"From now on, read in the language of the country of Kalash." And from there, the text of a tablet discovered at the Hattusa site, in central Anatolia (Turkey), was written in an ancient Indo-European language that researchers have been able to read but have no idea what it is. the meaning.
Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire, one of the great powers of Western Asia during the Bronze Age, from the reign of Hattusili I (1650-1620 BC) until around 1,200 BC. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, almost 30,000 clay tablets with cuneiform writing have been found in the city.
The texts have so far provided rich information about the history, society, economy and religious traditions of the Hittites and neighboring peoples, explains Professor Daniel Schwemer, a specialist in the ancient Middle East at the University of Würzburg.
The writings are mostly in Hittite, the oldest documented Indo-European language that was dominant in the place. However, the excavations in 2023 yielded a big surprise. Hidden among the phrases of a cult ritual was a recitation in a hitherto unknown language.
Schwemer and his team explain in a statement that the Hittite text refers to the new language as the language of the land of Kalašma, an area located in the extreme northwest of the Hittite heartland, probably in the area of the present-day city of Gerede, in the Turkish province of Bolu, in the western Black Sea region.
"The Hittites were especially interested in recording rituals in foreign languages," says the German archaeologist. The ritual documents, written by scribes, reflect diverse traditions and linguistic environments of Anatolia, Syria and Mesopotamia in the Late Bronze Age, where not only Hittite was spoken.
The Hattusa tablets include, for example, passages in Luwian and Palaic, two other Anatolian Indo-European languages closely related to Hittite, as well as Hatic, a non-Indo-European language. Now the language of Kalasma can be added to these.
The Kalasmaic text is largely incomprehensible, although experts confirm that it belongs to the Indo-European language family. Despite its geographical proximity to the area where Palaic was spoken, the text appears to share more characteristics with Luvian.
Archaeological excavations in the ancient Hittite capital began in 1907 by specialists from the German Archaeological Institute. And the tradition continues at the hands of Dr. Andreas Schachner, current head of the work on the ruins of Hattusa and who is part of the same institution.
"I was a little surprised when experts said 'we read it but we can't understand it,'" Schachner says. The tablet with the uncorroded surface appeared in a Hittite building and was very well preserved: "I am not a linguist, so I sent it to the epigraphers, who did not understand what it said. Later, when I examined the text in more detail, I saw that there was a summary in Hittite at the top," he adds.
"This is an interesting discovery that sheds light on the Hittite Empire. This people presented themselves as the 'Religion of a Thousand Gods' because the Hittites did not destroy the gods of the regions they conquered, but rather took them to their capital, they built temples for them and served them,” says Andreas Schacher.
Researchers believe that this modus operandi was a mechanism of power rather than tolerance. They could unite the people of that region by placing other gods in their own temples, including other communities living in Anatoli in their own society, showing them that they had a place within their own system. “They earned their respect by showing them respect,” the experts conclude.
