Anitta Text

The Anitta text is the earliest example of Hittite propagandistic historiography. The name Hittite comes from the Hittite word for central Anatolia, Hatti. The language of Hittite is Indo-European and somewhat resembles other ancient Indo-European tongues, including Sanskrit and Mycenaean Greek. It was written in the cuneiform script developed in southern Mesopotamia, thriving in Anatolia for about five centuries (ca. 1700–1180 BCE). The cuneiform script is attested in eastern Anatolia at the trading center of Kanesh by 2000 BCE. It was used by Assyrian merchants from the city of Assur in northern Mesopotamia. The Hittites perhaps borrowed the script from the Assyrian trade colonies or from cities in neighboring Syria (e.g., Emar). They modified the cuneiform system by giving new phonetic values to certain signs. The Hittite monarchs also used a hieroglyphic script to write a dialect of Luwian. Excavations at the Hittite capital Hattusha (modern-day Boğazkale) have uncovered more than 30,000 cuneiform texts in Hittite and Akkadian, the language used for international correspondence.