New Language Discovered in Ancient Hittite City

Archaeological excavations in Boğazköy-Ḫattuša, the capital of the Hittite Empire, have unearthed a cuneiform tablet containing text in a previously unknown language. The newly discovered language has been named "Kalašma" and belongs to the Anatolian-Indo-European language family. The Hittite kingdom, which existed from 1650-1200 BC, played a significant role in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. Discovered texts evidence that Anatolia was a multilingual and multicultural region, where various languages were in use, including Hittite, Luvian, Palaic, and Hattic. The tablet includes an introduction noting that an expert in rituals speaks "in the Kalašma language." This indicates that Hittite scribes recorded foreign rituals in the languages of the people they encountered. According to Professor Andreas Schachner, head of excavations at Ḫattuša, this practice was common among the Hittites: "The Hittites were uniquely interested in recording rituals in foreign languages, including Syrian and Mesopotamian traditions. They believed that gods of another region would only understand their native tongue, and therefore attempted to use it in cultic texts." Kalašma was spoken on the northwestern frontier of the Hittite Empire, likely in the area of modern Bolu or Gerede. Texts written in this language contain descriptions of daily life and festive rituals. An international team of scholars deciphered 174 tablets. Professor Daniel Schwemer from the Department of Near Eastern Languages at the University of Würzburg in Germany and Dozent Metin Alparslan from Istanbul University worked on their translation. Following the translation, Professor Elisabeth Rieken and Dozent Ilya Yakubovich from the University of Marburg conducted linguistic analysis and language identification. According to Schachner, working with the tablets became a collaborative effort: "Professor Schwemer is working on the cuneiform finds discovered during the excavations. He translated them from cuneiform into the Latin alphabet, after which the linguists analyzed and deciphered the texts." While the tablets do not contain significant historical information, they confirm the multilingualism of the Hittite Empire and its flexible approach to incorporating conquered peoples into its religious and political system. The research results have already been published in digital form in Professor Schwemer's work, Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköy. The official publication of the Kalašma language texts is planned for the coming months. Professor Schachner emphasizes the importance of this find for studying the region's history: "This discovery proves once again that ancient Anatolia was a melting pot of diverse cultures and languages. We continue to study these texts to learn more about Hittite society and its interactions with its neighbors."