Two Festivals Celebrated by a Hittite Prince (CTH 647.I and II-III)
New Light on Local Cults in North-Central Anatolia in the Second Millennium BC
by Piotr Taracha
The festivals presented in this book are worth to be studied by scholars of religion and cult in Hittite Anatolia. These festivals were performed in one of the Hittite cities cultivating Hattian cult traditions. The traditional cult calendar was based primarily on the vegetation and agrarian cycles, with festivals in the spring and fall being of special importance. The present volume deals with one of these local spring festivals (CTH 647.II-III). The participation of the crown prince indicates that the festival was part of the state cult, indirectly attesting to the importance of the center in the structure of the Hittite state and its relationship to the capital Hattusa. Almost 40 cuneiform texts (including five hitherto unpublished) belonging to 13 different exemplars have been newly arranged, carefully edited and translated. The surviving documents permit the festival’s history to be traced for a period of about two hundred years, showing continuity and change from the mid-15th to the 13th century BC. In the late 13th century, it was transformed into a local festival of the AN.TAH.sUM plant (CTH 647.I) that became a new symbol of the beginning of spring vegetation. The latter festival is preserved as just one copy of which about half of the original text can be restored. Successive chapters attempt to identify the city where the festivals were celebrated, describe the local pantheon (including deities of which little has been known until now) and discuss the inner hierarchy of the priestly college, providing new information about indigenous religious beliefs and cult traditions.
The festivals presented in this book are worth to be studied by scholars of religion and cult in Hittite Anatolia. These festivals were performed in one of the Hittite cities cultivating Hattian cult traditions. The traditional cult calendar was based primarily on the vegetation and agrarian cycles, with festivals in the spring and fall being of special importance. The present volume deals with one of these local spring festivals (CTH 647.II-III). The participation of the crown prince indicates that the festival was part of the state cult, indirectly attesting to the importance of the center in the structure of the Hittite state and its relationship to the capital Hattusa. Almost 40 cuneiform texts (including five hitherto unpublished) belonging to 13 different exemplars have been newly arranged, carefully edited and translated. The surviving documents permit the festival’s history to be traced for a period of about two hundred years, showing continuity and change from the mid-15th to the 13th century BC. In the late 13th century, it was transformed into a local festival of the AN.TAH.sUM plant (CTH 647.I) that became a new symbol of the beginning of spring vegetation. The latter festival is preserved as just one copy of which about half of the original text can be restored. Successive chapters attempt to identify the city where the festivals were celebrated, describe the local pantheon (including deities of which little has been known until now) and discuss the inner hierarchy of the priestly college, providing new information about indigenous religious beliefs and cult traditions.
- By (author) Piotr Taracha
Other Titles in this Series
Luwili
Hittite-Luwian Ritual Texts Attributed to Puriyanni, Kuwattalla and Silalluhi (CTH 758-763). Volume I: Edition and Commentary. Volume II: Discussion and Glossary
Volume 72
Cult, Temple, Sacred Spaces
Cult Practices and Cult Spaces in Hittite Anatolia and Neighbouring Cultures. Proceedings of the First International HFR Symposium, Mainz, 3-5 June 2019
Volume 66
At the Interface of Religion and Administration
The Hittite Cult Inventories: With a contribution by Adam Kryszen
Volume 68
Liturgie oder Literatur?
Die Kultrituale der Hethiter im transkulturellen Vergleich. Akten eines Werkstattgesprachs an der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Mainz, 2.-3. Dezember 2010
Volume 60
Functional Differentiation in Hittite Festival Texts
An Analysis of the Old Manuscripts of the KI.LAM Great Assembly
Volume 65
Schicksalsbestimmende Kommunikation
Sprachliche, gesellschaftliche und religiose Aspekte hethitischer Fluch-, Segens- und Eidesformeln
Volume 52
The Tablets and Their Scribes
The Palaeography of Hittite Cuneiform and Writing Practices in Hittite Anatolia. Proceedings of the Second International HFR Symposium, Mainz, 2–4 May 2024
Volume 73
Studies in Hittite Economic Administration
A New Edition of the Hittite Palace-Temple Administrative Corpus and Research on Allied Texts Found at Hattusa. Volume I: Background, Corpus Overview, Case Studies, Lexical Commentary, and Glossary
Volume 70
Studies in Hittite Economic Administration
A New Edition of the Hittite Palace-Temple Administrative Corpus and Research on Allied Texts Found at Hattusa. Volume II: Text Editions and Philological Commentary
Volume 71
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