Pala pa-là-a | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bronze Age Anatolia | |||||||||
| Common languages | Palaic | ||||||||
| Religion | Palaic religion | ||||||||
| Historical era | Bronze Age | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Turkey | ||||||||
Pala was an ancient region of Anatolia to the northwest of Hattusa at the time the Hittites took control of the land of Hatti. Its inhabitants spoke an Indo-European language called palaumnili and appear to have coexisted with the Hattians for centuries prior. They are lost to history with the advance of Kaskian peoples from the east in the early 1500s BC.
The exonym "Pala" is always written as pa-là-a in Hittite records. [1] It appears to have been bestowed upon Palaic-speakers ("palaumnili") by the Hattians. [2] [3] It may have originated from the Sumerian ba.la [4] denoting a trade relationship [5] with peoples on the fringes of Sumerian territory. [6] Due to allophone variation over time (and exposure to different language speakers), the linguist Robert S. P. Beekes determined "P/Bla" to be the correct reading of Hittite Pal. [7]
The land of Pala has been localized northwest of Hattusa [8] beyond the northern course of the Maraššantiya. [9] It bordered Tummana to the east, Kalasma to the west and Kaissiya to Mount Asharpaya toward the south. [10] It likely corrresponded in whole or in part with the classical Paphlagonia [11] and the classical Blaene. [10] The primary Palaic settlement known to the Hittites may have been located at modern day Kargi. [12] Its westward extent remains unknown, [3] though Bryce believed it was situated 600 km to the east of ancient Troy. [13]
Palaumnili is the oldest Indo-European language of Anatolia, [14] the least attested [3] and was dead or dying by the time of the Hittites. [15] It has been speculated that Palaic-speakers were never literate, that Hittite scribes relied upon syllabary to incorporate their traditions into the state cult [3] and that they may have entered Anatolia as early as 3000 BC. [16] This is proximate in time to the Indo-European invasion [17] of the Anatolian/Lesser Armenian region of Palu/Palua [18] in modern Elazığ Province, for which the Kızılırmak river would have been a natural route into Anatolia [19] northward beyond the Hattic speaking region. [2] Linguistic analysis shows extensive interaction between the two languages, suggesting a prolonged period of contact between the two peoples. [15]
The Hittite laws may have been drafted as early as 1650 BC. [20] They mention Pala as one of two bordering lands (the other being Luwiya) where the people spoke a different language [21] and where "different treatment was applied when a felony over which Hatti had jurisdiction was perpetrated outside of the boundaries of the kingdom." [3] This land existed prior to the arrival of the Hittites and was too far removed from the predominent trading networks of the Mesopotamian-centered world to have garnered much notice:
"Given Pala's presumed localization...it was certainly far too decentered to be involved in the easternmost portions of the Old Assyrian commercial network and, in all likelihood, was not part of it at all. It may have been involved in western interregional networks of which we possess no written records...A sound conclusion is that Pala was at the extreme boundary of the area covered by the Old Assyrian trading networks and, if Palaeans were present at all in the karum society of Kanes, they probably formed an even smaller minority than the Luwians and left no recognizable trace of their existence in the available documents." [3]
In the absence of written records there are only the concentrations of "b/p-l" [7] toponyms and ethnonyms of uncertain origin emenating from west of the Kızılırmak: Classical Blaene, [12] Bolu, [22] Balikesir, [23] Istanbul, [24] Buldan, [25] Bala, [26] Bolvadin, [27] Hapalla, [28] and Pelasgians [29] among others. It is found in Linear B as well (ta-pa-la-ne) but remains untranslated. [30] Curiously the Black Sea toponym contains the "b/p-l" phoneme, has no convincing origin for the name and may be an example of Hungarian folk etymology applied to a prior ethnonym for the region. [31]
By the reign of Telipinu in the early 1500s BC the Hittites had lost most of their conquests and their kingdom had contracted to its core territories. [32] The Kaskians had overrun the north of Anatolia and occupied formerly controlled Hittite towns. [28] Pala thereafter became something of a border territory between the Hittites and the Kaskians. [33] Historians have historically considered this the end of the Palaic peoples, [34] though the area was still referred to as 'the land of Pala" as late as the reign of Muršili II (1330–1295 BCE). [35] The recently discovered Kalašma language may indicate a continuation of Palaic peoples further west. [36]
The Palaic religion is known from cuneiform ritual texts from the temple of the Palaic storm god in the Hittite capital Ḫattuša where the cult of Palaic deities continued even when contacts between Hittites and Pala had disappeared. [1] The following deities are known: [1] [37]
| Name | Gender/Number | Notes | Alternative Names | Hittite or Luwian counterpart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ziparwa | god | Palaic major god, storm god | Zaparwa, name of Hattian origin | Tarḫuna, Tarḫunt |
| Kataḫzipuri | goddess | wife of Zaparwa | Kataḫziwuri, name of Hattian origin | Kamrušepa |
| Tiyaz | god | sun god | Tiyad | Sun god of Heaven, Tiwaz |
| Gulzannikeš | goddesses | fate goddesses | Gulzikannikeš | Daraweš Gulšeš |
| Ḫašamili | god | Ḫašammili, name of Hattian origin | ||
| Inar | goddess | |||
| Kamama | god | Kammamma | ||
| Hearth | deity | hearth deity | ||
| Šaušḫalla | deity | Šaušḫilla | ||
| Ḫilanzipa | deity | Ḫilašši | ||
| Ḫašauwanza | deity | |||
| Aššanuwant | deity | Aššiyat | ||
| Ilaliyantikeš | deities | Ilaliyant | ||
| Kuwanšeš | deities | |||
| Uliliyantikeš | deities | Uliliyašši |
The Hittites were an Anatolian Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of Bronze Age West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in modern-day Turkey in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Hittites formed a series of polities in north-central Anatolia, including the kingdom of Kussara, the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom, and an empire centered on Hattusa. Known in modern times as the Hittite Empire, it reached its peak during the mid-14th century BC under Šuppiluliuma I, when it encompassed most of Anatolia and parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia, bordering the rival empires of the Hurri-Mitanni and Assyrians.
The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language.
Hittite, also known as Nesite, is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. The language, now long extinct, is attested in cuneiform, in records dating from the 17th to the 13th centuries BC, with isolated Hittite loanwords and numerous personal names appearing in an Old Assyrian context from as early as the 20th century BC, making it the earliest attested use of the Indo-European languages.
Hattic, or Hattian, was a non-Indo-European agglutinative language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC. Scholars call the language "Hattic" to distinguish it from Hittite, the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire. The Hittites referred to the language as "hattili", related to the Assyrian and Egyptian designation of an area west of the Euphrates as "Land of the Hatti" (Khatti).
The Hattians were an ancient Bronze Age people that inhabited the land of Hatti, in central Anatolia. They spoke a distinctive Hattian language, which was neither Semitic nor Indo-European. Hattians are attested by archeological records from the Early Bronze Age and by historical references in later Hittite and other sources. Their main centre was the city of Hattush. Faced with Hittite expansion, Hattians were gradually absorbed into the new political and social order, imposed by the Hittites, who were one of the Indo-European-speaking Anatolian peoples. The Hittites kept the country name unchanged, which also became the main designation for the Hittite state.
Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of the Kızılırmak River.
Palaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Palaic, which was apparently spoken mainly in northern Anatolia, is generally considered to be one of four primary sub-divisions of the Anatolian languages, alongside Hittite, Luwic and Lydian.
Assuwa was a region of Bronze Age Anatolia located west of the Kızılırmak River. It was mentioned in Aegean, Anatolian and Egyptian inscriptions but is best known from Hittite records describing a league of 22 towns or states that rebelled against Hittite authority. It disappears from history during the thirteenth century BC.
The Anatolians were a group of Indo-European peoples who inhabited Anatolia as early as the 3rd millennium BC. Identified by their use of the now-extinct Anatolian languages, they were one of the oldest collective Indo-European ethno-linguistic groups and also one of the most archaic, as they were among the first peoples to separate from the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who gave origin to the individual Indo-European peoples.
Kussara (Kuššar) was a Middle Bronze Age kingdom in Anatolia. The kingdom, though apparently important at one time, is mostly remembered today as the origin of the dynasty that would form the Old Hittite Kingdom.
The Kaska were a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontic Anatolia, known from Hittite sources. They lived in the mountainous region between the core Hittite region in eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea, and are cited as the reason that the later Hittite Empire never extended northward to that area. They are sometimes identified with the Caucones known from Greek records.
Zalpa were ancient regions mentioned in Assyrian, Mari and Hittite records. The toponyms appear in a variety of forms and contexts and likely refer to multiple similarly named regions. They have been located on the Pontic coast of the Black Sea, along the Euphrates in northern Mesopotamia and along the Balikh river in northern Syria.
The Luwians were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite New Kingdom, Luwian replaced Hittite as the empire's dominant language. In the early Iron Age, a number of Luwian-speaking Neo-Hittite states arose in northern Syria. The Luwians are known largely from their language, and it is unclear to what extent they formed a unified cultural or political group.
The following is a list of regions of Ancient Anatolia, also known as "Asia Minor." The names reflect changes to languages, settlements and polities from the Bronze Age to conquest by Turkic peoples.
Purushanda was an Anatolian kingdom of the early second millennium prior to the common era. It was conquered by the Hittites circa 1700 BC. The name disappears from history soon thereafter.
Tarḫunna or Tarḫuna/i was the Hittite weather god. He was also referred to as the "Weather god of Heaven" or the "Lord of the Land of Hatti".
Ziparwa, originally known as Zaparwa, was the head of the pantheon of the Palaians, inhabitants of a region of northern Anatolia known as Pala in the Bronze Age. It is often assumed that he was a weather god in origin, though he was also associated with vegetation. Information about the worship of Ziparwa comes exclusively from Hittite texts, though some of them indicate that formulas in Palaic were used during festivals dedicated to him held in Hittite cities such as Hattusa.
Pasuhalta was an ancient region of Anatolia and one of the lands of the Assuwa coalition that opposed the Hittites toward the end of the fifteenth century BC. It is named only in the Annals of Tudḫaliya, a text that chronicled the acts of Hittite monarch Tudḫaliya I.
Ištanuwa was a town in Bronze Age Anatolia located along the Šaḫiriya river and known to the Hittites as the site of a regional religious festival. Its inhabitants were Luwic speakers. Cultic practices associated with the town are believed to have been antecedents of the same tradition that spawned the Illiad and the Odyssey.
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