Ḫalmašuit ( Hattic Ḫanwašuit) was a goddess worshiped by

Hattians The Hattians () were an ancient Bronze Age people that inhabited the land of ''Hatti'', in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). They spoke a distinctive Hattian language, which was neither Semitic languages, Semitic nor Indo-European languages, In ...

and

Hittites The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. She was the divine representation of a ceremonial throne, and acted as both an embodiment of royal authority and as a protective deity of

kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Kings: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations. *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'', an 11th-century epic Persia ...

Name and character

The original Hattic form of the theonym Ḫalmašuit was Ḫanwašuit, with the phonetic change reflecting her adoption by the

. It can be translated as "he (or she) sits on her", with ''n(i)waš'' meaning "to sit", ''ḫa'' being a

locative In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and " ...

prefix, and ''it'' a feminine suffix. In both Hattic and Hittite the name is identical with the word for throne, though they were written with different

determinative A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they ...

s, respectively

DINGIR ''Dingir'' ⟨⟩, usually transliterated DIĜIR, () is a Sumerian word for 'god' or 'goddess'. Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for religious names and related concepts, in which case it is not pronounced and ...

and GIŠ. The aforementioned throne had the form of a

dais A dais or daïs ( or , American English also but sometimes considered nonstandard)dais
in the Random House Dictionary< ...

, and the Hittite royal couple was seated on it during religious ceremonies. There is no evidence that Ḫalmašuit was ever depicted in

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

form. She has accordingly been characterized as a "throne goddess" by Hittitologists. In both Hattian and Hittite tradition she was connected with the idea of kingship. She acted both as an embodiment of the concept of royal authority and as a protector of kings. This role was most likely responsible for her close association with the war god Wurunkatte. They are attested together in multiple offering lists. They also appear in sequence in a Hattic text enumerating the most important deities of the Hattian pantheon. A ritual performed prior to the construction of a new palace ( CTH 414) refers to an eagle as a messenger of Ḫalmašuit.

Volkert Haas Volkert Haas (1 November 1936 – 13 May 2019) was a German Assyrologist and Hittitologist. __NOTOC__ Life Volkert Haas studied Assyrology and Near Eastern archaeology at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Marburg from 1963 to ...

notes that these birds were commonly portrayed as servants of the gods across

and northern

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, as already implied by texts from

Ebla Ebla (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', , modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a Tell (archaeology), tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was ...

predating the Hittite sources.

Worship

According to , Ḫalmašuit might have originally been regarded as a royal deity of Zalpa, and later spread to other areas after their rulers adopted the traditions of this city. She was the tutelary goddess of the dynasty of Kuššar, whose best known members

Pitḫana Pitḫana (Pythanas) was a Middle Bronze Age king, during the late 18th century BC (middle chronology), of the Anatolian city of Kuššara, and a forerunner of the later Hittite dynasty. Reign He is best known for the Conquest of Kanesh, heart ...

and Anitta seized power in Kanesh in the

Old Assyrian period The Old Assyrian period was the second stage of Assyrian history, covering the history of the city of Assur from its rise as an independent city-state under Puzur-Ashur I 2025 BC to the foundation of a larger Assyrian territorial state after th ...

. A text from the reign of the latter states that she was also the tutelary goddess of

Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...

, and that she surrendered the city to him after a famine. He subsequently brought her with him to Kanesh, and seemingly had a temple constructed for her there. Ḫalmašuit was likely adopted as a royal deity by the kings of Hattusa during the reign of

Ḫattušili I Hattusili I (''Ḫattušili'' I) was a Hittite king, king of the Hittite Old Kingdom. He reigned ca. 1650–1620 BC (middle chronology), or ca. 1640–1610 BC (low middle chronology). Family Ḫattušili was possibly a nephew of his predecess ...

, possibly following the example of Anitta. A ritual preceding the construction of a new royal palace involved the Hittite king making a pact of friendship with Ḫalmašuit. In the thirteenth century BCE, a throne representing Ḫalmašuit stood in the temple of Wurunkatte in Hattusa. A birth ritual listing the cult centers of various deities links Ḫalmašuit with the city of Ḫarpiša.

Mythology

The god Zilipuri was considered the builder of the throne symbolically representing Ḫalmašuit, as attested in the text KUB 2.2. An early Hittite myth describes Ḫalmašuit as a goddess living in the mountains. It relays that she was regarded a source of royal authority and protector of kings who brought them power from the sea and provided them with a ceremonial carriage (^GIŠ''ḫuluganni''). Volkert Haas argued that the reference to the sea is an allusion to the city of Zalpa, located on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

coast, but according to Piotr Taracha this is uncertain.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *{{citation, last=Weiher, first=Egbert von, entry=Ḫalmašuit, encyclopedia=Reallexikon der Assyriologie, year=1972, entry-url=http://publikationen.badw.de/en/rla/index#5012, language=de, access-date=2023-12-21 Hittite deities Hattian deities