Northern Anatolia both grew from the indigenous Hattian tradition. 1t is quite likely,

However, that Hittite-Luwian deities were worshiped by the royal family and prob-

AMy also by some part of population of the Hittite heartland, especially toward the

Zuliva/Cekerek basin (see also 3.2.3).

The coming to power of the new dynasty of Kizzuwatnean origin meant funda

Mental change in the religious sphere. Its rulers worshiped their own gods as part

°f the dynastic cult, ictroducing into the Hittite state pantheon the deities vener-

Ated by the Humane from southeastern Anatolia arid northern Syria, including Meso-

Potamian and Syrian gods, These cults took root in the capital and gradually pene-

Trated into the local pantheons, especially in centers where the king used to reside

°n occasion. In other provincial towns, local deities continued to be worshiped, al-

Though there, too, the state cult had a growing impact. The Empire period also wit-

Nessed a process, stimulated by the kings’ religious policies, of transferring Luwian,

Hurro-Kizzuwatnean, Syrian and Mesopotamian cults to towns in the north and

Northeast. In the thirteenth Century BC, this process was presumably partially con

Nected with the mass resettling of the Luwian population from Western and South

Ern Anatolia into territories located in the Kizilirmak bend. 171 Kizzuwatna, the home

of t ^ le ru ^ ng dynasty of the time, played an important role in this movement.

SRnTrn; Anatolia

The Old Hittite Period

'Düring this period Hattian divinities were in the majority, both in the Hittite state

Pantheon and in the local pantheons of central and northern Anatolia. An impor

tant criterüon for attributing a given deity to a specific ethnic tradition is the lan

Guage of her cult. A rule well known and abided by in different regions and eultures

Of the ancient world was to address a deity in her own language. “ The criterion of

Cult language is even more important than the god’s name, especially in the case of

Sources from the Empire period in which foreign gods tended to be given the appel-

Lations of their Anatolian counterparts. ’ It seems that already in Old Hittite times,

Hittite-Luwian or Palaic deities occasionally received Hattian names in the Hattian

Cultural milieu (see 3.1.2 on the Hattian name/epithet of the Palaic Storm-god Zi-

Parwa and the Status of the goddess Katahzipuri in the Palaic pantheon). A deity

Could become common in a new cultural milieu where she had no counterpart and it

Was common then for her to be venerated in this new ethnic environment under her

Old name. One example from the early period is the Hattian god Hasam(m)ili wor-

Shiped in Hittite-Luwian circles, appearing also among the Kanesite deities (2.1);

The same is true of the Mesopotamian god Ea who was worshiped in Hittite Anato

Lia during the Empire period (3.2.5).

As far as a study of Old Hittite religion is concerned, the methodological prin-

Ciple is that the religious texts of the period, the cultic and the magic both, demon-

Strate no trace of any Mesopotamian or Syrian influence so heavily present in texts

from the Empire period. 1 '* One should bear this in mind when considering scholar-

Ly opinions on the Old Hittite origins of particular rituals, rites and mythological

Themes which are evidenced solely in the late texts. Many of these opinions are in

Need of verification, but it does not mean that the late sources which can document

An earlier tradition should be rejected in a reconstruction of Old Hittite beliefs and

Cults. The present chapter discusses only those elements of Hittite religion which

Are undoubtedly derived from an earlier Anatolian tradition.

Cf. Goetze 1953: 263. See now also Arehi 2004a.

Tar acha 2004b,.

A: 88, 80.

The Oed Hittite Period 37

In the Old Assyrian Colony period, Hattusa was already the Capital of one of the