Scientists managed to decipher 3500-year-old mysterious hieroglyphs (photo)

Last year, scientists in ancient Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites, found 249 hieroglyphs 3500 years old in the Yerkapa tunnel. Hattusa is located in the Turkish province of Chorum in Anatolia, and the ruins of the Hittite capital are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

In the Erkapa tunnel, built with thousands of stones, signs were discovered written on the stones using pigment made from the root of the dyeing marena. The symbols were preserved by the pitch blackness of the tunnel and the constant temperature.

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Some of these hieroglyphs have already been deciphered. According to Arkeonews, they contain information about the person who built the tunnel, namely, his name and position.

The scientists found out that the person responsible for the construction of the tunnel was called "Arisadu". The hieroglyphs indicate that the tunnel was built as a road leading to Mount Tutaliya.

"Mount Tutalia is a sacred mountain for the Hittites. It is so important that several kings took their royal names from there. It is believed that the road symbol has meanings such as 'the road leading to Mount Tutalia'," explained the excavation leader, Prof. Dr. Andreas Schachner.

The scientist noted that Anatolian hieroglyphs provide important clues to understanding the Hittite era.

"These hieroglyphs appear as a signature, an inscription, or an expression of 'I did it' by the person who built this tunnel. But at the same time, we understand this; most likely, in the Hittite world, Anatolian hieroglyphs, this pictorial writing, was much more common than cuneiform," he added.

As a reminder, an experimental catapult from World War II was discovered in Britain.

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