Ḫattuša was the capital of the Hittite Empire in central Anatolia and one of the major political centres of the Late Bronze Age Near East. Its royal archives, excavated at Boğazköy/Boğazkale from 1906 onwards, preserved thousands of cuneiform tablets recording treaties, diplomatic correspondence, rituals and administrative texts. Among them were the fragmentary tablets of the treaty between Šuppiluliuma I of Ḫatti and Šattiwaza of Mittani, in which Mitra, Varuna, Indra and the Nāsatyas are invoked among the divine witnesses. The site is therefore significant for the history of Mithra not as a Mithraic sanctuary, but as the findspot of one of the earliest securely dated textual attestations of the god.
Mithraic monuments of Ḫattuša
Treaty between Šuppiluliuma I and Šattiwaza of Mitanni
Late Bronze Age treaty from Ḫattuša invoking Mitra, Varuna, Indra and the Nāsatyas among the divine witnesses of the Hittite-Mitanni oath.
CIMRM 16
Inscriptions from Ḫattuša
Treaty between Šuppiluliuma I and Šattiwaza of Mitanni
ilāni U-ru-wa-na-aš-ši-il
ilu In-da-ra
ilāni Na-ša-at-ti-ia-an-na.
References
- Arnaud Fournet (2010) About the Mitanni-Aryan Gods
- Gary M. Beckman (1999) Hittite Diplomatic Texts
- Israel Campos Méndez (2026) Mitra. Un dios entre Oriente y Occidente
- Laurent Bricault & Philippe Roy (2021) Les cultes de Mithra dans l’Empire romain
- Paul Thieme. The ‘Aryan’ Gods of the Mitanni Treaties
- Trevor Bryce (2005) The Kingdom of the Hittites
