Hittite Local Cults.

• Author: Leonard, Timothy D.

Hittite Local Cults. By MICHELE CAMMAROSANO. Writings from the Ancient World, vol. 39. Atlanta: SBL PRESS, 2018. Pp. xxv + 510, illus. $69.95 (paper).

Those familiar with the corpus of Hittite cuneiform texts will be aware of its bias in favor of the perspective of the Hittite monarchy due in part to the asymmetrical distribution of the findspots of those sources. The majority of all recovered and published Hittite cuneiform tablets were found in the capital city of Hattusa (modern Bogazkale) and, moreover, practically all Hittite texts are the product of the royal chancer)' and its appointed scribes. Thus, the extant Hittite cuneiform record largely reflects the interests of the royal family and its administration. This bias affects nearly all areas of our knowledge about the Hittites. religion included. Furthermore, one of the most important roles of the Hittite king was serving as the head priest of the state cult, so studies of Hittite religion tend to focus on procedures in which the king was directly involved.

In his 2018 book Hittite Local Cults, Michele Cammarosano bucks this trend and addresses the hitherto little explored topic of the religious practices of smaller communities in the Hittite realm through a comprehensive study of the genre of cultic inventory texts. These texts describe the material aspects of local cults, such as their divine images and regular offerings, and also document local cultic practices, such as the proper performance and frequency of local festivals. Cammarosano's stated purpose is "to provide an up-to-date overview of the corpus of the cult inventories, to explore selected aspects of the Hittite local cults, and to offer critical editions of a representative sample of manuscripts" (p. 1), and he laudably succeeds in all three of these goals. The book resolves many long-standing questions regarding the nature and purpose of these texts, and explores the dynamic relationship between the center of power and periphery that they document in regard to Hittite religion.

The first section of the book contains several chapters discussing general topics pertaining to Hittite local cults, including cult inventories as an emic genre (chap. 2), the lexical, paleographic, and orthographic characteristics of the genre (chap. 3). the cult images and deities they mention (chap. 4), the seasonal calendar and characteristics of local festivals (chap. 5), and the economy of local cults (chap. 6), including the metrology...