Anitta | |
|---|---|
 Bronze dagger of king Anitta | |
| Born | Anitta |
| Predecessor | Pitḫana |
| Parent | Pitḫana[1] |
Anitta, son of Pitḫana, reigned ca. 1740–1725 BC (middle chronology), and was a king of Kuššara, a city that has yet to be identified. He is the earliest known ruler to compose a text in the Hittite language.[2]
His high official, or rabi simmiltim, was named Peruwa.[3]
Anitta, according to the middle chronology, reigned c. 1740–1725 BC,[4] or alternatively c. 1730-1715 BC (low middle chronology), and is the author of the Anitta text (CTH 1.A, edited in StBoT 18, 1974),[5] the oldest known text in the Hittite language,[6] also classified as "cushion-shaped" tablet KBo 3.22,[7][8] being the oldest known text in an Indo-European language altogether. Also known as Deeds of Anitta, it is considered by Alfonso Archi as originally written in Akkadian language and Old Assyrian script, at the time Anitta ruled from Kanesh, when Assur colonies were still in Anatolia.[9] This text seems to represent a cuneiform record of Anitta's inscriptions at Kanesh too, perhaps compiled by Hattusili I, one of the earliest Hittite kings of Hattusa.
The Anitta text indicates that Anitta's father conquered Neša (Kanesh, Kültepe), which became an important city within the kingdom of Kuššara.[10] During his own reign, Anitta defeated Huzziya, the last recorded king of Zalpuwa, and the Hattic king Piyusti and then conquered his capital at the site of the future Hittite capital of Hattusa. He then destroyed the city, sowed the ground with weeds,[11] and laid a curse on the site.[12]
Anitta's name appears on an inscription on a dagger found in Kültepe and also, together with the name of his father, on various Kültepe texts, as well as in later Hittite tradition.
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