Note 22 — Chapter VI

We may confidently regard the phrase as referring to the Anatolian Hittites, whose capital at Boghaz Keui must have been founded far earlier than the end of the fifteenth century when we know that it bore the name of Khatti. It is true that, after the southern migration of the Hittites in the twelfth century, Northern Syria was known as "the land of Khatti," but, if the invasion of Babylonia in Samsu-ditana's reign had been made by Semitic tribes from Syria, no doubt the chronicler would have employed the correct designation, Amurru, which is used in an earlier section of the text for Sargon's invasion of Syria. In the late omen-literature, too, the use of the early geographical terms is not confused. Both chronicles and omen-texts are transcripts of early written originals, not late compilations based on oral tradition.