Editing Hittites (section)

===Initial discoveries===
French scholar [[Charles Texier]] found the first Hittite ruins in 1834 but did not identify them as such.<ref name=Erimtan/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Texier |first1=Charles |title=Rapport lu, le 15 mai 1835, à l'Académie royale des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres de l'Institut, sur un envoi fait par M. Texier, et contenant les dessins de bas-reliefs découverts par lui près du village de Bogaz-Keui, dans l'Asie mineure |journal=Journal des Savants |date=1835 |pages=368–376 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015036636960;view=1up;seq=372 |trans-title=Report read on 15 May 1835 to the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belle-lettres of the Institute, on a dispatch made by Mr. Texier and containing drawings of bas-reliefs discovered by him near the village of Bogaz-Keui in Asia Minor |language=fr |access-date=10 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428022424/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015036636960;view=1up;seq=372 |archive-date=28 April 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first archaeological evidence for the Hittites appeared in tablets found at the ''[[karum (trade post)|karum]]'' of Kanesh (now called [[Kültepe]]), containing records of trade between Assyrian merchants and a certain "land of ''Hatti''". Some names in the tablets were neither Hattic nor Assyrian, but clearly [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]].{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2014}}

The script on a monument at [[Boğazkale]] by a "People of Hattusas" discovered by [[William Wright (missionary)|William Wright]] in 1884 was found to match peculiar [[logogram|hieroglyphic]] scripts from [[Aleppo]] and [[Hama]] in Northern [[Syria]]. In 1887, excavations at [[Amarna]] in [[Egypt]] uncovered the diplomatic correspondence of Pharaoh [[Amenhotep III]] and his son, [[Akhenaten]]. Two of the letters from a "kingdom of ''Kheta''"—apparently located in the same general region as the Mesopotamian references to "land of ''Hatti''"—were written in standard Akkadian cuneiform, but in an unknown language; although scholars could interpret its sounds, no one could understand it. Shortly after this, Sayce proposed that ''Hatti'' or ''Khatti'' in Anatolia was identical with the "kingdom of ''Kheta''" mentioned in these Egyptian texts, as well as with the biblical Hittites. Others, such as [[Max Müller]], agreed that ''Khatti'' was probably ''Kheta'', but proposed connecting it with Biblical [[Kittim]] rather than with the [[Biblical Hittites]]. Sayce's identification came to be widely accepted over the course of the early 20th century; and the name "Hittite" has become attached to the civilization uncovered at Boğazköy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rediscovery of the Hittites |url=https://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/HPM/hpm-en.php?p=anfhet-en |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de}}</ref>
[[Image:Hattusa_Yerkapi_rampant.JPG|thumb|[[Hattusa]] ramp]]

During sporadic excavations at Boğazköy ([[Hattusa]]) that began in 1906, the archaeologist [[Hugo Winckler]] found a royal archive with 10,000 tablets, inscribed in cuneiform Akkadian and the same unknown language as the Egyptian letters from ''Kheta''—thus confirming the identity of the two names. He also proved that the ruins at Boğazköy were the remains of the capital of an empire that, at one point, controlled northern Syria.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Güterbock |first1=Hans Gustav |title=Recent Developments in Hittite Archaeology and History: Papers in Memory of Hans G. Güterbock |date=1 January 2002 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |isbn=978-1-57506-053-8 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5a8-NudlBx8C&q=Hugo+Winckler+Bo%C4%9Fazk%C3%B6y+capital+empire+that+controlled+northern+syria |access-date=18 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Drinking_cup_in_the_shape_of_a_fist,_MFA,_Boston_(11244059164).jpg|thumb|Drinking cup in the shape of a fist; 1400–1380 BC, [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]]]
Under the direction of the [[German Archaeological Institute]], excavations at Hattusa have been under way since 1907, with interruptions during the world wars. Kültepe was successfully excavated by Professor [[Tahsin Özgüç]] from 1948 until his death in 2005. Smaller scale excavations have also been carried out in the immediate surroundings of Hattusa, including the rock sanctuary of [[Yazılıkaya]], which contains numerous [[rock relief]]s portraying the Hittite rulers and the gods of the Hittite pantheon.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hatır |first1=Ergün |last2=Korkanç |first2=Mustafa |last3=Schachner |first3=Andreas |last4=İnce |first4=İsmail |title=The deep learning method applied to the detection and mapping of stone deterioration in open-air sanctuaries of the Hittite period in Anatolia |journal=Journal of Cultural Heritage |date=1 September 2021 |volume=51 |pages=38–39 |doi=10.1016/j.culher.2021.07.004 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1296207421001096 |access-date=18 February 2022 |language=en |issn=1296-2074|url-access=subscription}}</ref>