Introduction to Hittite Language and Literature

This course is an introduction to Hittite language, literature, and culture. Hittite, the earliest attested Indo-European language (thus related to Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit) was used in Anatolia during the second millennium BCE. It survives in tens of thousands of tablets written in cuneiform script. Students will learn the basic grammar of the language and read in the original or in translation specimens from the fascinating textual legacy of the Hittites, which includes myths, prayers, laws, diplomatic texts as well as formal and informal letters. They will also become familiar with the cultural environment in which those texts were composed.