Hittites and Anatolian Ethnic Diversity 129terms referring to the “Hittites”—Het,ha-hittˆı,hitti(singular forms),hittˆım(plural),
hittiyyot—and the historically attested term “Hatti” is purely coincidental has yet to be
satisfactorily answered.
Forerunners of the Hittite Kingdom
It is, however, clear that the name “Hatti,” applied originally to the region in north-
central Anatolia that became the Hittite homeland, was in use centuries before the Hittite
kingdom was established. We use the term “Hattian” to refer to the indigenous, or at
least the pre-Hittite occupants of this land. Historical evidence for their existence dates
back to the Akkadian king Naram-Sin (ca. 2380–2325), who lists a king of Hatti called
Pamba in a rebellion of 17 rulers against him (Bryce 2005: 10). During the Assyrian
colony period, when Assyrian merchant colonies were established through eastern and
central Anatolia (twentieth–eighteenth century), Hatti was one of the several kingdoms
that dominated north-central Anatolia.
Subsequently, a new regime of apparently foreign origin imposed itself upon the region,
and laid there the foundations of what we call the kingdom of the Hittites. Already dur-
ing the colony period, an Indo-European dynasty had established its power base in a city
called Nesa (Kanesh in the merchant texts), which lay just south of the Marassantiya/
Halys River. From this base, Anitta, second member of the dynasty, built the first
Anatolian Empire, which extended through much of the territory within the river’s
confines—the land of Hatti—and a number of regions to the south of it. Though
Anitta’s kingdom did not, apparently, survive his death, it was in a sense a forerunner
of the Hittite kingdom. For the kingdom’s official language—what we call the Hittite
language—was the same Indo-European language spoken by Anitta. In Hittite texts, it
was designated by the termsnešili,našili,ornišili—“(written) in the language of Nesa.”
Ethnic Diversity within the Kingdom
We do not know whether there was any direct link between Anitta’s dynasty and the
Hittite royal line that emerged several decades later, founded probably by a king called
Labarna. However, there is little doubt that the Hittite kingdom was established by a
group of Indo-European origin, which had achieved political dominance in the region
by the early seventeenth century. Most scholars believe that the Indo-European-speaking
peoples were intrusive to Anatolia, though they are uncertain about when they arrived—a
migration during the third millennium seems most likely—or the manner of their disper-
sal after arrival. However, we know for certain that there was an Indo-European presence
in Anatolia by the early second millennium—on the basis, primarily, of Indo-European
names in the Assyrian merchant texts. Subsequently, three Indo-European-speaking pop-
ulation groups can be identified from references to them in the Hittite texts: (1) a
group speaking a language called Palaic, located in the region of later Paphlagonia on
the southern shore of the Black Sea; in the Late Bronze Age, the region was known as
Pala. A number of liturgical texts written in Palaic are identified by the termpalaum-
nili(“[written] in the language of Pala”). (2) A group that became widely dispersed