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Anthropology

Judi Lynn

(163,804 posts) Tue Jul 29, 2025, 07:01 AM Jul 29

Archaeologists Found an Entirely New Language Among the Ruins of an Ancient Empire

Look for it soon on Duolingo.

By Darren Orf
Published: Jul 28, 2025 3:51 PM EDT

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

The archaeological site at Turkey’s Boğazköy-Hattusha, the former capital of the Bronze Age Hittite empire, is a hotbed of ancient languages.

During excavations of the ruins, archaeologists uncovered a new language written on a tablet detailing a foreign ritual.

Although experts aren’t sure what the specific idiom says, they can confirm that the new language is a member of the Anatolian Indo-European language family.

Today, the ancient city of Hattusha—the capital of the Hittite empire that ruled north-central Turkey in the late Bronze Age (1650 - 1200 BCE)—is a treasure trove of ancient languages.

At the Boğazköy-Hattusha archaeological site, excavations over the past century have uncovered around 30,000 cuneiform tablets detailing the history, traditions, and society of Bronze Age Anatolia. This site is so rich in Bronze Age history that the once-powerful capital became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.

Although most of the tablets found in Hattusha are written in Hittite—the oldest attested Indo-European language (and the language tree through which English evolved)—many other languages of the region can be found among these cuneiform treasures, including Luwian, Palaic, and Hattic.

However, 2023 excavations at the site revealed a surprising discovery—an entirely new language.

“The Hittites were uniquely interested in recording rituals in foreign languages,” Daniel Schwemer, head of the Chair of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Germany, said in a press statement.

More:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a65531436/new-language-discovered-in-ruins-ancient-empire/

2 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Archaeologists Found an Entirely New Language Among the Ruins of an Ancient Empire (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jul 29 OP

Thank you, as ever. niyad Jul 29 #1

Maybe they were written by Hitite Hipsters. JohnnyRingo Jul 29 #2

niyad

(126,281 posts)

1. Thank you, as ever.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Tue Jul 29, 2025, 10:27 AM

Jul 29

JohnnyRingo

(20,106 posts)

2. Maybe they were written by Hitite Hipsters.

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Tue Jul 29, 2025, 10:41 AM

Jul 29

Terms like bruh, fleek, jive, and daddy-o may seem a foreign language to future archeologists, but it's just youth culture expressing themselves. Perhaps they'll discover small colonies speaking Esperanto. Well, maybe not, but it's in the books.

Then there's Nadsat, the language of A Clockwork Orange. Call me Bezoomney, but I can viddy the zammechat day such chepooka could be a klootch to discovery and not at all sneety, my droog.

I began this reply in light, but now I believe I'm only half kidding. Interesting discovery. Thanx for posting!

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