Dream interpretation was a widespread practice in Mesopotamia, Syria, the Levant, and Anatolia. The earliest critical edition of Assyrian dream omens dates to the 1950s (Oppenheim A.L. 1956a). In his book of translations of Mesopotamian dream texts, C. Saporetti devotes sections in three of the four chapters to the Hittites as well (Saporetti C. 1996a*: 73–74.107–108.161–162). The first comprehensive study of dream terminology, and of the phenomenon of dreaming and dream interpretation in Mesopotamia and Syria, was written by A. Zgoll, including a brief outlook on Greek, Hebrew, Hittite, and Ugaritic (Zgoll A. 2006a: 77–81; for relevant earlier studies, see ibid. 23–35). A new investigation of the Mesopotamian dream-omen series Zaqīqu was presented by E. Zomer in her habilitation thesis: Oneirocritica Mesopotamica. A Critical Study of the Series Zaqīqu II–IX and Other Dream Omens in Context of Mesopotamian Dream Interpretation (in print for AMD).

A study comparable to Zgoll’s, but focusing more on text editions for the Hittite material, can be found in Mouton A. 2007a. In addition, a large number of smaller studies on dream interpretation and incubation among the Hittites have been published, such as Roth T. 2020a; Mouton A. 2019b; Mouton A. 2018a; Dijkstra M. 2015b; Byrd A.M. 2011a; Beckman G. 2010b; Mouton A. 2004i; Hout Th.P.J. van den 1994c; Kammenhuber A. 1976c: 38–41 (see also the concise overview in Mouton A. 2007a: xxi–xxix for earlier contributions). The sheer number of studies demonstrates that ‘dreams and their interpretation were (…) most serious matters to the Hittites’ (Beckman G. 2010b: 30).

All the more astonishing, then, is the fact that from Ḫattuša we possess only two small fragments of a tablet with dream omens, which have been listed since the first supplement to Laroche’s CTH under the number 558 (KUB 43.11 (+) 12). Fragment 40/l (= KBo 8.57), which was likewise classified among the dream omens in HPMM 5: 193, is in fact part of a combined oracle text (CTH 577). Riemschneider K.K. 2004a: 8 suggested the fragment KBo 43.247 (Bittel K. et al. 1936a: 65) may also be a Hittite dream-omen fragment. That is certainly possible, but the fragment mainly consists of the phrase mān UN-an KI.MIN, which could belong to several text genres. The script looks sloppy and hastily written, which is not common for omen texts. The fragment remains in CTH 832.

However, this meager evidence fits well into the overall picture of the second millennium: the Ḫattuša tablet is, so far, one of only three fragments containing dream omens from the entire second millennium, the others being a Kassite tablet from Babylonia (included in Oppenheim’s edition), and the Old Babylonian tablet BM 96951 (Koch U. 2015a*: 301-302; Mouton A. 2007a: 49–50). The latter is to be published in E. Zomer’s study. From an unpublished transliteration by I. Finkel, it is clear that the text has nothing in common with the Ḫattuša fragment. In the first millennium, dream omens were collected in the series Zaqīqu, mainly attested on tablets from Ashurbanipal’s library and on some Neo-Babylonian fragments. Two tablets with divergent traditions come from Susa (Oppenheim A.L. 1956a: 257–259) and Assur (KAL 1.55).