ANE / The Hattians – 2 / 2

The Hattic Language

No documents have been found in which the native Hattic speakers wrote their own language. Scholars today rely on indirect sources or mentions by their neighbors and successors, the Nesian -speaking Hittites. Some Hattic words can be found in religious tablets of Hittite priests, dating from the 14th and 13th centuries BC. Roots of Hattic words can also be found in the names of mountains, rivers, cities and gods. The heartland of this oldest language of Anatolia, before the arrival of Nesian (i.e., “Hittite”) speakers, ranged from Hattuša (which they called ” Hattuš”) northward to Nerik. Other cities mentioned in Hattic include Tuhumiyara and Tissaruliya.

The catalogued Hattic documents from Hattuša span CTH 725-745. Of these CTH 728, 729, 731, 733, and 736 are Hattic / Hittite bilinguals. CTH 737 is a Hattic incantation for the festival at Nerik. One key (if fragmentary) bilingual is the story of “The Moon God Who Fell from the Sky”. There are additional Hattic texts in Sapinuwa, which had not been published as of 2004.

The Hittites used Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform for their own language, and they applied this system to the Hattic language as well.  In the Hittite form of cuneiform, all sibilants are written with “š=sh” phonograms. Hittite scribes applied this to Hattic as well. The Hattic language was not an Indo-European or Semitic language.

A number of specialists, Including Ardzinba [1]  and Chirikba [2] , have proposed that Hattic is related to the Northwest Caucasian (Circassian) family. This point of view, while commonly-held, is not universally accepted and other scholars, such as Soysal, say that any relationship has at present not been satisfactorily proved. Yet other scholars propose a relationship with other languages of the Caucasus, for example Girbal with the Kartvelian languages.

Hattian Kings

Pamba, King of Hatti (23rd century?) – According to a tradition of ca. 1400 BC, Nar?m-Sîn of Akkad (2254-2218) marched against a coalition of seventeen kings including Pamba king of Hatti, and Zipani king of Kaniš. The veracity of this legend is uncertain. No archaeological remains dating to this period have yet been discovered at Bo?azkale, but the extremely fragmentary nature of the earliest archaeological remains there make it impossible to rule out the existence of a settlement at that time.

This legend contains the earliest reference to Hatti/Hattuš. -This legend, if based on reality, demonstrates a time when Hatti was significant enough to act as one member of a pan-Anatolian coalition. The fact that it had to act in a coalition rather than by calling upon its vassals indicates that Hatti was not yet the dominant power in Anatolia that it would become.

In a reference to another city which would be of some importance later in Hittite history, Gudea of Lagash claims to have brought gold from Hahu (i.e.Hahhu) for the building of the temple of Ningirsu in Lagash. [3] There is a historical gap which runs from the 23rd century to the mid 19th century.

Transistion from 3rd to 2nd millennium: The transitional period at Hattuša is represented by Büyükkale Levels Vb-Va and IVd, and by levels 8b-8a on the terrace. The K?rum Hattuš was founded in this period, but Bittel [4] says that no remains at Bo?azkale date to this period. This conclusion has been challenged by subsequent review of the evidence.

Middle Bronze Age (MBA): The first two centuries or so of the 2nd millennium BC are referred to as the Middle Bronze Age for Anatolia. It is characterized by the remains associated with the Assyrian trading colonies.

Kings of Kaniš II [5] - The title rubâ’um: The Anatolian rulers of Anatolia used the title rubâ’um which they borrowed from the Akkadian language. This title is often translated as “prince”, but this is misleading in English. A better translation into English is simply “king”. The Akkadian for “king” is šarrum, which is the word used by future Hittite rulers instead of rubâ’um. However, just as there would subsequently be kings and Great Kings, so in this period we find rubâ’u and Great rubâ’u. To make clear the distinct terminology between periods, the title rubâ’u has been presented when used.

The rabi simmiltim: The rabi simmiltim is the principle officer whose name occurs alongside that of the ruler’s in the Kültepe tablets. The position can be held by a ruler’s son. It literally means “Chief of the Stairway”. Court was held at the “stairway,” so “Chief of the Court” is a more meaningful.

End of k?rum Kaniš II: K?rum Kaniš Level II was probably destroyed by Uhna, a king of Zalpa (The Anitta[6] Text ), since later Anitta had to recover the Kanišean god from Zalpa. This perhaps represents the rise of Zalpan power in Anatolia. Later, texts from the beginning of the Hittite Early Empire would depict a struggle for power between Hattuša and Zalpa, with Hattuša ultimately emerging triumphant. However, given the paucity of information about Hattuša in this period, and the fact that Zalpa was situated far to the north of  Hattuša, while Kaniš was situated well to its south, we can perhaps speculate that Zalpa, rather than Hattuša, was the dominant power in central Anatolia in this period.

Hattian Late Period

In this period, Hattuša begins to look like a city as the occupied area was increased considerably and remains of the k?rum Hattuša appear. It has been argued that some of the remains at Bo?azkale do, indeed, date to the Kaniš Level II period. For now, Bittel’s position is accepted that all remains date to the Level Ib period.

We know details of this period from two Assyrian merchants dwellers in the Hatti land.  Ba-a, son of Il-Bani, and Šamaš-taklaku are two of the Assyrian merchants located in the k?rum. The over 60 documents found were Akkadian and contain no local, Anatolian names. The cylinder seal impressions show Mesopotamian, non-Anatolian motifs. However, of the few original seals found, some do show the indigenous style, and all the stamp seals are indigenous. The documents mention the city’s name in its Hattian form, Hattuša.[7]

Peter Bittel says that all finds at the k?rum were contemporary with k?rum Kaniš Level Ib, but since documents at the k?rum Kaniš from Level II mention Hattuša, it must have existed already, perhaps as far back as the 19th century. The probable explanation for the lack of remains is that the k?rum Hattuša did not suffer destruction at the time that the k?rum Kaniš II did, so that nothing was preserved. However, the idea that nothing has been preserved has been challenged. Bittel (1970) [8]  says that Levels Vb, Va, IVd, and 8b (on the slope) correspond with k?rum Kaniš Level II.

At least part of the settlement on Büyükkale IVd was protected by a fortification wall. Büyükkale was probably one, rather than two, settlements by this point in time. This fortification is probably the one that Piyušti is said to have fortified Hattuša with, and which was then destroyed, along with the city, by Anitta. Hattuša was destroyed at the end of Level IVd, which would support this interpretation.

 Notes:

CTH - Catalogue des Textes Hittites ( since 1971, edited by Emmanuel Laroche)

[1]  Ardzinba, V. (1974): Some Notes on the Typological Affinity Between Hattian and North-West Caucasian (Abkhazo-Adygian); Vladislav Ardzinba (born on May 14, 1945) is an Abkhaz politician who was the first president of the unrecognized, but de facto independent Republic of Abkhazia, a breakaway autonomous republic of Georgia, from 1994 to 2004.
[2]  Chirikba, V. A. (1996) ‘A Dictionary of Common Abkhaz’. Leiden
[3]  Saggs – The Greatness that was  Babylon, New American Library – (1962) p.71
[4]  Kurt, Bittel. -  Hattusha, the Kingdom of the Hittites 1970
[5]  Forlanini, Massimo. – The Kings of Kaniš , Studia Mediterranea  9-1995 p. 123ff.
[6]  CTH 1 – Proclamation of Anitta, King of Kussara
[7]  Orlin, Louis Lawrence. – Assyrian colonies in Cappadocia,  The Hague : Mouton, 1970
[8]  Kurt, Bittel. -  Hattusha, the Kingdom of the Hittites 1970 pg. 46