/kistam(i)-/, (ORIENS)ki-sà-ta-mi-

This lexeme is attested 11 times in inscriptions from Cilicia, Tabal, Karkamiš and Tell Ahmar, dating from the late 10^th or early 9^th to the early 7^th century BCE.

[A.P.]

The reading of KARKAMIŠ A6, §1 as 〈(DEUS.ORIENS)ki-sà-ta-ma-ti-i〉 corrects a typographical mistake in Hawkins 2000a:124, where the word is erroneously recorded as spelt with 〈sá〉; both the photograph as well as the autograph clearly show 〈sà〉.This correction voids the remarks on an apparent exception regarding the usage of 〈sà〉 in Rieken 2010b:657.

[AH.B.] [A.P.]

The semantics of the word were elucidated by way of the bilingual inscription KARATEPE 1, where it translates Phoenician b-mṣʾ šmš ‘in the rising of the sun’, see Bossert 1948a:182, Bossert 1950a:15 and 35, also cf. Hawkins 2000a:59.In KARATEPE 1 Hu. and Ho., §5 and §32, the word order of the pairing in HLuw. is ‘west’ before ‘east’ and thus does not match the Phoenician version, which has ‘from the rising of the sun to its setting’; this was already noticed by Bossert 1948a:182. It was the isolated mention of ‘east’ in KARATEPE 1 Hu. and Ho., §30 that facilitated the identification of the word. In most cases, the word appears paired with /ibama(/i)-/ ‘west’, either in the same clause or in adjacent clauses. However, there does not appear to be a fixed order in which the words occur, although the order ‘west – east’ is more frequently attested. A typical context is, for instance, TELL AHMAR 1, §9: a-wa/i (“OCCIDENS”)i-pa-ma-ti-i (DEUS.ORIENS.MI)ki-sà-ta-ma-ti-ha (LIGNUM)ta₆-LEPUS+ra/i-ta, approx. /a=wa ibamadi kistamadi=ha tabaritta/, meaning ‘He ruled in(/with?) the west and the east’ (cf. Hawkins 2000a:240).

Although some attestations include the logographic determiner DEUS in their spelling, while others do not, this does not appear to have a bearing on the meaning in the contexts.

[AH.B.]

The morphological structure of the word has been the subject of debate among scholars. Thus, Bossert 1948a:182 suggested that it – along with its antonym ‘west’ – represents a participle, i.e. /kistamma/i-/, which is possible, yet not provable. Tischler (HEG I-K:592) proposes a link with Hittite kišt- ‘(MP) to be extinguished, vanish’, which relies on switched semantics, because he assumes /kistam(i)-/ to mean ‘west’ instead of ‘east’.It is, of course, possible that the word orders in KARATEPE 1 Hu. and Ho., §5 and §32 match the Phoenician version after all, and that the scribe simply chose the wrong HLuw. word in §30. However, this should only be assumed once more evidence counter to the current interpretation has been found. The evidence from ÇİNEKÖY, §7 (see Tekoğlu & Lemaire 2000a:985f.) is some confirmation that the current interpretation is correct, see the adjective /kistami(ya)-/ ‘eastern’. What does seem clear is that the word undergoes i-mutation.

[AH.B.]

1. /kistami(ya)-/