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HITTITE LANGUAGE
Cuneiform treaty between Hittite ruler Hattushili III and Ramses II of Egypt
Hittite is the world's oldest known Indo-European language, a languages family that includes English, Hindi, Farsi, French, Greek, Latin, Spanish, German and the majority of modern languages spoken in Europe, the Americas and the Indian subcontinent. Most of the languages from these regions can trace their roots back to an original “mother” language — the Proto-Indo-European language, which likely originated around the Black Sea, in what is now southern Ukraine.Hittite being an Indo-European language is somewhat surprising considering that most Middle East languages at that time were Semitic ones like Hebrew and Arabic. Many consider Hittite to be root of most modern European languages.
The Hittites had a different words for "put on" depending on what article of clothing was to be worn and their names for alcoholic beverages where based on action verbs. One drink called “walhi” was derived from the verb "to hit hard" and another, “marnuwan” , was related to the word meaning "to disappear." There were even a few similarities to modern languages. The Hittite word for father, for example, was “pappa” .↑
Hittite tablets have been excavated from the ruins of the ancient Hittite capital Hattusa located near the modern Turkish town of Boghazkoy about 210 kilometers east of Ankara. Scientific excavation of these ruins by a German expedition began in 1906. About 10,000 clay tablets script were recovered. Although some were written in the Akkadian language and could be read immediately, most were in an unknown language, correctly assumed to be Hittite. As the 2020s, about 30,000 tablets had been found. [Source: Crystal Links +/]
“Within ten years the language had been deciphered, and a sketch of its grammar published. Gradually, the international community of scholars, led by the Germans, expanded the knowledge of the language. The number of common Hittite words that one could translate with reasonable certainty increased steadily. Glossaries published in 1936 by Edgar Sturtevant (in English) and in 1952 by Johannes Friedrich (in German) admirably served the needs of their contemporaries. Yet today, seventy-five years after the decipherment, there still exists no complete dictionary of the Hittite language.” +/
See Separate Article INDO-EUROPEANS factsanddetails.com
Hittite Written Language
Hittite was written in cuneiform script like Sumerian and other Mesopotamia written languages and used Babylonian spelling. Much of what we know about the written Hittite language has been ascertained from 30,000 clay tablets and fragments of tablets discovered in 1906 at Hattuşa near Ankara by German archeologist Hugo Winckler. In 1906 he was wandering around the Hittite site of Bogazkoi and found a royal library of cuneiform tablets there. The language was undeciphered until 1915.
The cuneiform tablets in the Hittite royal archive at Hattusa were first uncovered in 1906 and were written in a language wholly unfamiliar to scholars. By 1916, thanks to the fact that some of the tablets were inscribed in both Hittite and the already-deciphered Akkadian language, the Czech linguist Friedrich Hrozny had translated Hittite cuneiform and revealed that Hittite was an Indo-European language.
Most of the first words that were figured out "Rosetta Stone fashion" by comparing texts of tablets that were identical except that some had Babylonian words known to scholars and the others had Hittite words. Translating the tablets took about ten years. In 1952 some tablets were discovered in southeastern Turkey that were written in Phoenician and Hittite. These led to better translations of the Hittite language.
Scholars at the University of Chicago are now putting together an English-Hittite dictionary. As of 1992 they had completed words beginning with M, N, P and finished many of those starting with S, T, U, W and Z. There is no equivalent of O, Q, R, V, X and Y in Hittite. The first half of the Hittite alphabet is being worked on by a German team. [Source: Robert Kaplan, The Atlantic Monthly, August 1992 (↑)]
Hittite Hieroglyphic Writing
Hittite stelae
According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica: What used to be called "Hieroglyphic Hittite" is now more accurately referred to as "Anatolian Hieroglyphic" (Hawkins, Melchert). The preserved hieroglyphic texts are actually written in Luwian, like Hittite, an Indo-European language. Although closely related to the Hittite language, Luwian is distinct. The term "hieroglyphic" used for Hittite writing was borrowed from the Egyptian terminology, and it simply implies that the Hittite writing, like the Egyptian, is pictographic. In no way does it imply that the Hittite hieroglyphic writing was borrowed from the Egyptian hieroglyphic or that it was in any way related to it. [Source: Hans Guterbock; S. Sperling; Ignace Gelb, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]
The Hittite writing was in use from about 1500 to 700 B.C. in a large area extending from central Anatolia to northern Syria. Two main periods are distinguished: the earlier from 1500–1200 B.C., and the later from 1200 to 700 B.C. The language of the "Hittite hieroglyphic" inscriptions is related to the so-called "cuneiform Hittite" (or "Nesian"), so named because it is preserved in the cuneiform writing borrowed from Mesopotamia. Both of these languages and writings were used at the same time in the Hittite Empire, but while the use of cuneiform Hittite was limited to a small area around Boghazköy, the capital of the empire, and died out at the time of the empire's collapse around 1200 B.C., "hieroglyphic Hittite" (i.e., Luwian) was used throughout the empire, and remained in use up to about 700 B.C. The deciphering of Hittite hieroglyphic writing was achieved only in the 1930s through the combined efforts of P. Meriggi, I.J. Gelb, E.O. Forrer, H.T. Bossert, and B. Hrozný. In the years after the Second World War, a great advancement in the deciphering of Hittite writing and language resulted from the discovery of bilingual Hittite and Phoenician inscriptions at Karatepe in Cilicia.
Two formal types of writing existed. The first was a monumental type with signs faithfully imitating the forms of pictures. The second, a cursive type, developed from the monumental type, with forms of signs so divergent from the original pictures that it is often difficult — if not impossible — to recognize their original pictographic form.
Hittite Syllables and Logograms
According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica: Hittite writing, like such other ancient Oriental systems as the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Chinese, represents word-syllabic type of writing. It consists of three classes of signs: logograms or word signs; syllabic signs, developed from the logograms by the rebus principle; and auxiliary marks and signs, such as punctuation marks and signs for determinatives, classifiers, or semantic indicators. [Source: Hans Guterbock; S. Sperling; Ignace Gelb, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]
In the use of logograms and auxiliary marks and signs, the Hittite system is identical or very similar to other word-syllabic systems. The normal Hittite syllabary consists of about 60 signs of the type ta, ti, te, tu, each representing a syllable beginning with a consonant and ending in a vowel. The writing does not indicate any distinction between voiced, voiceless, and aspirated consonants.
Nowhere but in the Aegean area in writings such as Linear b and Cypriote is there a syllabary identical to that of the Hittites. Accordingly, Hittite hieroglyphic writing can be assigned, together with Cretan writing and its derivatives, to the Aegean group of writings.
Lost Hittite-Era Indo-European Language Found on a Ritual Text in Turkey
In 2023, archaeologists discovered a Researchers an ancient text of an unknown Indo-European language written in cuneiform on a clay tablet during excavations at Boğazköy-Hattuşa (Hattusha) in north-central Turkey, the site of the Hittite capital from about 1600 B.C. until about 1200 B.C. and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Excavations at the site are led by Andreas Schachner, an archaeologist at the German Archaeological Institute, who has unearthed thousands of clay tablets written in cuneiform. The tablets are "mainly found in clusters connected to half a dozen buildings," sometimes described as archives or libraries, Schachner told Live Science. "But we find text all over the [site] that are moved around by erosion." [Source: Tom Metcalfe, Live Science, September 27, 2023]
Almost 30,000 clay tablets covered in cuneiform writing have been unearthed at Boğazköy-Hattuşa. Tom Metcalfe wrote in Live Science: Most of the tablets unearthed at Boğazköy-Hattuşa are written in the language of the Hittites, but a few include words from other languages — apparently because the Hittites were interested in foreign religious rituals. The words in the previously unknown language appear to be from such a ritual, which was recorded on a single clay tablet along with writing in Hittite explaining what it was. "The introduction is in Hittite," Schachner said in an email. "It is clear that it is a ritual text." [Source: Tom Metcalfe, Live Science, September 27, 2023]
The clay tablet was one of several sent to Germany to be analyzed, where it was studied by Daniel Schwemer, a professor and chair of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Würzburg. From the Hittite introduction, he identified it as the language of Kalašma, a region on the north-western edge of the Hittite heartland near the modern Turkish city of Bolu. The scholars don't know what it says yet, and they're not releasing any photographs of the tablet until it has been fully studied. But they've determined that it belongs to the Anatolian group of the Indo-European family of languages, which the Hittite language also belonged to; other ancient languages in the region, including Akkadian, Hebrew and Aramaic, belong to the Semitic family of languages.
Schwemer said in a statement that "the Hittites were uniquely interested in recording rituals in foreign languages." Extracts of rituals in other foreign languages have also been found in the tablets from Boğazköy-Hattuşa, including in the Indo-European languages Luwian and Palaic and a non-Indo-European language known as Hattic. Such ritual texts were written by Hittite scribes and reflected various Anatolian, Syrian and Mesopotamian traditions and linguistic milieus. "The rituals provide valuable glimpses into the little-known linguistic landscapes of Late Bronze Age Anatolia, where not just Hittite was spoken," Schwemer said.
Kerry Brown of CBS News reported: This is the fourth such language found among the tablets: Previous researchers have found cuneiform texts with passages in Luwian, Palaic and Hattic languages. The first two languages are closely related to Hittite, the university said, while the third language differs. The new language was found where the Palaic language was spoken, but researchers believe it shares "more features" with Luwian. The connection between the languages will be studied by researchers. The university said that these ritual texts were usually written by the scribes of Hittite rulers and reflect various Bronze Age traditions and languages. According to the University of Chicago's Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, which keeps the Chicago Hittite Dictionary, a "comprehensive, bilingual Hittite-English dictionary," studying Hittite languages can help illuminate how Western civilization began. [Source: Kerry Breen, CBS News, September 27, 2023]
Hittite Religion
According to Crystal Links: “The Hittites adopted many of the gods of the Sumerians and Old Babylonians. The odd thing about the Hittites, though, is that they seemed to have recognized that all gods were legitimate gods. Whenever they conquered a people, they adopted that people's gods into their religious system. [Source: Crystal Links +/]
“As far as history is concerned, this has tremendous consequences for the history of the Hebrews. The Assyrians seem to have adopted the same tolerance towards other religions, which allowed the Jewish faith to persist after the Jewish state was decimated by the Assyrians. And the Assyrians seem to have adopted the same tendency to adopt the gods of conquered people, so the Assyrian conquerors of Palestine adopted the Hebrew god, Yahweh, into their religion. This eventually led to the only major religious schism in Hebrew history, the schism between Jews and Samaritans. There are still Samaritans alive today.” +/
The Hittites practiced hepatoscopy (liver divination) like the Babylonians and Assyrians. Morris Jastrow said: “Similar models have quite recently been found in one of the centres of Hittite settlements at Boghaz-Kevi, and in view of the close relationship between the Hittites and the Babylonians, which can now be traced to the threshold of the third millennium before our era, there can be no doubt that the Babylonian system of hepatoscopy was carried far into the interior of Asia Minor. Babylonian-Assyrian hepatoscopy also furnishes a strong support for the hypothesis—probable on other grounds—which connects the Etruscan culture with that of the Euphrates Valley. Among the Etruscans we likewise find liver divination not only occupying an important position in the official cult, but becoming a part of it.” As was true with the Etruscans and the Greeks, fleeces has special significance. At Hittite celebrations fleeces were hung to renew royal power. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911]
Hittite Gods
ALALUS: Father of Anus. Anus removed him from the throne. [Source: Internet Archive, from AOL-Wiccan Site]
ANUS: Sky God. Removed his father Alalus from the throne, and was, himself, removed by his son Kumarbis. Babylonian = Anu.
ARINNA: Sun Goddess. She sent an Eagle out in search of Telepinus. The effort failed.
EA: He resides in the Apsu, just as he does in Babylonia. What he does in the Hittite pantheon I don't know. He is the one who decided on how to defeat Ulikummis, by using the copper knife that was "used to seperate heaven and earth". Babylonian
ENLIL: Enlil also makes a guest appearance in the Ulikummis myth. He saw Ulikummis as a child and told the gods later, after the child had grown to it's great size, that they could not hope to defeat it.
HEBAT: Wife of Teshub.
HANNAHANNAS: Queen of Heaven. She urges Teshub to do something about Telepinus' disappearance. Teshub went as far as Telepinus' own door, where he banged on the door until he broke his hammer, and thus abandoned the quest.
ILLUYANKAS: A dragon slain by Teshub. There are two versions of this myth. In the old version, they two gods fight and Illuyankas wins. Teshub" then goes to Inaras for advice, and she devises a trap for the dragon. She goes to him with large quantities of liqure, and entices him to drink his fill. Once drunk, the dragon is bound, and Teshub appears with the other gods and kills him. In the later version, the two gods fight and Teshub, again, loses. Illuyankas then takes Teshub's eyes and heart. Teshub then has a son, who grows and marries Illuyankas' daughter. Teshub tells his son to ask for his eyes and heart as a wedding gift, and it is given. Restored, Teshub goes to face Illuyankas once more. At the point of vanquishing the dragon, Teshub's son finds out about the battle; realizing that he had been used for this purpose. He demaned that his father take him along with Illuyankas, and so Teshub killed them both. illuyankas's daughter: See Illuyankas.
priest king or deity
IMBALURIS: A messenger of Kumarbis.
INARAS: Goddess who set a trap for Illuyankas in the old version of the myth.
IRSIRRA DEITIES, THE: Either the "Maidens of Heaven" or else they are underworld deities.
ISHTAR: Only appears in Hittite myth in an attempt to lull Ulikummis by undressing and singing to him. Her attempt failed as the creature didn't see or hear her. Babylonian
KAMRUSEPAS: Goddess of healing and magick. She calms and purified Telepinus upon his return.
KUMARBIS: The Hittlte High God (like El of the Canaanites), Father of the Gods. Removed his father, Anus, from the throne. In order to keep his son Teshub from removing him from the throne, he made Ulikummis to oppose him. MUKISANUS: Vizier of Kumarbis. sea goddess: Kumarbis went to this goddess for advice on how to stop Teshub from taking the throne. Her advice seems to have lead to the creation of Ulikummis.
SHAUSHKA: a Love Goddess.
TESHUB: Ruler God (like Baal of the Canaanites), son of Kumarbis. He is also a sun God, and a fertility God. He carries a hammer as a weapon. He defeated Ulikummis with the help of Ea. When Kumarbis first attempted to remove his father, Anus, from the throne, he bit off the Anus' loins in the struggle. Thus, Anus' seed was implanted within Kumarbis and Teshub was born. Teshub's son: See Illuyankas.
TELEPINUS is a fertility god, He is like Tammuz, He becomes enraged for reasons unknown and storms off into the stepp lands where he falls asleep. Draught and famine ensue. He was brought back by a Bee, after extensive searching by the gods had failed. Son of Teshub.
UBELLURIS: This deity is much like the Greek Atlas, who supports the world on his shoulders. Ulikummis was placed on his right shoulder by the Irsirra deities to grow tall and strong. Ubelluris didn't even notice the presence until Ea pointed it out to him.
ULIKUMMIS: Son of Kumarbis. He was made to oppose Teshub. There is also mention that he destoys some of mankind. However, he is actually described as being blind, deaf, and dumb; as well as immobile. He was made of stone and placed on Ubelluris' shoulder to grow. He grew until he reached heaven itself. When the gods found him, Ishtar removed her clothing and attempted to lull him with music, but he didn't see or hear her (as he was a blind and deaf creature). The gods attempted to destroy him, but had no affect (he didn't even notice). Finally, Ea called for the Copper Knife that had been used in the seperation of heaven and earth. He then used the blade to sever Ulikummis from Ubelluris' shoulder; lopping the creature off at the feet. Teshub was then able to destroy the creature totally. It is interesting to note that this god's name is the same as a pair of twin volcanic mountains in Asia Minor. This may explain why he is said to be destroying mankind, even in his seemingly catatonic state.
Hittite Art
Hittite sphinx
Hittite objects, excavated by archeologists include an 36-inch-high terra-cotta bulls, Apelta, circa 1500 B.C., unearthed from Hattusas. Hittites were skilled potters. They produced beautiful cups, jars and pitchers with well-crafted hands and spouts
In 2012, Live Science reported: “Two sculptures of life-size lions, each weighing about 5 tons in antiquity, have been discovered in what is now Turkey, with archaeologists perplexed over what the granite cats were used for. One idea is that the statues, created between 1400 and 1200 B.C., were meant to be part of a monument for a sacred water spring, the researchers said. The lifelike lions were created by the Hittites who controlled a vast empire in the region at a time when the Asiatic lion roamed the foothills of Turkey.” [Source: Live Science, July 26, 2012]
On a 3,000-year-old stone lion, Archaeology magazine reported: The sculpture was probably originally buried by the destruction of the monumental gate on which he sat guarding the citadel of Kunulua, the capital of the Hittite Kingdom of Patina, in 738 B.C.According to Timothy Harrison, director the University of Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project, the lion and the site in southeastern Turkey where he was found will provide valuable new insights into the character and cultural sophistication of the small states that emerged in the eastern Mediterranean following the collapse of the great Bronze Age powers at the end of the second millennium B.C. [Source: Jarrett A. Lobell, Archaeology magazine, November-December 2011]
World's Oldest Polychrome Mosaic — Found at a Hittite Site in Turkey
In 2020, an Italian-Turkish announced they had has unearthed the world’s oldest-known polychrome mosaic floor at Usakli Hoyuk, a Hittite settlement in central Turkey. The partially preserved mosaic measures 23 feet by 10 feet and once adorned an open courtyard belonging to a building that archaeologists believe was a second-millennium B.C. temple. The mosaic, which was set into a beaten-earth surface, consists of more than 3,000 multicolored stones arranged in rectangular frames, each with three rows of alternating white, red, and blue-black triangles. Stone pavements served a practical function in Hittite architecture. [Source: Benjamin Leonard, Archaeology magazine, May-June 2020]
“It’s the way Hittites built their houses and public buildings, probably as a solution to prevent problems connected with rain,” says archaeologist Anacleto D’Agostino of the University of Pisa. D’Agostino adds that these colored geometric patterns have not been found at other Hittite sites, and are thought to indicate the courtyard’s association with performance of some kind of ritual.
2,800-Year-Old Elephant-Tusk Carved with Sphinx Found at Hattusa
In November 2023, archaeologists in Turkey announced they had have unearthed an ornately carved 2,800-year-old elephant tusk in what may have once been an Iron Age "center of power" in Hattusa, the Hittite capital. Tom Metcalfe wrote in Live Science: The ivory carving features a mythical sphinx — a human head on the body of a winged lion — as well as a depiction of a real lion and two tall plants that may represent the mythical "tree of life." While the artwork dates to the Iron Age, it was found in an archaeological layer over a much older city — the deserted Bronze Age Hittite capital of Hattusa. [Source: Tom Metcalfe, Live Science, November 17, 2023]
According to Andreas Schachner, an archaeologist with the German Archaeological Institute who has led excavations at Hattusa since 2006, the artifact shows that the Iron Age settlement at the site was an important place, although it was established after the Hittites had abandoned the city in about 1200 B.C., during what's known as the Late Bronze Age collapse. "It is possible to say that this place was no longer a small town but a more important place, perhaps a center of power," Schachner told the Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency.
The artifact is about 12 inches (30 centimeters) long and 4 inches (10 cm) wide, and Schachner said it may have been part of a piece of furniture. "It was probably added as an ornament to a wooden box or furniture made of wood in its own time," he told the agency. "The work is broken on the right and left sides, and the upper and lower sides are in our original form. Therefore, it is possible to guess that it was longer."
Schachner explained that the object was unique among finds at the Iron Age settlement built at the abandoned Hattusa site, which is now beside the Turkish village of Boğazköy (also spelled Boğazkale), about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Ankara. "For the first time, we are faced with a work decorated with such a dense, beautifully rendered scene," he said. "Extensive excavations have been carried out at the Iron Age levels at Boğazköy, but we had not come across such a detailed artifact before." He added that the symbols carved into the fragment might reveal relationships between the settlement and other contemporaneous cultures.
Hittite Pottery
Robert C. Henrickson wrote: “Hittite pottery varies widely in quality, with publication usually directing more attention to the finer types. Late Bronze Age Gordion in western central Anatolia has recently yielded several probable pieces of Hittite pottery. The most striking was a zoomorphic vessel, a barrel rhyton, found on the floor of a Late Bronze Age structure. Its distinctive micaceous reddish color and well-burnished finish suggest that it was probably an import. Other possible imports included a jar rim and jar shoulders with stamp seal impressions, although the recovery of a clay stamp seal indicates some local use. Source: Robert C. Henrickson, “Hittite Pottery and Potters: The View from Late Bronze Age Gordion”, Internet Archive, from Emory/Biblical Archaeology /||]
The great majority of Hittite pottery, however, is plain ware with simple, standardized shapes, cursory finishes, and no decoration.1 Study of vessel and rim shapes and stylistic analysis of finer pieces document links among sites, thus delineating the broad distribution of Hittite Late Bronze Age pottery, including Gordion.
“The Gordion Late Bronze Age assemblage is notable for its standardization and overall simplicity. Standardization is pronounced in the distinctive repetition of production sequences for individual vessel types and sizes and in the clustering of vessel sizes. The simplicity and limited number of vessel forms, rim profiles, and generally rather cursory finishing all suggest that ease and speed of production were important considerations.
“Three broad ware (fabric) categories may be distinguished. Variation among them primarily involves differences in clay preparation and methods of manufacture and finishing. Color ranges from creamy-white through tan or buff to reddish-orange to brown. Common ware (87-90 percent of all sherds recovered) has a rather dense paste with variable amounts of medium grit temper (usually less than 0.2 mm in diameter). Fine ware (1-5 percent) has no visible temper. Cooking ware (5 percent) has a less dense paste with large amounts of medium grit and voids from burnt-out chaff temper. Red slip or paint is found on 3-4 percent of the common and fine wares. /||\
See Pottery Under HITITTE LIFE africame.factsanddetails.com
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum, Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara
Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu , National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, especially Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1991 and Marion Steinmann, Smithsonian, December 1988, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated June 2024