A Hurro-Hittite Ritual for Kingship? A Critical Edition of CTH 442

The article presents the first edition of the Hittite ritual composition catalogued as n. 442 in the Catalogue des Textes Hittites. The text is preserved on three fragments, with the best preserved fragment represented by KUB 9.28. The synoptic edition of all manuscripts is introduced by a palaeographical analysis and followed by a systematic commentary on all relevant grammatical and linguistic features. The structure and content of the ritual are examined in the broader framework represented by the Hittite ritual tradition of Hurrian origin. The palaeography of the tablets, along with the presence of specific elements found also in the ritual of Ammiḫatna and in the itkalzi-ritual, bring us to interpret the document as a late 14th century scribal product that reworks ritual traditions very likely dating to the time of King Tutḫaliya II/III.