How did the ergative case work with neuter nouns in Hittite?

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Map of ancient Anatolia and northern Syria showing the geographic distribution of Anatolian languages, including Hittite, Hattian, Lydian, Phrygian, Palaic, Carian, Lycian, Pisidian, Hurrian, and Urartean. Major historical sites such as Hattusa, Kanesh, and Ugarit are marked, with the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea bordering the region. — Anatolian languages Distribution of the Anatolian languages.

In Hittite, the nominative case of a neuter noun cannot function as the subject (agent) of a transitive verb. To perform this role, the noun must instead appear in the ergative case, which is marked by the suffix -ants.1

For example, while the neuter noun wātar means "water," it cannot act as the agent of a transitive action in its standard nominative form. Instead, the ergative form witenants is used to indicate the noun as the active subject, as seen in the phrase witenants ārri, meaning "the water washes".1