The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empireSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empire
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Hittites
This, then, was the state of our knowledge in the summer of 1879. We
knew that the Hittites, with whom Hebrews and Egyptians and Assyrians
had once been in contact, possessed a hieroglyphic system of writing,
and that this system of writing was found on monuments in Hamath,
Aleppo, Carchemish, and Lykaonia. We knew, too, that in Lykaonia it
accompanied figures carved out of the rock in a peculiar style of art,
and represented as wearing a peculiar kind of dress.
[Illustration: SLABS WITH HITTITE SCULPTURES.
(_Photographed in situ at Keller, near Aintab._)]
Suddenly the truth flashed upon me. This peculiar style of art, this
peculiar kind of dress, was the same as that which distinguished the
sculptures of Karabel, of Ghiaur-kalessi, and of Kappadokia. In all
alike we had the same characteristic features, the same head-dresses and
shoes, the same tunics, the same clumsy massiveness of design and
characteristic attitude. The figures carved upon the rocks of Karabel
and Kappadokia must be memorials of Hittite art. The clue to their
origin and history was at last discovered; the birthplace of the strange
art which had produced them was made manifest. A little further research
made the fact doubly sure. The photographs Professor Perrot had taken of
the monuments of Boghaz Keui in Kappadokia included one of an
inscription in ten or eleven lines. The characters of this inscription
were worn and almost illegible, but not only were they in relief, like
the characters of all other Hittite inscriptions known at the time,
among them two or three hieroglyphs stood out clearly, which were
identical with those on the stones of Hamath and Carchemish. All that
was needed to complete the verification of my discovery was to visit the
Pass of Karabel, and see whether the hieroglyphs Texier and others had
found there likewise belonged to the Hittite script.
More than three hours did I spend in the niche wherein the figure is
carved which Herodotos believed was a likeness of the Egyptian
Sesostris. It was necessary to take 'squeezes' as well as copies, if I
would recover the characters of the inscription and ascertain their
exact forms. My joy was great at finding that they were Hittite, and
that the conclusion I had arrived at in my study at home was confirmed
by the monument itself. The Sesostris of Herodotos turned out to be, not
the great Pharaoh who contended with the Hittites of Kadesh, but a
symbol of the far-reaching power and influence of his mighty opponents.
Hittite art and Hittite writing, if not the Hittite name, were proved to
have been known from the banks of the Euphrates to the shores of the
Ægean Sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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