[c] Since no histories, royal annals or chronicles have yet been found in its excavated sites, knowledge about Mitanni is sparse compared to the other powers in the area, and dependent on what its neighbours commented in their texts.

[6] Later on, Hurrians made up the main population of Mitanni, which was firstly known as Ḫabigalbat, at Babylonia, in two texts of the late Old Babylonian period,[1][7] during the reign of Ammi-Saduqa, (c. 1638–1618 BC), in low middle chronology.

The Mitanni Empire was a strong regional power limited by the Hittites to the north, Egyptians to the west, Kassites to the south, and later by the Assyrians to the east.

At its maximum extent Mitanni ranged as far west as Kizzuwatna by the Taurus Mountains, Tunip in the south, Arraphe in the east, and north to Lake Van.

[9] The earliest recorded form of the name of this state is Maitanni, composed of a Hurrian suffix -nni added to the Indo-Aryan stem maita-, meaning "to unite" and comparable with the Sanskrit verb mith (मिथ्; lit.

[12] Andrea Trameri (15 October 2024), along with Gernot Wilhelm (1997: 290), regards that Maitani means "of M(a)itta," the name of "an individual leader (or clan), and not a territory or population.

"[13] The Mitanni kingdom was firstly known as Ḫabingalbat before 1600 BC in Babylonia, during the reign of Ammi-Saduqa, attested as ḫa-bi-in-gal-ba-ti-i, and ḫa-bi-in-ga-al-ba-at, in two texts of the late Old Babylonian period.

[20] The re-reading makes an argument on the basis of frequency, where "gal" not "gal9," is far more numerous; the later being the deviation found in six documents, all from the periphery of the Akkadian sphere of influence.

It is additionally argued that although they are graphically distinct, there is a high degree of overlap between the two signs, as "gal9" denotes "dannum" or ""strong"" opposed to "great", easily being used as synonyms.

During the reign of Shuttarna II, in the early 14th century BC, the relationship was very amicable, and he sent his daughter Gilu-Hepa to Egypt for marriage with Pharaoh Amenhotep III.

Finally a Hittite army conquered the capital Washukanni and installed Shattiwaza, the son of Tushratta, as their vassal king of Mitanni in the late 14th century BC.

[49] Annelies Kammenhuber (1968) suggested that this vocabulary was derived from the still undivided Indo-Iranian language,[53][54] but Mayrhofer has shown that specifically Indo-Aryan features are present.

[55][56] It is generally believed that Indo-Aryan peoples settled in Upper Mesopotamia and northern Syria, and established the Kingdom of Mitanni following a period of political vacuum, while also adopting Hurrian.

[7][49] 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.

[64] Jasper Eidem in 2014 reported on Farouk Ismail's earlier study,[68] 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.

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.

[71][72] Mitanni had outposts centred on its capital, Washukanni, whose location has been determined by archaeologists to be on the headwaters of the Khabur River, most likely at the site of Tell Fekheriye as recent German archaeological excavations suggest.

[82] 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.

[83] 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.

In the 1st excavation 10 Mitanni-era tablets were found, in Babylonian cuneiform written in Akkadian, bearing Hurrian names, dating to the Middle-Trans-Tigridian IA and IB periods.

[91] Mitanni, which first rose to power before 1550 BC,[92][93] presents the following known kings: All dates must be taken with caution since they are worked out only by comparison with the chronology of other ancient Near Eastern nations.

[97] Parsha(ta)tar, known from another Nuzi inscription (HSS 13 165), an undated inventory list which mentions his death, is considered a different king than Barattarna by M. P. Maidman, Eva von Dassow, and Ian Mladjov.

The Egyptian army crossed the Euphrates at Carchemish and reached a town called Iryn (maybe present day Erin, 20 km northwest of Aleppo.)

Barattarna or his son Shaushtatar controlled the North Mitanni interior up to Nuhašše, and the coastal territories from Kizzuwatna to Alalakh in the kingdom of Mukish at the mouth of the Orontes.

[96] He sacked the Assyrian capital of Assur some time in the 15th century during the reign of Nur-ili, and took the silver and golden doors of the royal palace to Washukanni.

These pair of treaties found at the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusa codify the Mitanni Shattiwaza, probable son of Tushratta, entering the status of vassal to Suppiluliuma I.

A single Amarna letter was sent by Tushratta to Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III, mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun (EA 26).

A note in hieratic on the tablet stated that EA 23 arrived in the 36th year of Amenhotep III reign or roughly 1350 BC in the standard Egyptian Chronology.

And when that pharaoh was ill near the end of his reign Tushratta sent (EA 23) the Hurrian goddess Šauška of Nineveh (actually her cult statue) to him as had been done in the time of Shuttarna II.

His inscriptions mention the conquest of nine fortified temples; 180 Hurrian cities were "turned into rubble mounds," and Shalmaneser "slaughtered like sheep the armies of the Hittites and the Ahlamu his allies."