171. Luwian

 

The Luwian hieroglyphic script was used in Anatolia and Syria between 1300 and 600 BC. It was used by the Hittites and other Anatolian peoples for monumental inscriptions and on personal seals. The origins of this script are uncertain: some scholars suggest that it might be connected to other Aegan scripts, particularly Cretan hieroglyphs, others think that it might be an original invention.
This script is also known as Hieroglyphic Luwian or Anatolian hieroglyphs.

Decipherment

Inscriptions in the Luwian script were first discovered during the 19th century and were defined as Hittite. A number of scholars, including Ignace J. Gelb, Emil Forrer, Helmut Bossert, Bedrich Hrozný and Piero Meriggi identified some logograms in the 1930s, though were unable to make much sense of Luwian texts.
In 1946 a extensive bilingual text in Luwian and Phoenician was discovered in Karatepe in southern Turkey. This made a significant contribution to the decipherment, which was also helped by other texts discovered in Ugarit. Various translations and transliterations of Luwian inscriptions have been published since then. The language of the inscriptions was confirmed as Luwian in 1973 by J.D. Hawkins, Anna Morpurgo-Davies and Günther Neumann.
Scholars at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago are currently learning to reading and write the Luwian hieroglyphic script.

Notable features

• Type of writing system: semanto-phontic, consisting of logograms, which represent words; syllabograms, which represent syllables (usually V or CV); and determinatives, which give a clue to the meaning of a word.
• Direction of writing: boustrophedon (alternating right to left and left to right). Words were combined vertically along horizontal lines.
• Used to write: Luwian, an Indo-European language, related to Hittite.

Luwian hieroglyphic logograms

A selection of Luwian hieroglyphic logograms arranged according to their Latin meaning, as is conventional.

Source: http://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/luwglyph/Signlist_2012.pdf

Hieroglyphic Luwian phonetic glyphs

Luwian words can be written entirely phonetically, or as a combination of phonetic glyphs and determinatives.

Sample text in Luwian

Hieroglyphic Luvian Stele from Carchemish (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

Links

Information about the Luwian hieroglyphic script and language
http://ancientworldblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/luvian-luwian-viz-hieroglyphic-hittite.html
http://lila.sns.it/mnamon/index.php?page=Scrittura&id=46&lang=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieroglyphic_Luwian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luwian_hieroglyphs

Luwian glossary
http://indoeuro.bizland.com/project/glossary/luwi.html
Luwian hieroglyphic fonts
http://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/luwglyph/