contain both oracle texts in the original Akkadian versions and also Hittite versions
of such texts. Extispicy was one of a number of oracular practices which the Hittites
adopted from Babylonia. As in the Old Babylonian period, Hittite priests kept clay
models of livers for consultation purposes. A well-known prayer by Mursili II to the
Sun-Goddess of Arinna contains a passage taken directly from a hymn to the Babylonian
Sun God Shamash, addressed as ‘Sun God, My Lord, Just Lord of Judgment’, without
even adapting this form of address to make it consistent with an invocation to a
female deity (see De Roos 1995 : 2002 ). It is possible that the best known of all
Hittite religious sanctuaries, now called Yazılıkaya (just outside the Hittite capital),
was the venue for a new year festival not unlike, and perhaps inspired by, the Babylonian
bı ̄t akı ̄tu festival.
We have already referred to the presence of Babylonian doctors at the Hittite royal
court. Similarly, Hittite kings sought the services of Egyptian doctors from time to
time, particularly to effect cures or to attempt to bring about medical miracles where
the king’s local physicians had failed (see Bryce 2003 : 121 – 8 ). In this we see a clear
acknowledgement of the more advanced state of medical science in Mesopotamia and
Egypt when compared to the study and practice of medicine in the Hittite world. A
number of the medical texts in the archives at Hattusa describing symptoms and
prognoses and methods of treatments of diseases were based directly or indirectly on
original Babylonian texts.
Hittite civilisation was highly eclectic in nature. It readily borrowed and absorbed
elements of the civilisations of its contemporaries and predecessors in the Near Eastern
world. Babylon provided one of the richest sources for the origins of many aspects
of Hittite society and civilisation. And this contributed much to Babylon’s lasting
cultural contribution to later civilisations, including those of the western world. The
kingdom of Hatti provided an important link between east and west. By borrowing,
absorbing, and then transmitting further westwards many of the traditions of its
eastern neighbours such as Babylon, the Hittites helped ensure the continuation of
these traditions and their passage into the civilisations of other worlds in other times.
NOTES1 Depending on whether one adopts a high, middle, or low chronology, this date could be raised
or lowered by 60 years or more. Most recently, Gasche et al. ( 1998 ) have argued for an ultra-
low chronology, thus dating the fall of Babylon a century or so after 1595 bc.
2 For an account of Hattusili’s and Mursili’s reigns, with references to the relevant Hittite texts,
see Bryce ( 2005 : 68 – 86 , 96 – 100 ).
3 See also Klengel ( 1999 : 65 – 6 ) for references to various possible motives for the Babylonian
campaign.
4 See Bryce ( 2005 : 161 – 3 ), Freu ( 2003 : 120 – 38 ). These accounts differ from each other in a
number of respects.
5 For a translation of, and commentary on, the whole text, see Singer ( 2002 : 73 – 7 ).
REFERENCESBeckman, G. ( 1999 ) Hittite Diplomatic Texts. Atlanta, Scholars Press.
Bryce, T. R. ( 2003 ) Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East. Routledge, London.
–––– ( 2005 ) The Kingdom of the Hittites. New edn. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Freu, J. ( 2003 ) Histoire du Mitanni. Paris, Association KUBABA.
— A view from Hattusa —