CTH 533.6 consists of two tablets with a ritual including animal sacrifice, followed by lunar omens.

The tablets were copied by H. Otten (KBo 13) and E. Weidner (KUB 8). An edition of the divinatory section can be found in Riemschneider K.K. 2004a: 35–36.97–99, and exemplar A has also been transliterated by Torri G. – Barsacchi F.G. 2018b: 23.

A: A trapezoidal fragment from the middle of a tablet or column with remains of twelve lines of dense script with some surface damage.

B: A tall piece from the right of a single- or two-column tablet. The obverse contains 20 lines of dense script, which becomes very spacious after a double paragraph line.

A: New Script: Á can be written without the broken central horizontal (10′), URU has a visibly protruding central horizontal (3′).

B: New Script: New IG; E and URU with two equally tall verticals.

We find a variety of spelling differences between A and B: B preserves more syllabic spellings (ma-aḫ-ḫa-an in obv. 18′, ut-ni-ia-aš in obv. 23′ against GIM-an and KUR-[ in A 3′ and 7′). Furthermore, we find D30 ar-m]u-wa-la-aš-ḫa-iš in B obv., 21′ but ar-mu-wa-la-aš-ḫa-aš in A 6′ and te-ek-ku-uš-ši-ez-zi in B obv., 10′ versus te-ek-ku-uš-ši-ia-az-z[i in A 8′. These differences lead Neu E. 1980c: 41 to the conclusion that A must be of a later date than B, and that B predates the New Hittite phase. The last issue is supported by the presence of the Hittite possessive enclitics arm]uwalašḫaš=šiš in B rev., 4′ and dankuiš=šit in B rev., 15′. Unfortunately, these passages do not survive in A.

A Hittite endingless locative was proposed by E. Neu (ibid.) for the phrase D30 ta-pu-uš še-eš-zi, ‘the moon lies on the side’. This is possible, but unfortunately, the meaning of the phrase remains uncertain regardless of whether this is a locative or accusative.

While no Akkadian parallel from Ḫattuša has turned up so far, many of the omens seem to have parallels in the first-millennium series Enuma Anu Enlil, particularly in tablet one. Interestingly, some have Akkadian precursors in the lunar omen tablet Emar 6.651 from Meskene. Thus, §5′ appears to be the same omen as EAE 1, §51 (for the paragraph numbers, see Verderame 2002a: 9–12). Our §7′ is very similar to EAE 1, §48, and §9′ is very similar to EAE 1, §53, whereas §12′ seems to be found in the gap between Verderame’s §42 and §43 (BM 46000 rev., 3 eBL edition (https://www.ebl.lmu.de/fragmentarium/BM.46000), accessed 24.05.2024). Omens similar to §8′ are found in EAE 10. Finally, §13′ is found in Akkadian in Emar 6.651, 54: BAD ina ŠÀ TÙR pí-ir-su ana 3 pa-ri-is ti-bu-ut IMU₁₉.LU. The omens in §14′–15′ are very fragmentary, but there are striking lexical overlaps with Emar 6.651, 51–52.

There is a faint link to the obscure lunar eclipse tablet KUB 57.73, whose line rev. 1 resembles CTH 533.6’s rev. 18′ and 22′, and which also contains remains of a ritual text.

The ritual does not seem to have a known parallel in Ḫattuša, although most of the procedures described are fairly normal. Different parts of the sacrificial animal are mentioned and are libated upon. The ritual seems to include the seating of the gods on chairs and the burning of either a piece of the animal or the remnants of the ritual feast. Eventually, something is brought in and out of town and received by the offerant. Although we can say little about the ritual, it is clear that the copyist of A, assuming it is younger than B, considered it connected to the omen section. The combination of ritual and omen tablets is also found in other places of the so-called ‘Western Periphery’, as on the Alalaḫ tablets AlT 451–452.

The protases of the omens are, as far as preserved, concerned with lunar halos, the moonlight, and the position of stars relative to halos and the moonlight. The apodoses are mostly destroyed, but quite a few predict further celestial phenomena.