Editing Mitanni (section)

==Indo-Aryan influences==
{{main|Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni}}
{{see also|Maryannu}}
A number of theonyms, proper names and glosses (technical terminology) of the Mitanni are of [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] or [[Proto-Indo-Aryan language|Proto-Indo-Aryan]] origins.<ref name=Cotticelli/> Starting from [[Shuttarna I]] who is the first Mitanni ruler historically attested to have existed, the Mitanni had Indo-Aryan [[regnal name|throne names]].<ref name="De Martino, Stefano, (2014)"/> The [[Kikkuli]]'s horse training text includes technical terms of Indo-Aryan origin,<ref>{{cite journal |first=Paul |last=Thieme |title=The 'Aryan' Gods of the Mitanni Treaties |journal=[[Journal of the American Oriental Society]] |volume=80 |issue=4 |year=1960 |pages=301–17 |doi=10.2307/595878 |jstor=595878 }}</ref> and the Indo-Aryan deities [[Mitra]], [[Varuna]], [[Indra]], and [[Nasatya]] ([[Asvins|Ashvins]]) are listed and invoked in two treaties found in [[Hattusa]], between the kings [[Sattiwaza]] of Mitanni and [[Šuppiluliuma I]] the Hittite: (treaty KBo I 3) and (treaty KBo I 1 and its duplicates).<ref>Fournet, Arnaud, (2010). [https://www.academia.edu/642020/Journal_of_Indo-European_Studies._2010._About_the_Mitanni_Aryan_gods._1-2_26-40_ "About the Mitanni Aryan Gods"], in Journal of Indo-European Studies 38 (1-2), pp. 26-40. See [in this pdf version] pp. 3, 5, and 10.</ref><ref>Devecchi, Elena, (2018). [https://ur.booksc.eu/book/72917351/aa1fc4 "Details That Make the Difference: The Akkadian Manuscripts of the ‘Šattiwaza Treaties.’"], in: Die Welt Des Orients, vol. 48, no. 1, 2018, pp. 72–95. See '''p. 72:''' "...The so-called 'Šattiwaza treaties' are a set of two documents (CTH 51 and CTH 52) ratifying the subjugation of Šattiwaza of Mittani to the Hittite king
Šuppiluliuma I, an event dated to the 2nd half of the 14th century BCE..."</ref> The toponym of the Mitanni capital of [[Washukanni]] is also "unanimously accepted" to have been derived from an Indo-Aryan dialect.<ref name=Cotticelli/> Annelies Kammenhuber (1968) suggested that this vocabulary was derived from the still undivided [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] language,<ref>Kammenhuber, Annelies (1968). Die Arier im vorderen Orient. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag. p. 238. On p. 238 she indicates they spoke a "noch ungeteiltes Indo-Iranisch".</ref><ref name=Drews>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Drews |title=The Coming of the Greeks: Indo-European Conquests in the Aegean and the Near East |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=1989 |isbn=0-691-02951-2 |chapter=Chariot Warfare |page=[https://archive.org/details/comingofgreeksin00drew/page/61 61] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LxCnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |url=https://archive.org/details/comingofgreeksin00drew/page/61 }}</ref> but [[Manfred Mayrhofer|Mayrhofer]] has shown that specifically Indo-Aryan features are present.<ref>{{cite journal |first=M. |last=Mayrhofer |title=Die Arier im Vorderen Orient &ndash; ein Mythos? |journal=Sitzungsberichte der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften |volume=294 |issue=3 |location=Vienna |year=1974 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=M. |last=Mayrhofer |title=Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen |location=Heidelberg |year=1986–2000 |volume=IV }}</ref>

It is generally believed that [[Indo-Aryan peoples]] settled in [[Upper Mesopotamia]] and northern [[Syria (region)|Syria]], and established the Kingdom of Mitanni following a period of political vacuum, while also adopting Hurrian. This is considered a part of the [[Indo-Aryan migrations]].{{sfn|Sigfried J. de Laet|1996|p=562}}{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|pages=39–41}}{{sfn|Bryce|2005|p=55}} Since the late 20th century, the view that the Mitanni kingdom was ruled by royal house and aristocracy of Indo-Aryan origin has been prevalent among the scholars;{{efn|Including [[Christopher I. Beckwith]] (2009),<ref>{{Cite book|author-link= Christopher I. Beckwith|last=Beckwith |first=Christopher I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC |title=Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present |date=2009 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-13589-2 |language=en|pages=39–41}}</ref> Pita Kelekna (2009),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kelekna |first=Pita |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m09_uTLuz3UC&pg=PA95 |title=The Horse in Human History |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-51659-4 |language=en|page=95}}</ref> [[Asko Parpola]] (2015),<ref>{{Citation |last=Parpola |first=Asko |title=The BMAC of Central Asia and the Mitanni of Syria |date=2015 |work=The Roots of Hinduism |pages=69–91 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226909.003.0008|publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226909.003.0008|isbn=978-0-19-022690-9 }}</ref> [[Elena Efimovna Kuzmina]] (2007),<ref>{{Citation |last1=Kuz’Mina |first1=E. E. |title=Chapter Twenty-Five. The genesis of the indo-aryans |date=2007 |work=The Origin of the Indo-Iranians |pages=321–346 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789047420712/Bej.9789004160545.i-763_026.xml |access-date= |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004160545.i-763.91 |isbn=978-90-474-2071-2 |last2=Mallory |first2=J. P.}}</ref> [[Alexander Lubotsky]] (2023),<ref name="Lubotsky, Alexander 2023 p. 260">{{Citation |last=Lubotsky |first=Alexander |title=Indo-European and Indo-Iranian Wagon Terminology and the Date of the Indo-Iranian Split |date=2023 |work=The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited: Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics |pages=257–262 |editor-last=Willerslev |editor-first=Eske |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/indoeuropean-puzzle-revisited/indoeuropean-and-indoiranian-wagon-terminology-and-the-date-of-the-indoiranian-split/ADBF07BCD6447A00E1B5E3EE4E128FA7 |access-date= |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781009261753.021 |isbn=978-1-009-26175-3 |editor2-last=Kroonen |editor2-first=Guus |editor3-last=Kristiansen |editor3-first=Kristian}}</ref> Frans van Koppen (2017)<ref>{{Citation |last=Koppen |first=Frans van |title=The Early Kassite Period |date=2017 |work=Volume 1 Karduniaš. Babylonia under the Kassites |pages=45–92 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781501503566-002/html |access-date= |publisher=De Gruyter |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781501503566-002 |isbn=978-1-5015-0356-6}}</ref> and others}} accordingly, a branch of Indo-Aryans separated from the other Indo-Iranians around the turn of second millennium BCE and migrated into [[West Asia]], hence giving rise to the Mitanni kingdom, while also adopting Hurrian language.{{sfn|Lubotsky|2023}}{{sfn|Parpola|2015|p=69–91}}{{sfn|Beckwith|2009|pages=39–41}} Some of the recent studies such as those by Eva von Dassow (2022) and Cotticelli-Kurras and Pisaniello (2023), while noting the modern identification of Mittani as Indo-Aryan and the role of Indo-Aryan speakers in establishing its dynasty, have disputed the significance of Indo-Aryan vocabulary in an otherwise Hurrian-speaking state stating that it does not indicate any Indo-Aryan origins for Mitanni kings.<ref name="von Dassow, Eva, (2022)">{{Citation |last=von Dassow |first=Eva |title=Mittani and Its Empire |date=2022 |work=The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume III |pages=455–528 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190687601.003.0029 |access-date= |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190687601.003.0029|isbn=978-0-19-068760-1 }}</ref><ref name=Cotticelli>{{Citation |last1=Cotticelli-Kurras |first1=P. |title=Indo-Aryans in the Ancient Near East |date=2023 |work=Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World |pages=332–345 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004548633/BP000013.xml |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004548633_014 |isbn=978-90-04-54863-3 |last2=Pisaniello |first2=V.|doi-access=free }}</ref> According to [[Alexander Lubotsky]] (2023), however, the military elite of the Mitanni kingdom (see [[Maryannu]]) was of Aryan descent and their language displays a clear Indo-Aryan character.<ref name="Lubotsky, Alexander 2023 p. 260"/>

Jasper Eidem in 2014 reported on Farouk Ismail's earlier study,<ref name="Eidem">Eidem, Jasper, (2014). [https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110266412.137/html "The Kingdom of Šamšī-Adad and its Legacies"], in Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum, Nicole Brisch and Jesper Eidem (eds.), ''Constituent, Confederate, and Conquered Space: The Emergence of the Mittani State'', p. 142, and footnote 16.</ref> in reference to the word ''marijannu'' that was found in a letter from [[Tell Leilan]] in northeastern Syria dating to a period slightly before 1761 BC, which is the time when the reign of [[Zimri-Lim]] ended in the region of [[Mari, Syria|Mari]]. Kroonen et al. (2018) consider this as an early Indo-Aryan linguistic presence in Syria two centuries prior to the formation of the Mitanni realm, as ''[[Maryannu|mariannu]]'' is generally seen as a Hurrianized form of the Indo-Aryan ''*marya'', which means 'man' or 'youth', associated to military affairs and chariots.<ref>Kroonen, Guus, Gojko Barjamovic, and Michaël Peyrot, (2018). [https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/87765/Kroonen_et_al_2018.pdf "Linguistic supplement to Damgaard et al. 2018: Early Indo-European languages, Anatolian, Tocharian and Indo-Iranian"], in Zenodo 2018, p. 11.</ref>