About the Old Hittite and early Middle Hittite scripts

The Old Hittite and early Middle Hittite scripts are very similar, consequently, documents in those scripts cannot be precisely dated. The date of two texts commonly considered to be Old Hittite compositions is disputable, due to the presence of dU instead of expected older dISKUR (the name of the Storm-God). This younger form reflects Hurrian/north-Syrian cultural influence in the Middle Hittite period. In search of the beginning of this influence, stages of development of the Middle Hittite script are discussed, and documents relating to those stages are quoted. It is revealed, in conclusion, that the oldest compositions of Hurrian origin most likely belong to the second phase of the Middle Hittite script. Those compositions appeared in the northern Anatolian area presumably in the time of Tuthalija I. At that time, the Old Hittite script was still in use in parallel with the Midddle Hittite script.