Cult inventory

(CTH 528.103)

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

Previous editions: Hazenbos 2003: 111-15.

This large fragment of a two-columned tablet contains descriptions of seasonal festivals. The extant text treats first what seems to be a spring festival (ii 1-7), then the festivals of the fruits (GURUN, ii 8-19) and of the shepherd (LÚSIPA.UDU, ii 20-26), finally, after a gap, the festivals of the sickle (URUDUŠU.KIN, iii 1′-9′) and of the grain piles (šeliyaš, ii 10′-16′). Since all these festivals are celebrated for the Storm god of Šaḫpina, it seems safe to conclude that the inventory concerned this town, localized within the local cluster of Katapa (see Kryszeń 2016: 238-42), which in turn is mentioned in fragmentary context in line iv 3′. The form paršiyanzi written on the lower edge of the tablet probably constitutes the end of the last festival description of col. iv. Noteworthy is the unusual double ruling which splits the tablet edge into two “columns” (for an analogous case, see DAAM 1.39).

By comparing the sequence of festivals in this tablet with that of other texts, one can try to reconstruct, up to a certain extent, the calendar of Hittite local cults (Cammarosano 2018: 106-108). The extant descriptions provide important information on rarely attested festivals (see for the sickle and grain pile festivals Cammarosano 2018: 131-32 and 132-35 respectively).

Palaeography and orthography: Cursive script, sometimes with simplified sign variants (KÁN without inscribed verticals, ii 14) and cursive variants (NI with almost parallel wedges, iii 15′). Note the nasal reduction in za(n)kilatar (iii 8′) and the use of null objects (e.g. ii 9).

i 25′′: Perhaps a reference to rites or measures being established on a separate tablet.

ii 2: On the mallitiwalla- bread , here shaped like a tooth, see Starke 1990: 191-92; for attestations of the BUR.ZI / PURSĪTUM-vessel, see CHD P 195.

ii 6, iii 15′: On NINDA.GÚG (Mesopotamian nindagúg) see Güterbock 1973: 73-74, Hoffner 1974: 195-96, Weeden 2011: 592.

ii 8-10: This passage is treated by Starke 1990: 511 (now also in CHD Š 451). On Luwian alattar, possibly “fruit,” see also CLL 9. Starke considers alattarša a pl. neut. form, but it seems more likely that -ša- was part of the enclitic pronoun -šmaš-. The expression SIG5 šešḫa- “to choose carefully” occurs again in ii 21.

ii 12: For the miumiu-bread (from miu- “soft”), see CHD L-N 310.

ii 15: The reference of tarnanzi “they release” remains unclear (Cammarosano 2014: 155 with fn. 105; id. 2018: 131-32).

ii 21: Possibly ḪUR.SAGp[u-uš-ku-ru-nu-wa], which would be consistent with the geographical setting proposed for this inventory (kindly suggested by A. Kryszeń, pers. comm.). Note, however, that this spelling is attested only once (Kryszeń 2016: 231).

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.