Hittite hieroglyphic writing

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June 17, 2026

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Hittite hieroglyphic writing was a system used in Asia Minor and northern Syria from approximately 1500 to 600 BCE. This script, composed of pictorial symbols, was partly ideographic and partly phonetic. It was used to write the language known as Hieroglyphic Hittite.1

The hieroglyphs were likely invented in Anatolia during the 2nd millennium BCE and were primarily used for writing the Luwian language, which is related to Hittite. While most signs are ideographic, some represent phonetic syllabic values. The earliest evidence of Hieroglyphic Luwian appears on personal seals from the Old Hittite period, with full texts emerging later during the New Empire. These inscriptions are mostly monumental, found on stone, and commemorate rulers' achievements.2

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epigraphy
The decipherment of ancient languages
…a true decipherment because the script was a relatively common variety of syllabic cuneiform. The interpretation was helped by the nature of the writing on the one hand (including intelligible ideograms, while an alphabet yields no such clues), and by the presence of Akkadian-Hittite bilinguals on the other; the soon-recognized…
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…a true decipherment because the script was a relatively common variety of syllabic cuneiform. The interpretation was helped by the nature of the writing on the one hand (including intelligible ideograms, while an alphabet yields no such clues), and by the presence of Akkadian-Hittite bilinguals on the other; the soon-recognized…
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Anatolia
The Hittite occupation of Anatolia
…with the pictographs commonly called Hittite hieroglyphs; and the more obscure Palaic, spoken in the northern district known in classical times as Paphlagonia.
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…with the pictographs commonly called Hittite hieroglyphs; and the more obscure Palaic, spoken in the northern district known in classical times as Paphlagonia.
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