ANATOLIAN CIVILIZATIONS I - LINES (2500-2200 BC)
The oldest known name of the Anatolian peninsula is "Hatti Country". This name was first used in writing in the Mesopotamian kingdoms of Akkads and Assyrians until 600 BC. In other words, Anatolia was called the Land of Hatti for 1500 years.
Even the Hindo-European tribe, who occupied the Hatti country in 2200 BC, continued to be referred to as Hatti by the philologists who first read the Hattusa (Boğazköy) tablets. However, they called themselves "Generations" and the language they spoke was Nesice.
The philologists could not name the descendants of the Hatties as Generation, but based on the words "Heth" and "Hittim" defined there, looking at the Old Testament, in German "Hethiter", English "The Hittites", French "Les Hittites" and Italian "Gli Ittiti. "It was deemed appropriate to use. Although "Eti" was used in Turkish for a while, now "Hittite" is settled. The Hittites that came and settled later cannot be called Proto-Hatti because they are a very different tribe from the Hatties.
Hatti is a protohistoric civilization. In other words, it can be defined with the concept of pre-date, not belonging to the known written history. Calligraphers did not use writing. We learn all the information about the language, religion, customs and traditions they apply in social life through the Hittites that came later.
We don't know much about the Hatti language. According to what is learned from the tablets left over from the Hittites, there were also prayers in Hattic among the rituals that the Hittite priests performed in their own language during religious rites. In the translations made, the statement "the priest is now speaking in Hattili" was found. Hattus used a language that was formed in a completely different way to the language structure used by the Indo-European tribes. Especially Prefix was a used language. For example, Alum means God. Wa means plural suffixes. Shapu = God, Wasapu = means Gods. In other words, if we apply it to Turkish, the God singular is the plural of the Laritan.
The Gods of the Hittites are also taken from the Hatti Gods. The Hittites were seriously affected by the Hatties in terms of language. Many kings of the Hittites took their names from the Hattice mountain names. Tuthaliya, Arnuvanda, and Ammuna are originally mountain names of Hatti origin, but they are also Hittir kings. Hattus is the name of the capital city of the Hattus and it is Hattic. The Hittites tried to translate it into their own language by adding a or ash to the end. The suffix "ili" added to the end indicated that it belonged there. So when Hattusili was mentioned, it meant Hattusha. The Hittites used the suffixes "il, ul, al" in Hattic as "ili, ula, ala" in their own language.
The Hatti also influenced the Hittites with their God. The major Gods in the Hitti Pantheon were taken from the Hatties. The Hittites' Sun Goddess, her husband the Storm God, and the children and grandchildren of these gods all continued their duties as the Hittite God.
The presence of animals such as bulls and deer, which are also found in the sun discs, showed the existence of theriomorph (animal shaped) gods. The bull was the symbol of their greatest god, the god Sky. There is a possibility that these are from the Hittites. Because the Gods of the Hatti were not animal-shaped but human-shaped gods. So the Hatti gods were anthropomorphs (anthropomorphic). Each of the Hatti gods had names and was depicted as male and female. The animal-shaped gods resembled the Hittite gods with an interesting resemblance to the shapes of the Maikop Civilization gods from the South Russian civilizations, possibly where the Hittites came from.
According to Hatti belief, the Earth was standing on the horns of an ox. During the rituals, as the priests moved the Bull standing on a stick left and right, the ceramics on the bull figurine sounded and formed the music of the ritual.
His myths named God of the Moon Falling from the Sky were written in both Hittite and Hatti language. Actually the story came from the Hatti, but the Hittites did not hesitate to use it. The myth briefly described the lunar eclipse and the subsequent downpour;
“Kasku moon God fell from heaven.
Now he fell on Kilammar (temple).
However, nobody saw him.
Now God (God of Sky) poured rain behind him.
And he sent rain showers after him.
Fear took him.
Fear took him.
Hapantalli went downstairs beside him,
He spoke to him then
Are you coming
What are you doing? “
Since the Hatti did not have writings, they did not need literacy in their internal communications. They only used Assyrian officials in communications and trade situations with other kingdoms and used Assyrian writing.
Hatti did not come from anywhere. They were the community that always lived in Anatolia. Maybe they may be a community of many different cultures that came with eyes many years ago, but as a tribe, they did not come to Anatolia from outside like the Hittites, but they have always been there.
In time, the Hatti grouped together and formed small principalities. The Hittites established their own kingdom by seizing these principalities of the Hatti one by one in 2200 BC. However, even though the administration was in the hands of the Hittite kings, the majority of the people were Hatti. Perhaps that is why the Hatti influence continued to persist in religious rituals or languages.
Hatti graves were not found during the excavations in Alacahöyük. Approximately 13 tombs belonging to kings are thought to belong to the Hittites. As we mentioned before, the tombs are similar to the Maikop Civilization in Southern Russia. The dead were buried in tombs with pits dug into the soil 50-70 cm deep, 3-8 meters long and 2-5 meters wide. The dead were buried in the hocker stance (squatting, a kind of squatting), on the right side and as if facing south. They were buried with their dead clothes, gifts and personal belongings. This means that the Hatti also believed that there was life after death. For this reason, they also took with them the things they liked and valued. The tomb was then surrounded by stones, and they first covered the grave with trees or firewood and then poured soil over them. In this way, they ate the sacrifice they slaughtered at the beginning of the grave after the work of the tomb was finished and left the bones left over from it on the grave. In this way, the burial was the same as the other Hindo + European civilizations, Maikop, Mycenaean, and Phrygis, aside from the posture of the deceased.
A situation understood from the explanations above is as follows; The Hittites came to Anatolia from the Caucasus. However, when the Hittites came to Anatolia, although they were superior to the Hatties as a military power, the Hatti were superior to the Hittites in terms of civilization. Therefore, the Hittites took many different practices in the Hatti Country they conquered into their own structures and were respectful to the Hatti. The biggest difference of the Hittites from the Hatties was that they had structures and administrators that could form a state.
Many valuable ancient artifacts belonging to the Hatties and of course the Hittites from Anatolian civilizations have been smuggled abroad in time by the enthusiasts who once studied and researched the region. According to the researches on this subject, Koutoulakis, a Greek living in France who had a share in the exportation of the works between 1955 and 1957, but a German GE Von Aulock who previously collected coins in Anatolia with the permission of the official authorities, kept his house in Bebek and went abroad. was able to remove. These artifacts, called the Horoztepe Hoard, now consist of 41 pieces and are exhibited in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Source: Anatolian Cultural History, Ekrem Akurgal p.15-34
