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Pala (Anatolia)

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Pala
pa-là-a
Bronze Age Anatolia
Bronze Age Anatolia

Common languagesPalaic
Religion
Palaic religion
Historical eraBronze Age
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Hattians
Paphlagonia
Today part ofTurkey

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.

Etymology

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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]

Geography

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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]

Origins

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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 corresponds 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]

History

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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]

Religion

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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

References

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  1. ^ a b c Popko, M. (2008). Völker und Sprachen Altanatoliens. Germany: Harrassowitz. Google Books
  2. ^ a b Watkins, Calvert. (2006). "An Indo-European Linguistic Area and Its Characteristics: Ancient Anatolia, Areal Diffusion as a Challenge to the Comparitive Method?" Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance: Problems in Comparative Linguistics. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Giusfredi, F., Pisaniello, V., Matessi, A. (2023). Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World: Volume 1, The Bronze Age and Hatti. Netherlands: Brill.
  4. ^ R. Borger, Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon (MZL), Münster (2003)
  5. ^ Van De Mierroop, Marc (2007). A history of the ancient Near East, ca 3000-323 B.C. (2 ed.). Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-4051-4911-2.
  6. ^ Vanstiphout, H. L. J. (2004). Epics of Sumerian Kings: The Matter of Aratta. Netherlands: Brill.
  7. ^ a b Beekes, R. S. P. (2002). "The Origin of the Etruscans." Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen,Amsterdam. Robert Beekes
  8. ^ Powell, B. B. (2012). Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization. Germany: John Wiley & Sons.
  9. ^ Archi, Alfonso. (2015). "Hittite Religious Landscapes." Sacred Landscapes of Hittites and Luwians: Proceedings of the International Conference in Honour of Franca Pecchioli Daddi, Florence, February 6th-8th, 2014. (2015). Italy: Firenze University Press.
  10. ^ a b Corti, Carla. (2017). "The North: Hanhana, Hattena, Istahara, Hakpis, Nerik, Zalpuwa, Tummana, Pala and the Hulana River Land." Hittite Landscape and Geography, p.234. Netherlands, Brill, 2022.
  11. ^ Sasson, J. M. (1995). Civilizations of the Ancient Near East: pt. 9 Language, writing, and literature. pt. 10. Visual and performing arts. pt. 11. Retrospective essays. United Kingdom: Scribner.
  12. ^ a b Frayne, D. R., Stuckey, J. H. (2021). A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East: Three Thousand Deities of Anatolia, Syria, Israel, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria, and Elam. United States: Penn State University Press.
  13. ^ Bryce, Trevor. The Trojans & Their Neighbours, p. 140. United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2006.
  14. ^ Mosetto, M. (2018). Origins of European Peoples: Part One: Ancient History. United States: AuthorHouse UK.
  15. ^ a b Yakubovich, Ilya. (2010). Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Division of the Humanities In Candidacy For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago. Academia.edu
  16. ^ Collins, B. J. (2007). The Hittites and Their World. United States: SBL Press.
  17. ^ Frangipane M. (2015). "Different types of multiethnic societies and different patterns of development and change in the prehistoric Near East." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(30), 9182–9189. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419883112
  18. ^ Çifçi, A. (2017). The Socio-Economic Organisation of the Urartian Kingdom. Netherlands: Brill.
  19. ^ Anatolian Studies. (2005). United Kingdom: British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara.
  20. ^ From: Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., The Library of Original Sources (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1901), Vol. III: The Roman World, pp. 9-11.
  21. ^ Gurney, O. R. (2016). The Hittites. (n.p.): Hauraki Publishing.
  22. ^ Burney, C. (2018). Historical Dictionary of the Hittites. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  23. ^ Macqueen, J. G. (1975). The Hittites and Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor. United Kingdom: Westview Press.
  24. ^ Grinevetsky, S. R., Zonn, I. S., Zhiltsov, S. S., Kosarev, A. N., Kostianoy, A. G. (2014). The Black Sea Encyclopedia. Germany: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
  25. ^ Ramsay, W. M., W. M., R. (2010). The Historical Geography of Asia Minor. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
  26. ^ Matsumura, Kimiyoshi and Weeden, Mark. (2022). "Central West: Archaeology." Hittite Landscape and Geography. (2022). Netherlands: Brill.
  27. ^ Oreshko, Rostislav. (2019). "The Last Foothold of Arzawa." Hrozný and Hittite: The First Hundred Years. (2019). Netherlands: Brill.
  28. ^ a b Garstang, J. (2017). The Geography of the Hittite Empire. United Kingdom: British Institute at Ankara.
  29. ^ Lambright, Tristn, "In Search of the Pelasgians: Discursive Strategies and Greek Identities from the Archaic Period to the Roman Imperial Era" (2022). Theses. 45. https://digitalcommons.jsu.edu/etds_theses/45.
  30. ^ Stubbings, F. H. (1964). ΣΗΜΑΤΑ ΛΥΓΡΑ [Review of On the Knossos Tablets; The Date of the Knossos Tablets, by L. R. Palmer & J. Boardman]. The Classical Review, 14(3), 308–311. http://www.jstor.org/stable/706445
  31. ^ Karatay, Osman. (2011). "On the origins of the name for the ‘Black Sea’." Journal of Historical Geography, Volume 37, Issue 1, Pages 1-11.
  32. ^ Brandau, B., Schickert, H. (2001). Hethiter: die unbekannte Weltmacht. Germany: Piper.
  33. ^ Glatz, C., & Matthews, R. (2005). Anthropology of a Frontier Zone: Hittite-Kaska Relations in Late Bronze Age North-Central Anatolia. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 339, 47–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25066902
  34. ^ Ramat, Anna Giacalone; Ramat, Paolo (2015). The Indo-European Languages. Routledge. p. 172. ISBN 113492187X.
  35. ^ Essays on Anatolian Archaeology, p. 14. Germany, Harrassowitz, 1993.
  36. ^ "The Language of Kalašma: A New Branch of Anatolian". www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
  37. ^ Piotr Taracha: Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia. Wiesbaden 2009, p. 58-59.
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