Becoming a god, Mycenaean Kings & Cuneiform

From My Fantasy Writing Desk:

Funeral Fit for a God

Here are two snippets from my work in progress. I’m incorporating a royal funeral in this book. A Hittite king’s funeral had huge significance beyond what a modern reader might have guessed, and in my historical fantasy, I’ve kept that cosmic weightiness and some of the weird rites that went with it. So here’s one expository bit and, from further on, a moment of funerary action.

Even dead, Muwatti remained the Great King for a few more days. Welcomed into the divine realm above, he would provide his heir with the power to serve as the bridge to the gods. If he did not become a god, if these rites failed, the reign of the next king would be doomed from the start, the continuity broken.

The priest dropped to one knee next to the silver basin and dug the blade deep into the beast’s neck. The animal jerked, but the ropes restrained him, and Hattu and the priests guided the ox as it collapsed to the ground. Ox blood poured into the huge bowl, and the air filled with the pitiless smell of life flowing out. Nothing drew a human soul from its dead shell like warm blood.

Archaeology I Enjoyed

Powerful Kings

Getting a reconsideration: The Mycenean warrior kings familiar to many via Homer and the beautiful archaeological finds of the “Shaft Graves” at Mycenae with golden masks etc. The consensus has been that these kings, Agamemnon and others, had small kingdoms and were nowhere near as powerful and centralized as the great Near Eastern kingdoms of the Hittites, Babylonians, Egyptians and Assyrians.

Now that view is being questioned, based on the written interactions recorded in the Hittite archives and a new look at the archaeological evidence. The kingdom of Ahhiyawa, as this Aegean kingdom is referred to in the Hittite records, may have been much more Near-Eastern in style, extent and power.

If the current identification of authorship is correct, the king I write about, Hattusili III (Hattu in my novels) wrote a letter that addressed the Greek king as “Great King,” the term reserved for a tiny, exclusive group of empire-spanning rulers. This reference has been explained, somewhat weakly, as a case of buttering up before asking a favor. Now it seems, it may have been what it appears, the proper way to address a fellow leader in diplomatic correspondence. This dramatically changes our way of thinking about the Late Bronze Age Greek world. Very interesting. This is a short, clear article discussing this rethinking and the evidence. Click here for the ASOR blog “A Great King and a Wanax? The Politics of Mycenaean Greece”

Cuneiform Abundance

Did you know that the Dutch city of Leiden has been a center of cuneiform studies from the beginning of such things? In Leiden’s case Assyriology began in 1918, and the university has an extensive collection of tablets, primarily because of the charismatic leadership of Professor Böhl starting in 1927.

“It’s amazing to have such a fabulous collection,” says Professor of Assyriology Caroline Waerzeggers, “The best way to learn this difficult writing system is to use real clay tablets. That’s why working with this collection is so valuable to our students.”

As the article put it, cuneiform looks like “small lines have been etched into the tiles, as if someone has doodled stick men on them.” I usually describe it as like the beach when a lot of birds have walked on it. In any case, it’s tricky to learn and clearly having a supply of many varieties of raw materials helps the process.

Holland is the land of many good things, cuneiform instruction among them, although apparently some people think an Assyriology program is a waste of money. I’ll vote with Waerzeggers’ closing comment, “Assyriology can also be of great value to Dutch education. Nowadays it’s all about the clash between people from different cultures and religions. In Mesopotamia, we have a shared birthplace of Europe and the Middle East.” Click here for Archaeology News Network, “Cuneiform Reveals Shared Birthplace”