Hurrian
/ˈhʌrɪən
/noun
1A member of an ancient people, originally from Armenia, who settled in Syria and northern Mesopotamia during the 3rd-2nd millennia bc and were later absorbed by the Hittites and Assyrians.In the second half of the 8th century, Tiglath-Pileser III pushed his frontiers south to the Persian Gulf and north into the heart of Anatolia, defeating the Hurrians and the Hittites....
- He wrote of the relation of the Kurdish peoples, or some of them, to the ancient Hurrians.
- In fact, Siirt is a city of great antiquity, home to many different civilisations, beginning with the Hurrians, who were succeeded in turn by the Medes, Persians, Parthians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and finally the Ottomans.
2 [mass noun] The language of the Hurrians, written in cuneiform and of unknown affinity.We know that the Middle East of 5000 years ago was using a variety of unrelated languages, Hurrian, Egyptian, Sumerian, Elamite, Hittite, and Akkadian, where for the last 1000 years there has been nothing but Arabic and Persian....
- This system developed over the succeeding centuries to form Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hititte, Hurrian, and Old Persian.
- The cosmopolitan nature of the city is evident from the presence of documents written in Ugaritic, Akkadian, Hittite, Egyptian, Hurrian, and even Cypro-Minoan.
adjective
Relating to the Hurrians or their language.The charioteers, who bore the Hurrian title mariyannu, were an élite group given special privileges....
- Some of the pottery is estimated to be approximately 5,000 years old, and it has been linked to the Nuzi people of the Hurrian civilization.
- To a visitor from a non-Islamic planet earth, the Hurrian political system would appear to be an exotic blend of Stalin and a militant Sweden.