element among the Hyksos. This connection is further substantiated by the names of other Kassite deities. Shuriash, equated with the sun-god Shamash, is indubitably the Hindu Surya[1] and the Greek Helios. Maruttash, likened to Ninurta, has been identified with the Indian Marut. Buriash, another storm-god like Adad, appears to be identical with the Greek Boreas.
All these factors show that the Kassites were a conglomerate people, and we live too long after them to disentangle completely the various elements of their composition. Nevertheless, it seems clear that an Indo-European, and so ultimately Nordic, ruling caste had once lived among them and dominated a group of alien and largely Caucasian peoples. Normally, such conquerors force their language upon the subject peoples, but we have one example of the reverse in Mitanni, and the same situation may have developed among the peoples who came into history as the Kassites; their Nordic aristocracy may in time have forgotten its own language save as it was preserved in a few proper names. The native races had their revenge.
Like their ancestry, the site of the Kassites' homeland is doubtful. Later remnants would indicate that they descended upon Babylonia from the central Zagros, north of Elam. The great-grandson of their
- ↑ Cf. the occurrences of the element Surya (generally written Shuwar) in the Amarna letters: J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln ("Vorderasiatische Bibliothek," Vol. II), Part 2, p. 1568.
