Until the end of the 19th century, the only references to the great Old Anatolian Hittite Empire were mysterious allusions in biblical texts. Archaeological discoveries and philological and linguistic methods then made it possible to study this significant culture of the 2nd millennium B.C., especially when it was recognized in 1915 that the language now called “Hittite” is Indo-European and thus the oldest known relative of German. The lecture will explain the steps involved in deciphering the ancient Anatolian languages and how comparison with related Indo-European languages aids in this process. Here, too, attendees will have the opportunity to experience the sound of Hittite firsthand.
No future events in this series.