From My Fantasy Writing Desk
This week I’ve indulged my inner history nerd to the full. An upcoming scene involving Tesha and the rest of my characters requires the results of a divination to be announced, unexpected results. I’ve portrayed a couple kinds of Hittite oracle-taking before in my fiction, but I thought I’d look into something different.
There is one system which I’d only read vague descriptions of—the evidence was too patchy for much else. I decided to go on a hunt for new scholarship on the subject. Hittitologists keep translating tablets and digging out new evidence from those texts and from excavations. I’m usually behind on exploring the new research, so this seemed a good moment to catch up.
I read 4 or 5 recent articles and they were helpful but not overly so. Then I hit a scholastic wonder of clarity and thoroughness in a dissertation by Hannah Marcuson called “Word of the Old Woman: Studies in Female Ritual Practice in Hittite Anatolia.” Many pages and notes later, I’m happily building my fictional scene on the foundations of her research into how a priestess would perform a KIN-oracle. KIN in this case has nothing to do with the word kin. The Sumerian logogram KIN means “work” or “ritual.”
We have examples of the questions the priestesses asked as well as “scripts” announcing the interactions of a variety of symbols that go on during these oracles. Despite all these detailed scripts, we’re missing evidence for what is actually physically happening or with what objects or creatures. However, as Marcuson noted, we do know what kinds of materials this particular kind of priestess uses in other rituals (some of which you’ll have read in my fiction before), and it seems likely she would use them also in this rite. So, with that permission to get creative combined with her clear analysis of the “scripts,” I’ve built a plausible reconstruction. It involves some ceramic vessels, also, like some of those in the photo. Such fun. I’m still working all the historical details and the fictional drama together into a compelling scene, but it’s coming along nicely.
Archaeology I Enjoyed
A Well of Ancient Curses
George E. Koronaios Wiki
4th century Athenians chucked curse tablets into a well next to the main cemetery. The well became the alternate location to deliver these requests to the gods of the Underworld once legislation forbade the depositing of them in tombs. These interesting finds reflect a common practice among both Greeks and Romans. The Hittites I write about deposited “infernal messages” in special pots sealed with lead that they buried next to springs and inside caves. The draw of the world below is a fascinating motif in human history—and our assumption that the denizens of that world will grant our negative wishes. Reactions? Click here for Newsweek “30 CURSE TABLETS ADDRESSED TO GODS OF THE UNDERWORLD DISCOVERED DOWN WELL IN ANCIENT GREEK CEMETERY”
One of my Favorite Hittite Archaeological Sites
A gem of a Bronze Age archaeological site, Tilmen, gets a gem of a website. You can view photos, maps, layout and commentary about this well-preserved city (by BA standards), located in the strategic travel area connecting the main Hittite empire/Anatolia and the Syrian lands, Mesopotamia and the Levant. The archaeologist friend with whom I travel in Turkey brought my husband and me to this amazing site near Gaziantep. I’ve been waiting for a plot thread to take my characters to this location so I can write about it, but I have already used what it teaches us about Bronze Age urban design. This website makes for some fun armchair travel, if you’re a fan of “ruined ruins” like I am! Click here for the Tilmen archaeological website.