Nerik

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On the map, Nerik is located at Oymaağaç Höyük.
Oymaağaç Höyük from the east

Nerik was a Hittite city ​​in northern central Anatolia . It was near today's Oymaağaç Höyük in the Turkish province of Samsun .

meaning

According to §§ 50ff. of the Old Ethite law, Nerik was, along with Arinna and Ziplanda, one of the three holy cities ( šiunan URU "city of gods"), to which the capital Ḫattuša joined the assembly of gods early on. The cult was the weather god of Nerik , who, according to local tradition, was the son of the Hattic god Šulinkatte and the sun goddess of the earth . The texts name Zašḫapuna as his wife and Tešimi as his lover . Other deities venerated in Nerik were Zababa von Nerik, Telipinu and the Maraššanta river (today's Kızılırmak ) as well as various deities from Kaštama.

location

Nerik was localized by Hans Gustav Güterbock on the basis of Hittite texts at the lower Kızılırmak near Kargı , near the confluence of the Devrez Çayı in the Kizilirmak.

The ruins of the city are located at the settlement hill Oymaağaç Höyük, about 7 km northwest of Vezirköprü, about 50 km southwest of Bafra . J. Yakar, A. Dinçol and M. Forlanini, one of the best experts on historical geography, have spoken out in favor of identifying with the ruins of Oymaağaç in the immediate vicinity of Kızılrmak. During a survey by the Free University of Berlin in 2005 and 2006, five Hittite cuneiform text fragments and seal impressions of the scribe Sarini, who is also known from Ḫattuša and Tarsus , were found. Since 2007, excavations have been carried out at Oymaağaç Höyük under the direction of Jörg Klinger and Rainer Czichon from the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Free University of Berlin with the support of the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the German Research Foundation .

More recent cuneiform texts from Oymaagac Höyük speak clearly in favor of an identification with the Hittite city of Nerik. The decisive factor here is the mention of the Hittite word dahanga , the exact meaning of which is unclear, but refers to the temple of the weather god in Nerik. In addition, a fragment was found in the partially excavated temple of Oymaağaç, apparently a design that names the weather god of Nerik and his Parhedra Zaḫapuna in the introduction.

history

Nerik went in 1450 BC. Lost to the Kaškäer under Ḫantili II . The prayer of Arnuwanda I (Middle Kingdom) describes the loss of Nerik to the predatory Kaška who neglected the service of the gods. Arnuwanda and his wife and Great Queen Ašmunikal then moved the service to Hakpiš , which was still in Hittite territory. Only under Ḫattušili III. , the rebellious brother of Muwatalli II. , Nerik was recaptured.

Texts that mention Nerik

literature

  • Volkert Haas : The Cult of Nerik . In: Studia Pohl. 4, Rome 1970.
  • Maciej Popko : Zippalanda and Ankuwa once more . In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. 120, 2000, pp. 445-448.
  • Rainer Czichon, Matthias Flender, Jörg Klinger: Interdisciplinary site inspection in the area of ​​Oymaağaç-Vezirköprü / Province of Samsun . In: Communications of the German Orient Society. 138, 2006, pp. 157-197.
  • Rainer Czichon: The Hittite culture in the central Black Sea area with special consideration of the surroundings of Vezirköprü . In: Colloquia of the German Orient Society. 6, 2008, pp. 265-277.
  • Jörg Klinger: Zalpa, Nerik and Hakmis. The importance of the northern periphery of Central Anatolia in the Hittite period . In: Colloquia of the German Orient Society. 6, 2008, pp. 277-291.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maciej Popko: Arinna. A holy city of the Hittites. (Studies on the Boğazköy Texts, Vol. 50). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-447-05867-4 , p. 4.
  2. ^ Kaspar K. Riemschneider: Hittite fragments of historical content from the time of Ḫattušilis III. In: Journal of Cuneiform Studies. 16, 1962, p. 118.
  3. ^ Jörg Klinger: Text finds in: Archaeological research at Oymaagac Höyük / Nerik 2011-2015 ; Announcements from the German Orient Society in Berlin, 2016.