The 'Weather-God' in Hittite Anatolia: An examination of the archaeological and textual sources 9780860541745, 9781407328836

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Copyright
Dedication
Table of Contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ABBREVIATIONS
PREFACE
CHAPTER 1 THE PHYSICAL BACKGROUND
CHAPTER 2 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE
CHAPTER 3 NOMENCLATURE
CHAPTER 4 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
EXCURSUS: TERRITORIAL DEITIES IN EARLY HEBREW RELIGION
CHAPTER 5 THE HURRIAN QUESTION -- POSTSCRIPT
IN CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

Citation preview

The 'Weather-God' in Hittite Anatolia An examination of the archaeological and textual sources

Hilary J. Deighton

B A R International Series I 4 3 1982

B.A.R.,

B.A.R.

122

Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7BP, England

GENERAL EDITORS A. R. Hands , B • Sc • , M. A. , D.Phi 1. D. R. Walker, M.A.

B.A.R.-S14J, ·1982: 'The 'W eather-God' in Hittite Anatolia' © Hilary J .Deighton, 1982 The author’s moral rights under the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act are hereby expressly asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, stored, sold, distributed, scanned, saved in any form of digital format or transmitted in any form digitally, without the written permission of the Publisher. ISBN 9780860541745 paperback ISBN 9781407328836 e-book DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9780860541745 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This book is available at www.barpublishing.com

To

The Reverend

I an sine

with

and Mrs. qui bus

Jinty Deighton non

l ove and respect

CONTENTS

List of

Page

I llustrations

Abbreviations Preface Chapter

1 .

The Physical

Background

Chapter

2 .

The Archaeological Evidence

1 1

Chapter

3 .

Nomenclature

4 4

Chapter

4 .

Documentary Evidence

6 2

Chapter

5 .

The Hurrian Question

-P ostscript

1

1 03

I n Conclusion

1 07

Bibliography

1 11

I ndex

1 18

Excursus:

Territorial Religion

Deities

i n Early Hebrew 9 5

LIST OF

I LLUSTRATIONS

Fig.

1 .

Geological Map of

Fig.

2 .

Distribution Anatolia

of of

Thermal

Springs

3 .

Distribution

Fig.

4 .

Plans

Fig.

5 .

Plan

of

Supposed Temple

Fig.

6 .

Plan

of

Yazilikaya

Fig.

7 .

Building

Fig.

8 .

' Solar

Fig.

9 .

Bas

Relief

from Alaca

Fig.

1 0.

Bas

Relief

from Malatya

Fig.

1 1.

The

Centre Group

Fig.

1 2.

Cylinder

Temples

Sites

1 4

I and V at

Bo azkby

at Tarsus

Seal

1 9 2 0 2 2

C on Büyükkale

Disc'

in 7

Fig.

of

Page 4

Turkey

from Alaca

2 4 Hüyük

Hüyük

from Yazilikaya

from Kültepe

2 7 2 9 2 9 3 5 3 5

ABBREVIATIONS

ANET

Ancient Near Eastern Texts i n the Bibliography)

( see under Pritchard

Bo.

Boeazköy

Cat.

Catalogue des Textes i n the Bibliography)

IBo T

I stanbul arkeoloji müzelerinde bulunan Boeazköy tabletlerinden s e9me metinler, I stanbul

KBo

Keilschrifttexte

KUB

Keilschrifturkunden

WVDQG

Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen Orientgesellschaft, Berlin

VBo T

Verstreute

( tablet)

aus

Hittites

( see under Laroche

Boghazkoi, aus

Berlin

Boghazkoi,

Boghazkoi-texte,

Marburg

Berlin der deutschen

PREFACE

I n s etting out t o i nvestigate the ' Weather-god' i n H ittite Anatolia I r eally began a t t he e nd. When I met the myth o f t he nu o f Nerik I was f orced t o r econsider previous a ssumptions a bout t he s o-called ' Weather-god'. The evident nature o f the god i n this myth, t ogether with s ome archaeological evidence, which I l ater c onsidered i n greater d etail, made me begin t o s ee t he whole basis o f Anatolian r eligion i n the t ime o f t he H ittites i n a particular, a nd unusual, l ight. I began t o wonder why s uch r eligious c oncepts s hould have e volved, a nd d ecided t hat t he a nswer c ould l ie i n the very f abric o f t he l and. After e xamining the g eology and h istorical g eography o f Anatolia I f elt I had f ound a n answer, a nd one which d id not s eem t o have been g iven due c onsideration before. I have s et out my chapters i n, a s i t were, a scending order, s tarting n ot a t the beginning o f my i nvestigations, but a t the beginning f or Anatolia, a nd working t hrough the various f orms o f evidence t ill we c ulminate i n t he myth t hat r eally s tarted i t a ll. My f inal c hapter o n t he Hurrian god has t o be i ncluded i f o nly t o s how t hat i t i s r eally not a part o f this s tudy a t a ll. The nature o f the s upposed ' Weather-god' has been a problem which has never been dealt with i n a dequate d epth. I hope t his work will breach that particular gap and s how t hat, when we put a ll the i nformation t ogether , t here emerges a good, c onsistent pattern. Over the years t here has been a change i n t hinking, but i t has n ot gone f ar e nough, n or been sufficiently d ocumented. I t has been my i ntention t o s et f orth a c lear a ccount, backed up by the r elevant evidence, sf t he t rue nature of t he g od t o whom I s hall r efer a s the U . I t rust t hat by the e nd o f t he work my c ase may be proven. No work o f s cholarship c omes t o f ruition without t he advice, s upport a nd e ncouragement o f many people, a nd I s hould l ike t o r ecord my particular t hanks t o t he f ollowing: Mr. James Macqueen, Dr. Paul H ancock, Mr. Don Carleton, Mr. Chris Matthews ( for t he i llustrations), t he l ate Mrs. Grace Colquohoun, a nd the Rev. I an A . a nd Mrs. Janet H . Deighton. H .J. D.

1 982

CHAPTER 1 THE PHYSICAL BACKGROUND

I n order t o understand the religion of a people f or whom we have no r ecord of philosophy, n or r evelation, i t i s e ssential t o s eek some way i n which t o make their r eligion intelligible. One way i s to examine their physical environment ( 1). I t i s my belief that this f orms the most profitable basis f or the study of Anatolian r eligion, and i t i s an a spect of this study which has l argely been negl ected ( 2). For this r eason we devote t he f irst c hapter o f this enquiry to a survey of the particular physical f eatures of Anatolia which may help to provide an insight i nto the religion which developed there. Anatolian r eligion has c ertain r emarkable c haracteri stics which will be d iscussed i n l ater chapters. I t i s very much earth-bound, the gods are chthonic i n function and provenance -i ncluding the ' Sun-goddess' a nd, the main subject of this enquiry, the so-called ' Weather-god'. From what we can s ee of the indigenous d eity i t i s obvious ( as will be s hown) t hat he i s concerned with water f rom the earth, and mountains, r ather than water f rom the sky ( 3). I f the environment of c entral Turkey i s s tudied it becomes more c lear how a non-scientific people, with only t heir local horizons of understanding, s hould have developed their particular religious ideas. First of a ll, i t must be pointed out that the e cology of the r egion has been drastically a ltered s ince Hittite t imes ( 4, 5, 6, 7 ). Until c . 2 500 B .C. t he c limate was moister than at present, the areas which are n ow arid s teppe were r ich s avannah l and in prehistoric t imes ( 8). The mountain a reas were very thickly f orested -t here s till r emain s ome areas of f orest, but by f ar t he g reater part has been d estroyed. We do indeed have t extual evidence f or trees surrounding Hittite c ities ( 9). There are most certainly no woods around Balazköy now. Work has been done on the history of deforestation in Eastern Anatolia ( 10) i n which the complete d isappearance o f a dominant species (Quercus - oak) has been noted. ( The evidence may s uggest species preferring a more t emperate c limate existed i n the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, whereas there has s ince been a n increase in s teppic species. ) The wood has gone f or building, f irewood, c learance f or agriculture, or has been destroyed by goats. The i ntroduction of the goat generally s pells ecological d isaster overgrazing and destruction of plant c over l eads t o erosion,

1

which i s unable to be r ectified on a human t ime-scale. The eroded material may be carried down r iver t o s ilt up the e stuaries -e .g. excessive erosion i n the hinterland of Ephesus l ed to t he s ilting-up which destroyed i t a s a port. Thus the present-day ecological conditions i n Turkey cannot be taken a s a guide t o the landscape which was f amiliar to the Hittites. Given that the f orest cover has l argely d isappeared and bad farming coupled with overgrazing has r educed c ons iderably t he f ertility of the s oil, changing the a spect of the countryside, there r emain c ertain constants which must be c onsidered to have great d ignificance f or t he i nterpretation of H ittite r eligion. The c limate has not changed to a ny great extent, a lthough it has become s omewhat drier. The ground water provision i s s imilar, a lthough the water table has been falling s ince the Pleistocene. I t i s ground water which i s i mportant i n this context. Firstly rainfall provision: Most of Anatolia i s s emi-arid with rainfall l evels of 1 6 -2 4" ( 11). The period o f greatest rainfall i s Spring, the s eason of maximum growth, and it comes generally i n t he f orm of thunders torms. This might be expected t o have an effect on t he religious conceptions of the i ndigenous people, but the e ffect was not s o noticeable a s i n other areas of t he Near East. ( The consequences of a s torm i n a highland area are minimal compared with t he c onsequences of a s tolm in a plain, a s in Mesopotamia, where s toLms were violent and f i estructive.) Thunder c an be t he voice of the g od ( KA IM ), and there was a s pecial god of thunderstorms ( 12 ) , but these roles are not the c entre of any mythology t o which we have a ccess. That thunder s hould be t he voice of the god i s r easonable -t o what other agencg s hould i t be a scribed, I t i s a lso r ea5onable t o have a U o f thunderstorms -t here was a U t o cover most a spects o f l ife. There was a ' thunder vessel' ( 13), which was f illed with offerings in autumn, and t hen broken open in t he Spring Festival. This could be a symbol of the l ife which i s c losed up i n earth during the winter and breaks through again i n spring. Rain i s i ndubitably important f or the promotion of growth i n s pring, but ground water i s a lso of most part icular importance i n this part of t he world, and i t will be shown that t he s ources of ground water, and the part icular physical f eatures of Central Anatolia might well produce some highly unusual ideas about the g ods a nd c osmology. I n f act i t will be s een t hat rain does not have a great e ffect on the provision of water, or r ather, not i n an obvious way t hat the Anatolians c ould have obs erved and understood. There

i s

a great

d eal

of precipitation

i n winter

i n

the Anatolian mountains -t his i s i n t he f orm of s now. I n t he Hittite area there are on average 7 5 -1 25 plus days o f frost in the year ( 14). The melt-waters are a n 2

important s easonal s ource of water ( to t his day peasants bring d own i ce f rom the mountains a s a water supply), and they c an be observed not t o come from the s ky, but from the earth i n r ivers and s prings, a lthough the r elation of springs to melt-waters would be at l east a s unclear a s the r elation o f springs t o rain. It i s possible to explain t he position o f Zalianu, the mountain deity in the purulli f estival, an the connections between the L IU o f Nerik ( 15, 16), t he U of Zabalukka ( 17) a nd Telepinu ( 18) and mountains by r emembering this. Whatever may happen above ground -d eforestation, erosion, increased aridity, i ncreased s alinity a s a r esult of bad i rrigation ( as i n the Konya basin and Mesopotamia), man i s still s carcely able to c hange the s hape o f the ground i tself, a nd i n historic t imes there can have been f ew geomorphological changes i n t he Hittite area. There has been no r ecent volcanic a ctivity, a lthough there are areas o f volcanic rock within the curve o f the Halys, mostly rhyolite and basalt. Basalt i s t he volcanic r ock which provides t he best i nternal drainage ( 19) a nd theref ore provides s prings. Most of t he area i n question i s covered with s edimentary rock ( 20), Cretaceous, a nd e specially Tertiary l imestones ( see Fig. 1 ). The two major f actors i n t he geol ogical development of Turkey have been periodic inundation and tectonic f orces. The area was covered by the ancient s ea known a s t he Tethys Sea ( 21), but t he submersions were periodic -i n the Permian the coastlines were r oughly the same a s at present, but i n r everse ( 22). The l ater i nundations were f resh water. Even a s l ate a s t he Pleistocene t he Konya Plain area was a l arge l ake of s ome 2 000 square miles expanse, while the Tuz Gölt i and Lake Burdur were considerably deeper t han a t present ( 17' and 2 50' r espectively) ( 23). Massive crustal f olding has l ed to the d evelopment of the Pontus and Taurus mountain ranges, a lthough their present height i s partly due t o uplift during t he Quaternary, rather than f olding. There are fault l ines and considerable a ctivity from the movement o f the small plate on which Turkey s tands a gainst its neighbours. The last major g laciation, the Würmian, was about 2 0,000 years a go, with a minor r e-advance about 9 000 B .C. The c limatic c onditions, however, a pproached those o f the present day by about 8 000 B .C. ( 24). For our purposes, t he important factor i s t he predominance of l imestones ( showing i n places partial t o complete metamorphosis), a s a r esult of the extensive marine and l acustrine i nundations ( 25). I t i s t his predominance of l imestones that holds t he key t o t he problems of water from t he earth, g ods i n holes, and gods underground in g eneral. Whilst i t must a t a ll times be remembered t hat the barren hillsides o f today are not what met the eyes of the Hittites and their predecessors, there are f eatures of l imestone areas which cannot l ightly be passed over. I n the l ight o f the

3

G eo log ica l Map o fA na to l ia

>

. 2

4

particular karstic environment of i nterpretation of c ertain a spects much more s ense.

central Anatolia a new o f Hittite r eligion makes

Karst ( 26) ( limestone s cenery) takes many a nd o ccasionally extremely s pectacular f orms: the cockpits o f Jamaica, t he c enotes of Yucatan and t he s trange c onical hills o f Indo-China are among i ts many d ifferent manifestations. All are caused by the a ction o f water. Most l imestones are porous, water s eeps through t hem, a s through a s ponge, between the grains, a long t he j oints. I n areas where there i s l ittle vegetal c over t o hold t he water a lmost a ll will d isappear i nto the r ock, a nd i n areas which are well vegetated with a high rate of evapotranspiration none may g et through t o the r ock. The water s eeps downwards, d estroying by s olution, a nd a lso building, by d eposition. I t i s possible f or a ll t he l imestone to be dissolved and d isappear ( as in s outh c entral Turkey) ( 27). The waters collect and a l evel, t he water t able, i s f ixed. ( The water t able i s not a lways horizontal). I n an area with a d eveloped s ystem o f channels ( i.e. caves) r ivers will develop, and l akes. I t i s possible f or r ivers t o f low underground f or many miles before debouching f ully f ormed. Rivers i n karst are a lso able to f low under r idges a s i f t hey were bridges, f low occasionally underground and o ccasionally overground, vanish i nto the earth never to r eappear. I t i s possible now to investigate and explain most of these phenomena, but to minds not accustomed to thinking i n t he modern manner it must surely have been awe-inspiring t o s ee a river apparently vanish i nto, or appear out o f s olid r ock. The notion that the r ock was not i n f act particularly solid would, one s uspects, have amazed and i ndeed possibly appalled. Not only i s precipitation a bsorbed i nto the r ock, so t hat i ts obvious e ffect on the t errain i s minimized, but as the water collects i n s table reservoirs i t i s quite possible that t he e ffect o f r ain on the water s upply will not r eally be visible. Comparison of f low between an ordinary r iver ( the Tiber) and a karst r iver ( the Nera) ( 28) shows that while the f ormer f luctuates a great d eal, the l atter shows very l ittle variation. Therefore, a lthough i t might be argued that the ancients were quite i ntelligent enough t o know that i f i t rained i n the hills t he water supply would be i ncreased in t he valleys, it must be pointed out that i n an area of underground drainage i t i s quite possible that r ain i n t he hills will not have any immediately visible effect on water in the valleys. I t may, of course, occur that a s pring will show considerable increase i n volume a fter rain, but it does not a lways happen, a s might be expected, and this i n an important point. Springs ( 29), rather t han r ivers, are the main providers of water i n karst r egions. They can occur i n various ways and f or various causes. Some, springs which

5

a ppear at the f oot of c liffs, which bubble up from under pools, which shoot out of a hillside, can be quite s nect acular. I n the Hittite area there a re a lso a remarkable number of thermal s prings ( 30) ( see Fig. 2 ). These a re t he product of vulcanism, not karst, but there would be no way f or the early Anatolians to know the d ifference, a nd t hese must certainly have s eemed a s upernatural phenomenon t o those who would be unaware of the natural f orces at work ( 31). The s ignificance of these particular g eological a nd g eographical f eatures i s s urely c lear. The earth was important t o the people of Anatolia, and a l ot happened within i t. Their water appeared out of i t, s ometimes a s i f by magic, and i t c ould j ust a s easily d isappear -c an t he Anatolian sulking gods vanishing under the earth not be i nt erpreted a s a drying s pring, an i ntermittent s tream, or a r iver f lowing into r ock? This might s eem a more s uitable explanation than a ' seasonal' one. The s easons a re pred ictable, and may not have been so harsh i n H ittite t imes a s t hey are now, when there i s very l ittle vegetation c over t o protect crops, provide f irewood, keep t he s oil i n place a nd generally r ender l ife l ess hazardous. The water s upply i s, however, not so predictable i n karst, and may s eem t o be more d ependent upon t he whim of a god. The g ods dive underground, and i nto holes in t he earth ( 32, 3 3) which are d iscussed below. The ' hole i n the ground' i s a s ingularly important f eature of karst, a nd i nd eed the development of t hese holes i nto huge holes, l eaving r idges and then f inally i solated hills, has been s uggested a s an explanation f or a ll karst l andscapes ( 34). t ies,

Certainly holes there are i n s ome may be very dramatic.

l arge numbers and varie' Holes' or dolines are

f ormed i n various ways, d irectly or i ndirectly a s a r esult o f solution. They may be enlarged j oints, f orming potholes, g entle hollows, or rather l ess gentle hollows caused by s ubsidence of a weakened i nfrastructure, or dramatic g aps c aused by the collapse of cave r oofs. Such are the c enotes o f Yucatan, and s imilar l akes i n c ollapse dolines may be f ound i n Turkey ( 35). These cavities i n t he ground are striking wherever they may be f ound and are c ertainly a f eature of Anatolia. I t i s very common to a scribe them t o the agency o f s ome s upernatural being ' The Devil's Buttertubs' ( in the Yorks hire Dales) f or example, and t o imagine s trange creatures l iving i n t hem, s uch a s the Witch of Wookey Hole. The a tmosphere of a cave i s i nescapably numinous, a nd t he ent rance t o a pothole may f orm a very s uitable image o f t he gates

of

the

underworld.

I t i s very plain, t herefore, that such d istinctive f eatures of the physical environment must be very c arefully considered before a ny conclusions may be drawn about Anatolian r eligion. There may have been a borrowing of s ome names and concepts from Mesopotamia, s uch was perhaps

6