How did Hittite cuneiform tablets help historians understand Hittite society?

The discovery of approximately 30,000 Hittite cuneiform tablets, primarily from the royal archives at Hattusa, has provided historians with a comprehensive record of Hittite civilization. These documents have been instrumental in reconstructing the following aspects of their society:123

• Political and Legal Structure: Tablets include state treaties, administrative records, and legal texts that detail family relations, property rights, land tenure, and commodity prices. They also reveal the king's role as a military leader, supreme judge, and the earthly deputy of the storm god.134
• Social Organization: The texts clarify that Hittite society was essentially feudal and agrarian, consisting of freemen, artisans, and slaves. Trial records, which often contain depositions from witnesses and respondents, offer unique insights into civil disputes and daily social interactions.43
• Religion and Culture: A significant portion of the corpus is dedicated to religious life, including myths, rituals, hymns, and prayers. These records highlight a tolerant polytheism that incorporated indigenous Anatolian, Syrian, and Hurrian deities.134
• Diplomacy and Literacy: The archives contain correspondence with foreign powers in Akkadian, the diplomatic language of the era, demonstrating the sophisticated training of Hittite scribes.1