The history of the modern discovery of Hittite monuments begins with 1736, when Otter found at Irviz in Asia Minor some peculiar hieroglyphic inscriptions. In 1812 Burckhardt found others at Hamath in Syria; in 1834 Texier discovered still more at Boghazkeui in northern Asia. Minor, and in 1851 Layard found some Hittite seals at Nineveh. These and other isolated inscriptions were not connected until 1872, when W. Wright secured the Hamath inscriptions for the Imperial Museum at Constantinople. From that time these monuments have been found in considerable numbers from near the tEgean coast of Asia Minor along the old reads leading to Cappadocia and to Syria, and as far east as Carehemish and to the south as far as Babylon (in the latter place being of course spoils of war, among which is a splendid dolorite relief of the Hittite war-god wielding hammer and lightning bolts). They are collected partly in Perrot and Chipiez and more fully in Messerschmidt. The most recent researches have been conducted by P'Of. Hugo Winckler at Boghazkeui in Asia Minor, in 1906-Og, one result of which has been the recovery of a large number of documents, a second is the identification of Bo- ghazkeui with Arzaba (one of the leading Hittite cities between 1500-1100 B.C.), and a third is the assurance that the Hittites formed a large confed eration of states under the leadership of a single king. The inscriptions, except the most recent, are in relief, not incised, thus agreeing in form with the oldest Aramean inscriptions, and they are boustrophedon (a discovery due to Dr. W. H.
Ward in 1873). Their age is placed by Jensen between 1300 and 550 B.C. All are monolingual so far as known, except that called the boss of Tar kondemos, which is in Hittite and Assyrian, but is so brief that the cuneiform is of little use as an aid to decipherment. Two of the Amama Tab lets are in an unknown tongue, and may be Hittite.
Since these inscriptions are not in any strict sense deciphered, the information they afford is little, apart from the indications their situation gives concerning the region covered by Hittite action. While for years Professor Sayce has been claiming to have deciphered Decipherment parts of them, and others, as Conder of and Jensen, make like claims, except Inscriptions. in isolated cases no one of these con cedes the claim of the others, and in general the assumed decipherments assign the lan guage to different basal stocks. Ward holds the language to be Turanian, possibly Ural-Altaic;
Conder declares it Ural-Altaic, with suggestions of a connection with the Akkadian; Campbell masses under the name Hittites a number of races and tribes; Hal6vy thinks he has proved the language to be Semitic; Jensen calls it "proto-Armenian,"
i.e., Indo-Germanic, and in his " decipherment), attempts to make out a connection with the Ar menian (of which he naively acknowledges that he knows little), and charges his predecessors in the attempt to read the inscriptions with "wild logic,"
a charge, which Messerschmidt retorts upon him with many exclamation-marks. Thus the Hittite people and language have been connected with both of the great families of nations and with the
Turanian group, a fact which speaks eloquently of the obscurity in which the subject still lies. Pro fessor Sayce in 1906 made the candid statement that decipherment of the inscriptions is yet unae cOmPlished. While shrewd deductions have been made, a few names read with general agreement, and in several cases, probably, fairly close approach to the meaning bas been gained, these facts do not contradict the statement that the Hittite script is still a puzzle for the solution of which adequate material and clear clues have till the present been lacking. It now seems possible, however, with the very abundant material recovered from Boghaz keui, including treaties between the Hittites and the Mitanni, that a solution of the vexed problems will be reached. Thus it has been shown that a group of Indian deities is appealed to in the trea ties referred to, the names Mitra, India, paruna and Nasatya being unmistakable. The indications given by the divine names are strengthened by dynastic and proper names of Iranian type. These facts suggest either Hindu-Aryan affinities or bon rowing, the former much the more likely. Decided progress has been made in reading the records, and
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