The unusual verb "to emerge" to mean "give birth" in the Theogony finds a striking parallel in th... more The unusual verb "to emerge" to mean "give birth" in the Theogony finds a striking parallel in the Hittite "Song of Emergence" and, if not coincidental, may suggest a more direct contact between Greek and Hittite material than originally supposed and allows us to explore the possible locale of such contact.
The Hittites of the Old Hittite kingdom could only look back on a relatively short past. With tim... more The Hittites of the Old Hittite kingdom could only look back on a relatively short past. With time, however, the kingdom 'without a past' could finally look back and relate to a distant past of its own. The following paper will survey some of ways the Hittites came into contact, imagined, and represented their distant past. Hittite historiography, one of the most elaborate and highly developed traditions of its kind in the ancient Near East, was mainly concerned with contemporary history and only marginally engaged with the distant past. The more distant past was the subject of literature rather than of historiography. Both in the form of translated Mesopotamian literature or in local compositions. But it was in ritual action, as documented in the 'Offering Lists', that long sequences of past names were preserved and performed, constituting a historical scaffold spanning from the earliest phases of the Old Kingdom to the Empire period. The Old Hittite Kingdom began as a 'Kingdom without a past', but with time, the Hittites began to relate and to utilize a distant, sometimes even glorious past of, of their own. Özet: Eski Hitit krallığının Hititleri, göreceli yakın bir geçmişi hatırlayabiliyorlardı. Ancak zamanla, "geçmişi olmayan" krallık geriye bakıp kendine ait uzun bir geçmişi hikaye etmeye başladı. Bu makale, Hititlerin kendi geçmişleriyle kurdukları bağları ve gözlerinde canlandırdıkları uzak geçmişlerini nasıl ele alıp tasvir ettikleri hakkında çeşitli örnekler sunmaktadır. Yakın Doğu'nun en teferruatlı ve gelişmiş geleneklerinden biri olan Hitit tarih yazıcılığı, genellikle hep çağdaş tarihi olaylar üzerine yoğunlaşmış olup uzak geçmişe ait konular çok ender durumlarda ele alınmıştır. Uzak geçmiş, tarih yazıcılığından çok edebi eserlerin konusu olmuştur. Bu konu hem Mezopotamya edebi eserlerinin çevirisinde, hem de yerel kompozisyonlarda ele alınmıştır. Ancak, "Adak Listelerinde" kayıt altına alınan dini merasimlerde, geçmişe ait uzun seriler halinde saklanan ve ortaya konan isimler, Eski Hitit döneminden İmparatorluk dönemine kadar uzanan bir tarihi alt yapının varlığını sağlamaktadır. Eski Hitit Krallığı, "Geçmişi olmayan Krallık" olarak başlamış, ancak zaman içerisinde Hititler, kendilerinden daha da görkemli bir şekilde anlattıkları uzak geçmişleriyle kendilerini ilişkilendirmişlerdir.
The ritual KUB 41, 11+ is known especially for its striking treatment of the purification of best... more The ritual KUB 41, 11+ is known especially for its striking treatment of the purification of bestiality. This article challenges the common interpretation that the ritual involved a marriage between the sexual offender and the victimized sheep or goat, showing that no evidence suggests such a marriage. Instead, the ewe-bride motif may be interpreted as an elaborate variation on the scapegoat ritual genre, offering an interesting twist to the adornment of the scapegoat before it was sent away. meticulously edited by Harry A. Hoffner (1973, 85-88) in his study of Hittite sexual offenses. Francesco Fuscagni's (2015) edition of the first ritual includes a join that he established (Bo 4398). Not only does this join add significantly to the obverse of KUB 41, 11+, but it also considerably improves the reading of its colophon. The bestiality purification ritual KUB 41, 11+ has attracted relatively little attention in Hittitological scholarship in spite of its unique content. The ritual shows distinct Kizzuwatnian traits (Hoffner 1973, 86; Strauß 2006, 86 f.) but remains relatively untouched by recent scholarship on rituals originating from Kizzuwatna, perhaps because it represents a very late, secondary adaptation of Kizzuwatnian ritual materials.2 Nevertheless, this short ritual deserves another look, as it raises several interesting questions concerning the meaning of the ritual action, the ways in which the text relates to its alleged ritual performance and the social embeddedness of the ritual. The following contribution will focus mainly on the first of these issues, calling into question the ways in which the ritual was understood so far. In particular, it will challenge the prevailing understanding of the most striking feature of the ritual: the alleged marriage between the sexual offender and a sheep (or a goat), commonly identified in modern scholarship as the actual animal victimized by the offender. Instead, it will be argued that the treatment of the ewe as a bride in KUB 41, 11+ did not involve a marriage between her and the offender. Moreover, it is 2 The tablet is dated as Late New Hittite by Silvin Košak in the Kon-kordanz.
The practice of god-napping is richly attested in Old Hittite historiography but disappears almos... more The practice of god-napping is richly attested in Old Hittite historiography but disappears almost completely in later, Empire Period sources. It will be suggested that this silence is not coincidental, but rather reflects a deep change in Hittite policy towards Hurro-Syrian deities. Furthermore, it will be suggested that this new imperial policy was founded on the experience of the political and religious integration of Kizzuwatna by the founders of the New Hittite Empire. This new policy, which provides for the maintenance of local cults rather than for their spoliation, will prove to be more successful than the Old Hittite destructive mode of action.¹
The unusual verb "to emerge" to mean "give birth" in the Theogony finds a striking parallel in th... more The unusual verb "to emerge" to mean "give birth" in the Theogony finds a striking parallel in the Hittite "Song of Emergence" and, if not coincidental, may suggest a more direct contact between Greek and Hittite material than originally supposed and allows us to explore the possible locale of such contact.
The unusual verb "to emerge" to mean "give birth" in the Theogony finds a striking parallel in th... more The unusual verb "to emerge" to mean "give birth" in the Theogony finds a striking parallel in the Hittite "Song of Emergence" and, if not coincidental, may suggest a more direct contact between Greek and Hittite material than originally supposed and allows us to explore the possible locale of such contact.
The Hittites of the Old Hittite kingdom could only look back on a relatively short past. With tim... more The Hittites of the Old Hittite kingdom could only look back on a relatively short past. With time, however, the kingdom 'without a past' could finally look back and relate to a distant past of its own. The following paper will survey some of ways the Hittites came into contact, imagined, and represented their distant past. Hittite historiography, one of the most elaborate and highly developed traditions of its kind in the ancient Near East, was mainly concerned with contemporary history and only marginally engaged with the distant past. The more distant past was the subject of literature rather than of historiography. Both in the form of translated Mesopotamian literature or in local compositions. But it was in ritual action, as documented in the 'Offering Lists', that long sequences of past names were preserved and performed, constituting a historical scaffold spanning from the earliest phases of the Old Kingdom to the Empire period. The Old Hittite Kingdom began as a 'Kingdom without a past', but with time, the Hittites began to relate and to utilize a distant, sometimes even glorious past of, of their own. Özet: Eski Hitit krallığının Hititleri, göreceli yakın bir geçmişi hatırlayabiliyorlardı. Ancak zamanla, "geçmişi olmayan" krallık geriye bakıp kendine ait uzun bir geçmişi hikaye etmeye başladı. Bu makale, Hititlerin kendi geçmişleriyle kurdukları bağları ve gözlerinde canlandırdıkları uzak geçmişlerini nasıl ele alıp tasvir ettikleri hakkında çeşitli örnekler sunmaktadır. Yakın Doğu'nun en teferruatlı ve gelişmiş geleneklerinden biri olan Hitit tarih yazıcılığı, genellikle hep çağdaş tarihi olaylar üzerine yoğunlaşmış olup uzak geçmişe ait konular çok ender durumlarda ele alınmıştır. Uzak geçmiş, tarih yazıcılığından çok edebi eserlerin konusu olmuştur. Bu konu hem Mezopotamya edebi eserlerinin çevirisinde, hem de yerel kompozisyonlarda ele alınmıştır. Ancak, "Adak Listelerinde" kayıt altına alınan dini merasimlerde, geçmişe ait uzun seriler halinde saklanan ve ortaya konan isimler, Eski Hitit döneminden İmparatorluk dönemine kadar uzanan bir tarihi alt yapının varlığını sağlamaktadır. Eski Hitit Krallığı, "Geçmişi olmayan Krallık" olarak başlamış, ancak zaman içerisinde Hititler, kendilerinden daha da görkemli bir şekilde anlattıkları uzak geçmişleriyle kendilerini ilişkilendirmişlerdir.
The ritual KUB 41, 11+ is known especially for its striking treatment of the purification of best... more The ritual KUB 41, 11+ is known especially for its striking treatment of the purification of bestiality. This article challenges the common interpretation that the ritual involved a marriage between the sexual offender and the victimized sheep or goat, showing that no evidence suggests such a marriage. Instead, the ewe-bride motif may be interpreted as an elaborate variation on the scapegoat ritual genre, offering an interesting twist to the adornment of the scapegoat before it was sent away. meticulously edited by Harry A. Hoffner (1973, 85-88) in his study of Hittite sexual offenses. Francesco Fuscagni's (2015) edition of the first ritual includes a join that he established (Bo 4398). Not only does this join add significantly to the obverse of KUB 41, 11+, but it also considerably improves the reading of its colophon. The bestiality purification ritual KUB 41, 11+ has attracted relatively little attention in Hittitological scholarship in spite of its unique content. The ritual shows distinct Kizzuwatnian traits (Hoffner 1973, 86; Strauß 2006, 86 f.) but remains relatively untouched by recent scholarship on rituals originating from Kizzuwatna, perhaps because it represents a very late, secondary adaptation of Kizzuwatnian ritual materials.2 Nevertheless, this short ritual deserves another look, as it raises several interesting questions concerning the meaning of the ritual action, the ways in which the text relates to its alleged ritual performance and the social embeddedness of the ritual. The following contribution will focus mainly on the first of these issues, calling into question the ways in which the ritual was understood so far. In particular, it will challenge the prevailing understanding of the most striking feature of the ritual: the alleged marriage between the sexual offender and a sheep (or a goat), commonly identified in modern scholarship as the actual animal victimized by the offender. Instead, it will be argued that the treatment of the ewe as a bride in KUB 41, 11+ did not involve a marriage between her and the offender. Moreover, it is 2 The tablet is dated as Late New Hittite by Silvin Košak in the Kon-kordanz.
The practice of god-napping is richly attested in Old Hittite historiography but disappears almos... more The practice of god-napping is richly attested in Old Hittite historiography but disappears almost completely in later, Empire Period sources. It will be suggested that this silence is not coincidental, but rather reflects a deep change in Hittite policy towards Hurro-Syrian deities. Furthermore, it will be suggested that this new imperial policy was founded on the experience of the political and religious integration of Kizzuwatna by the founders of the New Hittite Empire. This new policy, which provides for the maintenance of local cults rather than for their spoliation, will prove to be more successful than the Old Hittite destructive mode of action.¹
The unusual verb "to emerge" to mean "give birth" in the Theogony finds a striking parallel in th... more The unusual verb "to emerge" to mean "give birth" in the Theogony finds a striking parallel in the Hittite "Song of Emergence" and, if not coincidental, may suggest a more direct contact between Greek and Hittite material than originally supposed and allows us to explore the possible locale of such contact.
The ways men seek divine words in Antiquity through their prayers and rituals have often been stu... more The ways men seek divine words in Antiquity through their prayers and rituals have often been studied, whether they look for words of encouragement or need to acquire some knowledge about a decision to take or an event to come. However, the ways divine words are articulated and mediated have seldom been studied in a comparative approach. In other words, the literary form each divine speech takes (narratives, letters, annals), the medium through which it is conveyed (dreams, oracles, prophecies or any other divinatory form), as well as the material object upon which it is inscribed (tablets, leather rolls or papyri, monumental inscriptions) deserve further attention. Literary and divinatory forms should be of special interest, as much as the documents and material objects that are used to convey them. For instance, divine speech has sometimes been found on material supports that were deemed to be destroyed or recycled. Furthermore, it seems that the status of divine speech changed over time in different areas of the Ancient Mediterranean Basin. Its orality became worth preserving. Consequently, the material support acquired a status on its own, as much as divine speech itself. The aim of this symposium is to bring together experts from various fields, namely History, History of Religion, Archaeology, Epigraphy, Palaeography, Linguistics, etc., in order to examine the diversity of divine speech as it is articulated and mediated. The contexts in which divine speech occurs will be examined, as well as its literary and material forms.
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Papers by Amir Gilan
Literary and divinatory forms should be of special interest, as much as the documents and material objects that are used to convey them. For instance, divine speech has sometimes been found on material supports that were deemed to be destroyed or recycled. Furthermore, it seems that the status of divine speech changed over time in different areas of the Ancient Mediterranean Basin. Its orality became worth preserving. Consequently, the material support acquired a status on its own, as much as divine speech itself.
The aim of this symposium is to bring together experts from various fields, namely History, History of Religion, Archaeology, Epigraphy, Palaeography, Linguistics, etc., in order to examine the diversity of divine speech as it is articulated and mediated. The contexts in which divine speech occurs will be examined, as well as its literary and material forms.