The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-08-05
THE HIrTITE INSCRIPTIONS,

No little interest has been created in
the literary world by the announcement
of the discovery of the hitherto unbound
key to the Hittite inscriptions by clever
young scholar in Germany. In relation
to the empire of the Hittites, about
whom so much is said in the Bible,
practically nothing was known until
within few years. The Egyptian and
Assyrian inscriptions, however, when
they came to be read, were found to be
filled with references to them and ac-
counts of their doings, together with
many portraits of them, both painted
and sculptured. From these datas it has
been learned that they were great mill
tary power, nation of warriors, whose
country extended from the Euphrates
river to the Egean Sea. So strong were
they that the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt
at the time of the Exodus was obliged to
treat with them on equal terms and to
light complexion and shaved their heads
partly, wearing pigtails and having long
thin moustaches like the Chinese. Their
eyes were slightly slanted and their
facial angle were oblique. They wore
queer peaked hats, fingerless gloves, and
boots with exaggerated points that
curled upward toward the knees. Cur
iously enough, precisely such boots and
gloves are worn to this day, it is said, by
the people in parts of the region which
they inhabited.
In spite of the fact that in the Assyrian
inscriptions mention is made of no less
than 300 Hittite geographical names and
the fact that the Hittites in 1130 B. c.,
were still paramount from the Euphrates
to Lebanon, this great empire has been
historically ignored until recently, and
it is only since 1870 that scholars have
attempted to decipher the strange hero
glyphs left behind as its only surviving
memorials. In these Investigations
Americans have been conspicuous, the
actual beginning having been made by
j. Augustus johnson, of the United
States consular service, and the Rev. S.
Jessup, missionary. These two gentle.
men, in 1870, came across some very ex-
traordinary inscriptions at Hannah in
Syria, which at once aroused the atten-
ton of psychologists everywhere. Some
of them were carved on stones that were
built into the walls of the dwelling
houses. Repeated efforts were made to
secure them, or to get copies in the
shape of "squeezes;" but the supersti-
tious Mohammedans, regarding them as
SdCTeui WOulu HOJ permit CnlS. f1nally,
with the assistance of a Turkish official,
the stones were obtained by purchase
and carried away, one of them being SO
large that fifty men and four oxen were
required to drag it a mile in one day.
Two sets of squeezes were made from
the inscriptions, one of which is at pres
ent deposited in the British Museum.
Many attempts have been made to de-
cipher them, and various men have
claimed more or less success; but their
claims are not recognized as established.
1t is stated that memorials of the
Hittites are scattered all over Asia
Minor and what has been ascertained
from outside sources of history of this
remarkable people is sufficient to make
the world eager to learn further in rela-
ton to them. 1t has only remained to
discover a key for deciphering these