Cult inventory

(CTH 528.22)

Textual tradition

A	A1	KUB 44.4
	A2	+ KBo 13.241

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

This large fragment of a single-columned tablet contains a treatment of the cult of the “Queen” (Kattaḫḫa) of Katapa on the obverse, and a birth ritual on the reverse (the latter is edited in Beckman 1983: 176-99 and in Starke 1985: 233-36). However, the tablet does not properly represent a Sammeltafel (as assumed e.g. in S. Košak, hethiter.net/: hetkonk (v. 1.992)), since the compilation does not seem to have been deliberate – the script on the reverse is smaller than on the obverse and the wedges are more feebly impressed, probably because the clay was already drying up. Curiously, the scribe who wrote the obverse continued one section by “expanding” on the reverse (obv. 27, continuing on rev. 19′-21′), with the text on the reverse written around it, seemingly by a quite inexperienced hand. Thus, the ritual on the reverse may represent a scribal exercise (Waal 2015: 74-75 with fn. 229 and literature). The different nature of the content on the two faces explains why this tablet is turned around its vertical axis and not, as usual, on the horizontal one (Waal 2015: 73-74).

Although the incipit of the text is typical for festival texts (see commentary to obv. 1), the composition may be classified as cult inventory based on its content. The text is arranged in paragraphs, the first and longest of which treats the “great (spring) festival” for the Queen of Katapa. A number of brief paragraphs follows, each devoted to a different festival for the same goddess (obv. 17-27 with rev. 19′-21′); the last of them contains a sort of abbreviated description of the festival of the grain pile (šeliyaš). The last preserved paragraphs of the obverse list only offerings and people responsible for their supply without any mention of festivals (obv. 28-39). Such people are mostly the “men” of a number of different “Palaces,” among which the “storehouse-palace” stands out (É.GAL šiyannaš, literally “Palace of the sealing”). The prominence of this palace in the supply of offerings for to the “Queen” of KUB 44.1+ is probably connected with the cult of the “Queen of the Storehouse” attested in other texts (CHD Š 344-45); on the role of local palaces as supplier of goods and offerings see Archi 1973 and Siegelová 2001. Among the many persons and institutions mentioned as supplier of offerings are the palaces of Kašaya, of Labarna, of “His Majesty”, of the Queen, and of the Priest?, then the “Cleaner of the ḫalentuwa-building,” the king of Išuwa, the local priest, the “war prisoners,” and the servants of Mr. Šangabi and Mr. Tiwatašarpi?. Whether the text refers to a cult of the town Katapa itself or not is unclear, but it seems safe to assume that the geographical setting of the inventory is in the central districts (A. Kryszeń, pers. comm.).

Palaeography and orthography: Clear, non-cursive script.

obv. 1: The (reconstructed) incipit with the opening mān … “when … ,” typical of festival texts, constitutes an exception to the standard pattern of cult inventories, which regularly begin in medias res by addressing the first town (or deity) of the inventory (see Cammarosano 2013: 72-73, where however this case is not discussed).

obv. 3: “Two measuring vessels of ghee for lamps,” CHD Š 304, cf. KBo 24.5 obv.? 14-15 // KBo 24.6 obv.? 8. This passage shows that Ì.NUN “ghee” was used to fuel lamps.

obv. 10-11: See CHD P 15, proposing that the Akkadogram PINDU “may have been read with Hittite paḫḫur in the sense of ‘embers, live coals’.”

obv. 18/2′: For the cult of mount Puškurunuwa, see Galmarini 2014 (this passage cited on p. 290); his reference to KBo 2.7 as a witness of a “link between Puškurunuwa and the deities of Katapa” seems to be a mistake.

obv. 24/8′: For the role of the Palace of Katapa as supplier of cult offerings see Siegelová 2001: 202-203 with fn. 66.

obv. 26/10′: For the role of the king of Išuwa as supplier of cult offerings, see Cammarosano and Marizza 2015: 175 fn. 86.

rev. 19′/8′′-21′/9′′: For this passage, see CHD Š 363 and Cammarosano 2018: 134-35.

obv. 31/15′: At the end of the line a reference to the king of Isuwa would be expected (cf. obv. 26/10′), but the traces do not seem to fit such reading.

obv. 35/19′: Reading of ASIRUM “war prisoner(s)” after Archi 1973: 225.

obv. 37/21′: The PN is interpreted as Tiwatašarpi by Laroche, NH no. 1349.

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.