Books by Francesco Barsacchi
Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie , 2018
Dresdner Beiträge zur Hethitologie , 2018
Papers by Francesco Barsacchi
níĝ-ba dub-sar maḫ Studies on Ebla and the Ancient Near East presented to Amalia Catagnoti, 2024
The article aims at addressing the topic of the religious understanding of wilderness in Hittite ... more The article aims at addressing the topic of the religious understanding of wilderness in Hittite thought from a multiple perspective. First, the concept of “other place”, expressed in Hittite sources as dammel(i) pedan will be analyzed. This expression is often used to indicate a place separated from the normal space of human activity, and therefore particularly suited for the performance of cult practices and the disposal of impurities during the execution of magical rituals. Wilderness, however, can also represent a potentially dangerous place, where negative entities such as the IMIN(.IMIN).BI demons, are thought to dwell. Reconsidering the value and meaning of this fundamental concept, the paper aims to contribute to the study of the relationship between natural space and religious practice in Hittite Anatolia.
Applied Sciences, 2024
This work and manuscript focus on how 3D scanning methodologies and post-processing analyses may ... more This work and manuscript focus on how 3D scanning methodologies and post-processing analyses may help us to gain a deeper investigation of cuneiform tablets beyond the written content. The dataset proposed herein is a key part of the archaeological collection preserved in the Musei Reali of Turin in Italy; these archaeological artefacts enclose further important semantic information extractable through detailed 3D documentation and 3D model filtering. In fact, this scanning process is a fundamental tool for better reading of sealing impressions beneath the cuneiform text, as well as for understanding micrometric evidence of the fingerprints of scribes. Most of the seal impressions were made before the writing (like a watermark), and thus, they are not detectable to the naked eye due to cuneiform signs above them as well as the state of preservation. In this regard, 3D scanning and post-processing analysis could help in the analysis of these nearly invisible features impressed on tablets. For this reason, this work is also based on how 3D analyses may support the identification of the unperceived and almost invisible features concealed in clay tablets. Analysis of fingerprints and the depths of the signs can tell us about the worker's strategies and the people beyond the artefacts. Three-dimensional models generated inside the Artec 3D ecosystem via Space Spider scanner and Artec Studio software were further investigated by applying specific filters and shaders. Digital light manipulation can reveal, through the dynamic displacement of light and shadows, particular details that can be deeply analysed with specific post-processing operations: for example, the MSII (multi-scale integral invariant) filter is a powerful tool exploited for revealing hidden and unperceived features such as fingerprints and sealing impressions (stratigraphically below cuneiform signs). Finally, the collected data will be handled twofold: in an open-access repository and through a common data environment (CDE) to aid in the data exchange process for project collaborators and common users.
Theonyms, Panthea and Syncretisms in Hittite Anatolia and Northern Syria. Proceedings of the TeAI Workshop Held in Verona, March 25-26, 2022, 2023
In his investigation of the expansion of the cult of the "deity of the night" in Anatolia and her... more In his investigation of the expansion of the cult of the "deity of the night" in Anatolia and her relationship with Ištar (Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten 46, 259-439), J. Miller exposed the complexity of a diachronical analysis of the religious phenomenon represented by the diffusion of local "forms" or "aspects" of Ištar during the late Hittite period. However, many relevant issues concerning the role of the goddess in the Hittite dynastic pantheon, heavily influenced by Hurrian beliefs, and her presence in local pantheons, are still to be dealt with. As a case study, the present contribution will focus in particular on the goddess Ištar of Ḫattarina, attested together with the "Kanešite gods" Pirwa and Aškašepa in Muwatalli II's prayer CTH 381. This unusual association may be derived from the interpretation of a local female deity traditionally defined as MUNUS. LUGAL, "queen" in Hittite local pantheons, as a form of Ištar.
C. Mora - G. Torri (eds.) Administrative Practices and Political Control in Anatolian and Syro-Anatolian Polities in the 2nd and 1st Millennium BCE, 2023
The nature of the administration of sacred time in Hittite Anatolia represents a complex problem,... more The nature of the administration of sacred time in Hittite Anatolia represents a complex problem, which has received little attention until recent years. This paper provides an overview of the topic, reconsidering the Hittite religious calendar as a whole and analysing some of the main issues connected with the Hittite calendrical system, such as the problem of the beginning of the year, the lunar nature of the Hittite month and the alleged existence of a system of intercalation.
Rivista degli Studi Orientali 95/3, 2022
The paper aims to provide a systematic overview of some of the most
frequently attested verbs ind... more The paper aims to provide a systematic overview of some of the most
frequently attested verbs indicating acts of devotion or deference in Hittite sources, ḫaliya-, ḫenk-/ḫink- and aruwai-, the last two formally corresponding to the Akkadian verb šukênu. The study will attempt to establish their exact meaning and their respective extent of use, thus determining for each one of them the possible translation(s) according to the context. The verbs are documented in different text categories but, in this paper, attention will be given in particular to their meaning in religious contexts.
Oriens Antiquus_Series Nova 4, 2022
The cult of the goddess Ištar occupies a significant
place in Hittite official religion at least ... more The cult of the goddess Ištar occupies a significant
place in Hittite official religion at least since the
time of king Tutḫaliya I, as testified by the great number
of festivals and rituals performed for the hyposthases of
the deity and currently collected under numbers 711-721
of the Catalogue des Textes Hittites. Alongside with standard
sequences of offerings and libations that represent a
common feature of all Hittite festivals, some tablets belonging
to this corpus of texts, such as KUB 27.16 and
KBo 19.142, present descriptions of food offerings that
clearly stand out as particularly rich and complex.
Special treatments of the sacrificial meat and the cultic
use of fruits, in particular of pomegranate, diverge from
the traditional Anatolian cult practice and seem to reflect
a Kizzuwatnean provenance. The present article
will address some of these descriptions, analyzing their
significance whithin the larger organization of the festivals,
in the broader context represented by the Hurrian
influence on the cult of the Hittite court.
Cult, Temple, Sacred Spaces Cult Practices and Cult Spaces in Hittite Anatolia and Neighbouring Cultures Proceedings of the First International HFR Symposium, Mainz, 3–5 June 2019, 2020
Acts of the IXth International Congress of Hittitology - Corum, September 08-14, 2014, 2019
Manfred Hutter - Sylvia Hutter-Braunsar (eds.) Economy of Religions in Anatolia : From the Early Second to the Middle of the First Millennium BCE - Proceedings of an International Conference in Bonn (23rd to 25th May 2018), 2019
Asia Anteriore Antica. Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures 1, 2019
The short Hittite fragment 1086/c=KBo 20.64, currently listed among the texts related to the thun... more The short Hittite fragment 1086/c=KBo 20.64, currently listed among the texts related to the thunder festival under the number 631 of the Catalogue des Textes Hittites, presents some features that clearly distinguish it from the other documents collected under the same catalogue entry. It represents in my opinion what is left of an invocation ritual directed to a deity, probably to be identified with a hypostasis of the Storm-god, as the presence of the word tetḫeššar, " thunder " , in the colophon seems to suggest. The text must therefore be collocated elsewhere, and I propose, in consideration of its content and structure, to place it either among the fragments of mugawar rites for the Storm-god under CTH 332 or, more generally, under CTH 459 (Fragments of mugawar). This paper presents for the first time a transcription, translation and commentary of the fragment. Interesting elements emerge from a comparison with KBo 30.119, another fragmentary tablet, erroneously classified among the fragments of festivals under CTH 670, where a similar invocation ritual seems to be described.
Book Reviews by Francesco Barsacchi
Journal of the American Oriental Society , 2020
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 82, 2019
Talks by Francesco Barsacchi
Paper presented at the 66th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale , 2022
In the large number of festivals recorded by Hittites sources, the existence of two distinct typo... more In the large number of festivals recorded by Hittites sources, the existence of two distinct typologies of religious ceremonies defined with the sumerograms EZEN4.GAL, “great festival”, and EZEN4.SAG.UŠ, “regular festival”, stands out as a particularly relevant feature.
In his edition of the KI.LAM festival, I. Singer argumented in 1983 that with the term “regular” the Hittite scribes defined the standard version of a festival, performed on an annual basis as part of a rigidly organised cult calendar. The expression “great festival”, when referred to the same ceremony, would have been used to indicate a distinct version of it, perhaps more extended, to be celebrated only in certain years on particular occasions. Since then, this interpretation has generally been accepted by the scholars, but a systematic investigation of the two expressions, conducted through a close examination of the textual sources, still has to be undertaken. In the present paper, the authors will reconsider the problem, focusing in particular on the festivals that are recorded in the sources both as EZEN.4.GAL and as EZEN4.SAG.UŠ, such as the KI.LAM festival and the festival of the ḫešta- house (attested in both forms in the shelf list KUB 30.68), redefining the meaning of the terms GAL and SAG.UŠ when applied to festival descriptions and their significance for the classification of the ceremonies whithin the Hittite religious calendar.
Workshop: "Theonyms, Panthea and Syncretisms in Hittite Anatolia and Northern Syria – March 25-26, 2022", 2022
In his seminal paper “Ištar of Niniveh reconsidered”, published in 1998, G. Beckman, analyzing th... more In his seminal paper “Ištar of Niniveh reconsidered”, published in 1998, G. Beckman, analyzing the differenct aspects that the veneration of the great Mesopotamian goddess takes on in the Hittite cult, wrote as follows: “I believe that we are dealing with hyposthases of a single divine archetype, a situation similar to that surrounding the various Zeus figures of classical antiquity (…) In some respects these Ištar-figures partake of a common essence, while in others they are distinct, as demonstrated by the individual offerings made on occasion to large numbers of such Ištars” (G. Beckman, Journal of Cuneiform Studies 50: 4). The work by I. Wegner, Geštalt und Kult der Ištar-Šawuška in Kleinasien (1981) remains to date the only systematical research conducted on this divine figure. In his investigation of the expansion of the cult of the “deity of the night” in Anatolia and her relationship with Ištar (Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten 46: 259ff.), J. Miller exposed the complexity of a diachronical analysis of the religious phenomenon represented by the diffusion of local “forms” or “aspects” of Ištar during the late Hittite period. However, many relevant issues concerning the role of the goddess in the dynastic pantheon, heavily influenced by Ḫurrian beliefs, and in particular her presence in local pantheons, are still to be dealt with. I believe therefore that a reappraisal of the topic is in order. Investigation of the subject entails the attempt to deal with many texts which are often extremely hard to understand, reflecting different stages of a long-term religious development.
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Books by Francesco Barsacchi
Papers by Francesco Barsacchi
frequently attested verbs indicating acts of devotion or deference in Hittite sources, ḫaliya-, ḫenk-/ḫink- and aruwai-, the last two formally corresponding to the Akkadian verb šukênu. The study will attempt to establish their exact meaning and their respective extent of use, thus determining for each one of them the possible translation(s) according to the context. The verbs are documented in different text categories but, in this paper, attention will be given in particular to their meaning in religious contexts.
place in Hittite official religion at least since the
time of king Tutḫaliya I, as testified by the great number
of festivals and rituals performed for the hyposthases of
the deity and currently collected under numbers 711-721
of the Catalogue des Textes Hittites. Alongside with standard
sequences of offerings and libations that represent a
common feature of all Hittite festivals, some tablets belonging
to this corpus of texts, such as KUB 27.16 and
KBo 19.142, present descriptions of food offerings that
clearly stand out as particularly rich and complex.
Special treatments of the sacrificial meat and the cultic
use of fruits, in particular of pomegranate, diverge from
the traditional Anatolian cult practice and seem to reflect
a Kizzuwatnean provenance. The present article
will address some of these descriptions, analyzing their
significance whithin the larger organization of the festivals,
in the broader context represented by the Hurrian
influence on the cult of the Hittite court.
Book Reviews by Francesco Barsacchi
Talks by Francesco Barsacchi
In his edition of the KI.LAM festival, I. Singer argumented in 1983 that with the term “regular” the Hittite scribes defined the standard version of a festival, performed on an annual basis as part of a rigidly organised cult calendar. The expression “great festival”, when referred to the same ceremony, would have been used to indicate a distinct version of it, perhaps more extended, to be celebrated only in certain years on particular occasions. Since then, this interpretation has generally been accepted by the scholars, but a systematic investigation of the two expressions, conducted through a close examination of the textual sources, still has to be undertaken. In the present paper, the authors will reconsider the problem, focusing in particular on the festivals that are recorded in the sources both as EZEN.4.GAL and as EZEN4.SAG.UŠ, such as the KI.LAM festival and the festival of the ḫešta- house (attested in both forms in the shelf list KUB 30.68), redefining the meaning of the terms GAL and SAG.UŠ when applied to festival descriptions and their significance for the classification of the ceremonies whithin the Hittite religious calendar.
frequently attested verbs indicating acts of devotion or deference in Hittite sources, ḫaliya-, ḫenk-/ḫink- and aruwai-, the last two formally corresponding to the Akkadian verb šukênu. The study will attempt to establish their exact meaning and their respective extent of use, thus determining for each one of them the possible translation(s) according to the context. The verbs are documented in different text categories but, in this paper, attention will be given in particular to their meaning in religious contexts.
place in Hittite official religion at least since the
time of king Tutḫaliya I, as testified by the great number
of festivals and rituals performed for the hyposthases of
the deity and currently collected under numbers 711-721
of the Catalogue des Textes Hittites. Alongside with standard
sequences of offerings and libations that represent a
common feature of all Hittite festivals, some tablets belonging
to this corpus of texts, such as KUB 27.16 and
KBo 19.142, present descriptions of food offerings that
clearly stand out as particularly rich and complex.
Special treatments of the sacrificial meat and the cultic
use of fruits, in particular of pomegranate, diverge from
the traditional Anatolian cult practice and seem to reflect
a Kizzuwatnean provenance. The present article
will address some of these descriptions, analyzing their
significance whithin the larger organization of the festivals,
in the broader context represented by the Hurrian
influence on the cult of the Hittite court.
In his edition of the KI.LAM festival, I. Singer argumented in 1983 that with the term “regular” the Hittite scribes defined the standard version of a festival, performed on an annual basis as part of a rigidly organised cult calendar. The expression “great festival”, when referred to the same ceremony, would have been used to indicate a distinct version of it, perhaps more extended, to be celebrated only in certain years on particular occasions. Since then, this interpretation has generally been accepted by the scholars, but a systematic investigation of the two expressions, conducted through a close examination of the textual sources, still has to be undertaken. In the present paper, the authors will reconsider the problem, focusing in particular on the festivals that are recorded in the sources both as EZEN.4.GAL and as EZEN4.SAG.UŠ, such as the KI.LAM festival and the festival of the ḫešta- house (attested in both forms in the shelf list KUB 30.68), redefining the meaning of the terms GAL and SAG.UŠ when applied to festival descriptions and their significance for the classification of the ceremonies whithin the Hittite religious calendar.
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