Arinna: Eine heilige Stadt der Hethiter.

• Position: Book review

Arinna: Eine heilige Stadt der Hethiter. By MACIEJ POPKO. Studien zu den Bogazkoy-Texten, vol. 50. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2009. Pp. xiv + 125. [euro]38 (paper).

A notable socio-political feature of Asia Minor in the Classical period was the presence of sacred municipalities, such as Comana and Pessinus, which were ruled by priests or at least granted extraordinary privileges lo the servants of their gods. This phenomenon was foreshadowed by the special role and revered status of several central Anatolian towns during the Hittite era: Nerik, Zip(pa)landa, and Arinna. This volume by Maciej Popko, dean of Polish Hittitologists, examines the evidence for the history and cult of the last-named of these holy cities.

This task is not as straightforward as it might at first appear, for the bulk of the material pertaining to Arinna in the Hittite archives--beyond simple mentions of its Sun-goddess, who was one of the patron deities of the slate and royal house--is found in fragmentary texts that detail programs for worship in this town. While the majority of tablets recovered at Bogazkoy have been reconstructed from numerous fragments often found in widely separated loci, the making of joins for "festivals" (EZEN) of the state cult poses a special challenge, since the contents of many ceremonies are remarkably similar. Nonetheless, a true understanding of a cultic routine demands the recognition of particulars, which gods receive what offerings from whose hands, what type of entertainment is presented at what point in the proceedings, etc.

Popko, author of an earlier study of Zippalanda (Texte der Hethiter 21, 1994), tackles this problem systematically (p. 1). Starting from those sources generally recognized as referring to Arinna, he isolates special characteristics of its religious personnel, physical layout, and ritual practice. When he finds any of these distinctive features in other fragments, he is justified in assigning them also to the cult of Arinna. For instance, temples for the deities...