A History of Hittite Literacy

Writing and Reading in Late Bronze-Age Anatolia (1650–1200 BC)

Theo van den Hout

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781108494885
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108849517
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Map
• Timeline and Hittite Kings
• Sigla and Abbreviations
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Chapter 2 Writing and Literacy among the Anatolians in the Old Assyrian Period
• Chapter 3 From Kanesh to Hattusa
• Chapter 4 First Writing in Hattusa
• Chapter 5 Literacy and Literature in the Old Kingdom until 1500 BC
• Chapter 6 The Emergence of Writing in Hittite
• Chapter 7 A Second Script
• Chapter 8 The New Kingdom Cuneiform Corpus
• Chapter 9 The New Kingdom Hieroglyphic Corpus
• Chapter 10 The Wooden Writing Boards
• Chapter 11 The Seal Impressions of the Westbau and Building D, and the Wooden Tablets
• Chapter 12 In the Hittite Chancellery and Tablet Collections
• Chapter 13 Scribes and Scholars
• Chapter 14 Excursus: Scribes on Seals? The Hieroglyphic Sign L.326
• Chapter 15 The End and Looking Back
• Bibliography
• Index Locorum
• General Index