Archaeologists at the ancient city of Kayalıpınar in central Turkey have uncovered a Hittite royal archive of 184 cuneiform tablets and fragments preserved for about 3,400 years.
The current excavation, led by Koç University in collaboration with Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, recovered 131 tablets this season, adding to the 53 found at the site in previous years.
The Hittite City of Šamuḫa
Kayalıpınar is located in the Yıldızeli district of Sivas Province, on land the Hittites once knew as Šamuḫa. This site served as an administrative and religious center that is frequently mentioned in surviving Hittite texts. Excavations have been ongoing since 2021, led by Koç University Associate Professor Çiğdem Maner and a multidisciplinary team from Turkey and abroad.
The land of Šamuḫa was known for the worship of Šauška, a goddess associated with love and war. Previous excavations have uncovered more than 50 seal impressions stamped into clay, belonging to Hittite royalty, priests, and administrators. The team suspects a building used to seal official documents may lie beneath layers containing early Christian burials.
The site has been occupied for thousands of years, with evidence of Assyrian trading posts before the rise of the Hittite state, as well as Roman and Byzantine occupation. The newly discovered tablets add another layer to this sequence, documenting a Bronze Age period through texts written in both Hittite and Hurrian.
Contents of the Tablets
The newly recovered tablets date back to the reign of Hittite king Tudhaliya II, showing that the court was experiencing several crises during this era. One set of tablets reveals records of a high-fever epidemic moving from city to city, with religious diviners closely monitoring the health of the young royals. One of the young royals in question was an infant princess. One tablet documents the omens read over her as a breastfed infant, while another refers to her illness at Ziulila (the precise location of which is unknown), and a third refers to her death and burial.
Other tablets in the archive are correspondence from Hittite generals in western Anatolia to the king at Šamuḫa. They alert the king that the enemy has surrounded their territory and ask for reinforcements in the form of men, horses, and chariots. The generals made it very clear that their army would be wiped out if support didn’t arrive.
Another tablet records the routes and observations from bird diviners dispatched from Šamuḫa, documenting the birds they observed. This also illustrates the importance of omens in Hittite administration, alongside military and administrative affairs.
A Comprehensive Archive
“These tablets, which date back approximately 3,400 years, provide us with important information on many aspects of the Hittite civilization, from state administration and military activities to their beliefs and daily lives,” said Sivas Governor Yılmaz Şimşek.
Excavations at Hattusa, the Hittite capital near modern Boğazkale, have produced thousands of tablets during the 20th and 21st centuries, including diplomatic correspondence, treaties, and religious texts. The excavation team considers Kayalıpınar’s assemblage the most extensive Hittite-language archive discovered in the 21st century and one of the most significant concentrations of Hittite documents found outside Hattusa.
Researchers are still translating the tablets as excavations at Kayalıpınar continue. Together, the records offer a rare glimpse into different aspects of Hittite life: an infant princess’s illness and death, generals warning of a military threat, and diviners documenting their observations of birds. These accounts bring the concerns of a royal court roughly 3,400 years ago into sharper focus.
Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.