The Luwian: Another Theory

Hierogylphic Luwian Inscription found at Pancarli Hoyuk

Alice C. Linsley

Eberhard Zangger is the head of the international non-profit organization Luwian Studies based in Zurich, Switzerland. He believes that the Luwians were the "Sea People" who destroyed the Hittite Empire 3200 years ago and were also responsible for destabilising the Egyptian New Kingdom. Read more here.

The Luwian populations are called by various names: Luwian or Luian or Luwi. During the Hellenistic Period they were known to inhabit Lycia, Cilicia Aspera, and Crete, which is why they are considered by some to be the "Sea People" to which many Biblical and extra-Biblical texts refer.

Zangger believes the Luwian aggression explains the enigmatic and quick disappearance of many Bronze Age civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean during a period of about 50 years around 1200 BC. This is the conventional explanation of the Bronze Age collapse, but the identity of the Sea People continues to elude scholars.

The Hittites were kinsmen of the Horite Hebrew. Genesis 23 recounts how Abraham the Habiru ruler of Edo/Edom did business with Hittites. Here the Hittites are designated the "sons" of Heth/Het (Gen. 23:2-11) and one of the clans of Canaan (Gen. 10:15). They recognize Abraham as their kinsmen, addressing him as "a great prince among us" (Gen. 23:6).

The clan of Het lived near Kirtiath-Arba or Hebron (Genesis 23:3,7), at the northern boundary of Abraham's territory. This was the location of Sarah's settlement. Here Abraham purchased a cave tomb for Sarah's burial.

It is evident that the Hittites were widely dispersed, from Canaan to the kingdom of Khatti in eastern Asia Minor. The Hittite Empire of the second millennium BC rivaled that of the Babylonians and Egyptians. Current research on the Hittites relate the Hittites to the ancient city of Zippalanda and to recent excavations in Turkey. The Hittite and Luwian peoples were a major influcence on the cultural development of the Aegean civilization.

Hurrians are an ancient people of northern Mesopotamia, Syria, and eastern Asia Minor circa1500 BC and possibly descendants of the Horites that inhabited the Dead Sea region and the Nile Valley. Research suggests an organic connection between the Hurrian and Akkadian languages, although this is disputed by the Russian ethnologist Sergey Arutiunov. Arutiunov believes that the Luwians are the Luwi who live in Luya, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. According to Arutiunov, the Luwian and Hurri languages are not related. I don't agree with him. There seems to be a linguistic connection, but the complexity of languages by 2300–1000 BC is so great that it is difficult to pursue all the connections.

The Luwians had their own language, Luwian, which was predominant in western and southern Asia Minor during the second millennium BC. They also possessed a distinct script, Luwian hieroglyphics, from at least ca. 1700–700 BC.

Luwian hieroglyphs continued to be used throughout the Dark Ages (ca. 1200–800 BC), while the other Bronze Age writing systems were either abandoned altogether (Linear B) or were no longer used in Asia Minor (cuneiform).

The Luwian writing system is known from quotations in Hittite documents and from ancient scripts from Crete and Cyprus.

Recent research connects the Luwian hieroglyphs and the Hittite hieroglyphs. The Luwian inscriptions from the Yazilikaya site in Turkey are connected to the Hittite religion. The Luwian scripts took two forms: (1) Akkadian cuneiform, as with the Hittite scripts found at Hattusa, because from the 21st century BC to the late 18th century BC, Assyria controlled Anatolia; and (2) Egyptian hieroglyphic. Both writings systems are connected to the Proto-Saharan rulers who dispersed out of Africa into the Mediterranean and Southern Europe.

The spoken language had properties typical of Chadic, Nilotic, and ancient Sumerian languages, which like spoken Luwian, are ergative-agglutinative languages. 


Features of Luwian and Hittite Religion

The Luwian religion is similar to that of the Hurrian or Horite Habiru religion. There is a common symbolism involving the Sun, horns of the cow, stone altars, fortified temples, a binary worldview, etc.



Yazilikaya Water Shrine at Hattusa, Turkey

The binary feature of Hittite religion is expressed in the arrangment of male and female deities. The west wall of the Yazilikaya shrine is adorned with reliefs of gods and the east wall is devoted to goddesses. A relief of great significance shows the divine appointment of a woman by the overshadowing of the Sun and the divine appointment of a ruler as one who wears the horns as a solar cradle. This is inside of Chamber A on the western wall.

Another binary aspect of the ancient heliocentric religion is the distinction between heaven and earth. The Creator, known by many names in the ancient world, was portrayed as a male. At the Yazilikaya Sanctuary he is known as Teshub, also written Teshup or Tešup (cuneiform dIM). He makes the T journey (the solar arc) over Earth. One relief at the Yazilikaya shrine depicts the gathering of the celestial beings to witness the marriage between Teshub (Sky) and Hepat (Earth).

The sky was very important to archaic peoples and anything that came from the sky was regarded as coming from the Creator. This included rays of sunlight and meteroritic iron beads. These were perceived as the Creator's semen/seeds giving life to "mother" Earth. Obviously, the Creator was perceived as male/father and the source of fertility.


Divine Appointment

Luwian is the Anatolian language of cattle-herding peoples. The Luwian hieroglyph is a bull's head with horns, the sign of divine appointment. The bull's horns are a prominent feature of the religion of the archiac rulers. It represents the widespread solar symbolism that pertained to the Creator.

It was believed that the divinely appointed ruler would be conceived in his mother's womb by the overshadowing of the Sun, the Creator's emblem. This belief was widely held among the archaic rulers in the Nile Valley, in India, in Mesopotamia, and in Southern Europe. Sargon claimed such a miraculous conception, and according to Luke's Gospel, the Virgin Mary conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).

Horus was conceived when Hathor was overshadowed by the Sun. That is why Hathor is shown wearing the Sun within the horns of the cow.

The Y image came to designate divinely appointed rulers among Abraham's people: Yitzak, Yacob, Yaqtan, Yishmael, Yeshua, Yishbak, etc. One of the signs of divine kingship was that the new born child was swaddled in a red cloak.

The Luwian: Another theory

The Luwian are also known as the Luwi. Luwi resembles the name of the Nilo-Saharan Lwo (Luo), an ethnic group that inhabits South Sudan and Ethiopia. The Luo languages belong to the Nilotic group and form part of the larger Eastern Sudanic family. This is the region of Abraham's Proto-Saharan cattle-herding ancestors.

There are many linguistic and cultural connections between the Luwian and the Nilotic Luo. Consider the word qanyty or qanitti in Genesis 4:1. Cain's mother declares, "Kaniti (Qanitti); I have gotten a man, as has YHWH."

The word qanitti is of Akkadian origin, but it is also found among the Nilotic peoples. This should not surprise us. Akkadian was the language of Nimrod's kingdom and Nimrod was the son of Kush, according to Genesis 10. The Akkadian itti, as in itti šarrim, means "with the king" or "for the king." It is attached to the names of royalty. Even today the Oromo and the Luo attach itti to names: Onditi, Kaartuumitti, Finfinneetti and Dimashqitti. That itti is associated with Nilotic rulers is evident in the name of the great Egyptian queen Nefertitti.

Related reading: Luwian Studies; Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscription from Pancarli Hoyuk; Historical Relationship Between Sanskrit and Hittite; Hittite Religion; Haplogroups of Interest to Biblical Anthropologists; The Sun and the Sacred; Abraham and the Hittites; The Yazilikaya Sanctuary; Boats and Cows of the Proto-Saharans; Binary Sets and Gender Distinctions; The Last Days of Hattusa