The Onomastics of Hatra as Evidence for Cultural Interactions

The study of onomastics is an effective way to highlight some social and cultural features of a community and the presence of cultural interactions in different contexts. At present, with regard to Hatra, the only monograph about the topic is Sabri Abbadi's Die Personennamen der Inschriften aus Hatra (1983), in which the author investigates a documentary corpus of 341 inscriptions. Although this remains a remarkable reference work and a substantial part of its analysis is still valid, the publication of roughly two hundred new inscriptions and the numerous new readings and interpretations that have been offered in the last thirty years make a new investigation of the onomastic corpus desirable. The research offered here originates from a detailed examination of all published Hatrene texts, which demonstrate the significant onomastic variety of the city. This presentation of the principal characteristics of Hatrene onomastics will be complemented by relevant case-studies. The picture resulting from this analysis is that of a city acting as a crossroads of different cultures (most noticeably of Semitic and Iranian origin), mainly thanks to the prestige of the temple of Šamaš. Interestingly, we are able to discern the persistence of ancient Mesopotamian cultural elements, such as theophoric elements, and in some cases even complete names.