692 THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 



tions are written in this script. The fact that .such complicated script 

 was eiiiph)yed alongside of the (xreek attests to the great predomi- 

 nance of pre-Cjrecian civilization in Cyprus. The Lycian, Carian, 

 Pamphylian, and other scripts of Asia also trace back, at least in part, 

 to the ilittite. 



Although the hierogl3phic inscriptions are thus still unintelligible 

 to us, we have some examples of the Hittite dialects in Babylonian 

 script. Among the clay tablets of Tell el-Amarna (see Der Alte Orient, 

 vol. I, pt. 2) are found a couple of letters in cuneiform writing, but 

 in Hittite lang-uage, of the Kings Tushratta, of Mitani, North Meso- 

 potamia (ibid., vol. I, pt. 2. 2d ed., p. 1-1), and Tai'chundaral)a, of 

 Arsapi or Arzawa (ibid., }>. 5). Clay tablets in the same language 

 were found at Boghazkeu, in Cappadocia. The largest number of 

 monuments, however, was furnished })v the soil of Armenia. There 

 were discovered numerous rock inscriptions, of historical and religious 

 content, which in the characters of cuneiform script speak to us in the 

 language of the ancient Hittite people. They are usually designated 

 alter the capital of this people. Van, as the Van inscriptions. Of this 

 language, as also of the Mitani language, which is clearly related to 

 it, we already understand something, so that the documents can in 

 part be translated. But we do not gain l)y that a clear idea of the 

 structure of these languages, nor are we in condition to affirm with 

 certaint}' a relationship with other known languages. Still, there 

 seems to be these poijits of contact with the languages spoken in the 

 Caucasus, especially with the Georgian. 



The personal appearance of the Hittites on their monuments is ver}^ 

 peculiar, even if allowance be made for what may be lack of skill in the 

 representation. Anthropological investigations, such as measurements 

 of the skulls of the present inhabitants of western Asia, in whose midst 

 remnants of older races can l)e discerned, have made it probal)le that 

 the Hittites, the modern Armenians, and a part of the Jews" belong 

 to one and the same race. Their characteristics are strikingly short 

 heads (bracychphaly), dark eyes and hair, and large curved noses. The 

 latter is most conspicuous on the monuments. The Egyptian repre- 

 sentations depict the Hittites with oblong, slightly curved noses, 

 strongly receding foreheads, prominent cheek bones, beardless, with 

 short, round chins, and with fair skin. The hair is long and thick and 

 fails upon the shoulders in two strings. On the Hittite monuments 

 only one queue, and that braided, is seen, anci, besides, a large number 

 of the men wear beards. The ari-angcMueiit of the hair of the women 

 is the same as that of the men. 



« Which is, accordingly, not Semitic by race, though having a Semitic language, 

 Race affinity and linguistic affiliation do not coincide. The true Semitic type is, 

 according to the same investigations, preserved among the Bedouins in the desert, 

 and is characterized as dolichocephalic. 



