New Indo-European language discovered in excavation in Türkiye

2023-09-27 04:40:01
A statue in the ancient city of Hattusa, in the Bogazkale district of Corum, Turkey. Image: Ali Balikci/AA/picture alliance

30,000 tablets have been found in the ancient ruins that were the capital of the Hittite Empire. One contains an unknown language; Its meaning remains a mystery.

In the ancient ruins of Turkey, an Indo-European language that remained hidden for centuries has been revealed, inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets. This surprising discovery took place at the Bo?azköy-Hattusha archaeological site, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in north-central Turkey.

This site was once the capital of the Hittite Empire, one of the major powers in Western Asia during the Late Bronze Age, which spanned from 1650 to 1200 BC.

The Hittites, about 3,500 years ago, captured their treaties, state decrees, prayers, myths and incantation rituals on clay tablets, using a language that could only be decoded approximately a century ago. Most of the nearly 30,000 manuscripts found were written in Hittite, although some were also found in languages ​​such as Luwian and Palaian. Now, a previously unknown language is added to this list.

Recitation in hidden language

Specifically, archaeologists found this language in an ancient ritual text written in Hittite, which hid inside a recitation in the unknown language. Given the recent nature of this discovery, researchers still face the challenge of unraveling its meaning.

However, it is presumed that it could have been spoken by the inhabitants of Kalašma, a region located in the northwest corner of the Hittite territory, in the vicinity of present-day Bolu or Gerede. Furthermore, this language shares notable similarities with Luwian, another language widely known in the Hittite Empire.

This discovery is the result of annual archaeological campaigns led by the current director of the site, Professor Andreas Schachner, from the Istanbul Department of the German Archaeological Institute.

Hittites were interested in recording rituals in foreign languages

Professor Daniel Schwemer, in charge of the cuneiform finds at the excavation, points out that the discovery of another language in the Bo?azköy-Hattusha archives is not entirely surprising, since the Hittites showed a singular interest in recording rituals in languages. foreigners.

For this reason, these ritual texts, written by scribes of the Hittite king, reflect various traditions and linguistic resources from Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia, according to the press release from the University of Würzburg.

Despite being a rare language, the unknown language is clearly related to the Indo-European languages, a family that covers an extensive geography. Professor Elisabeth Rieken, a colleague of Daniel Schwemer and a specialist in ancient Anatolian languages ​​at Philipps University in Marburg, corroborated this relationship, according to the statement.

This language family ranges from Hindi and Persian to Russian and English. Curiously, according to reports IFL ScienceBasque is one of the few languages ​​in Europe that does not belong to the Indo-European family and is only spoken in the Basque Country, a small Spanish autonomous community located at the western end of the Pyrenees, on the border between France and Spain.

Edited by Felipe Espinosa Wang.