Evening to Evening as 'Day' for the Hittites also

 

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD) Visiting Professor, Department of Liberal Education, Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint Lecturer of Avondale College, Australia

 

The Hittites are now well documented for the period since Labarna in the 16th century to beyond the days of Tudḫaliya IV which is concurrent with the biblical period of the Judges sandwiched between the Entry into Canaan in 1410 until the days of David.

One aspect that the Hittites shared with the Israelites is that they also reckoned their day from evening to evening. The Hittite Dictionary by Hans Güterbock of Chicago Oriental Institute is here the source:

 

"b. day as a unit of time (our twenty-four hours) — 1' transition from one day to the next:

 

UD.2.KAM QATI INA UD.3.KAM⸗ma mānlukkatta nu EN.SÍSKUR karūariwar ḫūdak INA É DINGIR-LIM uizzi MUL.ḪI.A nūa aranda …maḫḫan⸗┌ma┐ apēdani UD-ti nekuz meḫur MUL-ašwatkuzzi nu EN SÍSKUR karūili INA É DINGIRLIM uizzi … kuitman [nekuzzi⸗ma apeda(ni UD)]-┌ti┐ dUTU-uš nūa artari nu LÚ.MEŠ DINGIR-L[IMkī danzi] … UD.3.KAM QATI maḫḫan⸗ma INA UD.4.KAM MUL-aš watkuzzi

 

“The second day ends. But when the morning of the third day arrives, then immediately at dawn the ritual patron enters the temple. The stars are still out. … But when on that day in the evening a star appears (lit. jumps), the ritual patron enters the old temple … While [it is evening] but the Sun is still out on [that] day, then the personnel of the deity [take the following:] … The third day is finished. When a star appears on the fourth day…” KUB 29.4 ii 13-15, 28-30, 40-41, 69-iii 1 (rit., NH), ed. StBoT 46:281-287. The phrase “third day finished. When a star comes out on the fourth day” indicates that the Hittite day begins sometime just after the sun has set."

(Hans Güterbock, Hittite Dictionary 496. See Online). 

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