Series | Antiquity Studies
Edited book | Wisdom Between East and West: Mesopotamia, Greece and Beyond
Chapter | Dance in Hittite Culture: Choreography and Setting
Dance in Hittite Culture: Choreography and Setting
Abstract
Dance played a significant role in the performance of Hittite cult festivals. Evidence on dance comes from the cuneiform tablets discovered in Anatolia, but also from images depicted on some cult-vases. After having very briefly presented the main characters of Hittite dancing, we will deal with the so-called narrative dances, and with a dance that accompanies the movements of an acrobat who leaps on a bull. Narrative dances, which mostly occur in Old Hittite texts, stage mimetic representations of hunting scenes. The bull-leaping performance is documented from the frieze on a decorated vase and possibly from two Hittite tablets. In both cases, the performed actions, which are manifestations of the oldest intangible heritage of Anatolia and the Mediterranean regions, likely symbolize the superiority of humans over the wild animals.
Submitted: Nov. 7, 2023 | Accepted: March 4, 2024 | Published July 9, 2024 | Language: en
Keywords Narrative Dances • Hittites • Cult Festivals • Bull-Leaping • Dance
Copyright © 2024 Stefano de Martino. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-776-0/008
