Research > Sapienza Research Projects > Confessions as trial depositions: Language and style in Anatolian and Semitic juridical documents from the Hittite to the Roman Imperial Age (2nd millennium BCE - 3rd century CE).
Principal Investigator: Alessio Agostini
This research intends to analyze some categories of documents widespread in Anatolia and parts of the Semitic world. Some of these texts are usually referred to as 'confessions'; others resemble 'court depositions', because their relevance from a juridical point of view is evident. In the Anatolian Hittite context (2nd millennium BCE), they are defined as Gerichtsprotokolle (or 'court depositions') and could be associated with the trial depositions recorded following the misappropriation of royal assets.
In Hellenistic-Roman Anatolia, within the Lydian and Phrygian documentation, a textual category usually known as Beichtinschriften is identified; these 'confessions', spontaneous or requested by the divinity through an oracle, were also deposed following an infraction committed. In the ancient South Arabian context, expiatory practice, especially among the Minaean and Amir tribes, revealed a very similar textual category, called 'confessions' within a clear ritual context but also with a juridical dimension that appears increasingly evident today, even considering the possible role of the temple in the administration of justice.
The project intends to first promote an independent study of these three documentary areas (Hittite Anatolia, 1st millennium Anatolia, and pre-Islamic Southern Arabia), followed by a comparative approach with the aim of investigating linguistic, stylistic, and finally content issues, which reveal broad analogies and parallelisms between these areas. This approach will promote a wide-ranging analysis of the underlying motivational and ideological premises that may have given rise to similar practices and to such textual analogies.
Collaborators:
Francia, Rita; Guizzi, Francesco; La Rocca, Adolfo; Pozza, Marianna
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Further details about this research:
- Research type: Progetto di ricerca grande
- Research topic: Epigraphy; Semitic Studies; Anatolian Studies; Greek History; Roman History
- Fundings: Sapienza Università di Roma, Bandi di Ricerca d'Ateneo.