Cult inventory

(CTH 527.63)

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

The fragmentary text preserved in the first column witnesses rites reminiscent of the royal dynasty of Kuššar. Mentioned are “wool of (i.e. provided by?) mount Ḫuwatnuwanna” (cf. “mount Ḫuwatnuwanda” in line i 15) and a “king of Kuššar” (i 10-11) as well as five kišri (objects of wool) to be annually supplied by the land of the Ḫulana-river (i 14; for the discussion of the geographical setting, see Corti 2017: 235 with literature). That we are dealing with “rites held to the deified image of the King of Kuššara” (Barjamovic 2011: 150) is possible, but not proven by the extant text. The preserved portion of the fourth column contains descriptions of cult images; a king and a queen are mentioned in fragmentary context in line iv 9′, and the term ḫupidant- “veiled” occurs in the following line.

Thus, the place names attested in the fragment are part of a “historiographical” discourse, and refer to different geographical sectors: Kulilla is close to the capital, Šanawitta to the north, mount Ḫuwatnuwanta and the river Ḫulana south-west, Kuššar south to south-west (kindly pointed out by A. Kryszeń, pers. comm.).

Palaeography and orthography: Clear script with deeply impressed wedges. “Redundant” wedges in UDU.

i 6: On šara tiyant- “completely, fully provided,” see CHD Š 227.

i 18: For katta pai- in the sense of “to be lost/destroyed,” here perhaps “to be neglected,” see CHD P 39 and cf. similar passages in other cult inventories.

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.