Letters from the Hittite Kingdom (Writings from the Ancient World Society of Biblical Literature)

469 Pages·2009·3.57 MB·English

by  Harry A. Hoffner Jr.

Letters from the Hittite Kingdom
Writings from the Ancient World
Theodore J. Lewis, General Editor
Associate Editors
Edward Bleiberg
Billie Jean Collins
F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp
Daniel Fleming
Martti Nissinen
Mark S. Smith
Terry Wilfong
Number 15
Letters from the Hittite Kingdom
by Harry A. Hoffner Jr.
Edited by Gary M. Beckman
LETTERS FROM THE HITTITE KINGDOM
by
Harry A. Hoffner Jr.
edited by
Gary M. Beckman
Society of Biblical Literature
Atlanta
LETTERS FROM THE HITTITE KINGDOM
Copyright © 2009 by the Society of Biblical Literature
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
means of any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permit-
ted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission
should be addressed in writing to the Rights and Permissions Office, Society of Biblical
Literature, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329 USA.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hoffner, Harry A.
Letters from the Hittite Kingdom / by Harry A. Hoffner, Jr. ; edited by Gary M. Beckman.
p. cm. — (Writings from the ancient world / Society of Biblical Literature ; no. 15)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-58983-212-1 (paper binding : alk. paper)
1. Hittites—History--Sources. 2. Hittite language—History—Sources. 3. Hittite letters. 4.
Letter-writing—Middle East—History. 5. Middle East—History—Sources. I. Beckman,
Gary M. II. Title.
DS66.H645 2009
939'.3--dc22
2009004810
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, recycled paper
conforming to ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) and ISO 9706:1994
standards for paper permanence.
Contents
Series Editor’s Foreword ix
Chronological Table xi
Abbreviations xiii
Explanation of Signs xvii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Written Correspondence in the Ancient Near East 2
1.1.1 Primary Function 2
1.1.2 History and Linguistic Media 3
1.1.3 Oral Versus Written Correspondence 4
1.1.4 Materials 6
1.1.5 Personnel 7
1.1.6 The Royal Secretary 20
1.1.7 Languages Used in International Correspondence 21
1.1.8 Types of Letters 22
1.1.9 Literary Conventions: Common Features and Regional
Variants 25
1.1.10 Late Bronze Age Epistolary Corpora 34
1.2 Written Correspondence in the Hittite Kingdom 35
1.2.1 The Hittite Letter Corpus 35
1.2.2 Epistolary Coverage in the WAW Series 36
1.2.3 Scope of the Present Corpus 37
--
i letters from the hittite kingdom
1.2.4 Order of Presentation of the Letters in This Corpus 38
1.2.5 Transcriptional Conventions 38
1.2.6 Dating 39
1.2.7 Find Spots 41
1.2.8 Outward Appearance 44
1.2.9 Duplicate Copies of Letters 48
1.2.10 Point of Origin of the King’s Letters 49
1.2.11 Hittite Terminology for “Letters” 49
1.2.12 How Letters Were Read 50
1.2.13 Scribes of the Letters 52
1.2.14 Messengers 53
1.2.15 The Literary Form of a Hittite Letter 56
1.2.16 Address Formulas 56
1.2.17 Greeting- and Wish-Formulas 59
1.2.18 Date and Location of Sender 61
1.2.19 The Body of a Letter 61
1.2.20 Subjects Discussed in the Letters 63
1.2.21 Short Summaries of Previous Letters 66
1.2.22 Letters Quoted in Historical Texts 67
1.2.23 Quoted Discourse within Epistolary Material Quoted in
Historical Texts 69
1.2.24 The Piggyback Letter 72
2. The Letter Corpus 75
2.1 An Old Hittite Letter (1) 75

2.2 Middle Hittite Letters (2–97) 80
2.2.1 MH Letters Found at Ḫattuša (2–6) 80
2.2.2 MH Letters Found at Tapikka-Maşat Höyük (7–85) 91
2.2.3 MH Letters Found at Šapinuwa-Ortaköy (86–91) 252
2.2.4 MH Letters Found at Šarišša-Kuşaklı (92–93) 262
2.2.5 MH Letters Found at El-Amarna in Egypt (94–97) 268
contents ii
2.3 New Hittite Letters (98–126) 281
2.3.1 NH Letters found at Ḫattuša (98–122) 281
2.3.2 NH Letters found at Emar-Meskene (123–124) 367
2.3.3 NH Letters Found at Alalakh (125–126) 372
Notes 375
Concordances 397
Glossary 401
Bibliography 411
Index of Names 439
Index of Subjects 445

series editor’s Foreword
Writings from the Ancient World is designed to provide up-todate, read-
able English translations of writings recovered from the ancient Near East.
The series is intended to serve the interests of general readers, students,
and educators who wish to explore the ancient Near Eastern roots of Western
civilization or to compare these earliest written expressions of human thought
and activity with writings from other parts of the world. It should also be
useful to scholars in the humanities or social sciences who need clear, reli-
able translations of ancient Near Eastern materials for comparative purposes.
Specialists in particular areas of the ancient Near East who need access to
texts in the scripts and languages of other areas will also find these trans-
lations helpful. Given the wide range of materials translated in the series,
different volumes will appeal to different interests. However, these transla-
tions make available to all readers of English the world’s earliest traditions
as well as valuable sources of information on daily life, history, religion, and
the like in the preclassical world.
The translators of the various volumes in this series are specialists in the
particular languages and have based their work on the original sources and
the most recent research. In their translations they attempt to convey as much
as possible of the original texts in fluent, current English. In the introduc-
tions, notes, glossaries, maps, and chronological tables, they aim to provide
the essential information for an appreciation of these ancient documents.
The ancient Near East reached from Egypt to Iran and, for the pur-
poses of our volumes, ranged in time from the invention of writing (by 3000
b.C.e.) to the conquests of Alexander the Great (ca. 330 b.C.e.) . The cultures
represented within these limits include especially Egyptian, Sumerian, Baby-
lonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Ugaritic, Aramean, Phoenician, and Israelite. It is
hoped that Writings from the Ancient World will eventually produce transla-
tions from most of the many different genres attested in these cultures: letters
(official and private), myths, diplomatic documents, hymns, law collections,
monumental inscriptions, tales, and administrative records, to mention but a
few.
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