Book contents
- A History of Hittite Literacy
- A History of Hittite Literacy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- 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
- Chapter 15 The End and Looking Back
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- General Index
Chapter 4 - First Writing in Hattusa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2020
- A History of Hittite Literacy
- A History of Hittite Literacy
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- 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
- Chapter 15 The End and Looking Back
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- General Index
Summary
An overview of all documents (originals) that were written until late in the sixteenth century BC shows that besides occasional experimenting Akkadian was the predominant language of writing. The shift to writing in the vernacular, that is, Hittite, came slowly and received a decisive push in the second half of the sixteenth century. The Hittite king Telipinu (ca. 1525 BC), the probable driving force behind the collection of the Hittite Laws, may have been instrumental in this development. From now on Hittite was the language of all written communication. Akkadian was only for diplomatic purposes and sometimes for prestige on seals and in titulature.
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- A History of Hittite LiteracyWriting and Reading in Late Bronze-Age Anatolia (1650–1200 BC), pp. 57 - 69Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021