The text contains a set of resolutions concerning the cult of Ištar/Šavoška of the (Battle)field of Šamuḫa. Oracular inquiries discovered the anger of the goddess, presumably for the neglect of her cult in Šamuḫa. In order to placate the deity, the king in person vows to restore an appropriate daily regime of offerings for the goddess in this town. He even makes arrangements for the delivery of her statue to him at the end of some military operations, in order to “invoke” her for several days and worship her personally.

Rather than a letter, this text is a detailed oracular question with the goal of verifying whether the listed measures will placate the anger of the goddess. After the expression of the vow, in fact, a bird oracle is to be performed. The last line reads: “These are the birds”, which in oracle reports usually introduces the description of a flight observation and the augural response, positive or negative. Since the tablet is finished, and all these parts are missing, it appears these were expected in another tablet.

Handcopy: H. Ehelolf (KUB 32, Ehelolf H. 1942a).

Editions: Lebrun R. 1976a, 167-171; Wegner I. 1981b, 135-137; Klinger J. 2010a, 154-162; Beckman G. 2012c.; Trameri A. 2024a, 487-489.

The tablet is peculiar for its small format (ca. 5.5x7.5 cm) and the landscape orientation of writing. Additionally, a passing hole was purposefully drilled in the tablet clearly before writing, as demonstrated by the distribution of signs above and at the sides of the passing hole. Some aspects of content, such as the reference to an oracular inquiry, might explain these peculiarities of the document. The tablet was written in continuity, including the lower and upper edges, but also on one of the short sides, where the text ends.

MS (mh.); diagnostic signs AḪ, AR, DA, DI, IT, (KAT), (ŠAR), TA, URU.

Klinger J. 2010a, 156, additionally pointed out A-NA written with “ligature”, and other linguistic and orthographic elements compatible with an early dating, such as the spellings i-e-ez-zi (obv. 8), pé-i-e-mi (obv. 12), pí-iš-ki-ši (l.e. 33), and the use of katta with the enclitic possessive =mi (obv. 13, u.e. 28) (ibid. 161).

While the tablet was previously attributed to Mursili II, compelling paleographic, linguistic, and historical-cultural arguments have been put forward in support of an earlier date to the Early New Kingdom, perhaps even to Tudḫaliya I (Klinger J. 2010a, 162-167; also Beckman G. 2012c, 2; Gilan A. 2019b, 178-179).

If assigned to Tudḫaliya I, the text features a very early reference to the Hurrianized cults imported into central Anatolia from the south, perhaps via Kizzuwatna (see Trameri A. 2024a, 480-493).

The presence of a passing hole suggests that another document was attached to the tablet: possibly, multiple tablets were thus brought together as parts of a single oracular procedure (see Beckman G. 2012c, 6).

Note that one of the rare examples of similarly pierced tablets, DAAM 1.31 (CTH 581.30), also dating to the Early New Kingdom (Middle Script), only contains a birds’ flight report, this time for the case of a little girl who had fallen sick. KUB 32.130 possibly accompanied one such oracular protocol. If the request for the inquiry was accompanied by an attached letter, the augurs could have reused the pierced tablet, attaching their response to it and sending both back to the king after completing the observation.

The proposal of Schwemer D. 2016a, 10-11, that the tablet could have been attached to the cage of the birds mentioned in l.e. 35 seems less likely, given the standardized formulation of the passage, which suggests this sentence introduced an augural report. Moreover, as previously noted, one possible example of such a report “attachment” may exist in DAAM 1.31.