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The Decipherment of the Moscho-Hittite Inscriptions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
The number of Hittite hieroglyphic inscriptions known to us has increased considerably of late years. Unfortunately a large proportion of the texts is either broken or illegible, not infrequently just where a complete text is most needed. Thanks, however, to our increased knowledge, it is now possible to correct former copies and supply in many caṡes missing characters or words. The result is that I can now improve to a large extent upon my old attempts at translation as well as correct mistakes and misreadings. Another result is to show that the fundamental elements in my decipherment are correct; it is true that I have made many mistakes, as is inevitable in pioneering work of the kind, but on the whole it was based on sound principles and a considerable proportion of the phonetic values or ideographic meanings I have attached to the characters turn out to be right. Those who wish to see the evidence for these will find it given in detail in my articles in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archœology. In my present notes I shall give it only where the identifications are either new or corrections of those I formerly proposed.
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References
page 740 note 1 It is worth notice that the Lycians called themselves Trkhmi-li, Greek Termilæ, where -li is the ethnic suffix, as in Hittite, corresponding to the Moscho-Hittite -ni. Trkhmi-li would thus be the exact equivalent of the Moschian Tarqami-a-nis of the Hamath texts and Tarqami-kamissis “(people) of the Tarqamos-city,” of the Mer'ash texts. We know that the Lycians (or Luqqa as they are called in the Hittite texts) came from southeastern Asia Minor; were they originally the inhabitants of the district of Tarkhundas of which Kuruntas was king ? Kamis, Greek Kamisa, “fortified city,” appears under the Hellenized form of -κώμη in local names in the Greek inscriptions of Asia Minor. The Tell Ahmar inscription shows that it was represented in the hieroglyphic texts by the bowl 
.
page 742 note 1 The photograph as well as my own copy of the text have mi and not ki as in the published text. If ki were correct we should have the name of the Kaskians.
page 743 note 1 Lewy, in Archiv für Orientforschung, iii, 1, p. 8Google Scholar.
page 743 note 2 “Word-divider.”
page 743 note 3 The name of the Mosohians penetrated as far as Lydia and in the Græeco-Lydian inscriptions, accordingly, we find the proper names Moskhianos, Moskhiôn, Moskhios, and Moskhos.
page 743 note 4 So on the Nigdeh column (M. liii) yi-is-a AGU-n es Ka-a-n(a)-s i-is-i-ta a-mi-s-ku-ś “This stone Kanas has erected in the temple (literally high place) (being) chief swordsman”, i.e. high priest.
page 745 note 1 See, for example, M. xxxiii, 1, á-MIS-mí-i-s (AME-mia) compared with M. vi, 2, á-MIS-me-nin.
page 747 note 1 The name of “the goddess Agusea” is also found in an inscription of Esarhaddon (K 2801).
page 750 note 1 Here the name of Tyana is expressed by an ideograph denoting “the Double City”, as is sometimes the ease in the Tyanian texts (e.g. M. xxxi, C 2). Tua signified “2” (M. lii, 2), the suffix -na being “district” as in mia-na “city-district”, so that the whole name could be written in rebus-fashion “double-district”.
page 751 note 1 Or Ewinias; the corresponding Greek is Οἰνίας.
page 752 note 1 In M. xxx 'Ati is the name of the goddess who is further symbolized by a bird (like Khalmis), and corresponds to the 
of the North Syrian Aramaic inscriptions. According to Steph. Byzant. s.v. Δαοδίκεια, ἂθα signified “god” in North Syria. On the other hand, the knife has the value of ti as well as mi, so that the royal name could be read Ar'attin.
page 752 note 2 In C i. A 11. a 4, the horse's head, with the wing of Pegasos (the symbol of divinity), is explained by NINA.
page 753 note 1 So, too, Philostratus, in his Life of Apollonius of Tyana (xix)Google Scholar: πχαία Nῖνος.
page 754 note 1 Nas 
and mes 
are constantly confounded together in the later texts. They are both derived from the same pictograph and the second ought to be a separate character 
the clenched hand throwing a speck oft the thumb.
page 754 note 2 See C ii. A 12. 3, where “the river(s) of the River-town of Nina” are mentioned. The same name appears to be inscribed on one of Schlumberger's seals (M. xl, 17); on another seal (xlv, 3) the place of Nina is taken by that of the Sun-god. How the name was pronounced I do not know. Could it have been the city of Nî which plays so large a part in the Egyptian records ?
page 755 note 1 According to Strabo (xii, 1) its chief city was Komana, so that it would correspond to the Kizzuwadna of the Boghaz Keui inscriptions.
page 755 note 2 Cf. the Cilician names '′Iμαχ and '′Iμνην.
page 756 note 1 MÈ, MIYA, may be used ideographically so that instead of yamèyis we should read ya MlYA-yis “belonging to this city”. The divinity claimed by the king is reflected in the first word of the inscription where amei “I am” is expressed by the winged man with the eagle's head, the symbol of the Sun-god. Similarly in C ii. A 15. b 1, the name of Imêis is written with the same symbol, and in C i. A 6. 8, we have an a-AMÈ Wanatî kuis “This for the Venetan swordsman he has made”, where AMÈ is the eagle-headed man. Elsewhere in the same phrase instead of the latter we have the usual ami(s); e.g. C i. A 11. a 6, an ami-i ati-MIYA Wanatî kuîs; M. xi, 4, ami-i kuwi an amî Wanatis kuis, “For the swordsman I have made, making it, (being) a Venetan by origin.” “Swordsman” is here represented by the racing legs which elsewhere interchange with amis. At Yasili Kaya the twelve racing “Corybants” follow the high-priest (M. xxvii, A.) and the weapon they carry is the Egyptian khopesh. In the Ashmolean Carchemish text, on the other hand, the symbol of the armed defenders of the fortress is a dagger and the name of the armed priest, a-mis, is literally “dirk-man”. In Samothrace it may be noted the Corybantes were nine in number only.—In my copy of the original the character which follows Khattu is tu, not mia.
page 758 note 1 In M. xlviii, 3, my copy of the original shows that we should read GU 
page 759 note 1 C i. denotes Hogarth, , Carchemish, pt. i (1914)Google Scholar; C ii. Woolley, and Lawrence, , Carchemish, pt. ii (1921)Google Scholar; M. = Messerschmidt, , Corpus Inscriptionum Hettiticarum (1900–1906)Google Scholar; ASS. = Andrae, , Hettitische Inschriften auf Bleistreifen aus Assur (1924)Google Scholar.