Hittite šaraku- and Luwo-Hittite šari(ku)wa-troops
Ancient Anatolia Network Seminar
Online and in person, Room 207 - Faculty of Linguistics
Thursday 13 June 2024, 5pm – 6.30pm
Speaker: Prof. H.C. Melchert (UCLA)
All welcome. To join online please email Michele Bianconi at michele.bianconi@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk by end of day 12 June.
The Hittite verb š(a)raku-, attested only twice, had previously been hesitantly interpreted as ‘to water’, based on a very tenuous connection with šakruwe/a- ‘to water’ (of horses). David Sasseville, based on a convincing new interpretation of a Palaic text, has shown that this is quite impossible, since the one Hittite passage with š(a)raku- is not in the context of sheltering domestic animals, but displaying them to deities as fit sacrificial offerings. Reconsideration of the evidence now points rather to a sense ‘to (en)circle’. The Luwo-Hittite term LÚ.MEŠ/ÉRIN.MEŠšari(ku)wa- may be related, referring to ‘picket troops’, who arguably surround and protect military encampments
Biography:
H. Craig Melchert is A. Richard Diebold Professor of Indo-European Studies and Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles. He is one of the leading authorities in Anatolian studies and had published extensively on several areas of Indo-European linguistics. His publications include: Anatolian Historical Phonology, A Grammar of the Hittite Language (with H. Hoffner), Cuneiform Luvian Lexicon, and A Dictionary of the Lycian Language.
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