Hittite Toponyms (HiTop)

Hittite Toponyms (HiTop)

Adam Kryszeń

Introduction

The platform Hittite Toponyms (HiTop) was developed at the suggestion of Jörg Klinger as the original project Toponyme der Hethiter. With the financial support from the Excellence Cluster TOPOI, A. Kryszeń digitized the data of the Hethitologie-Archiv, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz, under the direction of J. Klinger and G.G.W. Müller. He subsequently took over the responsibility for the project and has independently proceeded to collect new and collate already existing data.

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The list was originally intended as an updated digital version of the sixth volume of Repertoire Geographique des Textes Cuneiformes by G. del Monte and J. Tischler (RGTC 6) and its supplement by G. del Monte (RGTC 6/2). However, over the course of the project it became apparent that the digital version offers new possibilities, resulting in several important changes with respect to RGTC 6 and RGTC 6/2:

• the list now includes attestations of all writings of even the most frequently occuring names, like Ḫatti, Ḫattusa or Nerik;
• each occurence of a name was traced back to the specific fragment, and not merely to the reconstructed tablet with the fragment adjoins; the attestations can thus be easily found on the photo or the hand copy of the fragment;
• only those attestations are included, where anything more than a geographic identifier (see below) is visible;
• reconstructed forms have been kept at minimum, so that the user will find almost no implied readings, unless absolutely certain.

As it currently stands, the list contains approximately 20,420 entries with more than 2700 different geographical names.

Practical remarks:

• the field ‘geogr(aphische) Mark(ierung) 1’ contains all geographic identifiers that might come immediately before the name, i.e. predeterminatives (URU, ḪUR.SAG etc.), logograms (KUR), as well as Hurrian terms for mountains (pa-ap-pí-en-na with variants) and rivers or springs (ši-i-ya, ši-un-na with variants); it also indicates, when there is no geographic identifier whatsoever;
• per analogiam, ‘geogr(aphische) Mark(ierung) 2’ contains geographic identifiers that may appear immediately after the name;
• for mountains and springs, it was decided that only attestations distinguished by a geographic identifier would be listed, leaving aside those determined by DINGIR, thus, e.g., ^ḪUR.SAGḪulla and not ^DḪulla; if the determination is unclear the attestation is included in the list.

If you find missing attestations and/or mistakes, please contact adam.kryszen@uw.edu.pl.

Acknowledgements:

This database would not have come to fruition if it were not for the initiative and help of many people. I would like to thank Jörg Klinger for conceiving the entire idea, Gerfrid G.W. Müller for his vision of the technical side of the project as well as for patience and friendship, Silvin Košak and Charles Steitler for helpful comments and advice, and Max Gander for valuable additions and corrections. Needless to say, all responsibility for the content is my own.

Starting with 2022, HiTop is supported by the National Science Centre grant OPUS “The City in Hittite Anatolia in the Light of the Cuneiform Sources.” (UMO-2021/41/B/HS3/00661).