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Archaeologists working at the ancient Hittite settlement of Kayalıpınar, located in Türkiye's Sivas province, have uncovered a remarkably well-preserved clay tablet containing a bird omen text...The discovery was made as part of an ongoing excavation led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Maner of Koç University's Department of Archaeology and Art History. The site, historically known as Samuha, holds immense historical importance as a major administrative and religious center of the Hittite Empire...The tablet offers insights into Hittite divination practices, particularly the interpretation of bird movements as omens. Known as "bird oracles", these texts were central to Hittite spiritual and state...

Ever since archaeologists started digging up ancient Hittite records, researchers have endeavored to link them to the legend of the Trojan War from Greek mythology. Many of these records mention prominent individuals by name. According to some researchers, King Priam of Troy actually appears in these Hittite sources. What do the facts really show? Who was King Priam of Troy? King Priam was the famous king of Troy during the Trojan War. It was his son, Paris Alexander, who took Helen back to Troy and inadvertently caused the enormous war with the Greeks. Priam himself was allegedly a powerful monarch....

The Hittite Empire emerged around 1650 BC in semi-arid central Anatolia, a region that includes much of modern Turkey. For the next five centuries, the Hittites were one of the major powers of the ancient world, but around 1200 BC, the capital at Hattusa was abandoned and the empire was no more. ... Manning and Sparks combined their labs to scrutinize samples from the Midas Mound Tumulus at Gordion, a human-made 53-meter-tall structure located west of Ankara, Turkey. ... But equally important are the juniper trees -- which grow slowly and live for centuries, even a millennium -- that were...

Yazılıkaya rock sanctuary near Ankara depicts more than 90 figures carved into limestone walls Lesser gods are seen marching toward the sun-goddess Hebat and the storm-god Teshub, the supreme deities Archaeologists believe the figures function as an ancient calendar, tracking the lunar cycles and the passing months They also explain the Hittite cosmos, divided into Earth, sky and the Underworld The reliefs were uncovered in 1834 but only now is their purpose clear

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...

The archaeological site of Hattusha, the capital of the Hittite civilization which entered the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986, was visited by a number of ambassadors in Turkey over the weekend as part of its two-day 30th anniversary celebrations organized by the governor’s office in the Central Anatolian province Çorum. The ancient site is notable for its cuneiform inscriptions, one of the most important discoveries at the site, consisting of official correspondence and contracts, as well as legal codes, procedures for cult ceremonies, oracular prophecies and literature of the ancient Near East. The cuneiforms entered the UNESCO Memory...

For thousands of years, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were the oldest epic stories that Europeans know of. But is it possible that Homer was, in turn, influenced by the stories of other civilizations to the east of Greece? We are joined by Mary Bachvarova, an expert on both the ancient Greek and Hittite traditions, to explore this fascinating question. This is episode 42 of the "Ancient Greece Declassified" podcast. A Hittite Version of the Trojan War?! | 1:03:07 Lantern Jack | 10.2K subscribers | 329,200 views | November 28, 2021

...Sapinuwa, also known as Šapinuwa in Hittite, was a significant Bronze Age city of the Hittite Empire, located in modern Ortaköy, Çorum province, Türkiye, approximately 70 kilometers east of the Hittite capital, Hattusa. This ancient city served as one of the major religious and administrative centers of the Hittites, functioning as a military base and occasionally housing several Hittite kings.The identification of Ortaköy as the site of ancient Sapinuwa began when a local farmer discovered two clay cuneiform tablets in his field and reported the find to the Çorum Museum. This discovery prompted a survey in 1989, leading to further...

The Times of India reports that the dating of charcoal and pottery discovered with iron objects at the burial site of Sivagalai in southern India indicates that the Iron Age began in Tamil Nadu some 5,300 years ago. The testing, including accelerometer mass spectrometry and optically stimulated luminescence dating, was conducted by three different laboratories. It had been previously thought that iron was first worked in the Hittite Empire, in what is now Turkey, around 1380 B.C. “The recent radiocarbon dates indicate that when [the] Indus Valley experienced [the] Copper Age, south India was in [the] Iron Age,” said archaeologist...

Smallpox: The Triumph over the Most Terrible of the Ministers of Death Smallpox has been one of humankind's greatest scourges since time immemorial. Even illnesses as terrible as the plague, cholera, and yellow fever have not had such a universal and persistent impact. Smallpox is believed to have appeared at the time of the first agricultural settlements in northeastern Africa, around 10 000 BC (2). It probably spread from Africa to India by means of Egyptian merchants in the last millennium BC (3). The earliest evidence of skin lesions resembling those of smallpox is found on the faces of mummies...

Archaeologists working at a site in Turkey uncovered a rare, threatening seal from the ancient Hittite empire, according to a report published Sunday. The terracotta seal was found throughout excavations at the Büklükale (Kaman-Kalehöyük) site in Turkey and is believed to have belonged to the Hittite royal family, according to Anatolian Archaeology. Inscribed on the seal are the words (roughly translated): “Whoever breaks this will die.” Archaeologists led by Dr. Kimiyoshi Matsumura reportedly found the seal in 2023 and translated the cuneiform, finding the surprising threat. Researchers believe that Hittite laws were focused on fines rather than the death penalty...

Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,300-year-old clay tablet depicting a catastrophic foreign invasion of the Hittite Empire in Büklükale, about 100 km from Turkey’s capital Ankara. A translation of the tablet’s cuneiform text indicates that the invasion occurred during a Hittite civil war, presumably in an attempt to support one of the fighting factions. Previously, only broken clay tablets had been found in the excavations at Büklükale, but this one is in almost perfect condition. Based on the typology and distribution of the collected pottery shards, Büklükale is thought to be a single-period city belonging to the Hittite Empire Period and...

...Excavations in Boğazköy-Hattusha have been going on for more than 100 years under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute. The site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986; almost 30,000 clay tablets with cuneiform writing have been found there so far. These tablets, which were included in the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage in 2001, provide rich information about the history, society, economy and religious traditions of the Hittites and their neighbors.Yearly archaeological campaigns... continue to add to the cuneiform finds. Most of the texts are written in Hittite, the oldest attested Indo-European language and the dominant language...

A seal impression belonging to Hattusili III was found during the excavations carried out near the village of Kayalipinar in Yildizeli district of Sivas province, located in the central Anatolia region of Türkiye.Hattusili III, one of the most famous kings of the Hittites, took his place in history with the Battle of Kadesh and the subsequent Kadesh Peace Treaty. Not only was Hattusilis successful in his military exploits, both before and after his assumption of the kingship, he and his wife Puduhepa, instituted religious reforms within the Hittite kingdom and engaged in extensive diplomatic relations with other great powers of...

Excavations at Tepecik Mound, which was a trade center in the Late Bronze Age, revealed a building used as a palace or temple in the 13th century BC and grain jars.Located in a fertile plain in Aydin, Türkiye, Tepecik Mound continues to be excavated under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sevinç Günel from the Department of Archaeology at Hacettepe University in 2004. According to the results obtained, the mound was inhabited until 7,500 years ago and agricultural products and obsidian were traded. During this year’s excavations uncovered a palace or temple-like structure and a granary with grain jars.The remains inside...

Sick Rams Used as Ancient Bioweapons Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Once, a Weapon Nov. 28, 2007 -- Infected rams and donkeys were the earliest bioweapons, according to a new study which dates the use of biological warfare back more than 3,300 years. According to a review published in the Journal of Medical Hypotheses, two ancient populations, the Arzawans and the Hittites, engaged "in mutual use of contaminated animals" during the 1320-1318 B.C. Anatolian war. "The animals were carriers of Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia," author Siro Trevisanato, a molecular biologist based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada told Discovery News....

A 3,200-year-old Mycenaean statuette has been found in the ongoing excavations at Ayasuluk Hill in western Izmir province's Selçuk district. The statuette, which reveals a possible connection between Hittites and Mycenaean civilizations in the Ephesus region, could change the perspective on the history of civilization in Western Anatolia during the Bronze Age...During the excavations carried out under the direction of associate professor Sinan Mimaroğlu of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University Art History Department, a Mycenaean figurine with a height and width of about 5 centimeters (1.97 inches), whose head and feet could not be found, was unearthed, as well as ceramics...

A 3,250-year-old seal belonging to a Hittite prince and an ancient cuneiform tablet dating back 3,400 years were discovered in Turkey's southern Hatay province... in Accana Hoyuk of the Reyhanli district...Murat Akar, the head of the excavation team and Mustafa Kemal University's Protohistory and Near East Archeology Department chair, said... "The tablet, around 3,400 years old, and the accompanying cylinder seals give us information about the administration and administrative practices of the region, especially during a period when the region was under the rule of the Mitanni Empire."He said they had found a 3,250-year-old seal during the latest excavation, adding...

Aiming to introduce the site to cultural tourism, studies will be launched soon on the archaeological site of Kuşaklı, ancient Sarissa, in the Altınyayla district of central Sivas province. Used as a summer residence by the Hittite kings about 3,500 years ago, the site will attract many visitors with the completion of the works.Sarissa was an important Hittite settlement in 1400-1500 B.C. The city, where the Hittite kings came from the capital and stayed as a summer residence, is the fifth city in Turkey that features tablet finds.Archaeological excavations started in 1993 on behalf of the Sivas Museum Directorate at...

Dr. David Neiman explores the historicity of the Biblical accounts of Joseph and the Exodus from Egypt. Joseph rises to the position of "Tzafnat Pa'aneakh" after successfully helping the Pharaoh of Egypt with his economic plans. Under Joseph's guidance all land became the property of Pharaoh. A new Pharaoh comes to power who does not favor the Israelites. They are enslaved and forced to build the storage cities of Pithom and Ramses. These cities were arsenals for the armies of Egypt. Under Seti I and Ramses the II, Egypt was on the warpath. Ramses II was defeated at the battle...