A number of ritual texts have been handed down from the Hittite capital of Hattusha, written by authors from Kizzuwatna, a region in South-eastern Anatolia. The function and effect of these purification and sacrificial rites, which are often only recorded formulaically, are explained by means of a comparative analysis of the Kizzuwatna Rituals, as they are known, and by drawing on other relevant texts. Using special cathartic techniques, which are applied only to the rituals from Kizzuwatna, it is possible to document an independent Kizzuwatnaic ritual tradition, which found its way into the Hittite tradition in connection with political contacts. Relations can also be traced from some of the ritual practices to Hurrite, North Syrian and Mesopotamian ritualism. Thus the group of Kizzuwatna Rituals can be identified as one of the most important sources documenting the cultural exchange between Hittite Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia in the second half of the 2
nd
millennium B.C.