This story explores new discoveries at Turkey’s Boğazköy-Hattusha, the former capital of the Bronze Age Hittite Empire, a site renowned for its linguistic diversity. Archaeologists excavating the ruins uncovered a tablet written in an unfamiliar language that describes a foreign ritual. While scholars have not yet fully interpreted the text, they have determined that the language belongs to the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European family.

Hattusha, which served as the Hittite capital in north-central Turkey during the late Bronze Age from about 1650 to 1200 BCE, remains an exceptionally rich source of ancient written material. Excavations conducted over the last hundred years have revealed roughly 30,000 cuneiform tablets documenting the political, religious, and social life of Bronze Age Anatolia. Owing to its historical importance, the site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. Although the majority of the tablets are written in Hittite—the earliest recorded Indo-European language—others feature regional languages such as Luwian, Palaic, and Hattic.