The Language of Geography
Hittite texts offer us not only a vast number of toponyms, but also a considerable repertoire of spatial terminology and geographical descriptions which allow us to investigate political processes and their mutually-structuring relationship with space, place, and territory in Hittite Anatolia. In this opening paper, I will focus on the language of geography to consider the roles of geographical knowledge and geographical discourse in the ideologies, strategies, and mechanisms of Hittite imperialism. Setting out with the proposition that geographic representations – be they conveyed through word or image – are subjective constructions, I will first explore how political spaces are constructed and communicated in various kinds of Hittite texts. Through close analysis of Hittite toponymy, spatial terminology, and geographical discourse, I will attempt to trace key moments and processes in Hittite history in or during which spaces, places, and territories were reimagined, rescaled, reorganized, or renamed to serve political, ideological, and/or strategic ends. Lastly, by juxtaposing Hittite concepts of (political) space and our modern analytical and conceptual units, I will highlight key methodological, empirical, and epistemological issues at the intersection of historical geography and political history.