The ‘position’ (logog. KI.GUB; akk. manzāzu/naplas(t)u; hurr./hitt.: šintaḫi-, identified with a groove on the lobus sinister (s. the sketch in Koch-Westenholz U. 2000a: 45) was the first part of the liver to be observed in extispicy according to Old Babylonian and first millennium protocols (see also the concise introduction with literature by Y. Cohen https://sites.google.com/view/tomorrow-never-knows/1-introduction; accessed 30.06.2024). In the SU-oracles from Ḫattuša it is usually abbreviated with ši, for Hurrian šintaḫi, which is attested also in KBo 10.7+.

The entries in CTH 549 contain at least two texts (CTH 549.1.3) of KI.GUB-omens and two fragments (CTH 549.2.4), one of which may have belonged to KBo 13.26 but cannot be securely placed. The logogram KI.GUB (akk. manzāzu/naplas(t)u; hurr./hitt.: šintaḫi-) is here translated as ‘position’, but has a variety of possible translations (s. the notes on terminology in Jeyes U. 1989a: 44-45; Koch-Westenholz U. 2000a: 45-46 and https://sites.google.com/view/tomorrow-never-knows/3-liver-parts/liver-major-features sub 1; accessed 30.06.2024).

CTH 549.1 is attested on three tablets: KBo 34.133(+)KBo 34.134, KBo 13.26, and KUB 8.34+KUB 43.13, as well as by two fragments, KBo 49.14 and KUB 37.165+.It is an Akkadian-Hittite bilingual text. CTH 549.2 is the rest of an Akkadian omen list without parallels in the other texts. KBo 10.7+ and KBo 10.50 (=CTH 549.3) are the witnesses of the best preserved extispicy text in Hittite from Boghazköy. CTH 549.4 is a tiny fragment in Akkadian.

Next to liver models, which also occasionally contain KI.GUB-omens (De Vos A. 2013a: 35-55), KI.GUB-omens are the most extensively attested extispicy omens from Ḫattuša. Whether this is in line with the growing interest in the KI.GUB in the post-Old Babylonian and especially first millennium lists or simply due to chance is difficult to say because a variety of extispicy fragments with uncertain content exist in Ḫattuša as well (CTH 556, CTH 560). The fact that there are barely any Hittite translations of extispicy omens besides CTH 549 (KUB 8.43 is most likely not an omen text, KUB 4.1 contains bilingual omens of either the kidneys or KAM-marks on the liver, liver models are translated rarely and are never Hittite-only) may point to a special Hittite interest, which could derive from this specific liver part’s importance in the Hurro-Hittite SU-oracles.

There is an abundance of ‘position’-omen tablets outside of Ḫattuša: CUSAS 18.7.10; Ni 1218; PIHANS 14.1-4.11; YOS 10.13-17 (Old Babylonian); CUSAS 18.33; Emar 6.670-671 (672?); H. T. 152; MDP 57.5, obv. 1-10; rev. 10-11; YOS 10.63 (Middle Babylonian) and KAL 5.13-17 (Middle Assyrian) all deal with this specific part of the liver in the second millennium. In the first millennium standardized series bārûtu and its associated commentaries the ‘position’ is also dealt with extensively (chapter three, six tablets, s. Koch-Westenholz U. 2000a: 79).

Although thematic parallels between the observations made on the liver, the general themes, and the vocabulary between the Ḫattuša material and the Mesopotamian traditions are obvious, there are very few clear parallels, i. e., an identical omen or, better, sequence of omens, that is found in Ḫattuša and in Mesopotamia or Syria. CTH 549.3 has a few parallel sections in manzāzu 2. For the rest, we so far have to assume that they belong to those omen texts from the second millennium that have at best ‘partial overlap’ and are ‘altogether different’ from the later standard version (Koch U. 2015a: 92-93).