One of the few universals of human behavior.”

966 KUB 3Ö.19++ iv 13f.. Otten 1958b: 46f.; Kassian.Korolev — SideFtsev 2002; 518f,

162

Hl TTITE AnATOLIA

Her to the eommunity of family ancestors and it was tantamount to the beginn log of

His/her cult as part of the ancestor cult (see below).

Every funeral needed some place for the soul to reside while receiving its first

installments of funerary offerings. ' ‘ In the Hittite royal funerary ritual the soul

First descended in a slaughtered plough-ox, The body was cremated during the first

Days of the ritual. It was burnt on a pyre, and the next day women went to the pyre

To gather the rernainmg bones. They put out the fire by pouring beer, wine and

Other liquids onto it, then they washed the bones in a silver vessel containing oil

And wrapped them in linen, put them on a chair if it was a man (king), or on

A footstool if a woman (queen). A funerary banquet took place in the presence of the

Burnt remains, with a cult toast performed three times to the soul. Like in Mesopo

Tamien funerals, the chair or the footstool was presumably another place of soul

Emplacement. 968 At the same time an image of the deceased was arranged out of

Fruit in the middle of the pyre, perhaps as a Symbol of fertility and his/her rebirth

To life in the netherworld. The funeral proper ended with the transfer of the bones

into the mausoleum called E.NA 4 or ‘Stone House’ (see below), where they were placed

On a bed.

Magieal practices in successive days were supposed to transfer the ghost cf

Either the dead king or the queen to the meadow of the netherworld, where one

Should “secure for the deceased an afterlife modeled on his/her formier existence

Without, of course, all human deficiencies.” 969 A seated statue of the deceased played

A prominent role in the next days of the ritual. 970 Front then on it was to be driven

Around on a cart between various locations where the rites were performed. No de-

Scription of the activities on the last fourteenth day has survived, so we do not know

What ultimately happened to the statue. JoArsn Scurlock has noted with insight in ref-

Erence to funerary statues in Mesopotamia: “Given the aversion of gods to death, it is

Very unlikely that a statue used in a funeral would have found its way into a divine

971

sanctuary.” * The similarity of magieal practices on the thirteenth day to the Sub

Stitution rituals could suggest that the statue was offered to the Sun-goddess of the

For soul emplacements in Mesopotamian funerary rituals, see Scurlock 2002.

Scurlock 2002: 2ff.

969 van den Hout 1994a: 6öf.

Van den Hout 1995b.

Scurlock 2002: 2.

The Empire Periob 163

Earth as a substitute for the deceased, so that he/she was able to avoid the sad fate

of other souls in her kingdom and go to the meadow of the privileged. 9, ~

Once integrated into the invisihle world, the ancestor beeame a new entity, spiri

tual and eternal. 'The Hittites perceived the family dead as protective deities of lesser

973

rank (Hittite Zawalli).' It was expected that they would care for the living mem-

Bers of the family. The spirit of a deceased could be invoked after death, which per-

Mitted contact to be established. At the same time the dead required offerings and

974

Rituals in the ancestor cult. The renowned king lists (CTH 661) amply attest to

This practice in the royal family.’ “ Some of these lists include queens and other

Members of the ruling family; others extend beyond the worship of ancestors from

The royal house of the Empire period and contain also the names of kings of the Oid

Hittite dynasty, referring to the tradition of Hittite kingship.

A term which denotes the death of someone from the royal family was connected

with the ancestor cult: ‘to become a god,’ that is ‘divine’ ancestor. 976 The dead, how-

Ever, were not deified in the sense that they beeame like the high gods of the pan-

977

thoon.* “The ‘divinity’ of the dead ancestors is an expression that they possess an