Hittite Concepts of Impurity
In the ruins of Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire from roughly 1650 to 1200 BCE, archaeologists uncovered more than 30,000 cuneiform tablets. Many of these texts describe complex rituals designed to counteract a state the Hittites called papratar, or ritual impurity. This impurity was not simple uncleanliness, but a dangerous, contagious state believed to stem from sources like bloodshed, childbirth, contact with the dead, or breaking a divine oath. The Hittites believed such conditions represented a serious disruption of the normal order and could only be corrected through ritual action. While they attributed the ultimate cause to supernatural forces like witchcraft or the anger of the gods, their meticulous procedures for containing impurity show an observational understanding of contagion.
The Hittite ritualists treated impurity as a transferable substance that could infect people, objects, and even entire buildings or cities. The goal of their purification rites was to physically transfer this contamination from the afflicted person or place to a ritual substitute or carrier. These procedures, performed by experts like the "Old Woman" practitioner, followed precise, codified steps, indicating a systematic approach to halting the spread of what they perceived as a dangerous affliction.
A Ritual Toolkit for Cleansing
Hittite purification rituals employed a range of materials and symbolic actions. Water and fire were primary cleansing agents. Animals played a central role, not as sacrifices, but as vehicles for absorbing and carrying away impurity. A ritual might involve waving a piglet or a puppy over an afflicted person to attract the contamination. In other cases, animals like sheep or goats were used in "scapegoat" rituals, where the impurity was symbolically transferred to the animal, which was then driven away. blood was also an important element, sometimes used to smear and thereby purify objects or places.
The texts detail the use of specific, symbolically charged materials. Differently colored threads of wool—often red, blue, and yellow—were used to draw out specific types of illness or witchcraft and transfer them to effigies. Other materials included salt, cedar, iron, and various plants. Complexity appears in rituals like CTH 446, a two-day procedure designed to cleanse a house contaminated by bloodshed, which involved summoning deities from the Netherworld. These elaborate practices, combining incantations with physical actions, demonstrate a belief that impurity was a tangible problem requiring a multi-faceted, systematic solution.