Excavators discover new Indo-European language in Türkiye's Hattusha

Archaeologists conducting excavations in Türkiye's northern​​​​​​​ Corum province, home to the capital of the ancient Hittite Empire, have discovered a previously unknown Indo-European language.

The new language was spotted in a ritual text inscribed on a tablet in the ruins of Hattusha, the Corum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism said on Thursday in a statement.

Recent archaeological work in the ancient city led by Andreas Schachner from the German Archaeological Institute has added new cuneiform findings to this rich collection.

Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, Hattusha was the ancient capital city of the Hittite Empire, a major power during the late Bronze Age [approximately 1600-1180 BCE] in the Near East.

Epigraphist Daniel Schwemer from the University of Wurzburg in Germany identified the language as "a version of the language of Kalashma, which is believed to have been located in today's Bolu or Gerede region, at the north-west end of Hittite territory," the directorate said.

Over a century of excavations at Hattusha has yielded nearly 30,000 clay tablets with cuneiform writing offering valuable insights into the Empire' history, society, economy and religious traditions.

The discovery of a new language in the Bogazkoy-Hattusha archives is not entirely unexpected. According to Professor Schwemer, the Hittites had a unique interest in recording rituals in foreign languages. Ritual texts written by Hittite scribes reflect various Anatolian, Syrian and Mesopotamian traditions and linguistic contexts.

These rituals provide valuable insights into the lesser-known linguistic landscape of Late Bronze Age Anatolia (roughly from around 1600 to 1200 BCE), where Hittite was not spoken.

In fact, the cuneiform texts in Bogazkoy-Hattusha contain passages not only related to Hittite but also to two other Anatolian languages, Luwian and Palaic, a branch of the Indo-European language family, as well as a non-Indo-European language called Hattic, which was an ancient and poorly understood language and spoken in the region of Hatti, located in modern-day central Türkiye, Schwemer said.

The Kalasha [Kalasma] language can be added to this list.

"This discovery has the potential to make significant contributions to our understanding of ancient languages and history," he added.

The recently discovered text remains largely incomprehensible. It is believed to belong to the Anatolian-Indo-European language family, but it shares more linguistic traits with Luwian than Palaic, despite geographical proximity, according to Professor Elisabeth Rieken, a specialist in ancient Anatolian languages.

Further research is needed to determine its relationship with other Luwian dialects in Late Bronze Age Anatolia, Rieken said.