The material manifestation of the Hittite libation ritual, the vessels made from different materials, are known to us through the contemporary written evidence, the representations in the visual arts, and the archaeologically attested examples. All three types of evidence reveal a variety of vessel forms used for the acts of libation. In this study, I focus on the objects themselves and provide an overview of their specific forms: the beak spouted vessels, the ovoid shaped relief vessels, the arm shaped vessels and BIBRU shaped in divine attributes. These vessels have been previously published in site reports, survey books, and museum catalogues, as individual examples or part of an assemblage, but not as a corpus nor as agents in the ritual. The hitherto unpublished examples are introduced to expand and revise the typological classifications. I propose to highlight the materials and the forms of these vessels as important for the Hittites not only to serve a decorative function but as encompassing a presence and agency to achieve the completion of the ritual: serving and pleasing the deities. Therefore, I describe, contextualize, and analyze the vessels in order to outline the relation between form and function, as well as categorizing them according their formal qualities into sub-types. As the containers, they embody the gift, the sacrificial liquid, offered to the deities, preceding the offering and even the act itself. I define their role as “the fourth element of sacrifice,” following the offerer, the receiver and the liquid offered. The vessels are reevaluated in this study as agents dictating the respective acts of libation, and defining the ritual.

Depuis les travaux fondateurs de M. Nilsson, on admet que les cultes grecs de l’époque archaïque héritent des pratiques rituelles des Mycéniens. Pendant toute la période qui s’étend du XIIIe au début du Ve siècle, et au delà, sont surtout consacrées par dépôt, par crémation, et par libation, des denrées issues des travaux des hommes, animaux domestiques, végétaux cultivés et liquides provenant de l’agriculture et de l’élevage. Des évolutions majeures affectent cependant l’organisation de la vie religieuse au cours de ces huit siècles ayant connu des crises, des changements de régime, des déplacements de population importants. Il ne convient cependant pas nécessairement d’opposer les aspects statiques et dynamiques : même les héritages les plus anciens ont progressivement été adaptés aux contextes nouveaux, et c’est particulièrement vrai de ceux qui concernent les consécrations d’offrandes alimentaires. Parce qu’elles s’articulent avec les besoins essentiels de l’homme comme « animal politique » autant qu’elles s’en détachent, ces dernières focalisent l’attention du chercheur sur ce que les actes de culte disent de la place du sacré dans les sociétés grecques en mutation. De l’époque mycénienne à la fin de l’époque archaïque les pratiques religieuses sont des enjeux de pouvoir. La répartition des prérogatives au cours des cérémonies, la définition d’un corpus de denrées jugées adéquates pour les consécrations, et la possibilité, ou non, de partager avec le divin, reflètent et cimentent l’organisation socio-politique des communautés. Si les accidents de la vie religieuse accompagnent ceux de la vie sociale et politique, ils témoignent aussi de l’évolution des mentalités. Propice au développement de la science et de la philosophie, l’époque archaïque a particulièrement favorisé les questionnements sur la pratique des cultes, et les réflexions sur la construction d’un espace sacré singulier. / Since M. Nilsson’s work, it is accepted that the Greeks of the Archaic Period have inherited some of their religious habits from the Mycenaean era. From the XIIIth down to the VIth century BCE, the Greeks offered to their gods parts taken from domestic animals, cultivated plants, and drinkable liquids by burning them, depositing them in an appropriate place, or pouring them. Still, during eight centuries where there have been huge crisis, political disruptions, and population displacements, major religious changes took place. Those suggest that even practices that seem to have been the same have enventually been adapted to new contexts. This is especially the case for those associated with food offerings. Because they are closely related to the basic needs of humans, but can still be pretty distant from them, food offerings encourage researchers to focus on what religious practices tell us about how sacred matters were embeded into Greek mutating societies. From the Mycenaean down to the Archaic period, cult is an instrument of power. The social and political organisation of Greek communities was both represented and reinforced by the distribution of religious privileges, the definition of which goods were suitable for the offerings, and the possibility, or impossibility, for everyone to share with the gods. Religion and politic share an intimate relationship, but cult practices also closely reflect how the Greeks thought the world they lived in. New questions about religion and the definition of sacred space naturally followed the development of philosophy during the archaic period.