The newly-discovered language, Kalasma, belongs to the Indo-European family. It was discovered thanks to a cuneiform text inscribed on a clay tablet from Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, located in central Anatolia, Turkey.
The Hittite Kingdom and subsequently Empire, based in central Anatolia, Turkey, with its capital at Hattusa, is recognized from both rich archaeological remains and textual sources as one of the major Old World powers of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East between 1650 and 1200 BCE.
At its apex, the Hittites maintained control over central, southern and southeastern Anatolia, the northern Levant and northern Syria, with almost all of Anatolia being under the Hittite sphere of influence.
During this time, the Hittite Empire vied with the Egyptians for sociopolitical dominance in the Near East, a struggle that culminated in the largest battle of the era at Kadesh in Syria in the early 13th century BCE.
Around or shortly after 1200 BCE, the Hittite Empire and central administrative system collapsed in a great realignment that reverberated around the Near East.
The reign of the last-known Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II, began around 1207 BCE and included claimed victories against several intra-Anatolian rivals and Alashiya (Cyprus) in sea and land battles, but no further Hittite rulers were recorded subsequently.
An inscription of the Egyptian ruler Ramesses III — dated to 1188 or 1177 BCE — lists the Hittites among those swept away by the ‘Sea Peoples’ before they attacked Egypt.
The Hittite capital, Hattusa, was established by Hattusili I, a king of the Hittite Old Kingdom, in 1650 BCE.
Also known as Hattusha, Hattusas or Hattush, the ancient city is situated on the north-central Anatolian plateau, approximately 210 km east of Ankara, Turkey.
It was rediscovered during the late 19th century CE, and excavations — undertaken by archaeologists from the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut — began in the…
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