‍ ‍Written by Alara Ural

For the Hittites, magic was an indispensable, numinous force that could help them maintain cosmic balance and appease their gods. Thus, it was seen not only as a religious practice but also as serving the community, and those who carried out ritual procedures occupied favourable social status as a result. In this context, magic consisted of rites performed by actors to establish the proper relationship between the participant (the supplicant) and other beings (gods, demons, powers—human or nonhuman) in order that a more favourable balance of power would exist.”  (quoted in Ünal, p. 52). To understand the religious relationship between the Hittites and their deities, we must first take a look at the cuneiform tablets describing common ritual practices. The names of fourteen women who performed such rituals have survived as the authors of the rites they practiced (Bryce, 201-202). These women were called hasawas, meaning “she of birth,” and scholars such as Bryce and Joost Blasweiler have identified her as the Wise Woman.They served as healers, midwives, and magical practitioners, navigating both domestic and state-level ritual practice. From the written record, it can be inferred that hasawas’ rituals were comparable to medical procedures, in the way that they resembled prescriptions (Vallee, 5). A case was diagnosed; then the proper ritual was selected to remove the cause of disorder. The formulae is as follows: “When this and this is the case, then I apply this ritual; then I treat him thus; then I heal him; thus, then I enchant him in this manner, then I take the following sacrificial material, etc…”  In the rituals they performed, hasawas made use of foodstuffs, items of clay, wax, tallow, and wool; sacrificial animals; and ritual instruments (Vallee, 6). The trickiest aspect of these rituals was that a single mistake could invalidate the entire procedure. As such, hasawas had to consult ritual texts at every stage of the process–from the collection of all the materials required for the ritual, their conveyance to the place where the ritual was to be performed, the time of the performance, the words to be uttered and the chants to be sung. The Wise Women carried out each step meticulously. Drawing on the diverse array of rituals texts–ranging from accounts concerning each step of pregnancy,  family quarrels, and possible cures for chronic ilnesses–-that were excavated at Boğazkale, it can be inferred that there was a large stock of written material on which Hasawas could call, to ensure that they always had something ready to hand for every conceivable occasion. (Bryce, pp.201-202).

Since Hasawas’ practice focused on key aspects of life such as birth, growth, and the removal of deficiencies or harmful influences affecting individual well-being, their role can be interpreted as healers of the soul (Vallee, 8). Their position in society was elevated by the reverence they received for the way they intertwined spiritual and earthly matters, and this respect is made salient in how they were employed by both the royalty and the poor (Hoffner 2003, 112). It is known that Queen Puduhepa–who was originally the daughter of a priest of Ishtar from Kizzuwatna, and became the Chief priestess of the Hatii people and the most well–documented women in Late Bronze Age History–identified herself with the hasawas and possessed extensive knowledge on Hittite and Hurrian ritual practices. Her surviving prayers reveal that she interceded with the sun goddess Arinna through prayers and votive offerings to cure her husband Hattusili III, who suffered from chronic illnesses. Moreover, there is evidence that even prior to Puduhepa’s reign, hasawas were consulted by the royal family. In a clay tablet dating to around 1310 BCE–the height of the Hittite Empire–a record of inquiries into the reason and cure for a dangerous illness that afflicted the Hittite king,probably Mursili II (father of Hattusili III), and caused him to lose his power of speech, was discovered. In this tablet–known as AhT 20–Mursili’s agents search for the king’s affliction, peering into the guts of a sheep (the inspection of the entrails of sacrificial animals was what Mesopotamians did to determine the will of the gods, and these practices were passed into the Hittite empire in glossaries of omens and their meanings); but they also routinely check their results with a hasawa, a decision that illuminates the importance attributed to the oracular and medical wisdom of these women (Hauser 2025, 136-137). 

The Hittites believed domestic issues, such as family quarrels, arose from contamination and disharmony. Thus, to a hasawa, a family quarrel was an illness just as much as a physical injury or a contagious disease. In order to liberate the petitioners from such pestilence, the hasawa created symbolic substitutions–such as the model tongue–onto which the source of the quarrel was projected and then removed from the involved parties (Vallee, 10). In the Mastigga ritual, for instance, the practitioner addresses the harmful words spoken by the participants “with (their) mouth and tongue” and comments that they be cut out of their bodies before the symbolic tongues are cast into the hearth. The logic was therefore one of substitution: just as the ritual tongue was physically removed and destroyed, so too could the harmful words, and with them the disorder they had caused, be removed from the participants (Starkson, “The Hittite hasawa”). The phrases uttered during such rituals followed this same analogical logic: “Just as this is (or is done), so may that be (or done).” In the process of conducting the ritual, the hasawa clearly announced to the gods her intention, ensuring that nothing was left ambiguous. For the Hittites, this method of resolving domestic disputes functioned as an effective form of psychological medicine, as it provided reconciliation and relief through symbolic action and ritualized speech (Vallee, 10). As such, it can be inferred that hasawas were an essential part of the Hittite society, without whom the moral framework of social interactions might have become tenuous.

Hasawas were one of the two types of professionals to assist the birthing mother, the other one being known as the Hasnupallas, or “the woman who knows the internal organs.” While the Hasnupallas chanted incantations and performed rituals to keep evil away from the child as it was being born, Hasawas prepared the utensils that were used in a woman’s labour–a bronze knife and four bronze pegs–and brought the baby safely into the physical and spiritual world, as well as performing a cleansing ritual in the mouth of the prospective mother when her pregnancy reached seven months and one day. The reason why this ritual was performed in the mouth was that its purification was seen to equate to a symbolic purification of the vagina. In this context, it is important to note that while royalty and wealthy individuals could afford the services of both the Hasnupallas and the Hasawas, the average household would only have employed a Hasawa (Hoffner 2003, 112). This economic disparity illustrates the uniquely invaluable presence of these Wise Women in Hittite society, especially for the expectant mothers who must have felt afraid of suffering a miscarriage or losing their lives during labour. Indeed, demographic evidence indicates that both infant and child mortality rates were as high as 50% in the Late Bronze Age Hittite society, which means that Hasawas’ role was indispensable to the Hatii people.

In the Birth Rituals excavated at Boğazköy, it is mentioned that during a woman’s pregnancy, a seer–possibly a hasawa, as she is identified as a diviner among her other roles as a midwife and healer by scholars such as Trevor Bryce and Judith Starkston–recited a Hurrian chant. An important feature to note here is that many of the Hittite ritual texts were recited in other languages than the Hittite tongue (Bryce 2002, 5). Considering that the Hittite Empire stretched from Anatolia all the way across modern day Syria by the Late Bronze Age, this can be explained as a result of the Hittite society absorbing diverse cultures and beliefs into their own when the empire conquered other cities and states. For instance, Queen Puduhepa equated the indigenous Sun Goddess of Arinna (the supreme deity of the Hittite state) with her own patron Hurrian goddess, Hebat. This cultural integration meant that at least eight different languages were represented in the Royal Archives of the Hittite capital Hattusa (Bryce 2002, 5). Most importantly, the prevalence of foreign tongues in ritual texts concerned with birth rituals carrying the female practitioner’s name attest to the suggestion that hasawas were literate and often multilingual, meaning that the women who were chosen to perform such rituals may have been educated from a young age (Bryce 2002, 80). Still, scholars are not certain whether Hasawas inherited their role, were chosen in early childhood, or trained into it. All the same, the variety of their patients, including members of the royal household-such as King Mursili II–meant that they held the key to an intimate knowledge of a large portion of the Hittite population’s personal lives. Since they possessed such intimate knowledge about the lives of people from all classes, it can be assumed that they were revered for their discretion just as much as their skill and knowledge. 

Yet, despite their skills and unparalleled experience in midwifery, and their possession of ritual and oracular knowledge that was crucial to people of all classes, Hasawas–as well as,overall, female healing priestesses and ritual professionals–were given less compensation for their services than their male counterparts. An example that illustrates this discrepancy comes from tablet KBo 23.92+ iv 9’--13’;there, it is recorded that the Old Women/Hasawas of Hatti and Arinna received one sheep, while the SANGA-priests received two sheep each for what appears to be the equivalent service (Vallee, 15). Moreover, Hittite legal codes institutionalize gender-based wage disparity. One law states that a free man engaged in agricultural labour would be paid with 1500 liters of barley for three months, whereas a woman who performed the same tasks he did–specifically, binding sheaves, loading them on wagons, and clearing the threshing floors after depositing the sheaves–in harvest season would only receive 600 litres of barley. (Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, p. 222). Still, it appears that ritual work brought better compensation than unskilled agricultural labor for both men and women. HL § 179 reveals that the price of a sheep–received by the Hasawas of Hatti and Arinna–was set at one shekel, which corresponded to two months’ pay for a woman during harvest (HL § 158). It is also known to us that Hasawas earned one or two shekels less than a physician, which indicates that a hasawa earning one sheep may have had a modest but viable income, which they could increase through skill, experience and reputation. For instance, the ritual specialist Kuwattalla is documented as having received a land grant, suggesting she achieved high status and considerable wealth. Although it is important to note that this is an exceptional case and that it cannot represent the situation of all female practitioners, it is nonetheless proof that female ritual specialists could rise to financial prominence (Hutter, 31). In the end, while hasawas, and women ritual practitioners in general, could succeed financially and improve their social status, wage inequality was both evident and legally protected in Hittite society, which is reminiscent of the financial situation of working women throughout both the 19th and 20th centuries, once again proving that women’s shared struggles and experiences in patriarchal societies retraced the same web of disparity for centuries, and that things have just recently begun to change in the last few decades.

In conclusion, while there are still gaps in our knowledge of Hittite women, we know that some were revered in their society as skilled ritual practitioners and were indispensable to both royalty and ordinary citizens as midwives. We know that they were called upon to dispel hostilities and resolve conflicts within families, ultimately standing as the backbones of harmony in the Hittite world. We know, because they left their mark upon history by becoming esteemed individuals whose psychological insight, empirical knowledge, and practical healing–which required vast experience to be earned, starting from a young age–allowed them to climb the social ladder of a patriarchal society, and have their names indelibly inscribed upon clay tablets, perhaps knowing that one day, people would dare to witness a fragment of their incredible lives.

Bibliography

Hoffner, H., ‘Daily Life Among the Hittites’, 2003, p. 112.

Hittite Law Texts. In Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor

The Ritual of Mastigga (CTH 404.1). Mastigga Corpus, 20–27; KBo 39.8 iii 38–43

Beckman, Gary. “Females as Sources of Authority in Hittite Government and Rituals.” In Structures of Power, Law and Gender Across the Ancient Near East and Beyond, edited by Ilan Peled, 142–151. Oriental Institute Seminars. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2018.

Bryce, Trevor. Life and Society in the Hittite World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Hutter, Manfred. Economy of Religions in Anatolia: From the Early Second to the Middle of the First Millennium BCE. Proceedings of an International Conference in Bonn. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2019.

Turkilsen, D. The Lives of Hittite Women in the Late Bronze Age. Sydney, January 2014.

Vallee, Jean. The Wise Women of Hatti: Ritual Power and Gender Roles in Hittite Magic and Religion. Tel Aviv University. July 2025.

Unal, Achmed. “The Role of Magic in the Ancient Anatolian Religions According to the Cuneiform Texts from Bogazköy-Hattusa.” In Essays on Anatolian Studies in the Second Millennium B.C., edited by Takahito Mikasa, 52–85. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1988.