Writing on Wood in Hittite Anatolia

This chapter deals with the role of wood as a writing support in Hittite Anatolia. It takes a holistic approach, involving an integrated study of textual, iconographic and archaeological sources, as well as a consideration of the ma-terial and social contexts, detailed philological analysis of relevant passages and comparative evidence. Key issues discussed in the study are the complex relationship between scripts and script carriers, and the difficult interpretation of the Sumerogram GIŠ.ḪUR and related terms. These are shown to refer unam-biguously to wooden writing boards in the Hittite sources, with a newly recon-structed process of semantic adaptation of the Mesopotamian usage. The ap-pearance and technology of the wooden writing boards are also discussed, and the question of whether boards inscribed with ink may have existed alongside the wax boards. The final section examines the various and multifaceted con-texts in which the writing boards were used. Overall, the results of the study suggest that wood was a widely used material as a writing support in Hittite Anatolia, with important implications for the reconstruction of many aspects of administration, economy and cult practices.