Cult inventory

(CTH 529.61)

Textual tradition

A	A1	KUB 51.69
	A2	+ KBo 13.234
	A3	(+) KUB 46.33

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). Fine, reddish clay. Mss. A1+2 (max thickness at line obv. 20: 40 mm) preserve the upper part of the tablet with the beginning of col. i (20 lines preserved). The indirect join with ms. A3 has been proposed by J. Miller (apud S. Košak, hethiter.net/: hetkonk (v. 1.992)). In support of this, see the mention of a festival lala[ … ] (A3 obv. 12′, cf. A2 i 20′), the spelling ḫa-ni-eš-ša-aš (A3 obv. 4′, cf. A1+2 i 9′/13), and parallels like INBU dapian (A3 obv. 3′, cf. A1+2 i 13′/17). The handwriting is compatible with the join proposal (see e.g. the peculiar shape of the signs É and URU). A collation of the original mss. confirmed the plausibility of the join proposal. Ms. A3 (max thickness at line iv 18: 34 mm) preserves a tiny portion of the lower edge’s surface as well as of the Randleiste on one of the faces. Based on this and on the shape of the fragment, it can be established that ms. A3 preserves the end of col. i and the beginning of col. iv.

The text lists cult provisions and the respective suppliers for various deities. Of interest are above all the Zawalli-deity of a Muršili (A2 i 1, A1+2 i 7′/11), a Storm god of Water (A1+2 iv 7′/8′, 13′/14′), IŠTAR (A1+2 iv 5′/6′, 12′/13′), and a deity whose name is spelled DIŠTAR-ra in A1+2 iv 13′/14′. This occurrence is read DINGIR LIBIR.RA in Torri and Barsacchi 2018: 258 and elsewhere, but the spelling DIŠTAR-ra (attested only here within the Hittite tablets) has been persuasively interpreted as a writing for Išḫara (van Gessel 1998: 928 with fn. 22; this spelling is attested at Alalaḫ, see most recently Archi 2002: 32 with fn. 60). Whether this Išḫara, who stands “beneath the Storm god of [W]ater,” is identical with the IŠTAR mentioned in A1+2 iv 5′/6′ and 12′/13′ is not clear. The Storm god of Water is attested only in this tablet (but note that a Sun deity “of Water” is attested in KUB 17.35). Torri and Barsacchi 2018: 258 emend A1+2 iv 7′/8′ in D10 〈ŠA〉-ME-E and restore line iv 13′/14′ accordingly, but there is no need to emend the text and the available space in the gap seems not compatible with this proposal.

The names of three festivals are preserved, namely the autumn festival (A1+2 i 10′/14), the lala[ta]-festival (A2 i 20), and the festival of thunder (BÚN, A3 iv 7, 13); in addition, the festival of the grain pile (šeliyaš) may be mentioned on ms. A3 iv 2. Various officials, institutions, and groups of people – normally dependent from a local “palace” – are mentioned as responsible for the supply of offerings; noteworthy among them is the Frontier Post Governor of Katapa (A1+2 iv 20′).

The colophon on the left edge of the tablet seems to have been constituted by a single line ending with the GN Zitḫara, thus suggesting that the tablet represents the inventory of a particular shrine or building of that town. This conclusion fits well with the content of the preserved text, where the considerable quantity and quality of the offerings show that the inventory concerns a major cult center. The fact that a Zawalli-deity of a Muršili is treated on the tablet turns out to be of particular interest: since the oracle text KBo 23.114 attests to the presence of a Zawalli-deity of Urḫi-Teššob in the temple of Zitḫara (van den Hout 1998: 146), the deity mentioned in our inventory may be that of Urḫi-Teššob/Muršili III (ibidem, 83 with fn. 40), and the text may refer precisely to that temple. This conclusion is consistent with the observation that the delivery of wine “from Ḫanḫana” (A1+2 iv 11′/12′) suggests some proximity with this town. The geographical setting within the regional cluster of Ḫanḫana is further corroborated by the mention of the palaces of Kašaya and Šulupašši as suppliers of offerings (A. Kryszeń, pers. comm., on the positioning of Zitḫara within this cluster see Kryszeń 2016: 185-88).

KBo 58.68 constitutes a parallel of lines rev. iv 17′-24′.

Palaeography and orthography: Late LI, AZ; DA and IT with broken central horizontal.

A2 i 19: Neither a reading KUN nor RI A fits properly with the traces.

A2 i 20: Cf. A3 obv. 12′; for attestations see CHD L-N 27, for the interpretation see CLL 123.

A3 obv. 12′: Cf. A2 i 20 and commentary.

A2 iv 3: The second sign of the GN, damaged, is probably ḪA (collated, March 2020), not A as in the copy.

A1+2 iv 7′/8′: For the restoration cf. iv 14′/15′. For the Storm god of Water see the introduction.

A1+2 iv 12′/13′: For the reading of the festival name see already Neu 1982: 125.

A1+2 iv 13′/14′: For the reading of the DN see the introduction.

A2 iv 24′: The restoration is based on the parallel text in KBo 58.68 8′.

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.