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A 3,200-Year-Old Hittite Tablet Preserved a Language No One Knew Existe
A Hittite scribe working more than 3,000 years ago copied a ritual that included words from a language other than Hittite. Those few lines remain the only known written example of Kalašma, a language once spoken somewhere northwest of the Hittite capital. Before the tablet was identified, Kalašma was known only as the name of…
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3,300-Year-Old Hittite Tablets and Seals Unearthed at Oylum Mound Reveal a Lost Administrative Center
Archaeologists excavating Oylum Mound, a major mound site on Türkiye’s southern frontier near the Syrian border, have uncovered a remarkable new archive from the Late Bronze Age — four cuneiform tablets and five seal impressions dating back more than 3,300 years. The discovery confirms that Oylum Mound served as a provincial administrative hub under the…
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Hittite Prophecies Revealed: Divination Tablets and Royal Seals Unearthed in Samuha
Archaeologists working in Kayalıpınar, the ancient Hittite city of Samuha, in central Türkiye have unearthed an extraordinary archive of 56 cuneiform tablets describing bird divination rituals along with 22 seal impressions linked to members of the royal family and high officials. The excavation, conducted under the direction of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Maner of Koç…