Writing in Anatolia: Imported and indigenous systems

Abstract

Writing was used in Anatolia as a cultural import in the form of clay tablets with the Cuneiform script during the periods of the Assyrian merchant colonies (c. 2000–1800 B.C.), and the Hittite Empire (c. 1650–1200 B.C.). The Hittites borrowed the Cuneiform script and adapted it to writing their own language and those of their neighbours including the western Luwians. For their monumental inscriptions on stone, however, and also on their seals, they used a Hieroglyphic script, which is known for the peripd c. 1500–1200 B.C. When the language of these inscriptions can be identified, it can be seen to be Luwian not Hittite. With the fall of the Hittite Empire, the practice of writing Cuneiform clay tablets was discontinued, but the tradition of writing Hieroglyphic Luwian continued in the Late Hittite states (c. 1000–700 B.C.). This is found mainly on stone monuments, but the survival of a few letters and economic texts written on lead strips show that it had a wider use, presumably on perishable material. The Hieroglyphic script seems to have originated in Western Anatolia with the Luwians, and shows closer links with the Aegean writings of Crete and Greece than with Mesopotamian Cuneiform.

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