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Kubaba and other Divine Ladies of the Syro-Anatolian Iron Age: Developmental Trajectories, Local Variations, and Interregional Interactions

  • Nathan Lovejoy
  • Alvise Matessi

Already by the Late Bronze Age, culturally distinct cults of Kubaba existed throughout the region controlled by the Hittite Empire. After the fall of the empire and the fragmentation of the political landscape of the Syro-Anatolian region, these cults persisted in local contexts, developing along their own trajectories, and thus producing hypostases of the goddess with unique roles, modes of expression, and perhaps aliases. However, these local variations did not evolve in a vacuum, but in many cases through a process of interregional and intercultural interactions. This paper will examine these processes along with the resultant expressions of local cults of Kubaba, demonstrating specific trajectories for interactions between neighboring groups, along with selective adaptations and rejections of foreign cultic concepts. Preliminary results suggest an interesting convergence between these cults and certain sociolinguistic boundaries within the region, perhaps connected to communities with shared group identities.

  • Keywords:
  • Kubaba,
  • Iron Age,
  • Religious contacts,
  • Syro-Anatolian cults,
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Nathan Lovejoy

New York University, United States - ORCID: 0000-0002-0124-5398

Alvise Matessi

University of Verona, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-0848-070X

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  • Publication Year: 2023
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  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Kubaba and other Divine Ladies of the Syro-Anatolian Iron Age: Developmental Trajectories, Local Variations, and Interregional Interactions

Authors

Nathan Lovejoy, Alvise Matessi

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0109-4.12

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Theonyms, Panthea and Syncretisms in Hittite Anatolia and Northern Syria

Book Subtitle

Proceedings of the TeAI Workshop Held in Verona, March 25-26, 2022

Editors

Livio Warbinek, Federico Giusfredi

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

194

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0109-4

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0108-7

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0109-4

Series Title

Studia Asiana

Series ISSN

1974-7837

Series E-ISSN

2612-808X

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