battun-

The word occurs only once in a medical text written by a junior scribe (Schülertafel) from the NH period, and possibly in the ritual of Ambazzi as Hitt. ^GIŠpaddur (see Christiansen 2006a:231).

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Checked against the photographs in the Mainzer Fotoarchiv. – The spelling with BA is striking and, in addition to other indicators, points to a foreign, possibly Luwian origin, see under pašta- ‘decoration’.

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In the medical text, the junior scribe translates ina ^GIŠnàga taḫaššal “you pound in a mortar(?)” with ina mamanašati battunāti puwāti “(s)he pounds with a mamanaša/i- battun-” (KUB 37.1 obv. 16; cf. Köcher 1952–1953a:54, Friedrich 1960a:94, CHD P:247f.). The peculiar combination of the Akk. preposition ina with the Luwian abl./instr. forms very likely results from the scribe’s change of mind during the translation process when he decided that he would not follow the Akkadian text “in the mortar(?),” but translate more ad sensum with “the pestle(?) and mortar(?)” (HHw:128, HEG P:548, HED:208, Rieken 1999a:357, DCL:s.v.) or “with a mamanaša/i- (gen. adj.) pestle(?)” or “with a mamanaša/i- (gen. adj.) mortar(?)” (CHD P:247f.). Others translating battunāti opt for either ‘mortar’ (Friedrich 1959-1960a:94, HW:426, EDHIL:660) or ‘pestle’ (Starke 1981a:156 n. 62), while Laroche (Laroche 1965a:48) offers both. Puhvel 1979a:210 n. 12 and Ünal 2007a:535 regard the word as a variant term of ^GIŠ/GIpattar ‘basket, tray’. Köcher 1952–1953a:54 and Yakubovich 2010d:371f. prefer not to translate the word; Christiansen 2006a:231-233, 367 takes it for the name of a vessel. The list of interpretations shows that there is little to build a cogent argument on (see Christiansen 2006a:232-234 for the most of the detailed discussion). However, if one is willing to resort to etymological reasoning, it is possible to suggest that battunāti is derived from a cognate of Hitt. padda-/padd-^(ḫi) ‘to dig’ (on account of the comparable movement of digging and pounding), whereas mamanaša/i- represents a genitival adjective derived from the reduplicated form of the stem underlying mannan ‘seeds, crops’. If correct, the Luwian gloss would mean “(s)he pounds with a pestle for seed (mixtures).” It is needless to say that the proposal is very tentative.

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Regardless of the underlying verbal stem, the noun certainly belongs to the class of verbal abstracts in -w(a)r/-un-.see Friedrich 1959-1960a:94, Starke 1981a:156 n. 62, Rieken 1999a:357, Christiansen 2006a:233, van den Hout 2006a:251, EDHIL:660, DCL:s.v.

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The Luwian origin, recognized since Köcher 1952-1953a:54, emerges from the spelling with BA, the combination with the gloss wedge word mamanaša/i- (gen. adj.) and CLuw. puwāti, and the Luwian abl./inst. ending -āti (cf. Köcher 1952–1953a:54, DLL:81, HW:426, Friedrich 1959-1960a:94, CLL:175, CHD P:248, HEG P:548, HHw:128, Melchert 2005a:452, EDHIL:660, Yakubovich 2010d:371f.; tentatively HED P:208). For an etymological proposal, see under Meaning.

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