Near Eastern Historysome men with Proto-Anatolian names seem to have risen to
high position, and even to the kingship of one city or an-
other. I0 Most, however, were to be found at the lower levels of
society. Whether princes or paupers, individuals with Proto-
Anatolian names were by 1900 B.C. fully integrated in the life
of the central Anatolian cities. It thus may be that well before
1900 B.C. a fair number of Proto-Anatolian speakers (numer-
ous enough to make Proto-Anatolian a commonly heard lan-
guage at Kiiltepe and elsewhere) had migrated to Haiti.
Whence they may have come is not known. It is possible that
in the third millennium Proto-Anatolian was spoken over most
of the Anatolian plateau; if so, it may have been introduced
into Hatti from the west or even the south. Wherever it may
have proceeded from, there is no reason to suppose that this
migration would have differed from that of Hurrians or Amo-
rites in the third and early second millennia. In each case we
would be dealing with small groups who leave a more primi-
tive and less urbanized life and take up residence in or on the
fringes of cities or towns. Kiiltepe (ancient Kanesh?), like most
Near Eastern cities of the time, was a multilingual commu-
nity, and nationalism was of little concern.
That a Proto-Anatolian or Hittite nation invaded central
Asia Minor ca. 2000 B.C. seems to be a scholarly construct,
encouraged by the belief that the Greek nation invaded Greece
at about the same time. Eighty years ago, scholars were already
curious about the "racial" affinities of what were then the
"mysterious Hittites," and various anthropological arguments
were advanced about the physiognomy (especially the promi-
nent nose) and the physical traits of Hittites portrayed by an-
cient artists. When Hrozny and Sommer showed that the Hit-
tite language had Indo-European affiliations, the immediate
and undisputed inference was that the Hittites were invaders,
who had come to Asia Minor from afar. Where they had come
- H. Lewy, CAH I, 2: 716, lists the kinglets Peruwa of Kushshar
and Warpa and Warshama of Kanesh as "either Hittites or Luwians."