Magical texts preserved in Hittite archives (16^th - 13^th century BC) testify the intense cultural exchange, that took place in Anatolia since early times. These documents show several cultural influences which originated both from Anatolian regions and from outside the core of the Hittite kingdom. They provide us with important information about the possible existence of specific local ritual traditions. For example, the incipit of some compositions informs us about the possible origins of the composition, giving not only the name and profession of the ‘author’ of the ritual text, but also her or his place of origin. This makes possible to assign several compositions to (possible) specific ritual traditions.

In this projectthe ways in which the Hittite tradition(s) included different and foreign ritual motifs – likely by the mediation of scribal institutions – are investigated. The aim is to understand how magical ritual texts can be differentiated on the basis of their local origin, in order to ascribe them to specific ritual traditions. For this study the understanding of the role played by the ‘regional localizations of knowledge traditions’ in the acquisition, formation, and circulation of the Hittite ritual knowledge represents a crucial point of this research project.

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Jörg Klinger, Prof. Dr. Markham Geller