They wrote on wood. The case for a hieroglyphic scribal tradition on wooden writing boards in Hittite Anatolia

Abstract

The wooden writing boards frequently mentioned in Hittite texts have given rise to much debate, mostly regarding the scale on which they were used and the type of script that was written on them (cuneiform or hieroglyphs). In this paper, the evidence for the use of wooden writing boards in Hittite Anatolia will be (re-)evaluated. It will be argued that they were used for private and economic documents, and that they were written on in Anatolian hieroglyphs. Important indications of this are the distinct terms consistently used in connection with writing on wood, which point to a separate scribal tradition. Further, the form and nature of the hieroglyphic script itself and the fact that it survived after the fall of the Hittite empire confirm that the script must have been widely employed. It is thus proposed that two parallel scribal traditions existed in Hittite Anatolia: a (lost) hieroglyphic tradition on wooden writing boards used for private and daily economic records, and a Hittite cuneiform tradition reserved for palace administration.

The Wider World of Writing. Networks of People, Practice and Culture Underpinning Writing in Late Bronze Age Ugarit

“…Writing-boards, made of wood and covered in a wax writing surface, are not directly attested at Ugarit, but there is every reason to believe they were in use there, as they are likely to have been across much of the region (Cammarosano et al 2019). Famous examples are known from Neo-Assyrian Nineveh and Nimrud (Symington 1991), but probably more relevant are the board found in the Uluburun shipwreck alongside a largely Levantine cargo (Payton 1991) and the numerous references in Hittite texts to writing on wood (Waal 2011). A letter sent to Ugarit from the Middle Euphrates region mentions a ‘tablet of wax’ (RS 19.53: Cammarosano et al 2019, 131; Symington 1991, 121) and a pictorial stele found on Ugarit's acropolis has been interpreted as showing a treaty-signing ceremony, with two folded writing-boards on a table (Cammarosano et al 2019, 131; Postgate 2013, 401–2).…”

The Hittites Serve Their Gods

“…Our knowledge of Hittite religion is largely limited to the operations at the governmental level described in these documents, since the cuneiform archives of Hatti were produced exclusively by and for the use of the royal bureaucracy. Wooden tablets-which of course have not survived-were also in use among the Hittites and it has often been suggested that economic records and other documents of the general population were inscribed in this medium (see Waal 2011). That is, we know next to nothing of the worship or spiritual lives of non-elite persons in Hatti.…”

Script and Society: The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit

“…Waal 2011. Waal also raises the possibility that the Hittite boards may not have been wax-covered, with the writing being made directly on wood with ink, similar to examples from Egypt or Roman Vindolanda.…”