The lexical corpus at Hattuša, the capital of the kingdom of Hatti, is a learned corpus that was actively used and studied by the scholars of the time. The collection is skewed towards the more complex and difficult lexical compositions and the multiplicity of formats and layouts shows how they experimented with the presentation of the data. Many Hattuša lexical texts provide a separate column with syllabic Sumerian and/or a column with Hittite translation.
The cuneiform texts from Hattuša constitute state archives, which include letters, treaties, and other documents of governance, as well protocols, rituals of various kinds, cultic inventories, and handbooks on law and divination. The Hittite language and cuneiform writing were closely connected to governance and royalty. The lexical texts and the data they provide supply specialized and often arcane knowledge of a writing system that symbolized royalty and royal power.
Among the highly specialized lexical texts from the site are many copies of Erimhuš, a difficult compilation that originated in Old Babylonian commentary practices, explaining rare words in literary texts. Erimhuš explains such words by giving brief sequences of synonymns or near-synonyms. Babylonian and Assyrian copies of Erimhuš are always bilingual (Sumerian - Akkadian); at Hattuša no less than four different formats are know:
Not infrequently, the Hittite translations in Erimhuš are erroneous, mistaking the Akkadian word for a homonym or near-homonym. Rather than attributing such errors to ignorance, we may appreciate the attempt by the king's scholars to make sense of excruciatingly difficult scholarly material. It shows that they were not satisfied with simply reproducing the foreign texts, but actively sought to interpret and understand them.
Among the Hattuša lexical texts are several rare compositions, including Erimhuš, discussed above, which is represented by about 15 exemplars, but is otherwise practically unknown in the West. Other examples include a copy of the god list An = Anum (well-known from Kassite Babylonia, but not elsewhere attested in the West) and the list of human beings lu₂azlag₂ (fuller). The latter list is primarily known in various Old Babylonian versions, but is now also attested in Siyannu, near Ugarit.
27 Dec 2019
Niek Veldhuis
Niek Veldhuis, 'The Lexical Texts from Hattuša', Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Lexical Texts, The DCCLT Project, 2019 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/dcclt/lexicallistsperiods/middlebabylonian/hattusha/]