Hittitology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

One typical feature of the Hittite official cult is the significant role assigned to non-urban, open-air cultic space. Open-air 'sanctuaries' 1 have been found in many locations across Central and even Western Anatolia. A notable number of them are located near prominent water features, either springs, artificial basins, or rivers, in the highlands or on the Plateau, testifying to the cultic importance of water and its role as an access to the netherworld in Hittite cosmic view 2 . A group of open-air cultic places are located high in the mountains, both for their physical proximity to the sky, and for the prominent cult of mountain gods in Hittite Anatolia 3 . A last group of open-air cultic places, however, features conspicuous but isolated rocky outcrops emerging from the surrounding landscape. Yazılıkaya is the prominent example of such a cultic place 4 , but some other Hittite empire open-air cultic places can be included in this group. These are often associated with the term huwasi-, referring to open-air cultic places in Hittite sources. Like most of the other open-air cultic monuments, visibility was a prominent criterion for the selection of a specific place. In addition to an objective definition of visibility generated by a monument's prominence in the physical landscape, as well as the lack of obstacles hindering one's view from distance, visibility depends on local circulation patterns and therefore it is very much connected to local history and human presence 5 . There is a third aspect of visibility that ought to be stressed: the possibility for the public participating in a cult to see the ceremonial acts performed on a stage some meters higher than where they stood. As a matter of fact, in many open-air cultic places associated with reliefs and Anatolian Hieroglyphic (AH) inscriptions, libation holes have been identified 6 . They are regularly placed at the top of a cliff, rocky outcrop, or rock, and not in front of a cultic statue or a cultic scene carved in bas-relief, as it is typical of later monuments. One gets the impression that the iconic representation of the cult engraved on the rock served to reduplicate for the public and make eternal a cultic act that in fact was performed on a stage at the top of the cultic place, where officiants, highly visible to all participants, would perform speech acts (prayers, recitations, etc.), and the offering to the gods. I am not aware of textual evidence that describes cultic acts taking place on an elevated stage at an open-air cultic place, but several rituals and prayers indicate the use of roofs for cultic performances. For example, the first lines of Great King Muwatalli's prayer to the assembly of the gods 7 show that in temple contexts cultic activities were set up on the roof, thus at an elevated stage more easily visible by the gods, but also by participants to the cult. For the sake of this paper it is relevant to underline that isolated outcrops and rocks selected as cultic places and associated with reliefs and or inscriptions very likely also served as a sort of elevated stage to perform cultic activities, and in particular offerings to the gods. This consideration will be particularly germane for my discussion of the post-Hittite inscription of SUVASA ( .