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2 results

  • Chapter 10 - The Wooden Writing Boards

  • Theo van den Hout, University of Chicago
  • Book:
    A History of Hittite Literacy
    Published online:
    18 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021, pp 184-217

  • Summary

    An overview of all possible terms denoting wooden tablets indicates that few can be regarded as positive evidence. As a result, it is argued that wooden tablets played a secondary and even modest role in scribal communication. There is also no real evidence for the theory that they were inscribed in hieroglyphs instead of cuneiform. The strong Luwian character of the terms discussed reinforces the picture of a Luwian speaking population in the chancellery. Other issues discussed here are the objects often identified as styli and assumed to be used for writing hieroglyphs, the cursivization of the hieroglyphic script, and Hittite terms for writing.

A History of Hittite Literacy
  • Writing and Reading in Late Bronze-Age Anatolia (1650–1200 BC)
  • Theo van den Hout
  • Published online:
    18 December 2020
    Print publication:
    07 January 2021
  • 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.