant statues of Amenhotep toppled by an earthquake in 1200 BC were reconstructed from more than 200 fragments and re-erected at the northern gate of the king's funerary temple. One of the most stunning finds of royal statues dating to his reign was made as recently as 1989 in the courtyard of Amenhotep 's colonnade of the Temple of Luxor. The cache of statues included

5406-553: The Early Bronze Age in 3000-2200 BC, this settlement was part of the Kura-Araxes phenomenon. At Arslantepe , Turkey, around 3000 BCE, there was widespread burning and destruction, after which Kura-Araxes pottery appeared in the area. According to Geoffrey Summers, the movement of Kura-Araxes peoples into Iran and the Van region, which he interprets as quite sudden, started shortly before 3000 BC, and may have been prompted by

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5512-597: The Kura-Araxes folk may have spread Vitis vinifera vine and wine technology to the " Fertile Crescent "—to Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean . The spread of the wine-goblet form , such as represented by the Khirbet Kerak ware, is clearly associated with these peoples. The same applies to the large ceramic vessels used for grape fermentation. The bearers of the Shengavit culture had

5618-490: The Kura-Araxes people may have spread outward from their original homes and, most certainly, had extensive trade contacts. Jaimoukha believes that its southern expanse is attributable primarily to Mitanni and the Hurrians . According to Giulio Palumbi (2008), the typical red-black ware of Kura–Araxes culture originated in eastern Anatolia, and then moved on to the Caucasus area. But then these cultural influences came back to Anatolia mixed in with other cultural elements from

5724-563: The Kura–Araxes culture in the area. There were many differences between these two cultures , so the connection was not clear. Later, it was suggested that the Sioni culture of eastern Georgia possibly represented a transition from the Shulaveri to the Kura-Arax cultural complex. At many sites, the Sioni culture layers can be seen as intermediary between Shulaver-Shomu-Tepe layers and the Kura-Araxes layers. This kind of stratigraphy warrants

5830-587: The Mitanni King Tushratta of the statue of a healing goddess, Ishtar of Nineveh , late in Amenhotep's reign. Scholars have generally assumed that the statue's sojourn to Egypt was requested by Amenhotep in order to cure him of his various ailments, which included painful abscesses in his teeth. However, William L. Moran 's analysis of Amarna Letter EA 23 , relating to the dispatch of the statue to Thebes, discounts this theory. The arrival of

5936-516: The Shengavit culture were located in the altars front. They had diameters of up to one meter, with the edges of the inner space resembling a ship bow divided into three parts, with the upper platforms were red-painted and decorated with geometric figures. Statuettes of women and men and worshiped animals like horses, bulls and rams were found near these hearths. The horseshoe-shaped mobile shrines with ram protomes, threelegged pedestals, phallus-shaped pendant figures were also of religious nature. One of

6042-420: The Shengavit settlement. In 2012 year, a complex cult system was excavated-a room with a rectangular plan, designed specifically for ritual ceremonies, inside which a clay altar decorated with relief ornaments on its front was uncovered. A statue of an idol was affixed into the altar and goblets for libation were placed in front of the heart. To the right from the stairs, leading to the semi-subterranean room of

6148-483: The celebration as the affirmation of transition to divinity. Diplomatic correspondence from Amenhotep's reign are partially preserved in the Amarna Letters , a collection of documents found near the city of Amarna . The letters come from the rulers of Assyria , Mitanni , Babylon , Hatti , and other states, typically including requests by those rulers for gold and other gifts from Amenhotep. The letters cover

6254-764: The centre of this newly formed forecourt. The forecourt between the Third and Fourth Pylons, sometimes called an obelisk court, was also decorated with scenes of the sacred funerary barques of the deities Amun , Mut , and Khonsu . The king also started work on the Tenth Pylon at the Temple of Amun. Amenhotep's first recorded act as king — in his Years 1 and 2 — was to open new limestone quarries at Tura , just south of Cairo and at Dayr al-Barsha in Middle Egypt to undertake his great building projects. He virtually covered Nubia with new monuments: ...including

6360-429: The clause. In Urartian, the ergative suffixes and the absolutive clitics have merged into a single set of obligatory suffixes, that express the person of both the ergative and the absolutive participant and are an integral part of the verb. In general, the profusion of freely moving pronominal and conjunctional clitics that characterize Hurrian, especially that of the Mitanni letter, has few parallels in Urartian. Urartian

6466-482: The daughter of Shuttarna II of Mitanni . He later married Tadukhepa , daughter of Tushratta of Mitanni, in or around Regnal Year 36 of his reign. Other wives, whose names are unknown, included: a daughter of Kurigalzu , king of Babylon ; a daughter of Kadashman-Enlil , king of Babylon ; a daughter of Tarhundaradu , ruler of Arzawa ; and a daughter of the ruler of Ammia (modern-day Syria). Finally, he married at least two of his daughters, Sitamun and Iset, in

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6572-624: The decipherment of Hurrian and Urartian inscriptions and documents in the 19th and early 20th century, Hurrian and Urartian were soon recognized as not related to the Semitic or Indo-European languages, nor to language isolates of the region such as Sumerian language , Elamite language and Hattian language . To date, the most conservative view holds that Hurro-Urartian is a primary language family not demonstrably related to any other language family. Early proposals for an external genetic relationship of Hurro-Urartian variously grouped them with

6678-421: The default order subject–object–verb , although there is significant variation, especially in Urartian. In both languages, nouns can receive a peculiar " anaphoric suffix" comparable, albeit apparently not identical, to a definite article . Nominal modifiers are marked by Suffixaufnahme , i.e. they receive a "copy" of the case suffixes of the head. In verbs, the type of valency , intransitive vs transitive,

6784-419: The ergative person agreement suffixes. Urartian has no such thing, and instead uses negative particles that are placed before the verb. In Hurrian, only the person of the ergative subject is marked obligatorily through a suffix in a verb form. The absolutive subject or object is optionally marked with a pronominal enclitic that need not be attached to the verb, and can also be attached to any other word in

6890-412: The establishment of a long coregency between the two rulers and in favor of either no coregency or one of at most two years. Donald B. Redford , William J. Murnane , Alan Gardiner , and Lawrence Berman contest the view of any coregency whatsoever between Akhenaten and his father. Evidence against a coregency includes Amarna Letter EA 27 , which is dated to Regnal Year 2 of Amenhotep IV. The subject of

6996-420: The event. He directed Amenhotep to use his mace to knock on the temple doors. Beside him, Amenhotep-Hapu mirrored his effort like a royal shadow. The king was followed by Queen Tiye and the royal daughters. When moving to another venue, the banner of the jackal god Wepwawet, "Opener of Ways" preceded the King. The king changed his costume at each major activity of the celebration. One of the major highlights of

7102-624: The festival was the king's dual coronation. He was enthroned separately for Upper and Lower Egypt. For Upper Egypt, Amenhotep wore the white crown but changed to the red crown for the Lower Egypt coronation. After the Sed festival, Amenhotep transcended from being a near-god to one divine. The king may have later traveled across Egypt following the festival, potentially reenacting the ceremony for different audiences. Few Egyptian kings lived long enough for their own celebration. Those who survived used

7208-461: The goddess Sekhmet in the Temple of Mut to the south. Some of the most magnificent statues of New Kingdom Egypt date to his reign "such as the two outstanding couchant rose granite lions originally set before the temple at Soleb in Nubia " as well as a large series of royal sculptures. Several black granite seated statues of Amenhotep wearing the nemes headress have come from excavations behind

7314-642: The king moved to the palace permanently around Regnal Year 29. Once completed, it was the largest royal residence in Egypt. Amenhotep celebrated three Sed festivals in Regnal Years 30, 34, and 37, each at Malkata palace in Western Thebes. A temple of Amun and festival hall were built especially for the celebrations. The Sed festival was a tradition that dated to the Old Kingdom , consisting of

7420-472: The lake. This event was commemorated on at least eleven commemorative scarabs. From other scarabs, Amenhotep is known to have killed either 102 or 110 lions in the first ten years of his reign. Despite the martial prowess Amenhotep displayed during the hunt, he is known to have participated in only one military incident. In Regnal Year Five, he led a victorious campaign against a rebellion in Kush. This victory

7526-517: The language families are related, or believe that, while a connection is possible, the evidence is far from conclusive. Uralicist and Indo-Europeanist Petri Kallio argues that the matter is hindered by the lack of consensus about how to reconstruct Proto-Northeast-Caucasian, but that Alarodian is the most promising proposal for relations with Northeast Caucasian, greater than rival proposals to link it with Northwest Caucasian or other families. Arnaud Fournet and Allan R. Bomhard argue that Hurro-Urartian

7632-416: The languages, including vocabulary, grammar, parts of speech, and proper nouns loaned into Armenian, such as Urartian "eue" ("and"), attested in the earliest Urartian texts (compare to Armenian "yev" (և, եվ), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi ). Other loans from Armenian into Urartian includes personal names, toponyms, and names of deities. There are some lexical matches between Hurro-Urartian and

7738-541: The last Sed Festival, held for Amenhotep II. In preparation for the first Sed Festival, Amenhotep, son of Hapu enlisted scribes to gather information from records and inscriptions, most found in ancient funerary temples, describing the appropriate rituals and costumes. Temples were built and statues erected up and down the Nile. Craftsmen and jewelers created ornaments commentating the event including jewelry, ornaments, and stelae. The scribe Nebmerutef coordinated every step of

7844-480: The last decade of his reign. Jar-label inscriptions from Regnal Year 30 indicate that Sitamun was elevated to the status of Great Royal Wife by that time. Although shunned by common Egyptians, incest was not uncommon among royalty. A sculpture restored by Amenhotep for his grandfather, Amenhotep II, shows Sitamun with a young prince beside her. This has led to theories that Sitamun was the mother of Smekhkare and/or Tutankhamun. Amenhotep probably became pharaoh when he

7950-528: The latter of which may be surrounded by dolmen. This points to a heterogeneous ethno-linguistic population (see section below). Analyzing the situation in the Kura-Araxes period, T. A. Akhundov notes the lack of unity in funerary monuments, which he considers more than strange in the framework of a single culture; for the funeral rites reflect the deep culture-forming foundations and are weakly influenced by external customs. There are non-kurgan and kurgan burials, burials in ground pits, in stone boxes and crypts, in

8056-566: The letter involves a complaint from the Mitannian king Tushratta, claiming that Amenhotep IV did not honor his father's promise to send Tushratta gold statues as part of the marriage arrangement between Tadukhepa , and Amenhotep III. This correspondence implies that if any coregency occurred between Amenhotep and Akhenaten, it lasted no more than a year. However in February 2014, Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced that findings from

8162-609: The modern-day territories of the South Caucasus (except western Georgia), northwestern Iran , the northeastern Caucasus , eastern Turkey , and as far as northern Syria . The name of the culture is derived from the Kura and Araxes river valleys. Some local variations of the Kura–Araxes culture are sometimes known as Shengavitian , Karaz ( Erzurum ), Pulur (after a site renamed later as Sakyol ), and Yanik Tepe (Iranian Azerbaijan, near Lake Urmia ) cultures. It gave rise to

8268-487: The monotonous clay walls with decoration and with shaped arrangement of bricks of different color and to enlighten the monotonous appearance of the walls with various colors (Shengavit, Mokhrablur in Nakhijevan, Yanik-tepe, etc). At some point the culture's settlements and burial grounds expanded out of lowland river valleys and into highland areas. Although some scholars have suggested that this expansion demonstrates

8374-520: The overlapping in time of the Kura-Araxes and Uruk cultures ; such contacts may go back even to the Middle Uruk period. Some scholars have suggested that the earliest manifestation of the Kura-Araxes phenomenon should be dated at least to the last quarter of the 5th millennium BC. This is based on the recent data from Ovçular Tepesi , a Late Chalcolithic settlement located in Nakhchivan by

8480-403: The period from Year 30 of Amenhotep until at least the end of Akhenaten 's reign. In Amarna Letter EA 4 , Amenhotep is quoted by the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enlil I in firmly rejecting the latter's entreaty to marry one of this pharaoh's daughters: From time immemorial, no daughter of the king of Egy[pt] is given to anyone. Amenhotep's refusal to allow one of his daughters to be married to

8586-543: The pharoah for a million years. Side view: A series of festival (ḥb) emblems together with a Sed (sd) emblem identifying the stela as one made for Amenhotep 's Sed Festival royal jubilee. Top and back view: These show malicious damage where the cartouche was chipped away. Cassirer suggests this was another example of Akhenaten's vandalism against Amun Other gods displayed on the stela, Re and Ma’at, showed no damage. The altered stela may then have been displayed by Akhenaten. Another striking characteristic of Amenhotep's reign

8692-430: The shrine, two clay–packed basins were found, in which the ashes from sacred fires were kept. A phallic pendant-idol was found in the shrine, which was the identifying symbol of the priestess. The adjacent room of the complex reflects household activities of the time. A similar cultic complex was found at the ancient site of Pulur (Sakyol). At the inside of the religious structures, terracotta cult hearths that were unique to

8798-705: The spheres of religious practice was the burial ritual. Outside the settlements, burial grounds were formed in their immediate vicinity. Both individual tombs with earthen and tiled walls, as well as wide ancestral tombs with stone walls were revealed, in which the deceased (Joghaz) of the upper-class family were sequentially buried. In the final stage of this civilization, collective burials were performed, which included human sacrifices. These tombs contain numerous artifacts that indications of social stratification: gold and silver jewelry, bronze tools and weapons, imported valuable items. Inhumation practices are mixed. Flat graves are found but so are substantial kurgan burials,

8904-525: The statue is known to have coincided with Amenhotep's marriage with Tadukhepa , Tushratta 's daughter, in the pharaoh's 36th year; letter EA 23's arrival in Egypt is dated to "regnal year 36, the fourth month of winter, day 1" of his reign. Furthermore, Tushratta never mentions in EA 23 that the statue's dispatch was meant to heal Amenhotep of his maladies. Instead, Tushratta writes in part: ... Thus Šauška of Nineveh, mistress of all lands: "I wish to go to Egypt,

9010-550: The third millennium BC and its extinction towards the end of the second millennium BC. There were various Hurrian-speaking states, of which the most prominent one was the kingdom of Mitanni ( 1450 – 1270 BC ). It has been proposed that two little known groups, the Nairi and the Mannae , might have been Hurrian speakers. As little is known about them, it is hard to draw any conclusions about what languages they spoke, although there

9116-600: The tomb of Vizier Amenhotep-Huy gave "conclusive evidence" of a coregency that lasted at least eight years. In the tomb, the cartouches of the two pharaohs were carved side by side. However, this conclusion has since been called into question by other egyptologists, according to whom the inscription means only that construction on Amenhotep-Huy's tomb started during Amenhotep III's reign and ended under Akhenaten's, and Amenhotep-Huy thus simply wanted to pay his respects to both rulers, carving their names separately rather than simultaneously. Amenhotep's greatest attested regnal date

9222-443: The two languages. Despite this structural similarity, there are significant differences. In the phonology, written Hurrian only seems to distinguish a single series of phonemic obstruents without any contrastive phonation distinctions, the variation in voicing, though visible in the script, was allophonic. In contrast, written Urartian distinguishes as many as three series: voiced, voiceless and "emphatic", perhaps glottalized. Urartian

9328-414: The underlying ground strata and on top of them; using both the round and rectangular burials; there are also substantial differences in the typical corpse position. Burial complexes of Kura–Araxes culture sometimes also include cremation. Here one can come to the conclusion that the Kura–Araxes culture developed gradually through a synthesis of several cultural traditions, including the ancient cultures of

9434-680: The world has been found at Gadachrili Gora , near the village of Imiri, Marneuli Municipality , in southeastern Republic of Georgia ; carbon-dating points to the date of about 6000 BC. Grape pips dating back to the V-IVth millennia BC were found in Shulaveri; others dating back to the IVth millennium BC were found in Khizanaant Gora—all in this same 'Shulaveri area' of the Republic of Georgia. A theory has been suggested by Stephen Batiuk that

9540-491: Was a country wedded to age-old political and religious certainties under the Amun priesthood. The resulting upheavals from his son Akhenaten 's reforming zeal shook these old certainties to their foundations, and forced the momentous question whether a pharaoh was more powerful than his society as represented in the worship of Amun. Akhenaten even moved the capital away from Thebes, the center of Amun's worship, and built Amarna ,

9646-512: Was a strong Hurrian influence on the Hittite culture in ancient times, so many Hurrian texts are preserved from Hittite political centres. The Mitanni variety is chiefly known from the so-called " Mitanni letter " from Hurrian Tushratta to pharaoh Amenhotep III surviving in the Amarna archives. The "Old Hurrian" variety is known from some early royal inscriptions and from religious and literary texts, especially from Hittite centres. Urartian

9752-528: Was an archaeological culture that existed from about 4000 BC until about 2000 BC, which has traditionally been regarded as the date of its end; in some locations it may have disappeared as early as 2600 or 2700 BC. The earliest evidence for this culture is found on the Ararat plain ; it spread north in the Caucasus by 3000 BC. Altogether, the early Transcaucasian culture enveloped a vast area approximately 1,000 km by 500 km, and mostly encompassed

9858-477: Was based on farming and livestock -raising (especially of cattle and sheep). They grew grain and orchard crops, and are known to have used implements to make flour . They raised cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and in later phases, horses. Before the Kura-Araxes period, horse bones were not found in Transcaucasia. Later, beginning about 3300 BCE, they became widespread, with signs of domestication. There

9964-450: Was between the ages of 6 and 12. While it is likely that a regent would have ruled until he came of age, none is attested in the surviving records. In Regnal Year 11, Amenhotep commanded the construction of an artificial lake at Tiye's hometown of Djakaru. He then celebrated a Festival of Opening the Lake in the third month of Inundation, day sixteen, and rowed the royal barge Aten-tjehen on

10070-581: Was born probably around 1401 BC. Later in his life, Amenhotep commissioned the depiction of his divine birth to be displayed at Luxor Temple. Amenhotep claimed that his true father was the god Amun , who had taken the form of Thutmose IV to father a child with Mutemwiya. In Regnal Year 2, Amenhotep married Tiye , the daughter of Yuya and Thuya . Tiye was the Great Royal Wife throughout Amenhotep's reign. Many commemorative scarabs were commissioned and distributed during Amenhotep's reign. On

10176-809: Was buried in tomb WV22 in the Western Valley of the Valley of the Kings outside of Thebes. The tomb is the largest in the West Valley of the Kings and includes two side chambers for his Great Royal Wives, Tiye and Sitamun. However, it does not seem that either woman was buried there. During the reign of Smendes in the Third Intermediate Period , Amenhotep's mummy was later moved to the mummy cache in KV35 along with several other pharaohs of

10282-485: Was commemorated by three rock-carved stelae found near Aswan and Saï in Nubia. The official account of Amenhotep's military victory emphasizes his martial prowess with the hyperbole typical of the period. There is a significant attestation for the court officials who served during Amenhotep's reign, primarily through the discovery of their tombs in the Theban Necropolis . Among these court officials were

10388-493: Was copper production. A large number of weapon and tools made of arsenical bronze are attested by both the finds near Yerevan and the stone and clay molds found in various ancient sites of Shengavit civilization (Shengavit, Margahovit , etc.). In the Shengavit ancient site, weight standards similar to those used in the Levant were found, which testify the Armenia's involvement in the newly formed international trade relations in

10494-574: Was deified after his death and was one of the few non-royals to be worshiped in such a manner. The palace of Malkata was built in the 14th century BC and its ancient name was Per -Hay , "House of Rejoicing". Originally, the palace was known as the Palace of the Dazzling Aten . Built mostly out of mud-brick, it was Amenhotep's residence throughout most of the later part of his reign. Construction began around Regnal Year 11 and continued until

10600-544: Was frequently used as the name for one of his palaces, and for the Year 11 royal barge, as well as for a company of Amenhotep's army. In 2021, excavations revealed a settlement near Amenhotep's mortuary temple, called the Dazzling Aten , believed to have been built by king to house craftsmen and labourers working on royal projects at Thebes, along with its own bakery and cemetery. A Sed Festival Stela of Amenhotep III

10706-484: Was inhabited from approximately 3200 BC cal to 2500 BC cal. Later on, in the Middle Bronze Age, it was used irregularly until 2200 BC cal. The town occupied an area of six hectares, which is large for Kura-Araxes sites. In the earliest phase of the Kura–Araxes culture, metal was scarce. In comparison, the preceding Leilatepe culture 's metalwork tradition was far more sophisticated. Especially after 3000 BC,

10812-421: Was made from sandy clay with the help of mold forms and dried in the sun. It was the main building material from which 10 to 11 walls, temples, residential and economic buildings and hydro-engineering structures were built. The foundations of the houses were made of river stones, cracked or unprocessed basalt (Shengavit, Harich, Karaz, Amiranis-gora, etc.), on which mud-brick walls were raised. Round buildings with

10918-517: Was more likely. Further, Moran argues that the contents of Amarna Letter EA 21 support this claim, wherein Tushratta asks the gods, including Ishtar, for their blessing of the marriage. In the 14th century BCE, the pharaoh sent an expedition to Cyprus to establish Egyptian control over the island, which was subsequently maintained for several centuries. During this time, the Egyptians established

11024-469: Was taken from Egypt to Europe by an art dealer. Once owned by Eric Cassirer, it is now believed to be in a private collection in the United States. The white alabaster stela is 10 × 9 cm (3.94 × 3.54 in), but only its upper half survived. Front view: The god Heh, representing the number one million, holds notched palm leaves signifying years and the cartouche of Amenhotep, symbolically raising

11130-560: Was there much difference in size or character between settlements, facts that suggest they probably had a poorly developed social hierarchy for a significant stretch of their history. Some, but not all, settlements were surrounded by stone walls. Among the settlements with an area of 1-10 ha, the central ones were surrounded by fortified walls built of stone (Shengavit, Garni , Persi, Khorenia-Javakhk) and of mud-brick ( Mokhrablur , Goy-tepe, Gudaberteke), with artificial puddles (Norabats, Kvatskhelebi, Khizannat-gora). The Shengavit fortified wall

11236-444: Was ultimately succeeded by his second son, who ascended the throne as Amenhotep IV and later took the name Akhenaten. It has long been theorized that Amenhotep III shared a coregency with his son Amenhotep IV. Lawrence Berman has claimed that proponents of the coregency theory tended to be art historians, while historians remained unconvinced. Eric Cline , Nicholas Reeves , Peter Dorman , and other scholars argue strongly against

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