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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
I. Over the last ten years, criteria for dating Hittite texts have gradually been evolving. In the first stage, so-called “orthographic” peculiarities were identified which enabled a rough division of texts into Old, Middle and Late (or Empire) texts. The Middle Hittite group was a new discovery, causing a major reshuffle of texts and a consequent re-writing of Hittite history. The two prominent studies were the pioneering one by Carruba (1969) and that of Houwink ten Cate (1970) which utilized a larger corpus of texts. The latter separated the distinctive features into linguistic and philological characteristics and added some observations on the use of topoi which he divided into groups exhibiting similarities in content matter, similarities in structure and lexical correspondencies, all typical for certain periods. These criteria were largely accepted, with a notable dissension by A. Kammenhuber and a strong scepticism by J. D. Muhly. A general survey of current subdivisions of periods is summarised by J. J. S. Weitenberg.