This paper aims to investigate how nature in its widest sense is conceptualized and arranged in “crisis” rituals. There are basically two distinct groups of Hittite ritual texts, categorized by the sumerograms EZEN on the one hand and SISKUR on the other. EZEN, translated to feast or festival, are well elaborated rituals carried out during a couple of days and it is common that the royal family is involved in them. Integrated into these kinds of rituals are often myths, for example the myths of vanishing gods. The feast texts have been investigated as responses to natural disasters such as draught or stunted growth, or to the annual cycle of growing problems, within both the human and divine world. The role of nature has here been quite well observed and seems to be obvious. In contrast to the festivals are the SISKUR rituals, translated as “offering”, shorter, they request less personnel and appeared to be carried out for more occasional reasons like impotence or regulation of a quarrel and the themes of nature are not as frequent discussed in this context. These rituals handle some type of crises in its widest sense: something has happened and must be handled which is also the Hittite term for this ritual type, aniur, “a task”. The presence of nature is not as evident as in the festivals, but the rituals are interesting because they reflect more everyday occurrences. A textual analysis of typical examples of SISKUR will be the base for interpretation from a perspective of historical anthropology. Which kind of nature is it ritualized? Which kind of metaphors, symbols and materializations are used and in which role are they enacted compared to “not nature”-objects? Which kind of discourses can be detected in ritual action? How is the cosmic, vegetative, terrestrial, and human nature combined? The aim is that the findings will contribute to a wider comprehension of the enacted nature within the Hittite society.
2024.