Bedřich Hrozný

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Bedřich Hrozný
Born(1879-05-06)6 May 1879
Lysá nad Labem, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary
Died12 December 1952(1952-12-12) (aged 73)
Prague, Czechoslovakia
Other namesFriedrich Hrozny
Known forContribution to the decipherment of Hittite
Academic work
DisciplineOrientalist
Main interestsHittitology
Signature

Bedřich Hrozný (Czech pronunciation:

Indo-European language, and laid the groundwork for the development of Hittitology
.

Biography

Hrozný was born in

Persia. He also studied orientalism at Humboldt University of Berlin
.

Career

In 1905, following excavations in Palestine, he became professor at the University of Vienna.

In 1906, at Hattusa (modern Boğazkale, about 200 km east of Ankara) 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, Hrozný published in 1917 a description of the language showing that it belonged to the Indo-European family.[2]

In 1925 Hrozný led a Czechoslovak archaeological team that discovered 1000 cuneiform tablets containing contracts and letters 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

German occupation of Czechoslovakia he was made rector of the Charles University, holding that post in 1939–1940[3] (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.[4]

Deciphering of the Hittite language

nu NINDA-an ēzzateni, wādar-ma ekuteni

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

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.[5]

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

  1. Britannica.com. Archived
    from the original on 24 December 2022.
  2. ISBN 3-89586-076-X
    .
  3. ^ "Seznam rektorů 1918-2017".
  4. ^ Falvey, Christian (13 May 2009). "Bedřich Hrozný – Re-Discoverer of the Hittite Language". Radio Praha. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  5. S2CID 161783734
    .
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