Cult inventory

(CTH 529.37)

Textual tradition

A	A1	KUB 25.26
	A2	(+) KUB 42.86
	A3	(+) KUB 42.87

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: Popko 1994: 318-25 (KUB 42.86, KUB 42.87).

Collated (KUB 42.86 and KUB 42.87, March 2020). The indirect join has been recently proposed by J. Siegelová (2019: 576 fn. 9). The text reconstruction and the Joinskizze in Siegelová 2019: 592 are to be modified, see presently. Fragments of a large and thick three-columned tablet. Fine-grained clay, now of a reddish color. KUB 42.87 represent the central part of cols. ii-iii/iv-v (max thickness 48 mm, measured at the middle of the tablet). The horizontal axis of the tablet corresponds to KUB 42.87 ii 6′. Based on its shape and curvature, KUB 42.86 (max preserved thickness 27 mm) is to be placed very close to the lower edge of the tablet. On one face it preserves a portion from towards the end of column i; the other face, from column vi, is uninscribed, implying that much if not all of column vi was left blank. Based on the available photographs of ms. A1 and on the inspection of mss. A2 and A3, we can conclude that KUB 25.26 (A1) is to be placed very close to KUB 42.87 (A3). The resulting three-columned tablet will have had perhaps 80 lines of text on each column (but as already noted, at least column vi was largely if not completely blank).

This tablet represents a cult inventory pertaining to the sacred town of Zippalanda (Cammarosano 2013: 80 fn. 59). The text is organized mostly in short paragraphs, in which the offerings for various festivals in honor of the gods of Zippalanda are listed together with the people responsible for their supply. Some among these festivals are hapax legomena.

The text “appears to reflect later traditions that mix elements of the Hittite state cult and the local cult of Zippalanda” (Steitler 2017: 461 fn. 1376), for an analysis of this phenomenon see most recently Torri 2019. Note the passages in A3 iv 11′-12′ and v 9′-23′, where the Storm god of Zippalanda is paired with different deities: Urunzimu, NIN.É.GAL (on whom see commentary on A3 v 11′), the Stag god of the vessel stand (zeriyalli), and Ḫalputili (on whom see commentary on A3 v 21′). In A1 ii 9′-21′ the divinized fleece (Kurša) and the Sun Goddess of the Earth respectively stand out. As is to expect in a cult inventory related to such an important cult center, the offerings are larger and the responsible people are more varied than usual. The exceptional character of this tablet within the corpus is manifest also in the three-columned layout and in spellings like ḫaniššāš, unusual among cult inventories.

Palaeography and orthography: Non-cursive script. Older LI (A1 ii 15′, A3 iv 16′). Note the recurrent spelling SA₂₀-A-TÙ (A1 ii 14′ and passim) and the spelling DUGḫa-ni-iš-ša-a-aš (A1 ii 10′ and passim), unusual in cult inventories.

A2 i 9′: The name Tatarina is a hapax. Popko 1994: 320 reads the determinative as URU (against the copy), but already RGTC 6 553 correctly recognizes that this is the name of a divine spring.

A3 ii 3′: Popko 1994: 320 reads [ANA LÚḫa]-me-e-ni, which is impossible since LÚḫamena- is never spelled with plene /e/.

A1 ii 16′: On the unclear word parla see CHD P 174.

A1 ii 20′: The restoration has been kindly suggested by Detlev Groddek, cf. A1 obv. iii 8′.

A1 iii 4′: The tentative restoration is based on Melchert’s restoration proposal for KBo 14.68 + KUB 30.58 ii 3 (apud Hoffner 2004: 357-58 fn. 35).

A1 iii 18′: On the festival “of going away” see Neu 1982: 125-27; Hoffner 1967 translates “of going forth.”

A3 iv 4′: As it often happens, ŠU.NÍGIN “total” is written in the intercolumnium to enhance legibility.

A3 iv 12′: For the re-interpretation of Urunzimu (Wurunšemu) in the Empire Period see Steitler 2017: 461 with fn. 1376, referring to this tablet.

A3 iv 20′: Two pithoi for two deities or for wheat and wine respectively (cf. KBo 49.310 rev. 6′ with commentary).

A3 v 11′: This attestation of NIN.É.GAL belongs to those referring to a central-northern Anatolian goddess of the Hattian milieu, not – as most attestations – to a Syro-Mesopotamian goddess (Wilhelm 2010: 271-72).

A3 v 13′: The sign AŠ in EN-aš is copied as it were a NI.

A3 v 21′: A deity Ḫalmuitri is not attested elsewhere. Taracha 2017: 108 with fn. 94 proposes that Ḫalmuitri is a genuine variant of Ḫalputili, but this is very uncertain.

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.