KIZZUWATNEAN RITUALS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE LUWIAN AND HURRIAN CULTURES

Abstract

Kizzuwatnean rituals occupy an important place among the Hittite magical rituals. These rituals are encountered in Hittite archives since the Middle Hittite period. Kizzuwatna is a transitional and a culturally diverse region because of its geographical location. This cultural diversity reveals itself in Hittite magical rituals. The region is home to Hurrian and Luwian communities. The two Kizzuwatnean rituals presented in this study are Hurrian and Luwian rituals. The first of these rituals, the galasu Ritual is Hurrian, meaning that the incantations recited in the ritual are in Hurrian language. Some of the Hurrian passages are relatively easy to understand due to the existence of a Hurrian-Hittite bilingual copy of the incantations (KBo 19.145). The remaining incantations exist in monolingual Hurrian copies (e.g. KBo 11.19) and are much more difficult to interpret. The Salasu Ritual also featured cultural elements of the Mesopotamian region, demonstrating the cultural diversity of the Kizzuwatna region. The second ritual treated in this study, the Kuwatalla Ritual (salli aniur), is a Luwian ritual, i.e. written in Hittite but with Luwian incantations. The ritual contains two separate sub-rituals (hit. katta walhuwas/luw. dupaduparsa and halliyattanza). The Kuwatalla ritual may be identified as Kizzuwatnean because of some of the elements it contains. The study concludes with a general comparison of the dominant ritual practices in these two rituals belonging to the same region, but to two distinct cultural traditions.