AN ASSESSMENT ON LÚAPIN.LÁ IN THE HITTITE CUNEIFORM TEXTS

Abstract

After the Neolithic period, mankind added agriculture to its food life that started with hunting and gathering. Agriculture having developed over time, became the main source of livelihood of many societies. Societies having experience on agricultural activities opened the way to the emergence and development of an economic model based on food production. This new economic model happened to be the main factor instilling the concept of settled life into societies. The Hittite country, which was a great political power in the 2nd millennium BC Anatolia, gave great importance to agriculture like other societies. In the Hittite texts, farmers who had carried out the plowing and plantation were mentioned as the LÚAPIN.LÁ within Sumerogram. The first duty of the farmers, who ensured the cultivation of the lands of Hittite’s Anatolia, was to present their products to the gods on time before the other people. The farmers who were warned about this issue and otherwise who were to be punished, were evaluated within the framework of the phenomenon of "finishing the job", unlike other fugitives in the political treaty texts. From the documents, we learn that the farmers who also seemed to be in charge of granaries would be punished if they told lie during the cultivation and delivery of the product. In addition to their agricultural activities, the farmers who had sometimes performed the supplication and preservation of animals became one of the most important components of the Hittite economy with their different duties and functions.