A History of Hittite Literacy : Writing and Reading in Late Bronze-Age Anatolia (1650–1200 BC)

Why did the Anatolians remain illiterate for so long, although surrounded by people using script? Why and how did they eventually adopt the cuneiform writing system and why did they still invent a second, hieroglyphic script of their own? What did and didn't they write down and what role did Hittite literature, the oldest known literature in any Indo-European language, play? These and many other questions on scribal culture are addressed in this first, comprehensive book on writing, reading, script usage, and literacy in the Hittite kingdom (c.1650–1200 BC). It describes the rise and fall of literacy and literature in Hittite Anatolia in the wider context of its political, economic, and intellectual history. Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 List of Figures 13 List of Tables 17 Preface and Acknowledgments 19 Map 23 Timeline and Hittite Kings 24 Sigla and Abbreviations 26 Chapter 1 Introduction 29 1.1 Anatolia and Literacy 29 1.2 Defining the Hittites 34 1.3 A Note on the Hittite Economy 37 1.4 Modern Hittite Scholarship and Our Sources 39 1.5 The Nature of Our Evidence and How We Use It 41 1.6 Doing Things with Tablets 45 1.7 A Note on Chronology and Dating 48 1.8 Some Final Remarks 49 Chapter 2 Writing and Literacy among the Anatolians in the Old Assyrian Period 52 2.1 The Beginnings of Writing in Anatolia 52 2.2 Anitta and the First Unified Anatolian Kingdom 55 2.3 Central Anatolia: An Illiterate Society in the Old Assyrian Period 62 Chapter 3 From Kanesh to Hattusa 66 3.1 The End of Anitta and the Rise of Hattusa 66 3.2 The Origins of the Hittite Cuneiform 67 3.3 The Case for a Syrian Origin 72 3.4 A Closer Look at the Alalah Ductus 75 3.5 Conclusion 78 3.6 Appendix: A Brief Introduction to Hittite Cuneiform 79 Chapter 4 First Writing in Hattusa 85 4.1 From Mursili I to Telipinu 85 4.2 First Writing in Hattusa 86 4.3 The Allure of Akkadian 91 Chapter 5 Literacy and Literature in the Old Kingdom until 1500 BC 98 5.1 Hatti-Land after Telipinu 98 5.2 Literacy and Literature of the Old Kingdom 99 5.3 Looking for Writing in the Old Kingdom 101 5.4 Scribes in the Old Kingdom 105 5.5 Evidence for Record Management 109 5.6 The Character of the Earliest Hittite Compositions 111 5.7 The Hittite Laws 115 5.8 Law and Orality 120 5.9 The Corpus of Old Hittite Cult Rituals 122 5.10 Socio-Economic, Legal, and Bookkeeping Texts? 125 5.11 The Early Hittite Kingdom as an Oral and Aural Society 126 Chapter 6 The Emergence of Writing in Hittite 129 6.1 The Second Half of the Sixteenth Century bc as an Anatolian Renaissance 129 6.2 Adapting to Hittite 131 6.3 The Charters and the Introduction of Writing in Hittite 138 6.4 A Hittite Literature in the Vernacular 141 Chapter 7 A Second Script 148 7.1 The Anatolian Hieroglyphs 148 7.2 The Iconographic Repertoire and its Development 149 7.3 The Anatolian Hieroglyphs as a Writing System 157 7.4 Conclusion 161 7.5 Appendix: A Brief Introduction to Anatolian Hieroglyphs 162 Chapter 8 The New Kingdom Cuneiform Corpus 167 8.1 The New Kingdom Period 167 8.2 The Cuneiform Corpus 170 8.3 Historical Prose and Related Texts Using the Past 172 8.4 Treaties, Instructions, Letters, and Depositions 176 8.5 Religious Texts 180 8.6 Scholarly Texts 185 8.7 Bookkeeping and Socio-Economic and Legal Administration 193 8.8 Cuneiform Text Corpora from Central Anatolia Outside Hattusa 197 8.9 Conclusion 199 Chapter 9 The New Kingdom Hieroglyphic Corpus 201 9.1 Writing for the World 201 9.2 Seals 201 9.3 Inscriptions Erected in the Public Sphere 202 9.4 Graffiti and Small Inscriptions on Objects 204 9.5 Conclusion 207 Chapter 10 The Wooden Writing Boards 212 10.1 Problems and Evidence 212 10.2 GISˇ.ḪUR 216 10.3 [sup((gisˇ.Ḫur))]ḫatiwi(ya)- 223 10.4 [sup(giš(.Ḫur))]k/gaštarḫait/da 224 10.5 [sup((giš(.ḫur)))]gul-zattar 225 10.6 [sup((giš))]k/gurt/da- 232 10.7 [sup((giš.Ḫur))]parzaki(š) 234 10.8 [sup(giš.Ḫur)]tuppi? 234 10.9 [sup(giš)]lE ̄ʾu 235 10.10 Conclusion on the Words So Far Discussed 237 10.11 Other Evidence for Wooden Tablets 239 Chapter 11 The Seal Impressions of the Westbau and Building D, and the Wooden Tablets 246 11.1 The Collections of Seal Impressions in Hattusa 246 11.2 The Bullae and the Wooden Tablets: Previous Interpretations 250 11.3 Problems with the Traditional View 253 11.4 An Alternative Interpretation 255 11.5 Conclusion 260 Chapter 12 In the Hittite Chancellery and Tablet Collections 262 12.1 The Reign of Mursili II 262 12.2 The Hittite Cuneiform Corpus from an Institutional Perspective 264 12.3 Writing: Drafting New Documents 272 12.4 Writing: Copying and Editing 274 12.5 The Editing Process 277 12.6 Writing: Other Types of Documents 284 12.7 Reading 287 12.8 Record Management 291 12.9 Tablet Storage in Hattusa: Can We Detect a System? 293 12.10 Appendix: The Editors at Work 304 Chapter 13 Scribes and Scholars 315 13.1 The Last Hundred Years 315 13.2 Who Were the Scribes? 320 13.3 Scribes and Wood-Scribes 322 13.4 The Societal Status of Scribes 325 13.5 Scribes and Seal Owners 329 13.6 Scribes Elsewhere in the Cuneiform Corpus 333 13.7 Elite Scribes 333 13.8 Chief Scribes 339 13.9 Apprentices 341 13.10 The Scribal Organization 343 13.11 The Average Scribe 347 13.12 Scholars at the Hittite Court 350 13.13 The scriba doctus 353 13.14 The Tablet Inventories as Scholarly Corpora 359 13.15 Memorization as Part of Scholarly Life? 365 Chapter 14 Excursus: Scribes on Seals? The Hieroglyphic Sign L.326 369 14.1 Introduction 369 14.2 An Alternative Hypothesis 384 14.3 The Shape of L.326 and L.326t 397 14.4 Conclusions 399 Chapter 15 The End and Looking Back 403 15.1 The Vanishing of the Hittite kingdom 403 15.2 Looking Back 405 Bibliography 409 Index Locorum 447 General Index 452 For all those interested in literacy and script usage in general and in the ancient world in particular. As the first, comprehensive overview, it sketches the development of literacy and of literature in Hittite Anatolia (2000/1650-1200 BC) and situates them in the history of the kingdom.