Oldest Hurrian script

The earliest known continuous text from the Bronze Age Hurrian culture appears on a foundation peg dating to the second half of the 21st century BCE that is currently housed at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The script is etched into a limestone tablet upon which rests a copper-alloy depiction of a snarling lion; scholars believe that this sculpture was created to protect the temple of the god Nergal, the god of the underworld, in the city of Urkesh in the Taurus mountains of modern-day Syria.

Foundation pegs (or clay nails or clay pegs) are inscribed stone tablets or cones built into the foundations of a building to solicit protection from - and/or offer dedication to - a god. Pegs may also feature sculpted forms, as with the Urkesh lion. The copper-alloy lion lies with its forepaws stretched over a tablet inscribed with cuneiform, while its hindquarters form a thick wedge-like peg; the sculpture rests on an 8-cm-wide (3.3-in) white limestone base, which is also inscribed, in both cuneiform script and Hurrian language.

The Hurrian text on the stone tablet reads: "Tish-Atal, endan [king] of Urkesh, has built a temple for the god Nergal. May the god Nubadag protect this temple. May Nubadag destroy whomsoever seeks to destroy [it]; may his god not listen to his prayers. May the Lady of Nagar, [the sun god] Shimiga, and the god of the storm [curse 10,000 times whomsoever might seek to destroy it]."

The Louvre lion has a twin –⁠ minus its limestone tablet and made from a different mould –⁠ in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA. Neither lion has an archaeological precedent so their original placement cannot be confirmed with absolute certainty; however, the details contained in the inscriptions locate the items to the foundations of the Nergal temple in Urkesh.

Examples of Hurrian names and words are attested in earlier Akkadian texts –⁠ there is a marble tablet from Nippur which dates to the Old Akkadian period (c. 2325–2130 BCE) and contains names of items of clothing which are formed with identifiably Hurrian morphemes, for example –⁠ but the Tish-Atal inscription is the oldest continuous text.