Clay tablets in cuneiform from the ruins of Hattusa, the Hittite capital at Bogazkoy in Turkey, had been found in 1906 by Hugo Winckler, but their language could not be read. In 1915 the Czech orientalist Bedrich Hrozny, working in Vienna while serving in the Austro-Hungarian army, deciphered it, showing in a paper presented in Berlin on 24 November that Hittite was an Indo-European language, related to Latin, Greek and English. It is the oldest attested Indo-European language, written from the 17th century BC. The decipherment opened up the history of a great Bronze Age empire which had rivalled Egypt, and was only known from the Bible and Egyptian records.
Before and after
- from 20 December 1914 to 17 March 1915First Battle of Champagne
- 25 December 1914Christmas truce
- 1915Establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park
- 1915Armenian Genocide
- 1915Bedrich Hrozny shows that Hittite is an Indo-European language
- from 28 January 1915 to 30 October 1918Sinai and Palestine Campaign
- from 18 February 1915 to 26 March 1915Battles of Przasnysz
- from 21 April 1915 to 25 May 1915Second Battle of Ypres
- from 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916Gallipoli Campaign
More in Civilizations & archaeology
- 17 July 1917Rise of House of Windsor
- from 25 October 1917 to 25 December 1991Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
- from 28 October 1918 to 31 December 1992Czechoslovakia
- from 9 November 1918 to 1 January 1933Weimar Republic
- from 1 December 1918 to 27 April 1992Yugoslavia
- 1939The Sutton Hoo ship burial is excavated
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.