The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-24
.HITTITE SECRETS
ARE LITTLE KNOWN
Archives Reveal Existence of
Powerful Empire
CLAY TABLETS TELL STORY
Important Archaeological Find Is Ex-
pected to Throw Much Light on
the Ancient World-The
Treaty With Pharaoh.

Few archaeological discoveries in the
last half century have equaled in inter
est. SO far as Orientalists and students
Of ancient history generally are concern
ed, the remarkable find of DR.. Hugo
Winckler in the ruins at Boghaz- Koi, the
evident site Of the capital of the little
known Hittite empire. Attention has
now been directed to the discovery of the
remarkable series of more than 200O tab
lets by the recent report of DIR. WinclIler,
which has just been published in Ger
many, says the Philadelphia Ledger.
DR. Winekler, who Is a professor of
history and Assyriology In the University
of Berlin, headed an expedition sent out
last summer by the German Oriental So
eiety. The ruins of the ancient city of
Piterium were reached, and what is gen
orally regarded as the archives of the
ancient Hittite empire were discovered.
The ruins of three buildings, usually re-
garded as fortresses, lie outside the
ancient city, and in the greater one of
these, now believed to be the rmains of
the palace, DIR. WinclSler found the frag-
ments of clay tablets.
Secret Nearer Solution.
These tablets are of two knds-Baby
lonian, and in a language as yet un-
known, but supposed to be a translation
or rather the Hittite language. Too short
a time has elapsed for a study of all the
tablets, but Dr.. Winckler has found
urha
Khattishi, or Kheta-sar, the mighty
chief of the Hitltes, and that mighty
Pharaoh Ramessu III. Copies of this
treaty have been known to Psychologists
for some years from the hieroglyphic in
scriptons in the temple at Karnak and
in the Ramesseum at Thebes. What is
regarded as one of the best texts of the
treaty was made by Prof Max Mueller
of this city in 1902. Professor Mueller has
twice gone cut to Egypt since that time,
representing the Carnegie institute.
There are many reasons to believe that
the secrets OF the Hittites their language
and civilization is nesrer solution today
than it ever was. From the brief study
it is known that the list of their gods is
practically the same as those in the
Babylonian tablets. Reference has also
been made in DIR. Wnckler's report to a
silver tabet-a kind of steel-upon which
the treaty between tn Hittites and the
Egyptians was evidently inscribed This
silver tablet most probably was the doc
ument" which the great chief of the Hit
tites sent to Ramessu H. In the Egyptian
inscriptions mention is made of a silver
tablet, and the now famous treaty may
be, in a measure, the key to the unknown
decipherment of the monuments of Egypt
Hittites Powerful People
Very little is positively known about the
Hittites, who seem to have been power
full people. Scholars for some time have
recognized, however, that Asia Minor was
the great theatre of the Hittite civiliza-
ton, as the strength of the empire
founded by the Hittites was such that IL
the thirteenth century Il. C., III the TIME
of Ramessu IL they gave the Egyptians
a great deal of trouble, and at the end OF
fifteen years the Nile government was
compelled to complete a treaty which was
not any too favorable to Its pretensons
For a few centuries the Hittites made
trouble for the Assyrians-indeed, the
passing glimpses of this people which his
tory gives shows them as Warlike anC
strong race. For at least six centuries
they kept their ncighbors at bay, bu
finally, in the time of Sargon-I26-T35
Chat mighty prince put AN end to thu
troublesome people
The HittiteS seem to have spread iron
the interior and the northern part of ASH
Minor down to Orotes. Northern Syri'
seems to have been their center, bu
throughout Asia Minor Hittite monument
have been found in large numbers. Thu
discovery of DR.. Winckler is important a
showing that at one time their center wa
at Boghaz-K oi, and from that point the,
seem 10 have spread south. 1t also fur
nishes contirmatory evidence of the sit
of its capital.
Burclhardt. the well known traveller
| seems TO have been the first to mention
! the strangely inscribed stone he saw "A
Klamath In 1870 the American consul
| general at Beirut. j. Augustus johnson
noticed a similarly inscribed stone a
Klamath and in 1872 the Palestine Eek
uloration society sent out it's first eN
pedition, and for the first time workabl
soueezes from the stones We're made. IN
inscriptions were cut cameo-lke, ana ar
| totally unlike any other known hnSua
characters For years the l1amath IN
scriptions have baffled and puzzled a.
| who have sought to translate them Inc
were later recognized as probably Hltut
inscriptions, but up until DIR. Winckler
| discovery no key was available by whic
| their displacement could be accomplished
The French expedition to Cappadocla
| 1924 visited Boghaz-Koi, and returhe
with many Fragments or cunellorm tal
let's. Still the puzzle of the Hittote Ian
guage was unsolved. All attempts at dc
cipherment have failed. There have bee
solutions suggested by Sayee' in Eng
| land. and Jensen and Peiser, in Germany
but they have not met with acceptance
As n matter of fact, it is not known |
what class of languages the Hittite be
| longs. Jensen suggests that 1t was OF IN
Indo- Germanic group. The tablets touh
bv Dr. Winckler, however. Will IN a
possibility. according to Assyrologists
show that it has affiliations with Mitann
| of which some specimens were round
| the famous Tel-Tmarna archives ulscoV
cred i'm Egypt about fifteen years ago
| Speal<ing of the discoveries mace D
Professor Winckler of Berlin, ProIesso
Morris Jastrow, of the University o
| PENNSYLVANIA, characterized them
among the most important made TOT man
a wear, both because of the valuable ria
terial obtained by DIR. Winckler ana oe
cause of the possibilities now opehe
M for illuminating the very obscure MS
tory of the great Hittite empire.
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