Bogazköy Archive Explained

The Bogazkoy archives are a collection of texts found on the site of the capital of the Hittite state, the city of Hattusas (now Bogazkoy in Turkey). They are the oldest extant documents of the state, and they are believed to have been created in the 2nd millennium BC. The archive contains approximately 25,000 tablets.^[1]

Content

The archive contains royal annals, treaties, political correspondence, legal texts, inventory texts along with instructions, texts related to administration, mythological texts, and religious texts.^[2]

Language

Most tablets were found to be written in the Hittite language. However, some of the tablets are written in Hurrian, and a few paragraphs of the tablets are written in Hattic. Akkadian is also a common language, though it is interspersed with Hurrian and Hittite.^[3]

The first, and thus far only text in the Kalasmaic language, established to be part of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, was discovered and deciphered in 2023.^{[4] [5]}

Given that the writing is mostly in cuneiform, there are Sumerograms interspersed throughout the texts regardless of language.

Discovery

The Bogazkoy Archives were discovered in 1906 by Hugo Winckler and Theodore Makridi.

Studying

• Hans Ehelohf wrote "Hans Ehelohf and the Bogazköy Archive in Berlin" after years of studying and translating.^[6]
• Hans Gustav Güterbock studied the archive and wrote multiple books about it for over 60 years.

References

1. Web site: The Hittite cuneiform tablets from Bogazköy. 2020-07-30. UNESCO.
2. Cem p.1
3. Cem p.2
4. Web site: 2024-08-11 . Kalašma Language Deciphered: A Forgotten Indo-European Language of the Bronze Age Anatolia . live . https://archive.today/20241112182644/https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/kalama-language-deciphered-a-forgotten-indo-european-language-of-the-bronze-age-anatolia . 2024-11-12 . 2024-11-12 . The Archaeologist . en-US.
5. Web site: New Indo-European Language Discovered . live . https://archive.today/20231018212626/https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-events/news/detail/news/new-indo-european-language-discovered/ . 2023-10-18 . 2024-11-12 . www.uni-wuerzburg.de . en.
6. Holland. Thomas A.. Urban. Thomas G.. Assyriological studies. Assyriological Studies. 26. Preface. Oriental Institute (Chicago).

Bibliography

• Book: Karusu, Cem. Some remarks on archive-library/Systems of hattusa-yîoğazköy. 1996 . 10.1501/Archv_0000000039. 195978847.