Paper short abstract:

Hittites used Sumerian cuneiform script and established their own hieroglyph writing. Both scripts are applied in imperial seals framing the royalties who are related to the divine world in the seals. This paper investigates technologies of scripture combinations and their role in interpretation

Paper long abstract:

The Hittites used both the Sumerian cuneiform script and established their own hieroglyph writing. Both writing styles are explicitly applied in royal seals, side by side, framing the king or the queen. Sealing and the invention of writing are closely related in the Ancient Near East, and new writing styles accompany technological innovations in sealing.

Seals are multifunctional and afford different objectives in limited space, communicating both informational and symbolically. They are somehow part of the newspaper of the time. Most of the Hittite seals are also multilingual and enable space for the royal family to show both human and divine. As such, they are well qualified for analysis of technological possibilities and predispositions studying the relationship between text, language, and reality. This paper wants to investigate the connotations, denotations, and intertextuality of the seals' wording, imaging, and spelling and its possible bearings. Have they differed over time in structure, locality, or gender coding during the empire, influenced by technology as a part of communicating religion? Some significant seals will be used, exemplarily focusing on the effect of applied methods, highlighting the role of writing, and showing technologies. Derrida's notification of différance will be considered, as well as a historical anthropology perspective for interpretation.