ABSTRACT
Many elements of Hurrian culture survived and ourished in the Hittite world aer the Hurrians had ceased to be a political force in the Near East. Hurrian deities and religious practices were adopted with particular enthusiasm in C13 by the Hittite king Hattusili III and his Hurrian queen Puduhepa, and subsequently by Hattusili’s son and successor Tudhaliya IV – as illustrated by the reliefs and inscriptions of the Hittite rock sanctuary at Yazılıkaya near Hattusa. And Hurrian mythological tales became embedded in Hittite literary tradition, notably the Kumarbi epic. In southern Anatolia, the state of Kizzuwadna (Kizzuwatna) was probably created under Hurrian inuence in C16, and contained a substantial Hurrian element in its population. e Hurrians spoke a language, preserved primarily in cuneiform inscriptions, which is unrelated to any other language known to us, with the possible exception of Urartian.
