OFFPRINT FROM Recent Developments in Hittite Archaeology and History Papers in Memory of Hans G. Giiterbock Edited by K. Asuinan YENER AND Harry A. HoFFNER JR. with the assistance of Simrit DHESI © Copyright 2002 Eisenbrauns ‘Winona Lake, Indiana All rights reservedBabyloniaca Hethitica: The “babilili-Ritual” from Bogazkéy (CTH 718) GaRY BECKMAN University of Michigan T am presently preparing an edition of CTH 718, the textual group known to Hiticologists as the “babilli-ritual” after the adverb which here introduces Akkadian incantations within the larger Hittite-language context. This composition comprises:! LA B. pO nome 2. OR Pw D KUB 39.71 KUB 39.70 + KUB 32.1 + KUB 39.81 + KBo 39.169? + KBo 39.1739 RUB 32.2 + FHG 3 + KBo 39.228 KUB 39.85 KUB 39.73 HTS KUB 39.72 KUB 39.74 Bo 92/102 KUB 39.78 KUB 39.80 KBo 7.29 KUB 39.90 KUB 39.75 Author's note: Abbreviations for Hieite text pablications and Hiticological works are those given in The Hittite Dictionary ofthe Oriental Insitute ofthe University of Chicago, Volume L~N, Fascicle 4 (Chicago: The Onencal Instcute, 1989) xw-xxvii, All other abbreviations are those of The C) «age Assyrian Dictionary, Volume 17 8), Pate Ul (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 1992) vou 1. Lam grteful to Professor Heinaich Otten for permision to utilize the unpublished frag- iment listed here, a well a for sending me copies of the relevant pieces in KBo 39 before the 9p- pearance of that volume. 2, See CHDL-N, 74, where this fagment is cited a 1885/a 3. See D. Groddek, “KUB 32.1 + KBo 39.173 (++)," NABU (1996) 115, 3836 Gary Beckrean unplaced fragments: 1. KUB 39.94 8. KUB 39.83 16. KUB 39.96 + KBo 17.97 9. KUB 39.84 17. KBo 39.172 KUB 32.3 10. KUB 39.86 18. 645/2 KUB 39.69 11. KUB 39.88 19. KUB 39.68 |. KUB 39.76 12, KUB 39.89 20. 99/f 5. KUB 39.77 43. KUB 39.92 21. Bo 5664 6. KUB 39.79 14, KUB 39.93, 22. KBo 32.206 7. KUB 39.82 15. KUB 39.95 While it is by no means unusual fer a Hittite religious composition to feature speech in a foreign tongue—for example in Hattic, Palaic, Luwian, only one other known rite (the so-called “Ritual against Insomn contains more than a sentence or tWo of Akkadian. Given the general dependence of Hatti upon Mesopotamian culture in stich matters as whiting system, literary genre, and forms of religious expression.’ a consideration of the character of the Akkadian incantations in the babilli-ritual promises to shed light beyond the limited area of Hictie ritual studies. ‘The best-preserved portion of CTH 718 is a tablet (1.A above) detailing the ac- tivities beginning just before dawn on the second day of the ritual regimen. From at least four different manuscripts. { have reconstructed 200 of the approximately 220 lines originally present on this tablet.° In addition there are two damaged parallel texts for these sante ceremonies, cach preserved in nuultiple copies, as well as some ‘ewenty fiagments of varying length of whose placement I am not yee certain. From the diverse content of these latter pieces, it seems unlikely that they give the text of only one or two original tablets, but there is within them no clear indication of di- vison into days to aid reconstruction. One of these fragments may possibly be as- signed paleageaphically ¢o the Middle Hittite period (Fragment 4),? and several to the fourteenth century (1.C, 2.A, Fragment 11), but most of the material displays late—that is, thirteenth-ceneury—script. While E. Laroche presumably assigned tablets and fragments to this text group solely on the basis of the presence of the word babilli—it does not occur in any other risual—these texts abso display a number of other common features. Chief among these are the use of the Jaju-drinking vessel* (invariably written with the Sumero- gram ZA.EJUM), and the frequent denotation of the Sa(u)kunmni- priest by the writing WSANGA-nif (GIS), a spelling unattested elsewhere. 1 plan to publish an edition of chis cext in the near future See my "Mesopotamians and Mesopotamian Learning at Hateus,” JCS 35 (1083) 97-114 Two of the exemplars (B and F) continue heyond the material presented in Text A. Note the pa-sign in line 11. This piece should be collated in order to dare it securely CAD $i, 105-6,