A Goddess and a City or How to Read the Hieroglyphic Luwian Sign MANUS+MANUS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36253/asiana-1961Keywords:
Hieroglyphic Luwian, Neo-Hittite Geography, Neo-Hittite Religion, Hama, CiliciaAbstract
This paper argues that the unusual determinative MANUS+MANUS of the goddess Pahalati in Hama that resisted explanation until now can be understood due to its new attestation in the logographic spelling of a Cilician toponym. It will be shown that an earlier attempt that identified MANUS+MANUS as a variant of MAGNUS, the city as Urušša, and the name of the goddess as a Phoenician-Luwian mixed phrase meaning ‘Great Lady’, is palaeographically, linguistically, and geographically impossible. A clue to the decipherment of MANUS+MANUS is provided by the homo(io)phonous settlement in Cilicia, Pahra-, which explains how the same sign could have been used both as a determinative and as a logogram in accordance with the regular rules of the usage of the determinatives.
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