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Nerik and its “Weather-God”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. G. Macqueen
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Extract

Hittite geography and Hittite religion have for many years been among Oliver Gurney's principal interests. It therefore gives me the greatest pleasure that this small contribution in his honour deals with both these subjects, especially since the text with which it is mainly concerned is one which I first studied many years ago under his supervision. Like so many others, I owe him a debt of gratitude which can never be adequately repaid.

For many years now it has been clear that in any attempt to locate the site of Nerik the most important fact to be kept in mind is that the town was for a long period in the hands of the Gasga-peoples. Their capture of it was allegedly in the reign of Hantilis, and it was calculated that five hundred years passed before it was recovered by Hattusilis III. More probably however it fell into enemy hands in the reign of Arnuwandas I and his queen Asmunikkal, shortly after 1450 B.C. But whatever the exact details may be, it has to be accepted that any town subjected to an extended period of Gasgan occupation must have been situated to the north of Hattusas, in the direction of the area known in Classical times as Pontus. More recently there has been further evidence pointing to a similar conclusion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 30 , December 1980 , pp. 179 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1980

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References

1 For a full study of the Gasga-peoples and their history, see von Schuler, E., Die Kaškäer (Berlin 1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A summary of the history of Nerik, and of its occupation by the Gasga-peoples, is to be found in Haas, V., Der Kult von Nerik (Rome 1970), 5 sqqGoogle Scholar.

2 Summarized by Forlanini, M., L'Anatolia Nordoccidentale nell'Impero Eteo (Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici XVIII (1977), 197–225), 200–201Google Scholar.

3 See now Houwink ten Cate, Philo H. J, Mursilis' North-Western Campaigns – Additional Fragments of his Comprehensive Annals concerning the Nerik Region: Florilegium Anatolicum: Melanges Offerts à Emmanuel Laroche (Paris 1979), 157–167Google Scholar.

4 Laroche, E., RHA 77 (1965) 70 – A III 22 sqqGoogle Scholar.

5 KUB XXXVI 90, Obv. 31Google Scholar.

6 Otten, H., Eine althethitische Erzählung urn die Stadt Zalpa (SBoT 17, 1973), 14–15, 57 sqGoogle Scholar.

7 Houwink ten Cate, op. cit., 160 sqq.

8 Hattusilis III, 46–54Google Scholar.

9 Garstang, J. and Gurney, O. R., The Geography of the Hittite Empire (London 1959), 6Google Scholar sqq. Goetze, A., “The Roads of Northern Cappadocia in Hittite Times” (RHA 15, 1957, 93 sqq.)Google Scholar.

10 RHA 1 (1930) p. 26Google Scholar.

11 Güterbock, H. G., The North-Central Area of Hittite Anatolia, JNES XX (1961), 85–97Google Scholar.

12 E.g. Haas, op. cit., 5.

13 Dinçol, A. M. and Yakar, J., The Theories on the localisation of Nerik Reconsidered. Belleten XXXVIII (1974), 573–581Google Scholar.

14 Dinçol and Yakar, op. cit., 580.

15 Houwink ten Cate, op. cit., 160, n. 20.

16 Forlanini, op. cit., 201. AS XXIII (1973), 64Google Scholar.

17 Güterbock, op. cit., 93.

18 Haas, op. cit., 170.

19 Hamilton, W. J., Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus and Armenia (London 1842)Google Scholar.

20 Hamilton, op. cit., 332–334.

21 Anderson, J. G. C., Studia Pontica I (Brussels 1903), 82–84, and Map IXGoogle Scholar.

22 , F. and Cumont, E., Studia Pontica II (Brussels 1906), 124 sqq.Google Scholar, and Map XI.

23 Strabo C560 (XII, 3, 38).

24 Anderson, J. G. C., Cumont, F. and Grégoire, H.: Studia Pontica III (Brussels 1910), 37Google Scholar.

25 Macqueen, J. G., Mythology, Hattian and Monarchy, Hittite: AS IX (1959), 171–188Google Scholar.

26 KUB XXXVI 89, obv. 12–17Google Scholar.

27 KUB XXXVI 89, rev. 1–23Google Scholar.

28 AS XXIII (1973), 64–65Google Scholar. AS XXIV (1974), 50–51Google Scholar.

29 Haas, op. cit., 168–169.

30 KUB VI 45 i 71Google Scholar = KUB VI 46 ii 36Google Scholar.

31 Güterbock, op. cit., 93–95.

32 Obv. 27–29: rev. 50–51.

33 Obv. 16–17.

34 Rev. 61.

35 Rev. 45.

36 Obv. 33.

37 Rev. 54: rev. 60.

38 Macqueen, op. cit., 172–173.

39 If the connection between the Weather-god of Nerik and the hot spring of Havza can be accepted it is possible that a similar connection may be helpful in identifying the sites of other shrines (e.g. Zippalanda) at which “Weather-gods” were worshipped.

40 AS XXIII (1973), 64Google Scholar. The position of Oymaaǧaç Tepe is shown on the maps in Figs. 1 and 3.