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Tikunani Prism


The Tikunani Prism is a clay artifact with an Akkadian cuneiform inscription listing the names of 438 Habiru soldiers of King Tunip-Teššup of Tikunani (a small North Mesopotamian kingdom). This king was a contemporary of King Hattusili I of the Hittites (around 1550 BC).

The discovery of this text generated much excitement, for it provided much-needed fresh evidence about the nature of the Habiru (or Hapiru). It turned out that the majority of Tunip-Tessup's Habiru soldiers had Hurrian names that could not be explained in any Canaanite language (the family which Hebrew belongs to) or any other Semitic language. The rest of the names are Semitic, except one which is Kassite.

The Prism is 8½ inches tall, with a square base roughly 2 by 2 inches. It is in a private collection of antiquities in England, and its provenance is unknown.


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