A Quantitative Analysis of Theonyms and Panthea in the Hittite Cult Inventories

The riches of the Hittite tablet collections are justly famous for great mass information they provide about deities, cult, and religious beliefs all over Kingdom Hattusa. sheer amount available texts fragmented state many them pose nontrivial problems any systematic study religion. Expanding on digital edition so-called cult inventories (CTH 526-530, ca. 450 fragments) exploiting potential related database, this paper provides first time a quantitative analysis panthea local towns in core area kingdom Late Empire period. is organized two parts. Part One sets out methodological basis by examining target corpus terms internal consistency, discussing appropriateness distinction between “state” vs. “nonstate” cults both within perspective current discourse religion specifically with regard to its consequences proposed analysis, laying analytical principles used extraction relevant information. Two presents selected data, explores ways interpret combine them, investigates their significance Empire. results twofold. On one hand, an innovative picture under discussion obtained, substantial implications our understanding number relationship each other, role life provincial communities. other critical scrutiny nature specific traits data sample highlights pitfalls purely texts, proposes correctives mitigating impact, thereby providing significant case future research.