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Luwili – Luwian Religious Discourse Between Asia Minor and Syria
Luwian is a language of ancient Asia Minor and Syria, attested in Anatolian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform between 1500 and 700 BC, which belongs to the Anatolian group of the Indo-European language family and is thus a close relative of Hittite. The majority of Anatolian cuneiform texts are still without a complete translation, although the meaning of most words is relatively well known. The reason for this is that they are usually ritual incantations, the interpretation of which cannot be separated from research into the corresponding ritual traditions and the associated religious world view. Furthermore, there is no uniform Luwian religion, but rather the local traditions of different parts of Asia Minor and northern Syria are reflected in the individual incantations. The key to understanding them is to compare Luwian texts with similar texts in other languages from the same regions.
As its first goal of the Luwili project provided a translation and philological commentary of all cuneiform Luwian religious texts. According to the current opinio communis, these texts originate from the Hittite capital Hattusa itself as well as from the Lower Land and Kizzuwatna. The research methodology of the project consists in the systematic comparison of religious formulas in different languages from the same geographical areas, with the aim of further elucidating the structure of the Luwian texts in question. The aim is to determine the communication strategies of the Luwian ritual language more precisely. On the one hand, this procedure should lead to a better understanding of the Luwian language, which will be of great benefit to Indo-Europeanists and Hittitologists. On the other hand, it should make an innovative contribution to the history of religion through scientific access to a new corpus of religious texts and the analysis of the technical language used in them. The second aim of the proposed research project, which can also be achieved through the comparative and anthropological study of Luwian religious terminology, is to clarify the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the known Luwian religious traditions from Central and Southern Anatolia and Syria.
The project, which was jointly funded by the DFG and the French Agence nationale de la recherche, was headed by Dr. habil. Ilya Yakubovich (Marburg) and Dr. habil. Alice Mouton (Paris).
Further information can be found on the project website (https://luwili.wordpress.com/)