A Hittite Scribal Tradition Predating the Tablet Collections of Ḫattuša?
-
Alwin Kloekhorst
and
Willemijn Waal
Abstract
This article discusses the origins of a group of four Hittite OS tablets, which share some unique and peculiar features with respect to their shape, spelling conventions and palaeography. It argues that these four tablets are the oldest documents of the Hittite corpus, and that they were not created in Ḫattuša, but have been imported from elsewhere. Originally, they belonged to an older writing tradition, predating the establishment of Ḫattuša as the Hittite capital. This implies that the royal tablet collections in Ḫattuša do not reflect the very first beginnings of Hittite cuneiform, but only the start of a royal administration there. The typical Hittite ductus was already created in the 18th century BCE – in Kuššara, Nēša or elsewhere in Anatolia.
Acknowledgement
We are grateful to Theo van den Hout and Walther Sallaberger for their valuable comments. Needless to say, we alone are responsible for the views expressed here and any errors that may remain. The research for this article was executed within Kloekhorst’s research project ‘Splitting the mother tongue: the position of Anatolian in the dispersal of the Indo-European language family’ (funded by NWO, project nr. 276-70-026) and Waal’s research project ‘In search of the missing link: writing in Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age’ (funded by the Luwian Studies Foundation). Abbreviations follow those of the Chicago Hittite Dictionary.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- Buchbesprechung
- Anne Goddeeris: The Old Babylonian Legal and Administrative Texts in the Hilprecht Collection Jena, with a contribution by Ursula Seidl. Part 1: Texts, Seal Impressions, Studies. Part 2: Indexes, Bibliography, Plates. (Texte und Materialien der Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities im Eigentum der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena 10). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2016. xiv+viii, 542 S. with 146 Tf. 21,0 × 29,7 cm. ISBN: 978-3-447-10651-1. Price: € 198,00.*
- Nele Diekmann: Talbot’s Tools. Notizbücher als Denklabor eines viktorianischen Keilschriftforschers. (Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 25). Gladbeck: PeWe-Verlag, 2017. 294 S., mit 84 Abb. ISBN 978-3-935012-21-8. Preis: € 33,80.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Abhandlungen
- Karl Hecker
- New Texts from the Iraq Museum on Šulgi-mudaḫ and Šara-dān
- According to the Laws Established by the Gods! A Re-Examination of MDP 23, 321+322
- Literary Texts from the Sippar Library I: Two Babylonian Classics
- The Hunter and the Asses: A Neo-Assyrian Paean Glorifying Shalmaneser III
- A Hittite Scribal Tradition Predating the Tablet Collections of Ḫattuša?
- The Irrigation Canal Stele of the Urartian King Argišti I Recently Discovered in Erciş/Salmanağa, North of Lake Van
- The Rise of Urbanized Landscapes in Mesopotamia: The QADIS Integrated Survey Results and the Interpretation of Multi-Layered Historical Landscapes
- Das dritte und vierte Relief von Gundük
- Buchbesprechung
- Anne Goddeeris: The Old Babylonian Legal and Administrative Texts in the Hilprecht Collection Jena, with a contribution by Ursula Seidl. Part 1: Texts, Seal Impressions, Studies. Part 2: Indexes, Bibliography, Plates. (Texte und Materialien der Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities im Eigentum der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena 10). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2016. xiv+viii, 542 S. with 146 Tf. 21,0 × 29,7 cm. ISBN: 978-3-447-10651-1. Price: € 198,00.*
- Nele Diekmann: Talbot’s Tools. Notizbücher als Denklabor eines viktorianischen Keilschriftforschers. (Berliner Beiträge zum Vorderen Orient 25). Gladbeck: PeWe-Verlag, 2017. 294 S., mit 84 Abb. ISBN 978-3-935012-21-8. Preis: € 33,80.
