ABSTRACT
A little over a century ago tens of thousands of tablets were unearthed in central Turkey, revealing the life and culture of one of the Bronze Age Near East’s great civilisations, the Hittites. This chapter discusses one aspect of this ancient culture, the five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Each section examines the Hittite verbs of perception and nouns and adjectives that describe each sense. The chapter also discusses stimulants to these senses. There were numerous religious festivals throughout the year held in many cities in Hittite lands, where Hittites were treated to sights, sounds, and smells. Between cities and in front of temples there were colourful processions, singing and musical accompaniment, acrobatics and performances. Weddings were similarly celebrated. These would have stimulated the senses of sight and hearing of Hittites. The sense of smell is rarely mentioned, although there are very frequent mentions of things such as aromatics in oil or smoke that surely would have stimulated the sense of smell. Festivals were often accompanied by banquets and huge ranges of tasty foods are attested. Touch was used to mean “associate this sacrifice with me” or to transfer evils to a scape-animal. Display and dancing (sight), music (hearing), perfume and incense (smell), and beverages (taste) were also used to stimulate sexual desire (touch).
