Centers in the region - Zalpa and the holy city of Nerik.

After the Kaskeans took Nerik (modern Oymaagag near Vezirköprü?) in the end

Of the sixteenth Century BC, the cult of the local Storm-god was moved to Kastama,

533

Which remained the god’s seat until the first years of the reign of Muwattaili IT

(see 3,1.1). The Nerik gods were also worshiped at this time in Takupsa, where the

LAMMA god of Hatenzuwa and the mountain Haharwa/Hahruwa enjoyed special

Veneration. 01,4 It may have been due to the presence of the Nerik gods that Takupsa

Becarae one of the most important cult centers of the land.

KUB 6.45 ii 60, Singer 1996: 18, 38.

KUB 11.27 i 4’ff., del Monte — Tischler 1978: 21; Archi 2006: 1571 See also n. 510.

531. KBo 34.203++ iü IT, Haas 1994a: 423; Groddek 1995: 327; Yoshida 1996: 150: Torri 1999: 90;

Polvani 2002: 648f.; Wegner 2002: 30öi’f.; Crasso 2006: 341f.

532 KUB 53.4 i 12’ff. with its duplicatee KUB 53,8 obv. 8fl and Bo 3478{+)KBo 54.125 iv ll’ff.,

Yoshida 1996: 99; cf. also Haas - Jakob-Rost 1984: 69, 73, 841, and Haas 1994a: 744 with

different restorations. For Sal/twanes, see Otten ~ von Soden 1968: 28; Lombardi 1996: 63f.

KUB 6.45 i 68ff. with its duplicate KUB 6.46 i 33fL. Singer 1998: 12. 34.

KUB 6.45 i 711 with its duplicate KUB 6.48 i 361. Singer 1996: 12, 34.

535

The LAMMA god of Hate nzuwawas one of the most illustrioiis tutelary deines

Worshiped in the form of a kursa, whose cult in central and northern Anatolia was

Rooted in the Hattian tradition going back to Old Hittite tinses. The Classification of

These deities as LAMMA gods in Empire texts was the result of their personification

(see 3.2.4); even so, the ancient kursas retained their divinity, becoming at the same

Time attributes of the personified tutelary deities called to life by court theologians.

In the House of the kursa on the acropolis Büyükkale in Hattusa, feureo-bags were

hanged in an Order suggesting an inherent hierarehy: Zit&ariya, then the LAMMA

Gods of Hatenzuwa, Zapatiskuwa, Tatasuna and Tashapuna, as weil as the deities

Kantipuitti and Kappariyamu.''" b A text dating to the early years of the Empire de-

Scribes a ceremony to ZitJjariya and the LAMMA god of Hatenzuwa, the culmina-

Tion of which was replacement of the kursas of the two divinities in Hattusa; the old

537

kursa of Zithariya was sent to Tuhupiya, ' while that of the LAMMA god of Haten

Zuwa was taken to Durmitta, where it was worshiped as the LAMMA god of Zapa

Tiskuwa. 538

Having decided to move to Tarhuntassa, Muwattaili II handed over power in the

native Hittite territory (exempting Hattusa'’ 39) to his brother Hattusili, who com-

Nutted himself at the same time to the task of oyercoming the Kaskeans and recon-

Quering the lande at the Kizilirmak estuarv. The Capital of the Hattusili’s kingdom

was located at Hakmisa.’ " In his quest to bring the northern territories back int«

The fold, Hattusili sought the assistance of the Storm-god of Nerik, declaring him

His patron deity and introducing his cult in Hakmisa. Contrary to the opinion of

Some scholars, Hakmisa served as the seat of the Storm-god of Nerik for a reiativeiy

McMahon 1991: 33f.

Haas 1994a: 454. For Kantipuitti and Kappariyamu as tutelary deities, see McMahon

1991: 171

Tuhpiva of Old Assyrian texts. According to Bariaraovie (2005: 3111:1) we shouid locate the city

In the bend of the Kizilirmak, Southwest of Hattusa.

KUB 55.43, Otten 1959c; McMahon 1991: 143ff.; cf. also Haas 1994a: 455.

Singer 2001.

Most ofteil identified with modern Araasya. See, however, Forlanini 2007a: 267 n. 23, who locates

Hakmi§(a) west of Amasya in Suluova. Metin Alparslan (“Das Land Hakmis: Geschichte, Loka

Lisation und Bedeutung eines he thi tischen Zentrums,” paper read at the 7th International Con-

gress of Hittitoüogy in Corum, 25-29 August 2008) pufcs forward an alternative: the valley west

of Amasya, with Dogantepe and Oluz Höyük as the most prominent sites, or the region. of

Merzifon.

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Hittite Anatolia

Short time, that is, until Nerik was reconquered still in the lifetime of Muwattalli II.

The latter ruler initiated the reconstruction of cults in Nerik,''"' a task continued

by his successors Hattusili III and Tuthaliya IV. 0 "' While the Nerik temples were