TheHattians (/ˈhætiənz/) were an ancientBronze Age people that inhabited the land ofHatti, in centralAnatolia (modernTurkey). They spoke a distinctiveHattian language, which was neitherSemitic norIndo-European. Hattians are attested byarcheological records from theEarly Bronze Age and by historical references in laterHittite and other sources. Their main centre was the city ofHattush. Faced with Hittite expansion (sincec. 2000 BC), Hattians were gradually absorbed (byc. 1700 BC) into the new political and social order, imposed by the Hittites, who were one of the Indo-European-speakingAnatolian peoples. The Hittites kept thecountry name ("land of Hatti") unchanged, which also became the main designation for the Hittite state.[1][2][3]
Complex questions related toetymology ofnative names for Hattians, their land, language and capital city (Hatti, Hattili, Hattush) are debated among scholars. Later conquerors (Hittites) did not change the name of the city (Hattush). They also adopted the regional name (Land of Hatti), and even expanded its use, transforming it into the most common designation for their entire country, that grew to be much larger than the land of ancient Hattians.[4]
It is therefore assumed thatHattian designations had some special significance already during the pre-Hittite period, and it is also accepted, as aconvention among scholars, thatHattian labels can be used as designations for the pre-Hittite population of central Anatolia,[5] although it is not known whether ethnically related inhabitants of neighboring regions and city-states (surrounding the city-state ofHattush) ever saw themselves asHattians.
The use of the term "Proto-Hittite" as a designation for Hattians is inaccurate. TheHittite language (self-designation:Nešili, "[in the language] ofNeša") is anIndo-European language and thus linguistically distinct from the (non-Indo-European) Hattian language. The Hittites continued to use the term “Land of Hatti” for their own state. The Hattians eventually merged with people who spokeIndo-European languages of theAnatolian group, including Hittite,Luwian, andPalaic.
Severalarcheological sites in centralAnatolia, dating from theEarly Bronze Age (second half of the 3rd millennium BC) are attributed to ancient Hattians. The structure of archeological finds in some sites, likeHattush, reveal the existence of a complex culture with distinct social stratification. Most scholars believe that the first Hattian states existed already during the period of theAkkadian Empire. That assumption is based on some later sources, mainlyHittite andAssyrian. The epic known as the "King of Battle" (recorded in several versions from the 14th century BC onward) narrates about a war betweenSargon the Great ofAkkad (24th-23rd century BC) and king Nur-Daggal ofPurushanda, but those events are not attested in contemporary sources, that would date from the period of theAkkadian Empire.[6][7]
AHittite version fromc. 1400 BC of an olderAkkadian story also narrates some events that are related to early times, taking place during the rule of kingNaram-Sin of Akad (23rd century BC). The story describes a conflict between Naram-Sin and an alliance of 17 kings. The Hittite version of that story includesPamba of Hatti among those kings, but that inclusion is not attested in Akkadian versions of the story, nor in contemporary sources, that would date from the period of theAkkadian Empire. Some scholars hold that the Hittite version (fromc. 1400 BC) can be accepted as reliable and derived from some local sources. In that case, the narrative would contain a trustworthy tradition, thus providing a base for an assumption that the ancient Kingdom of Hatti existed already during the period of the Akkadian Empire.[8][9][10][11]
The Hattians were organized inmonarchical city-states. These states were ruled astheocratic kingdoms or principalities. Hattian regions of Anatolia came to be influenced by mightyMesopotamian polities, such as those of theAkkadian Empire (24th-22nd century BC) and the succeedingOld Assyrian Empire (21st-18th century BC), both of which set up trading colonies calledkarum, located throughout eastern and central Anatolia. During the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BC, an Assyrian trade colony existed in the city ofHattush, and several Assyrian inscriptions mention (usually by office, not by name) the existence of local rulers (kings) of Hattush, also referring to their relations with other city-states in the region.[12]
Hattians spoke theHattian language, a non-Indo-European and non-Semitic language of uncertain affiliation. Hattian is now believed by some scholars to be related to theNorthwest Caucasian language group.[13]Trevor Bryce writes:
Evidence of a 'Hattic' civilization is provided by the remnants of one of the non-Indo-European languages found in the later Hittite archives. The language is identified in several of the texts in which it appears by the termhattili- '(written) in the language of Hatti.' The few texts that survive are predominantly religious or cultic in character. They provide us with the names of a number of Hattic deities, as well as Hattic personal and place-names.[14]
About 150 short specimens of Hattian text have been found in Hittite cuneiform clay tablets. Hattian leaders perhaps used scribes who wrote in Old Assyrian. Ekrem Akurgal wrote, "the Anatolian princes used scribes knowing Assyrian for commerce with Mesopotomia as at Kanesh (Kültepe)" to conduct business with Assyria.[15] From the 21st to the mid-18th centuries BC,Assyria established trade outposts in Hatti, such as at Hattum and Zalpa.
Scholars have long assumed that the predominant population of the region of Anatolia "in the third millennium [BC] was an indigenous pre-Indo-European group called the Hattians." Another non-Indo-European group were theHurrians.[16] But it is thought possible that speakers of Indo-European languages were also in central Anatolia by then. The scholar Petra Goedegebuure has proposed that before the conquest of the Hittites, an Indo-European language, probablyLuwian, had already been spoken alongside the Hattian language for a long time.[17]
Hattian became moreergative towards the New Hittite period. This development implies that Hattian remained alive until at least the end of the 14th century BC.[18]
Alexei Kassian proposed that theNorthwest Caucasian languages (also known as Abkhazo-Adyghe), which are syntacticallysubject–object–verb, had lexical contacts with Hattian.[19] Inscriptions on artifacts are similar to the un deciphered Indus.
Hattian religion may be traced back to the Stone Age. It involved worship of the earth, personified as amother goddess, whom the Hattians honored in order to ensure bountifulharvests and their own well-being.[20] The Hattian pantheon of gods included the storm-godTaru (represented by abull), thesun-goddessFurušemu orWurunšemu (represented by a leopard), and a number of other elemental gods.
Later on, theHittites subsumed much of the Hattian pantheon into their own religious beliefs.[21]James Mellaart has proposed that the indigenous Anatolian religion revolved around a water-from-the-earth concept. Pictorial and written sources show that the deity of paramount importance to the inhabitants of Anatolia was the terrestrial water-god. Many gods are connected with the earth and water. In Hittite cuneiform, the terrestrial water god is generally represented withdIM. The storm gods of Anatolia were written with about one hundred catalogue variants ofdU, mostly described as theStormgod of Hatti or with a city name.[22][23]
The Hittite legends ofTelipinu and the serpentine dragonIlluyanka find their origin in the Hattian civilization.[24]
| Bronze Age | |
|---|---|
| Iron Age | |
| Classical Age | |
