Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Bedrich Hrozny
Bedřich Hrozný (May 6 1879 - December 12 1952) was a Czech orientalist and linguist. He deciphered the ancient Hittite writing and established Hittitology .
Hrozný was born in Lysá nad Labem , Bohemia, Austria-Hungary. In the town of Kolín he learned Hebrew and Arabic, at the University of Vienna Akkadian, Aramaic, Ethiopian, Sumerian and Sanskrit, as well as the cuneiform used in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and Persia. He also studied orientalism at Berlin University. Altogether he knew almost 20 languages.
In 1906, at Hattusa (modern Boğazköy) 150 km NE from Ankara, a German expedition found the archives of the Hittite kings in cuneiform, but in an unknown language. In the middle of the First World War Hrozný published a description of the language and its grammar showing that it was a Indo-European language. In 1925 Hrozný discovered 1000 cuneiform tablets containing contracts and letters of Assyrian merchants.
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