Traces from the Ancient in the Faith of Anatolian People

Anatolian geography has hosted numerous civilizations as from the earliest times of the history for its geopolitical position. The religious beliefs had been effective on the living styles of the communities in every period of the history. People reflected the practices related with their beliefs on their daily life. Many cultural practices performed in our present day show great similarities with the religious beliefs and rituals of Ancient Anatolia. In this study, it was attempted to identify the folk belief and customs which had existed in the ancient times of Anatolia and have reached up to our present day. Today, we have knowledge related with the subject matter on Kültepe tablets that are the first documents of Anatolia written in cuneiform script and documents belonging to the people living in Anatolia in the upcoming dates. Particularly, Kültepe records and Hittite documents belonging to the Era of Assyrian Trade Colonies provide illuminative information. In the study, the afore-said documents were analyzed and the similarities with the customs of the present day were presented. Numerous beliefs and traditions such as incubus and evil-eye belief, rain prayer, holiness attribution on natural assets and animals, lamenting tradition have reached up to our present day from the ancient times of the history by getting richer. When we look at the information obtained from the cuneiform documents we have examined and the practices applied in today's Anatolia, it is understood that religious beliefs and rituals, which had an important place in the lives of ancient societies, are still maintained in today's Anatolian folk beliefs and traditions, with some changes.