DOI Heft:
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DOI Artikel:Sayce, A. H.: The hittite inscriptions of Kappadokia and their decipherment
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12259#0060
THE HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS
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suffixes are used and the same titles are employed. At Bulgar Maden and Jerablûs we
fînd mention of the same deity whose name is expressed by two ideographs, the second
of which is a bird. As the title of tarkus " king" is attached to the name of this deity
in J. m. 5. I am inclined to identify him with the god " U-va tar-kus ", " Uva the
king found at Hamath (H. iv. 1, v. 2, 3.) With Uva or UwAmustbe compared Uas
in the name of the Tibarenian king Uas-surwi (? " Uas is king ") in the time of Tiglath-
pileser ni. The name of Sanda, again, is found at Hamath (H. v. 3.) as well as in Asia
Minor.
It is therefore évident that not only were the same System of writing and the same
language used throiighout the tract of country which extended from Gurûn andMar'ash
in the north to Hamath in the south and frcm Jerablûs in the east to Bulgar Maden and
Ivriz in the west, but also that the inscriptions we possess in this writing and language
belong to the same era. The only différences I can find between the inscriptions is that
in those of Hamath there seems to be a more fréquent employment of phonetic characters
than elséwhere and that the formé of some of the characters in the inscription of Mar'ash
are slightly peculiar.
The only period when such monuments could bave been executed is one in which
the Hittite race and language dominated from the Taurus mountains to Hamath. During
the Assyrian epoch, so far as we'know, Hamath was under Semitic rule, and conse-
quently, though certain reasons still make me reluctant to abandon my old view of the
comparatively late date of the existing Hittite monuments, I do not see how we can
avoid referring them to an âge when as yet the Phœnician alphabet was not used in Syria.
This takes us back at least as far as the âge of David et Solomon.
1 bave said nothing about the inscription of Ilgûn, because both in style and lan-
guage it appears to difîer from the Hittite inscriptions further east. Some of the cha-
racters which occur in it are not found elséwhere, and I fail to discover the suffixes which
are characteristic of the other Hittite texts. On the other hand the ideograph which I
have conjectured to signify " Hittite " occurs in it (line 3). It may be that in the in-
scription of Ilgûn we bave a différent language from that of the other monumental
memorials of the Hittite race.
A.-H. Sayce.
P. S. — A comparison of the three last characters of line 4 in J. n. with the three
last of line 2 makes it évident that in line 4 we must read " the 9 great gods ". Conse-
quently we must assign the signification of "god " to the character which twice occurs
in H. iv. 2. in combination with kuskus "temple" and kue "image". It will further
be noticed that the word found at the end of H. i. 2, (consisting of tar with two boots,
back to back) is also found in J. n. 4.
53
\
suffixes are used and the same titles are employed. At Bulgar Maden and Jerablûs we
fînd mention of the same deity whose name is expressed by two ideographs, the second
of which is a bird. As the title of tarkus " king" is attached to the name of this deity
in J. m. 5. I am inclined to identify him with the god " U-va tar-kus ", " Uva the
king found at Hamath (H. iv. 1, v. 2, 3.) With Uva or UwAmustbe compared Uas
in the name of the Tibarenian king Uas-surwi (? " Uas is king ") in the time of Tiglath-
pileser ni. The name of Sanda, again, is found at Hamath (H. v. 3.) as well as in Asia
Minor.
It is therefore évident that not only were the same System of writing and the same
language used throiighout the tract of country which extended from Gurûn andMar'ash
in the north to Hamath in the south and frcm Jerablûs in the east to Bulgar Maden and
Ivriz in the west, but also that the inscriptions we possess in this writing and language
belong to the same era. The only différences I can find between the inscriptions is that
in those of Hamath there seems to be a more fréquent employment of phonetic characters
than elséwhere and that the formé of some of the characters in the inscription of Mar'ash
are slightly peculiar.
The only period when such monuments could bave been executed is one in which
the Hittite race and language dominated from the Taurus mountains to Hamath. During
the Assyrian epoch, so far as we'know, Hamath was under Semitic rule, and conse-
quently, though certain reasons still make me reluctant to abandon my old view of the
comparatively late date of the existing Hittite monuments, I do not see how we can
avoid referring them to an âge when as yet the Phœnician alphabet was not used in Syria.
This takes us back at least as far as the âge of David et Solomon.
1 bave said nothing about the inscription of Ilgûn, because both in style and lan-
guage it appears to difîer from the Hittite inscriptions further east. Some of the cha-
racters which occur in it are not found elséwhere, and I fail to discover the suffixes which
are characteristic of the other Hittite texts. On the other hand the ideograph which I
have conjectured to signify " Hittite " occurs in it (line 3). It may be that in the in-
scription of Ilgûn we bave a différent language from that of the other monumental
memorials of the Hittite race.
A.-H. Sayce.
P. S. — A comparison of the three last characters of line 4 in J. n. with the three
last of line 2 makes it évident that in line 4 we must read " the 9 great gods ". Conse-
quently we must assign the signification of "god " to the character which twice occurs
in H. iv. 2. in combination with kuskus "temple" and kue "image". It will further
be noticed that the word found at the end of H. i. 2, (consisting of tar with two boots,
back to back) is also found in J. n. 4.