2019/01/01 by Simone Gentile · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Ancient Near East History #History #Linguistics and language evolution
paper · pdf · doi:10.34158/onoma.54/2019/8
crossref issued 2019/01/01 · crossref published 2019/01/01 · crossref published-online 2019/01/01 · crossref published-print 2019/01/01 · openalex publication_date 2019/01/01 · crossref created 2020/07/22 · crossref deposited 2020/07/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04 · crossref indexed 2026/08/04
As is known, some IndoAryan (or Iranian) proper names and glosses are attested in documents from Egypt, Northern Mesopotamia, and Syria, related to the ancient kingdom of Mitanni (2nd millennium BC). The discovery of these Aryan archaic forms in Hittite and Hurrian sources was of particular interest for comparative philology. Indeed, some names can be readily compared to IndoIranian anthroponyms and theonyms: for instance, Auzzana can likely be related with OPers. Aspaan 'delighting in horses', probably of Median origin; Indaratti 'having Indra as his guest' clearly recalls Indra, a theonym which occurs both in R gveda and Avesta. This paper aims at investigating the relationship between Aryan personal names preserved in Near Eastern documents and the IndoIranian cultural milieu. After a thorough collection of these names, their 138 SIMONE GENTILE morphological and semantic structures are analysed in depth and the most relevant results are showed here. Moreover, a new typology of anthroponyms comes to light. MitanniAryan names might therefore provide some relevant information concerning the IndoIranian cultural background before its split, as well as royal, religious and political ideology, despite the fragmentary documentation.