SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article develops previous work on the palaeographic category "Assyro-Mittanian" which applies to a small group of Akkadian language tablets from Boğazköy displaying features of both Assyrian and Mittanian palaeography and orthography. The article seeks to demonstrate, as indeed was the position of some earlier researchers, that there is no such thing as an "Assyro-Mittanian" category per se as illustrated by these tablets. Their palaeography is Middle Assyrian, their orthography Babylonian-Mittanian. Taking a wider perspective, however, the Middle Assyrian script-type is itself historically derived from the Mittanian script-type, a hypothesis requiring further research. The term "Assyro-Mittanian" should refer to features shared by both Assyrian and Mittanian script types more generally. As a corollary, it is also possible that the process of importing these tablets to Hattusa and making copies of them introduced the apparently Assyrian and or Mittanian looking sign forms into Hittite cuneiform which are characteristic of the New Script and Late New Script ductus-types.