Editing Mitanni (section)

===Upper Mesopotamia===
Sites with Mitannian remains were found mainly in three regions of Upper Mesopotamia: Northeastern Syria [[Jazira Region]], Northern Syria, and Southeastern Turkey (Upper Tigris).

====Northeastern Syria (Jazira Region)====
[[File:Regions_of_the_Autonomous_Administration_of_North_and_East_Syria.png|thumb|290px|Jazira region in light green, Northeastern Syria.]]
Mitanni's first phase in Jazira Region features Late [[Khabur Ware]] from around 1600 to 1550 BC; this pottery was a continuity from the previous non-Mitannian Old Babylonian period.<ref name="Oselini">Oselini, Valentina, (2020). [https://www.openstarts.units.it/bitstream/10077/30235/1/12_W%26E_4_BH5_III_online.pdf "Defining the MB-LB transition in northern Mesopotamia: some archaeological considerations on the new data from the Erbil Plain and neighbouring regions"], in Costanza Coppini, Francesca Simi (eds.), Interactions and New Directions in Near Eastern Archaeology, Volume 3, Proceedings of the 5th Broadening Horizons Conference (Udine 5–8 June 2017), EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, Trieste, p. 209, Figure 2.</ref> From around 1550 to 1270 BC, Painted [[Nuzi Ware]] (the most characteristic pottery in Mitanni times) developed as a contemporary to Younger Khabur Ware.<ref name="Oselini" /><ref>Pfalzner, Peter, (2007). [http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/2900/1/Pfaelzner_Late_Bronze_Age_Ceramic_Tradition_2007.pdf "The Late Bronze Age Ceramic Traditions of the Syrian Jazirah"], in al-Maqdissī, Mīšīl; Matoïan, Valérie; Nicolle, Christophe (eds.), Céramique de l'âge du bronze en Syrie, 2, L'Euphrate et la région de Jézireh, Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 180, Beyrouth, pp. 232, 244, and Figure 2.</ref>

Mitanni had outposts centred on its capital, [[Washukanni]], whose location has been determined by archaeologists to be on the [[headwaters]] of the [[Khabur (Euphrates)|Khabur River]], most likely at the site of [[Tell Fekheriye]] as recent German archaeological excavations suggest. The city of [[Taite]] was also known to be a Mitanni "royal city" whose current location is unknown.<ref name="iris.unito.it">De Martino, Stefano, 2018. [https://iris.unito.it/handle/2318/1685098#.Xo50qnLB_IV "Political and Cultural Relations between the Kingdom of Mittani and its Subordinated Polities in Syria and Southeast Anatolia"], in Changing Faces of Kingship in Syria-Palestine 1500–500 BCE, Ugarit Verlag, p. 38: "...the recent German archaeological excavations at Tell Fekheriye support the assumption that the capital of Mittani, Wassukkanni, was located there..." See also Novák (2013: 346) and Bonatz (2014).</ref>

The major 3rd millennium urban center of [[Tell Brak]] which had dwindled to a minor settlement in Old Babylonian times, saw major development {{Circa|1600}} by the Mitanni. Monumental buildings including a palace and temple were constructed on the high ground and a 40 hectare lower town developed.<ref>Oates, David. "Excavations at Tell Brak, 1983-84." Iraq, vol. 47, 1985, pp. 159–73</ref> The Mitanni occupation lasted until the site was destroyed (in two phases) between {{Circa|1300}} and 1275 BC, presumably by the Assyrians.<ref>UR, JASON, et al. "THE SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF EARLY MESOPOTAMIAN URBANISM: THE TELL BRAK SUBURBAN SURVEY, 2003—2006", Iraq, vol. 73, 2011, pp. 1–19</ref> Two Mitanni-era tablets were found during the modern excavation. One (TB 6002) mentioned "Artassumara the king, son of Shuttarna the king".<ref name="Finkel, Irving L. 1984. pp. 187"/> Seventeen late period Mitanni tablets were found at [[Tall Al-Hamidiya]].<ref>Kessler, Karlheinz, "Neue Tontafelfunde aus dem mitannizeitlichen Taidu – Ein Vorbericht", The Archaeology of Political Spaces: The Upper Mesopotamian Piedmont in the Second Millennium BCE, edited by Dominik Bonatz, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 35-42, 2014</ref>

====Northern Syria====
The oldest tablet issued by an unknown Mitannian king was found in the site of [[Tell Hammam et-Turkman]], dated to c. 1500 BCE.<ref>de Martino, Stefano, (2024). [https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1957170/1/MittaniCuneiformDocuments.pdf "The Mittanian Cuneiform Documents"], in: The Ancient World Revisited, Studies in Manuscript Cultures, Vol. 37, De Gruyter, pp. 207- 219.</ref>
Mitanni period occupation, between 1400 and 1200 BC (radiocarbon) was found at the site of [[Tell Bazi]].<ref>A. Otto, "The Late Bronze Age Pottery of the Weststadt of Tall Bazi (North Syria)", in: M. Luciani, A. Hausleitner (Eds.), Recent Trends in the Study of Late Bronze Age Ceramics in Syro-Mesopotamia and Neighbouring Regions. Proceedings of the International Workshop in Berlin, 2 – 5 November 2006, OrA 32, Rahden/Westf., pp. 85-117, 2014</ref><ref>[https://www.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/projekt_syrien/literatur_bazi/2018c_einwott_maao-bazipottery.pdf] B. Einwag and A. Otto, "The Late Bronze Age at Tall Bazi: The Evidence of the Pottery and the Challenges of Radiocarbon Dating", in: From Pottery to Chronology: The Middle Euphrates Region in Late Bronze Age Syria. Proceedings of a Workshop in Mainz (Germany), 5–7 May 2012. MAAO 1, Gladbeck, pp. 149–176, 2018</ref> Finds included a Mitanni cylinder seal and several ritual bowls. Two cuneiform tablets of the Mitanni period sealed by Mitanni ruler [[Saushtatar]], one by [[Artatama I]] were also found.<ref>[https://www.vorderas-archaeologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/professoren/otto/publikationen/ii-83_otto-einwag_fs_autorski.pdf] Otto, Adelheid and Berthold Einwag. "Three ritual vessels from the Mittani-period temple at Tell Bazi." Stories told around the fountain. Papers offered to Piotr Bieliński on the occasion of his 70th birthday (2019): pp. 503-518</ref> There is also a record of Mitanni governance at [[Tell Hadidi]] (Azu).<ref>[https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-assyriologie-2018-1-page-149.htm] Torrecilla, Eduardo, and Yoram Cohen. "A Mittani letter order from Azu (Had 8) and its implications for the chronology and history of the Middle Euphrates region in the Late Bronze Age." Revue d'assyriologie et d'archeologie orientale 112.1 (2018): 149-158</ref>

====Southeastern Turkey (Upper Tigris)====
The (2017) salvage excavations at the [[Ilısu Dam]] in the right bank of upper [[Tigris]], southern Turkey, have shown a very early beginning of Mitanni period, as in the ruins of a temple in Müslümantepe, ritual artefacts and a Mitannian cylinder seal were found, radiocarbon-dated to 1760–1610 BC.<ref name="Ay">Ay, Eyyüp, (2021). [https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1309737 "A Hurrian-Mitanni Temple in Müslümantepe in The Upper Tigris and New Findings"], in ''Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, April 27, 2021.''</ref> Archaeologist Eyyüp Ay, in his (2021) paper, describes the second phase of the temple as an "administrative center, which had craftsmen working in its workshops as well as farmers, gardeners and shepherds, [that] might have been ruled by a priest bound to a powerful Mitannian leader."<ref name="Ay" />