Summary: A lost language has been discovered, hidden within an ancient Hittite cuneiform tablet that may provide clues to the times of the Bible.
From these the coastland peoples spread in their lands, each with his own language, by their clans, in their nations. – Genesis 10:5 (ESV)
Lost Language Discovery
A new language has been discovered in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Boğazköy-Hattusha in north-central Turkey, according to a news release from the University of Wurzburg. This city, Hattusa, was the former capital of the powerful Hittite Empire, one of the world’s oldest known civilizations whose people had spread into Canaan by the time of Israel’s conquest of that land.
“When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, – Deuteronomy 7:1
Thousands of years ago, the ancient Hittite Empire dominated most of Anatolia for nearly 500 years. They ruled the area that is now present-day Turkey and Syria from around 1650 to 1200 BC, according to standard chronology. Hittite accounts record the last ruler as King Suppiluliuma who came to power in 1207 BC. After that, they seem to have disappeared.
Excavations at the site have been going on for more than 100 years, directed by the German Archaeological Institute. So far, archaeologists have unearthed nearly 30,000 clay tablets with cuneiform script, one of the earliest forms of writing. “These tablets … provide rich information about the history, society, economy and religious traditions of the Hittites and their neighbors,” said the news release.
Archaeological excavations are carried out at this site every year. Professor Andreas Schachner of the Istanbul Department of the German Archaeological Institute is currently in charge of the digs, which continue to add new finds to the already immense cuneiform collection.
Most of the uncovered texts are written in Hittite, the major language of the site and the oldest Indo-European language, thus, making the discoveries of this year an exciting surprise. Hidden within a ceremonial Hittite text, researchers found a recitation in a previously unknown language.
The Land of Kalašma
“The new language was written in cuneiform,” said Schachner, in an interview with Newsweek. “It is the same writing system the Hittites used. The text is part of a longer text starting in Hittite. As it continues it says at one point: ‘Continue in the language of the Land [of] Kalašma.’”
It is uncertain where the land of Kalašma was located, with several scholars proposing that it was in northwest Anatolia on the edge of the ancient Hittite empire.
The lost language belongs to the Indo-European family, which includes hundreds of related dialects that are thought to have originated from one source. Almost half of the world’s population today speaks an Indo-European language including English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese, German, Punjabi and Bengali.
“The Hittites were uniquely interested in recording rituals in foreign languages,” said
Professor Daniel Schwemer, head of the Chair of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Germany, who has been studying the cuneiform finds from the excavation.
We know little about the other languages spoken in Late Bronze Age Anatolia besides the Hittite tongue. Ritual texts, produced by scribes of the Hittite king, reflect various Anatolian, Syrian, and Mesopotamian traditions and language backgrounds. They provide valuable insight into the linguistic landscape of the time.
Texts written in Luwian and Palaic, two other Anatolian-Indo-European languages closely related to Hittite, have been discovered from Boğazköy-Hattusha. Also, a passage in Hattic, a non-Indo-European language, was previously found. Now the language of Kalašma can be added to the growing list.
Translation in Process
Being an unknown language, the Kalašmaic text has not been translated yet. So far it has been confirmed by Professor Elisabeth Rieken (Philipps-Universität Marburg), Daniel Schwemer’s colleague and a specialist in ancient Anatolian languages, that the idiom does belong to the family of Anatolian-Indo-European languages.
According to Rieken, the text shares more features with the Luwian dialect, despite its geographic proximity to the area where Palaic was spoken. Further investigation of the new language of Kalašma will need to be conducted to decipher the writing.
As more becomes understood about the various languages and kingdoms in ancient times, it increases the known links between them. This in turn may also lead to more accurate dating of history as synchronisms between various kings becomes better established.
The Hittites and the Bible
The Hittites are prominently featured in the Hebrew Bible starting with their descendants after Noah’s flood. Genesis is thought to record the ancestor of the Hittites as Heth, who was a son of Canaan, the son of Ham, the son of Noah (Gen. 10).
The patriarch Abraham bought land in Hebron from Ephron the Hittite, who sold him the field of Machpelah as a burial site for Sarah, Abraham’s wife (Gen. 23). Later, Abraham’s grandson, Esau, married wives from the Hittites causing grief for his parents, Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 26:34-35).
After Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, God brought the people to the Promised Land described as “the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites” (Ex. 3:8). God said the Hittites were to be “devoted to destruction” because of the abominable practices they followed in worship of their gods. God knew the Hittites would influence the Israelites (Deut. 20:17-18).
The Book of Joshua says that God gave the Hittites into Israel’s hands when they fought against them (24:11). In the Book of Judges, when the Israelites captured Bethel, they allowed one man to escape, and he went to the “land of the Hittites” where he founded the settlement of Luz (1:26).
King David’s army included two Hittite soldiers: Ahimelech and Uriah (2 Sam. 23:8; 26:5). Uriah the Hittite was Bathsheba’s husband before King David had him killed because Bathsheba had become pregnant with David’s child (2 Sam. 11).
During the reign of King Solomon, the Hittite people are described as Israel’s powerful neighbors who paid tribute to Israel. Solomon disobeyed God by taking Hittite wives, who ended up influencing him to worship other gods just as God had warned (1 Kings 11:1).
Interestingly, Solomon having Hittite wives (politically motivated marriages) shows that they were still a power in his day – in the 10th century BC by biblical dating. This is another indicator to proponents of a major timeline shift that the archaeological dates may be off since the Hittite Empire was supposed to have collapsed two hundred years earlier around 1200 BC by standard dating.
Conclusion
Further investigation of the new language of Kalašma found within a Hittite cuneiform tablet at Hattusa will need to be conducted to decipher the unknown writing. Scientists from the German Archaeological Institute, Würzburg, Istanbul, and the University of Marburg are working together on the documentation and evaluation of the text so hopefully a translation will be available soon.
Exciting and never-seen-before discoveries like this inspire us to Keep Thinking!
TOP PHOTO: Hittite cuneiform tablet bearing a list of diplomatic gifts. (credit: Louvre Museum, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
