RT Article
T1 The hittite assembly
JF Journal of the American Oriental Society
VO 102
IS 3
SP 435
OP 442
A1 Beckman, Gary M. 1948-
LA English
PB American Oriental Society
YR 1982
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1694246892
AB It has been widely held that during the earliest period of Hittite history the king was elected by the nobility, meeting in assembly for this purpose. Examination of the available attestations of the two Hittite words for political assembly, panku- and tuliya-, which differ only in their syntactic employment, demonstrates that the Hittite assembly was not the gathering of a class, but rather primarily a judicial body, subject even in this area to the will of the monarch. It is further suggested that this assembly was composed of the members of the higher state bureaucracy, and not of the nobility per se, although the actual relationship between the two groups remains to be elucidated. No evidence for an elective system of kingship is found.
DO 10.2307/602295