Cult inventory

(CTH 527.51)

Textual tradition

Basis of the edition

The present edition is based on the photographs available at the Mainzer Photoarchiv of the Hethitologie Portal Mainz, as well as the available hand-copies and relevant secondary literature up to 2019. When the original manuscripts have been collated, this is noted in the commentary.

Commentary

Collated (March 2020). Fragment from the central part of the reverse of a two-columned tablet, the surface is now much abraded (max preserved thickness 28 mm, width of the intercolumnium 13 mm). The preserved portion of column iv is largely uninscribed.

The text is organized in brief sections, delimited by single paragraph lines; the larger section beginning on rev. iii 10′, possibly referring to the town of Šapinuwa and its environs, is preceded by double paragraph line. Each section lists deities referred to a specific town as well as the relevant cult images.

Based on the geographical names mentioned in the section beginning on rev. iii 10′, the geographical setting of the inventory is an area in the central-eastern districts, since deities and towns connected with Šapinuwa are treated there (Forlanini 2008: 147, Süel and Weeden 2017: 200-201). These are Šupiluliya (iii 12′), mount Kuwarri (iii 16′), the town Ḫatipuna (iii 23′), and possible Taptika (iii 20, but see commentary); the river Zuliya (Çekerek?) is mentioned in rev. iii 18′. The town Šapinuwa may be mentioned at the beginning of this section on rev. iii 10′ (see commentary).

Palaeography and orthography: Script size 3 mm. Note the use of AŠ for Akkadian INA and of KUR for ḪUR.SAG (iii 6′).

iii 6′: For KUR-tar in the sense of “divine image of mountain” cf. ḪUR.SAG-tar in line iii 19′, which seems to be modeled on šiuniyatar “divine image.” For the use of KUR in place of ḪUR.SAG in Hittite texts see Süel and Weeden 2017: 201 fn. 17 and Kryszeń 2019: 10 fn. 62.

iii 7′: For the GN cf. Alkištaniwanda, Alkuššuwanda, and Alkišwa, mentioned in KBo 50 VIII sub no. 141.

iii 10′: The GN has been previously read as Šapinuwa, but the traces exclude a full spelling of this name, see Süel and Weeden 2017: 200 with fn. 7.

iii 13′: On the female PN Arumura see Zehnder 2010: 126-27 with further literature.

iii 14: The DN is a hapax.

iii 17′: The eagle is probably part of a composite cult image of a mountain. Cult images of mountain gods are normally constituted by a mace with a statuette and a bird of prey on top.

iii 20′: The reading of the GN is very uncertain; Forlanini 2008: 147 proposes to read ta-[p]a-ti-qa or ta-[a]p-ti-qa (on Taptika see now Süel and Weeden 2017: 201 with fn. 8). The traces of the damaged sign fit with a reading PÁR or perhaps PA, not with AP (collated).

CC BY-SA 4.0 Michele Cammarosano | Produced as part of the research project Critical edition, digital publication, and systematic analysis of the Hittite cult-inventories (CTH 501-530), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – project number 298302760, 2016–2020.