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Ελληνικά03 · TABLETS · MEMORY OF THE WORLD
Boğazköy Archive
Twenty-five thousand fragments to govern a multilingual world
Treaties, ritual recipes and letters survived because the fire baked part of the clay.
Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction; not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.
History and context
In Hattusa, tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets and fragments appeared. They record laws, oaths, festivals, correspondence, medicine, divination and translations in several languages of the kingdom and its neighbours.
It was not a public library nor a single perfectly ordered archive. The batches come from different buildings and moments; reconstructing a work requires joining scattered fragments and recognising hands, duplicates and copies.
The UNESCO register brings together nearly twenty-five thousand tablets and fragments with laws, treaties, rituals, letters and texts in several languages. That volume comes from distinct institutional deposits and accumulated excavation campaigns.
A fire may have accidentally baked part of the clay, but it did not turn the whole into a unitary library. Reconstructing a text requires joining fragments, distinguishing copies and accepting gaps that no translation can fill.
Evidence and interpretation
Documented fact: UNESCO registered a collection close to 25,000 tablets and fragments from Boğazköy; later campaigns raise the known archaeological total. Interpretation and caution: calling it a single library simplifies different administrative and ritual deposits.
Catalogue facts
- Narrative date
- Above all 17th–13th centuries BCE
- Location
- Hattusa/Boğazköy; collections in Ankara and Istanbul
- Material
- Clay inscribed with reed · seals
- Context
- Palatial, temple and administrative archives
- Curatorial reading
- The documented fact and its interpretation appear separately in the evidence block.
- Date
- Above all 17th–13th centuries BCE
- Location
- Hattusa/Boğazköy; collections in Ankara and Istanbul
- Support
- Clay inscribed with reed · seals
- Documentary coverage
- 2 museum, heritage, primary corpus or research sources for this stop.
A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS
Objects connected through time
Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.
The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.
Clay32 dated objects
≈29,000–27,000 years
Dolní Věstonice I
Prehistory
Approximate catalogue age; editorial reference 2026 for ordering only, not calibrated dating.
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mid-6th–5th millennium BCE
Before Sumer
Sumer
The full 6th–5th millennia BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record qualifies the date as ‘mid’; the item's date is used, not the broader preceding period.
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Early Neolithic · VI–V millennia BCE
Twin-chambered vessel from Cova de l’Or
Prehistory
Interval of the VI–V millennia BCE; no precise annual date.
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ca. 4400–3800 BCE
Before Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Date of the representative vessel, not of the entire predynastic period.
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V–IV millennium BCE
Before Nubia
Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Interval of the V–IV millennia BCE of the element, not of the entire preceding period.
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Middle Neolithic, c. 4000 BCE
Before Gojoseon
Gojoseon and early Korea
Date of the ceramic element, not of the preceding period.
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ca. 3500–3000 BCE
Bevel-rimmed bowl
Sumer
The wage ration hypothesis is not used as a functional label.
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3500–2900 BCE · proto-urban period; towards 3300 BCE as a guide, not exact date
Susa accounting bulla
Sumer
Posted range; "towards 3300" is just orientation within that range.
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c. 3100–2900 BCE
Jemdet Nasr
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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c. 3100–2900 BCE
Account of malt and barley
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Middle Jōmon, ca. 3000 BCE
Before Yayoi
Yayoi Japan
Date of the Jōmon element, not of the entire preceding period.
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ca. 2500–2200 BCE
Vasiliki
Greek worlds
Date range for the regional pottery assemblage.
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c. 2500–2000 BCE
Before Ancient China
Ancient China
Approximate dating according to the record.
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c. 2500–2000 BCE
Longshan
Ancient China
Date range for the Longshan pottery assemblage.
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c. 19th century BCE
Before the Hittites
Hittites
Date of the representative document, not of the entire preceding period.
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Kotosh-Mito Tradition, c. 2200–1500 BCE; the enclosure is usually situated around 1800 BCE.
Overlapping datesBefore Pre-Inca Cultures
Pre-Inca cultures
Element tradition interval; "around 1800" orients the enclosure.
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19th–18th centuries BCE
Queen of the Night
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Paleo-Babylonian period · around 1800 BCE
Plimpton 322
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Towards 1800 BCE
Sumerian King List
Sumer
Date of preserved copy, not of reigns listed.
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Paleo-Babylonian copy, around 1900–1600 BCE according to CDLI
Overlapping datesLove song to Shu-Sin
Sumer
Date of the preserved Paleo-Babylonian copy, not of the origin of the song.
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Towards 1900–1600 BCE · paleobabylonian; uncertain chronological attribution in CDLI
Overlapping datesSi.427 tablet
Sumer
Unclear chronological attribution in CDLI.
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≈1700–1650 BCE
Overlapping datesPhaistos Disc
Greek worlds
The signs have no accepted reading.
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Towards 1650 BCE
Overlapping datesSumerian Flood of Nippur
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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You are viewingAbove all 17th–13th centuries BCE
Boğazköy Archive
Hittites
Main date range for the archive, not a single date for all the tablets.
Current record
c. 1375 BCE
Overlapping datesLinear B
Greek worlds
Approximate dating according to the record.
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c. 1300 BCE
Overlapping datesAlaksandu of Wilusa
Hittites
Approximate dating according to the record.
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c. 1259 BCE, year 21 of Ramesses II
Overlapping datesTreaty with Egypt
Hittites
Date of the treaty and its copy; not of the origin of relations between the two kingdoms.
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7th century BCE
Flood Tablet
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Towards 700–500 BCE
Babylonian map of the world
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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522–486 BCE
Glazed brick guards
Achaemenid Persia
Date range associated with the reign of the decoration.
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Towards 509–493 BCE
Rations for women and children
Achaemenid Persia
Date range of the archive and its documents.
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regional range c. 800 BCE–650 CE
Urewe vessel
Bantu-speaking worlds
Regional date range for the Urewe type, not an individual date for each vessel.
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Also connected, without a comparable date (8)
These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.
- A White Wall on the DanubeCeltic worlds · 6th century BCE
- Blue that does not yieldMaya worlds · Documented use from the Classic, c. 300–1500 CE
- Cyrus speaks as king of BabylonAchaemenid Persia · After the conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE
- Early potteryMande Worlds · before ca. 9400 cal BCE
- Made in GaramaGaramantes · I millennium BCE–I millennium CE
- Piece-mold castingAncient China · c. 1600–1046 BCE
- The unfinished gestureBatwa / Twa histories · 1947
- Vessels without a languageBantu-speaking worlds · Urewe, broad regional range ca. 800 BCE–650 CE
A closer look
About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .
Recognising the signs was not enough to understand them
When the Hattusa tablets appeared, cuneiform writing could already be read, but much of the texts employed a language still unknown. The work of Hrozný and of later researchers allowed identifying and developing Hittite grammar. The Chicago Hittite Dictionary then organises the words from their uses in the corpus, not as a simple list of equivalences. This history shows two distinct problems: assigning values to the signs and understanding what words and phrases mean within a language.
Location and territory
LOCATED SITE
Hattusa and Yazılıkaya · TurkeyLandscape marker of the Hittite capital.Where it is held
İstanbul Archaeology Museums
Component of the group · Library or archive
UNESCO documents that the Boğazköy archive is divided between Istanbul and Ankara; this entry does not attribute the 25,000 pieces to a single institution.
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations · Ankara
Component of the group · Library or archive
Second institutional deposit documented by the UNESCO Memory of the World nomination.
The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.
Sources and references
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