DAY 6 of the nuntarriyašḫa- festival is one of the most eventful days of the entire celebration. It is focused exclusively on the actions of the king and the royal couple.

According to the outline tablets, on this day the king travels from Arinna (generally identified with Alaca Höyük) to Ḫattuša. Along the way, at Tatišga, he is joined by the queen, who arrives from Taḫurpa, and together they proceed to the capital. Outline.5 adds an additional stop for the king—at Kulilla, located before Tatišga (both settlements lying in the vicinity of Ḫattuša). Once in the capital, the king visits (but does not enter) all of the city’s temples. Finally, two great assemblies take place: one in the ḫalentu- complex and another in the temple of the Storm-god, likely the Great Temple.

In this edition, twenty-four manuscripts of day-tablets, organized into nine versions, have been identified for DAY 6 (for differences from the previous edition, see below). Although this number may appear unusually large, the abundance of fragments partly reflects the wide range of celebrations conducted on this day. Individual versions often describe in detail only selected events from those listed in the outline tablets.

Version 8, for example, describes the early hours of DAY 6, when the king is still in Arinna, followed by his journey to Ḫattuša, his meeting with the queen at Tatišga, and his visits to various temples in the capital. The version concludes with the king entering the ḫalentu- complex. An alternative account of the king’s journey, including the stop at Kulilla – and thus corresponding to Outline.5 – is found in Versions 1 and 7.

By contrast, Versions 2–6 and 9 record the events that occur after the king’s arrival at the ḫalentu- complex, namely the first great assembly of this day. Although the precise content of Versions 4, 6, and 9 remains uncertain, Versions 2 and 3 clearly end with the conclusion of the great assembly and the king’s departure for the temple of the Storm-god. They also explicitly state that subsequent events are reported in a separate series. Version 5 (and probably Version 4 as well) appears to include both great assemblies.

The Konkordanz lists approx. thirty texts attributed to DAY 6, most of them following the edition of Nakamura 2002a: 91–95 and 208–247. However, a large number of these are small fragments that duplicate formulaic passages—typically the king or the royal couple toasting a deity. Their attribution to CTH 626 is therefore highly uncertain, as such passages could belong to virtually any festival that includes a great assembly or a god-drinking ceremony. For this reason, the following texts have been excluded from the present edition (though this does not imply that they should not be attributed to the nuntarriyašḫa- festival): Bo 3352 (toasting for Tauri(t)); Bo 3699 (toasting the Sun-goddess and Mezzulla); Bo 5868 (scenes from a great assembly); IBoT 2.89 (toasting Tuḫašail and Zizzašun and Zuliya), KBo 10.18 + KBo 46.135c (toasting Ištar of Šamuḫa) and its possible indirect joins: KBo 46.135a and KBo 14.32; KBo 10.19 (toasting Tuḫašail); KBo 11.30 + KBo 46.206 and its duplicate KUB 41.44 (a different great assembly); KBo 22.220 (CTH 591?); KBo 30.166 (now join to KBo 7.42 – see DAY 22–24); KBo 31.217 + KBo 38.112 (scenes from a great assembly); KBo 45.39 (scenes from a great assembly); KBo 46.181 (+) KBo 34.161 (scenes from a great assembly); KBo 65.12 (scenes from a great assembly); and KBo 66.230 (god-drinking for Zizzašun and Zuliya).

In their place, some eighteen new fragments have been incorporated into this edition, consisting of both newly identified joins and independent pieces. The justification for their inclusion is provided in the introductions to the individual versions. Several of these texts had already been (partially) edited by Nakamura 2002a but were assigned either to different days or to his chapter “Isolierte und sonstige Texte des nuntarriyašaḫa- Festes”. A notable example of the latter is KBo 39.62+ and its duplicates (see Nakamura M. 2002a: 289–296), now assigned to Version 8.

According to the present reconstruction, the events of DAY 6 unfold as follows. The day begins in Arinna, where the king, after completing standard morning preparations, visits the temples of the Sun-goddess, of Mezzulla, of Ḫulla, and perhaps other deities, although the text breaks at this point. The king does not enter any of the temples; instead, he stops at the stairs leading to the sanctuary and toasts the respective deities, accompanied by music and singing. When these rites are completed, he leaves Arinna in a ceremonial ḫuluganni- cart.

His first stop is a ḫuwaši- precinct outside the city, where he toasts the Sun-goddess and Mezzulla. He then switches to a chariot and continues to Kulilla, a town located near Ḫattuša. There, in a grove, he celebrates the Sun-goddess and Mezzulla in a similar fashion, this time also including the Storm-god.

From Kulilla he proceeds to Tatišga, where, at a tarnu- building, he is joined by the queen, who travels from Taḫurpa, where she spent the previous day. Together, the royal couple continues to the capital, where various officials, including the mayor and the ḫazgara- women, greet them.

The king enters Ḫattuša through the ašuša- gate, heralded, as usual, by the ALAM.ZU₉ man. He then visits numerous locations in the capital, including temples and gates, where he witnesses the slaughter of sacrificial animals and meets representatives of the clergy of the respective temples, typically a SANGA priest and a SANGA priestess.

Once these activities are completed, the king enters the ḫalentu- complex and the first great assembly of the day is held. This ceremony includes toasting more than fifteen deities. When the assembly concludes, the royal couple leaves the ḫalentu- complex and proceeds to the temple of the Storm-god to take part in the second great assembly of the day. The precise sequence of this ceremony, as well as of the final events of DAY 6, however, remains unknown, as the relevant manuscripts break off at this point.