Prepare a tomb for himself during his lifetime.

The Stone House is the most common term designating buildings with a clear

Fimerary purpose. Two others are the said House of Bones and the House of the

✓ QÖ-V

Dead (E GIDIM or E SA GIDIM). The only text that refers to the founding of

A Stone House is a donation act of queen Asmunikkal, which describes in detail the

Organization and functioning of the mausoleum. It was more than just a tomb; it

Was a whole temple-like complex of the ancestor cult with fields, orchards, vineyards,

Cattle and sheep, and numerous cult personnel. Respective documents granted free-

Dom from taxes to the Stone House. The queen laid also particular cities and Profes

Sional groups under tribute for the cult performed there. The estate of the Stone

House as bekmging to the deceased could not be put up for saie, also the people

Working there and their descendants could not marry outside. Everything that carne

In contact with the dead was considered impure and contact with such things re-

Quired purificatory rites to be performed.

The mausoleum should not be identified with a memoria! called NA *^efeiir SAG.US

‘Eternal Peak.’ which was the cult place of a dead king or queen without necessarily

Eontainisig their mortal remains. Suppiluliuma II erected an everlasting hekur for

Tuthaliya IV, identified with the structure on top of the outcrop Ni§antas in Hattu-

Sa, and set up a statue of his father there, inscribed with bis res gestae (see 3.2.6). 989

990

An oracle text mentions the statue of a queen in association with a hekur." Is it

The same hekur of the LAMMA god that is attested to in the affair concerning Mur-

Sili II’s stepmother, the last wife of his late father Suppiluliuma I? As Mursili com-

Plained, “she has tumed over my father’s complete estate to the hekur- house of the

991

Tutelary God (and) the divine Stone House.”

986 KUB 1.1+ iv 7of., Otten 1881: 28f.

987 For the £ (SA) GIDIM. see ABoT 56 üi 4’ff. (Otten 1958b: 104), KBo 21.35 i 5’ (Otten. 1958b:

102 n, 2), KUB 23.107 rev.? 3’ (Hagenbuchner 1989: 340), KUB 39.60 l.\ Cf, Kapelus 2006:

If.

KUB 13.8. Otten 1958b: 104ff.; 1974: Groddek 2001a: 214ff.

See n. 780.

990 KUB 22.70 obv. 12ff,, Ünal 1978: 6ff,; van den Hout 1994a: 49; Beal 2002c: 14ff. (erroneously:

the ‘Stone House’).

KUB 14,4 ii 3’ff., cf. CHD L-N 361b with literature. The cited passage translated by van den.

Hout 1994a: 49.

166

Hittite Anatolia

It seems that like the Stone Houses, also (some of) the Aefeur-memorials remained

Uader the protection of the patron deities. A hekur of Muwattalli II located in the

Territory of Tarfjuniassa, mentioned in the Bronze Tabiet of the Tuthaliya IV treatv

992 "

with Kurunta, " was dedicated to the Storm-god, the divine patron of Muwattalli.

The hekur of the LAMMA god, which served in the posthumous cult of Suppiluliu-

ma I, hass already been mentioned." 0 ffekur -sanctuaries of Pirwa 994 and Kammam-

995

ma ' are also evidenced in the sources.

The E(.GAL) hufihas (UTlf) or ‘House (or Palace) of the Grandfathers (of His

Majesty) was also connected with the royal ancestor cult. ' Texts confirxn the pros-

Ence of such establishnxents in Hattusa, Samuha and Katapa, all three eitles being

royal residences at different stages in Hittite history. 89 ' There is no decisive proof

For the identification of the House of the Grandfathers with the Stone House, al-

Though it demonstrates several similarities as a cult place and at the same time an

Institution with its own property and personnel. The House of the Grandfathers as

A sanctuary of the dynastic ancestor cult recalls the E (U) MUL(.MUL) in Ebla and

the bt ’ilm kbkm (‘House of the Divine Stars’) in Ugarit," 8 which once again con-

Firms the ties between. the ancestor cult in the Hittite royal family of the Empire

Period and the Syrian tradition.

L he texts say practically nothing about the beliefs of common people concerning

Death. We know of several cemeteries from the Hittite period, 999 including (to men

Tion only the most important ones) extramural burial grounds of the Capital Hattu