Wurunkatte or Wurukatte was a Hittite war god of Hattian origin. He might have also been connected to the institution of kingship. His symbol was a mace, and based on textual sources it is presumed he could be depicted standing on the back of a lion. In known texts, he appears in association with deities such as

Šulinkatte Šulinkatte was a Hittite god of Hattian origin. He was regarded as a war deity. Additionally, he could fulfill the role of a protector of palaces and houses. In the local tradition of Nerik, he was regarded as the father of the weather god of Ne ...

, Taru and

Telipinu Telipinu was the last king of the Hittites Old Kingdom, living in 16th century BC, reigned c. 1525-1500 BC in middle chronology. At the beginning of his reign, the Hittite Empire had contracted to its core territories, having long since lost all ...

. He was worshiped in

Hattusa Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of t ...

Nerik Nerik ( Hittite: ''Nerik(ka)''"Nerik(ka)." ''Reallexikon der Assyriologie.'') was a Bronze Age settlement to the north of the Hittite capitals Hattusa and Sapinuwa, probably in the Pontic region. Since 2005–2009, the site of Nerik has been id ...

, Tuḫumijara and Tarammeka.

Name and character

Wurunkatte's name has Hattic origin and can be translated as "king of the land".

Volkert Haas Volkert may refer to: People *Edward Charles Volkert (1871–1935), American painter *Georg Volkert (1945–2020), German footballer * Stephan Volkert (born 1971), German rower *Volkert Doeksen (born 1963), Dutch money manager *Volkert van der Graa ...

noted it can be compared to the

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

epithet ''šār mātim'', used to refer to Dagan. Wurunkatte was regarded as a war god. He shared this role with many other deities in the Hittite pantheon, for example

Iyarri Iyarri, also known as Yarri, was a god worshiped by Hittites and Luwians in Anatolia in the Bronze Age. He was associated with plague and war, and was portrayed as an archer whose arrows inflicted people with illnesses. While it is generally assum ...

or originally

Hurrian The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...

Ḫešui. In art, he was depicted standing on the back of a lion. A description of a silver statuette presumed to represent him states that he held a shield and a mace in his hands, the latter weapon is also attested as his symbol in other texts. According to in Hattian tradition Wurunkatte was also associated with the ideology of kingship, similarly to the deified throne Ḫanwašuit (called

Ḫalmašuit In Hittite mythology, Ḫalmašuit ( Hattic: ''Hanwasuit'') was the "throne-goddess" of the kings. The Hittites believed that the kings derived their right to rule from Ḫalmašuit. See also * Divine right of kings * Hittite mythology ...

in Hittite). He could be referred to with the title ''

tabarna {{Orphan, date=April 2014 In the ancient Hittite empire, the Tabarnas meant the highest dignitary, by degree similar to the Roman emperor: though, differently from it, the Tabarnas was not an absolute monarch, but a kind of a council (the panko) ...

'', in other contexts used to designate the reigning king of the land of Hatti. Taracha suggests that both his presumed role as a kingship deity and the meaning of his name might indicate that he had a special position in the Hattian pantheon prior to the rise of weather gods in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BCE, a phenomenon attested in sources from

and Kanesh.

Associations with other deities

Comparisons have been drawn between the character and iconography of Wurunkatte and another god of Hattian origin,

. A single Hattic text pairs them with each other and states that "Šulinkatte is the son of

, Wurunkatte is the son of ''warta'' (meaning unknown) and of the lands." In a number of texts, Wurunkatte instead forms a pair with the Hattian deity Tunturmiša. A group consisting of him, Taru and

is also attested. In incantations, he could be associated with the Hattian goddess of magic, . A deity named Wurukattainu, "small/young Wurunkatte" or "child of Wurunkatte", is also attested. Wurunkatte was considered the counterpart of the

Mesopotamian god Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substan ...

Zababa Zababa (Sumerian: 𒀭𒍝𒂷𒂷 dza-ba4-ba4) was the tutelary deity of the city of Kish in ancient Mesopotamia. He was a war god. While he was regarded as similar to Ninurta and Nergal, he was never fully conflated with them. His worship is at ...

. His own name could be rendered logographically using that belonging to the latter deity. However, as he was not the only god who could be designated by this Akkadogram in Hittite texts, the identity of the deity meant when phonetic spellings are not used is not always clear.

Worship

Wurunkatte received offerings during the . His inclusion in these celebrations most likely reflected his importance in the eyes of Hittite kings. Limited evidence for the worship of him is also available from

: a stele dedicated to him is attested, additionally he received offerings, including a sheep, during a ceremony in honor of the

weather god of Nerik The Weather god of Nerik is a Hittite weather god, who was mainly worshipped in the Hittite city of Nerik, whose cult was relocated to Kaštama and Takupša for two hundred years after the Hittites lost Nerik to the Kaskians. He was also referred t ...

and tongues, ears and tails of various sacrificial animals on another occasion. According to Piotr Taracha, it is also possible that when after the temporary loss of the city Hittites returned to it, a new temple has been built for him, as references to a new house of worship dedicated to a deity designated by the logogram ^dZABABA are known. Further cities where Wurunkatte was worshiped include Tuḫumijara, where a song invoking him was sung during a local festival, and Tarammeka.

Itamar Singer Itamar Singer (November 26, 1946 – September 19, 2012) was an Israeli author and historian of Jewish-Romanian origin. He is known for his research of the Ancient Near East and as a leading Hittitologist, pioneering the study of this ancie ...

has proposed that a deity apparently belonging to the pantheon of the

Kaška Kashka may refer to: * Kaskians The Kaska (also Kaška, later Tabalian Kasku and Gasga,) were a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontic Anato ...

people designated by the logogram ^dZABABA in a Hititte treaty might also be Wurunkatte. He assumed that the Kaška constituted a remnant of Hattian culture not absorbed by the Hittite state and pushed to the north.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *{{cite journal, last=Taracha, first=Piotr, title=Political Religion and Religious Policy: How the Hittite King Chose His Patron Gods, url=https://www.academia.edu/40044781, journal=Altorientalische Forschungen, publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH, volume=40, issue=2, year=2013, issn=2196-6761, doi=10.1524/aof.2013.0019, s2cid=155113220 Hattian deities Hittite deities War gods