Bedřich Hrozný (; 6 May 1879 – 12 December 1952), also known as , was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

orientalist and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

. He contributed to the decipherment of the ancient

Hittite language Hittite (, or ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern ...

, identified it as an

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia ( ...

, and laid the groundwork for the development of Hittitology.

Biography

Hrozný was born in Lysá nad Labem,

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. In the town of

Kolín Kolín (; ) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 33,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument reservations, urban monume ...

he learned

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. At the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, he studied Akkadian,

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

, Sumerian and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, as well as the

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

used in

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

and

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. He also studied orientalism at

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

Career

In 1905, following excavations in Palestine, he became professor at the

. In 1906, at

Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...

(modern Boğazkale, about 200 km east of

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

) a German expedition found the archives of the Hittite kings in cuneiform, but in an unknown language. While on active duty in the Austro-Hungarian army during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Hrozný published in 1917 a description of the language showing that it belonged to the Indo-European family. In 1925 Hrozný led a Czechoslovak archaeological team that discovered 1000 cuneiform tablets containing contracts and letters of

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

n merchants in the Turkish village of

Kültepe Kültepe ( Turkish: ), also known under its ancient name Kaneš (Kanesh, sometimes also Kaniš/Kanish) or Neša (Nesha), is an archaeological site in Kayseri Province, Turkey. It was already a major settlement at the beginning of the 3rd mille ...

, and excavated the nearby ancient Hittite city of Kanesh. In 1929, Hrozný founded '' Archiv Orientální'', which became one of the leading journals for Oriental Studies. Later in his life, he tried to decipher the hieroglyphic script used by the Hittites and scripts used in

ancient India Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentism, Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; ...

and

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, but failed in his effort. From 1919 to 1952, he was a Professor of cuneiform research and ancient Oriental history at the

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. After the

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he was made rector of the

, holding that post in 19391940 (all Czech universities were closed by Germans then). In that capacity, he helped some students escape arrest during an incident in 1939, stating to the German officer in charge that the Germans had no legal right to pursue students on the independent university's territory. A stroke in 1944 ended his scientific work.

Deciphering of the Hittite language

To solve the mystery of the Hittite language, Bedřich Hrozný focused on a text passage that reads: nu NINDA-an ezzatteni watar-ma ekutteni. It was known at that time that the

ideogram An ideogram or ideograph (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'idea' + 'to write') is a symbol that is used within a given writing system to represent an idea or concept in a given language. (Ideograms are contrasted with phonogram (linguistics), phono ...

for NINDA meant bread in Sumerian. Hrozný thought that the suffix ''-an'' might be the Hittite accusative singular ending. Then, he assumed that the second word, ''ed-/ezza-'', had something to do with the bread and thought that it could be the verb ''eat''. The comparison with

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''edo'', English ''eat'', and German ''essen'' led him to infer that NINDA-an ezzatteni means "you (will) eat bread". In the second sentence, Hrozný was struck by the word ''watar'', which recalled English ''water'' and German ''Wasser''. The last word of the second sentence, ''ekutteni'', had the stem ''eku-'', which seemed to resemble the Latin ''aqua'' (water). He thus translated the second sentence as "you (will) drink water". Hrozný soon realized that the Hittites were speaking an Indo-European language, which greatly facilitated the decipherment and interpretation of Hittite cuneiform texts. Building upon these insights, he continued his work and was able to publish a preliminary Hittite grammar already in 1917.

Publications

* ''Sumerisch-babylonische Mythen von dem Gotte Ninrag (Ninib)''. Berlin: Wolf Peiser, 1903. * ''Obilí ve staré Babylónii.'' (= “Wheat in Ancient Babylonian”). Vienna: Hölder in Kommission, 1913. * “Die Lösung des hethitischen Problems”, ''Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft'' 56 (1915): 17–50. * ''Die Sprache der Hethiter, ihr Bau und ihre Zugehörigkeit zum indogermanischen Sprachstamm''. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1917 (reprint: Dresden: TU Dresden, 2002). * ''Hethitische Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi, in Umschrift, mit Übersetzung und Kommentar''. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1919. * ''Über die Völker und Sprachen des alten Chatti-Landes: Hethitische Könige''. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1920. * ''Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi'', vol. 5 (of 6): ''Autographien''. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1921 (reprint: Osnabrück: Zeller, 1970). * ''Les inscriptions hittites hiéroglyphiques: Essai de déchiffrement, suivi d’une grammaire hittite hiéroglyphique en paradigmes et d’une liste d’hiéroglyphes''. Prague: Orientální Ústav, 1933. * ''Über die älteste Völkerwanderung und über das Problem der proto-indischen Zivilisation: Ein Versuch, die proto-indischen Inschriften von Mohendscho-Daro zu entziffern''. Prague, 1939. * ''Die älteste Geschichte Vorderasiens und Indiens''. Prague: Melantrich, 1940, 1941, 1943. * ''Inscriptions cunéiformes du Kultépé'', vol. 1. Prague, 1952. * ''Ancient history of Western Asia, India and Crete''. New York, 1953.

Literature

* Šárka Velhartická: Bedřich Hrozný a 100 let chetitologie / Bedřich Hrozný and 100 Years of Hittitology. Praha (Národní galerie), 2015. * Šárka Velhartická: Bedřich Hrozný: Texty a přednášky. Archeologické expedice a lingvistické objevy předního českého orientalisty, Praha / Hradec Králové (Academia / Univerzita Hradec Králové), 2022. * Šárka Velhartická: Dopisy Bedřicha Hrozného literárním osobnostem, Praha (Památník národního písemnictví), 2015. * Šárka Velhartická: Justin Václav Prášek a Bedřich Hrozný. Počátky české staroorientalistiky a klínopisného bádání, Praha / Hradec Králové (Academia / Univerzita Hradec Králové), 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hrozny, Bedrich 1879 births 1952 deaths Academic staff of the University of Vienna Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Czech archaeologists Czech orientalists Czech philologists Hittitologists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Linguists from Austria-Hungary Linguists from Czechoslovakia People from Lysá nad Labem Rectors of Charles University University of Vienna alumni