Ancient Hittite cuneiform scripts will soon be accessible online

Phys dot org ^ | October 2020 | Universitaet Mainz

[SunkenCiv]

They used clay tablets to keep records of state treaties and decrees, prayers, myths, and summoning rituals, using a language that researchers were only able to decipher around 100 years ago. Now, the Hittites' texts, which were written in cuneiform, are being made fully accessible online. The collection will be based on around 30,000 documents, most of which are written in the Hittite language, but other languages such as Luwian and Palaic will also be represented to a lesser extent. Participating in the joint project are researchers from the universities of Mainz, Marburg, and Würzburg, as well as of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. The Thesaurus Linguarum Hethaeorum digitalis (TLHdig) project will receive about EUR 520,000 in funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) over the next three years...

Hittite is particularly interesting, as it is the oldest Indo-Germanic language

"Many cultures have lost their written material, as some were written on papyrus, for example, and have not survived," said Professor Doris Prechel. The clay tablets, on the other hand, were preserved by the firing process and now provide us with information about all areas of human life in the second millennium BC. The Hittite culture is also particularly interesting from a historical point of view, because Hittite is the oldest known Indo-Germanic language. Today, Indo-Germanic languages are found all over the world and make up the family of languages that has more speakers than any other.

[SunkenCiv]

Immanuel Velikovsky, "Theses for the Reconstruction of Ancient History, Section IX", June 10, 1945

182. There was no Empire of the Hittites in the fourteenth-thirteenth centuries. The archive found at Boghazkoi belongs in its larger part to the Neo-Babylonian Empire of the seventh-sixth centuries.
183. These documents reflect the political, religious and juridical activities of the Chaldeans.
184. In the seventh century the Chaldeans were centered in Asia Minor, in an area bounded by the Black Sea, the Euphrates, and the Halys.
185. The "Hittite" hieroglyphics are the Chaldean script.
186. The presumed "Hittite" art of the fourteenth-thirteenth centuries is the Chaldean art of the seventh-sixth centuries, and is coeval with and subsequent to late Phrygian art. The bas-relief of Yasilikaya dates from the time of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Greek sculptures with "Hittite" (Chaldean) signs present no problem, neither does the silence of Greek authors about the "Hittites" of the "post-Empire" period.
187. The "Hittite" stela in the palace of Nebukhadnezar in Babylon is a contemporary Chaldean document. The lead tablets from Asaur with "Hittite" hieroglyphics, date from the last centuries before the present era.
188. The succession of the kings of the Neo-Babylonian Empire was: Nabopolassar, Nergilissar, Labash-Marduk, Nebukhadnezar, Evil Marduk, Nabonides. Berosus, according to whom Nergilissar and his son followed Nebukhadnezar, is wrong. [Velikovsky later concluded that there were two Nergilissars, the second reigning after Evil Marduk.]
189. The treaties of Subliliumas with Azaru of Damascus, with a patricide prince of Mitanni, and with the widow of Tirhaka, make plausible his identity with Shamash Shum Ukin. This would signify also that Nabopolassar was a son of Shamash Shum Ukin.
190. The people and the kingdom of Mitanni did not "disappear" in the thirteenth century. Mitanni is another name for Medes; the northwest part of Medes retained this name as Matiane (Herodotus).
191. Mursilis of the Boghazkoi texts (Merosar of the Egyptian texts), also known as Bijassili, is Nabopolassar of the Babylonian texts, Belesys of Diodorus or Bussalossor of Abydenos. Bel-shum-ishkun is another name of Nabopolassar.
192. The annals of Nabopolassar from his tenth until his seventeenth year (now in the British Museum), can be supplemented by the "Hittite" annals of his from the first to the tenth year (two variants) and from the nineteenth year on, as they survived in the Boghazkoi archive.
193. The presence of the Scythians (Umman-Manda) in Asia Minor, who in the days of Essarhaddon arrived from behind the Caucasus, is also reflected in the Boghazkoi texts dealing with the Umman-Manda.
194. The Assyro-Egyptian alliance against which Mursilis conducted a long war in the valley of the Euphrates, was the alliance of Assurbanipal and Seti (see €180).
195. Assuruballit in Harran, against whom Mursilis marched, was the younger brother of Assurbanipal.
196. The capture of Manasseh and his release are recorded in the annals of Mursilis.
197. The Median prince and ally of Mursilis-Nabopolassar was his brother-in-law, known in the texts by the name of Mattiuza.
198. The sickness of Nabopolassar, his subsequent inability to head the army, his invalid condition and his death, as described by Berosus, find their confirmation in the report of Mursilis-Nabopolassar about the first and second strokes of paralysis that befell him.
199. Nergilissar who called himself son of Bel-shum-ishkun, King of Babylon, was a son of Nabopolassar. He was the second son of Nabopolassar; his elder brother died before being crowned.
200. Nergilissar followed the policy of his father in signing international protective treaties, with Chaldea playing the part of the protector.
201. The name of one of his allies, Alexandus (Alexandos) of Wilusa, who came to Alasia (Cyprus), does not imply that the name Alexandos or Alexandros was already in use in the fourteenth century. (Alexandus of Wilusa might have been identical with Alexandros, son of Akamas and father of Chytros, who was connected with the city of Chitroi on Cyprus.)
202. The Aiavolos mentioned in the Boghazkoi texts and identified as Aioles, and connected in the texts with Lesbos, were the colonists from Boeothia on Lesbos (Thukidides I, 12ff.). This process of migration is reflected in the Boghazkoi texts.
203. Nebukhadnezar left an autobiography found among the Boghazkoi texts (the autobiography of Hattusilis-Khetasar). Like other documents of Boghazkoi it is incorrectly ascribed to a period seven centuries earlier.
204. Nebukhadnezar was the third son of Nabopolassar. Of feeble health, he was reared in a temple of Ishtar. When his elder brother died, he was given the name of the deceased.
205. Nergilissar appointed Nebukhadnezar as chief of the army and governor of Assyria. In this capacity he battled the Egyptians under Ramses II, in the second year of the latter; in the fifth year of Ramses II, raised to the station of King of Assyria, Nebukhadnezar again battled the Egyptians, at Kadesh-Carchemish.

[SunkenCiv]

One of *those* topics.

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[SunkenCiv]

[Cvengr]

I bet one of those cuneiform emails refer to Hunter Biden’s relationship to the Assyrian Kingdom. ;^0

[alexander_busek]

Can't understand why this has taken so long!

Why aren't the individual texts placed online within a day of their being deciphered?

Regards,

[Beowulf9]

This is really something. I bet the archaeologists love it.

[coydog]

Some of those tablets are complaints about a particular vendor and his lousy products (I think it was metal ignots of some kind). So nothing is new under the sun.

[ComputerGuy]

Can’t wait. I’ve always wanted to read them.

[SunkenCiv]

The main cache of tablets was cracked by Emil Forrer before WWII, and needless to say, well before the WWW. Forrer died in 1986.

emil forrer

Google

[SunkenCiv]

Don't confront him about it, or he'll call you names and storm out.

• Joe Biden Walks Off When Questioned About FBI Seizing Son’s Laptop

[SunkenCiv]

I'm glad this is happening, the future of Assyriology etc was and probably will remain uncertain.

[I-ambush]

It’s all Greek to me.

[Larry Lucido]

“They used clay tablets”

So they invented tablets! Talk about being ahead of their time.

[drop 50 and fire for effect]

Neither one of those topics is mentioned, however they do contain both a discussion of a Nigerian Prince who needs 1,000 talents of silver for an amazing investment opportunity, as well as an exciting opportunity to meet hot, willing, would-be concubines.

[alexander_busek]

The main cache of tablets was cracked by Emil Forrer before WWII, and needless to say, well before the WWW. Forrer died in 1986.

Yes, but that still doesn't explain why it took so long!

How long does it take to scan the info and post the jpegs? Actual transcriptions (in Microsoft Word files) and translations (in English) could follow...

Regards,

[SunkenCiv]

Early PDAs | Doctor Fun cartoons for June 13 through 17, 2005

[Jan_Sobieski]

Ping

[Dr. Ursus]

I heard Puduhepa was a Hittite Hottie!

[Cvengr]

You are asking archeologists why things take so long?

They work along a different timeline. They are working quickly compared to geologists. ;^)

[Red Badger]

The collection will be based on around 30,000 documents, most of which are written in the Hittite language, but other languages such as Luwian and Palaic will also be represented to a lesser extent.

Hilliary's e-mails?......................