Volume 37, Issue 2 -

The present paper argues that passages in the Hittite texts often understood as attestations of the practice of black magic should instead be seen as indications of the perception and fear of it, and that suspicions, accusations and fears should not be taken as evidence. Alternative reasons for the prevelant belief in and fear of black magic in these texts are then examined, and it is suggested that psychological and sociological phenomena well-known from a broad range of ancient and more recent cultural settings could account for them no less convincingly.

This Article offers a critical review of the most recent Hittitological literature on the political history and the chronology of the kingdom of Hatti from Tuthaliya I/II – to Suppiluliuma I.

The position of Ugarit in the Hittite empire was that of a vassal, whose rights and duties had been laid down in a number of treaties with the Hittite kings. However, in practice it was the king of Karkamiš who supervised the Hittite vassals in Syria and the Hittite king was the one ultimately responsible. In some matters however, such as succession to the throne and the integrity of the empire, the latter took a keen interest. This article will discuss the division of tasks between the Hittite king and the king of Karkamiš, and the room that was left to the vassals to act without outside interference. A few remarks on the extent of the Hittite influence at Ugarit have been added at the end.

The so-called Blau Monuments (“Blau’sche Steine”) are conventionally dated to the Jemdet Nasr Period (“Uruk III”), but recent researches have shown that their inscriptions must belong to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Age (ED I). Since the main figure of the relief decoration on the monuments, the “priest-king” with net-skirt, is virtually identical with the pictorial representations of the same person on a lot of cylinder seals, which have been dated unanimously until now to the later Protoliterate (“Early Sumerian”) Period, there arises a crucial question: Do these seals – and perhaps also the famous Warka-Vase with comparable pictures – equally stem, like the Blau Monuments, from the next younger phase (ED I), or did there possibly exist an unbroken tradition in theme, style, and iconography, reaching from the last phase of the Protoliterate to the first stage of the Early Dynastic Period? The first named alternative seems to me the more probable answer, though it cannot be proved definitely.

This paper investigates the poetic structure of a passage from The Disputation between Bird and Fish (lines 102–109). The unusual thing about this passage is that it is the only place within the disputation literature where physical violence (and death) takes the place of the verbal combat that typically occurs in the disputations. Although this passage is characterized by the total absence of speech, various words with the phonological form /sik/ act as a form of sound symbolism (phonological iconism) that points to the decisive moment in the passage: the fish’s attack on the bird’s nest, which results in the destruction of the bird’s nest and its young. These eight lines (102–109) can be juxtaposed to the eight line sequence that immediately follows (lines 110–117), which are also non-verbal, but whose poetics are organized along entirely different lines.

In this paper, the authors publish in transliteration, translation, commentary and handcopy an unprovenienced Sumerian sale document from the Sargonic period.

Forms of cuneiform signs as used on Middle Assyrian clay tablets from the city of Assur have not been analyzed, listed, and used as chronological indicators systematically, so far. The article discusses conditions and outlines of paleographic studies and a relevant list, overdue for further research, meanwhile.

In this article, a new attempt at explaining the “ ‘‘w ”-bird in pBM 9997, VI, 8, is undertaken. As it turns out, the word could be a metathesis for the “ ‘w‘ ”-bird from the coffin texts. Accordingly, the “ ‘w‘ ”-bird is documented even in the New Kingdom.

The article explores all Hittite non-proper nouns considered to be nominal compounds. Based on a new account on the types of Indo-European word formation with a clearer distinction of real compounds and so called compounding derivations, 131 words are discussed with regard to their word formation under synchronic and diachronic aspects. As a result, some 60 lexemes in Hittite can be considered probable or possible compounds or compounding derivations, mostly made up from inherited material. This challenges the popular view that Hittite had entirely lost these kinds of word formation.

The archaeological excavations at Oluz Höyük in Amasya were initiated by Ass. Prof. Dr. Şevket Dönmez in 2007. This paper deals with the Hittite seal discovered in the excavations. Dated to the first half of the 14 th century BC, it both proves the Hittite existence at Oluz Höyük and provides new data for the Late Bronze Black Sea region, which was in the Hittite realm.

This article discusses some aspects of the literary texts in or with parts written in the Sumerian language from the Hittite archives – focusing questions of textual traditions and the role these texts play in the context of the scribal training in the Hittite capital. A second aim is to demonstrate that palaeography and the study of the “orthography” of these texts are valuable methods in helping us to understand more about this interesting material. What can we learn from these examples is that obviously there are a lot of different aspects vis-à-vis the interests of Hittite scholars in foreign textual materials.

The article concerns the identification of the GAL.GEŠTIN of the seal SBo II 256, together with a related prosopographical study. Starting from the analysis of the hieroglyphic signs emerges that the owner of this seal is Ḫursaniya. The subjects covered by this article are: a. problems regarding the identification and the ideographical value of the sign L157 and L160; their subsequent identification with the title GAL.GEŠTIN; b. a new deciphering of the seal SBo II 256, which indicates that the proper name is Ḫursaniya; c. a prosopographical study regarding Ḫursaniya.

In Hittite literature the word for ‘ritual’ actually refers to ‘magical ritual’, without, in many cases, a definition of what is understood with this expression. The processes involved in this sphere of human behavior are traditionally explained through Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ and assume the existence of Eliade’s homo religious . However, there are some features, which remain without a clear explanation, and some conducts, like false omens, that cannot be clarified following those theses. Other theoretical approaches allow us to understand this features and this kind of considered “exceptions to the normal behavior”, which are really not so uncommon.