THE CAMBRIDGE ANCIENT HISTORY - REVISED EDITION - VOLUME II - CHAPTER VI - ANATOLIA

Sep 21, 2026

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Revised Edition Volume II, Chapter VI of The Cambridge Ancient History presents the historical evidence for Anatolia from about 1750–1600 B.C. It discusses the Assyrian trading colonies, the development and later loss and reintroduction of writing, and the reliability limits of later Hittite copies. The chapter assesses archaeological evidence as limited, then explains why Bogazköy tablet records provide the main information. It also surveys the Anatolian linguistic and racial landscape in the second millennium B.C., emphasizing the variety of languages in the Hittite archives.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages40

Reading Time1 h 41 min

AccessFree to download

ANATOLIA

I. SOURCES

II. LANGUAGES AND RACES

THE CAMBRIDGEANCIENT HISTORY # REVISED EDITION OFVOLUMES I &II CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 八U +0 930 C14 v.1-2 fasc ## ANATOLIA c.1750-1600 B.C. BY O.R.GU RNEY,D.PHIL.Reader in Assyriology in the University of Oxford ## VOLUME II,CHAPTER VI CA M BRIDGE ncie:h:toryAT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 96 PU BLISHED BYTHE SYNDICS OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Bentley House,200 Euston Road,London,N.W.IAmerican Branch:32 East 57th Street,New York 22,N.Y.West African Ofice:P.O.Box 33,Ibadan,Nigeria C CAMBRI DGE U NIVERSITY PRESS I962 Fi prinved 92 Reprinted 1965 Printed in Great Britain at the University Printing House,Cambridge(Brooke Crutchley,University Printer) ## CHAPTER VI ANATOLIA c.1750-1600 B.C. ## I.SOURCES HISTORY begins in Anatolia with the records of the Assyriantrading colonies,described in the first volume(ch.xXIV)of thiswork.The period covered by these documents,hardly more thantwo centuries in all,closes with the disappearance of the coloniesnot long after I780 B.C.The art of writing appears to havebeen temporarily lost,for it was an entirely different form ofcuneiform script that was introduced by the Hittites about acentury later.Of the many thousands of baked clay tablets un-earthed by the German excavators on the site of the Hittite capitalat Bogazköy since work started in I906,and constituting theHittite royal archives,only a handful can be dated by their scriptas early as the seventeenth century B.C.¹However,many historicaltexts of this date have come to light in the form of later copies,inscribed like the greater part ofthe archives during the fourteenthand thirteenth centuries B.c.,2 and such copies can be used confi-dently as a first-class source for much of the earlier period.State-ments contained in them about events already past at the time ofthe original inscription are of course of less certain value,but indefault of other relevant evidence they cannot be ignored. Archaeology has comparatively little to contribute for thisperiod.Few sites on the plateau of Asia Minor survived the wide-spread destruction at the end of the Early Bronze Age:fewer stillhave as yet been excavated.The key sites are Kültepe (ancientKanesh)and Bogazköy(ancient Khattusha),³with Alisar(pos-sibly ancient Ankuwa)of secondary importance.4 Throughoutthe Middle Bronze Age at these sites there is a fairly stableculture.The occasional strata of destruction should be capable ofa historical interpretation;but no major change can be detecteduntil the appearance of‘Phrygian’pottery which marks thedownfall of the Hittite empire at the end of the Late Bronze Agein the twelfth century. 1H.Otten in G,9,12-I3. 2 For the nature and contents of these archives see §I,I and 2. 3 Interim reports on both sites are published annually in A..A.,A.8t.,Belleten,and M.D.0.G.4 See below,§III. ANATOLIA,c.1750-1600 B.C. External evidence bearing on the history of Anatolia duringthese centuries is virtually non-existent.Following the great ageof Hammurabi in Babylon and of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt,the frontiers again contracted and contacts between the nationswere few.Thus it is upon the tablets from Bogazköy that we mustmainly rely for such information as can be gleaned about thehistory of Asia Minor in this period. ## II.LANGUAGES AND RACES As a background to this history,something must be said aboutthe linguistic and racial divisions of the Anatolian population inthe second millennium B.C.A remarkable feature of the Hittitearchives,which was very early observed,is the number of distinctlanguages represented in them.1 The language in which the greatmajority of the texts are written has been given the name of'Hittite’because it was the official language of the‘Land ofKhatti’.Beside Hittite,however,we find not only Akkadian,theinternational language of the time,but also four other languageswhich were evidently spoken in parts of Asia Minor.The namescommonly given to these tongues are derived from the

FAQs

What primary sources does the chapter identify for Anatolia around 1750–1600 B.C.?

It highlights the Assyrian trading colonies described in the first volume and relies mainly on tablets from Bogazköy, since external evidence is virtually non-existent.

Why are later Hittite copies considered important but limited in reliability?

Statements in later copies about events already past at the time of original inscription are less certain, but they cannot be ignored in the absence of other relevant evidence.

Which languages are discussed as represented in the Hittite archives?

The chapter notes Hittite as the official language of Khatti, alongside Akkadian (Babylonian) and other regional languages identified via Hittite introductory adverbs, including Khattian, Luwian, Hurrian, and Palaic.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Patrick