New Hattusha discovery adds to legacy of Treaty of Kadesh
ÇORUM
The newly discovered fragment (above) contains lines from provisions covered in Articles 12 to 20 of the treaty. (AA Photo)
A cuneiform tablet fragment unearthed during excavations at Büyükkale in Hattuşa, the ancient Hittite capital in modern-day Çorum, has been identified as part of a copy of the Treaty of Kadesh, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has announced.
Scientific examinations carried out over approximately a year determined that the fragment belonged to one of the copies of the treaty concluded between Hittite King Hattuşili III and Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II.
The newly discovered fragment contains lines from provisions covered in Articles 12 to 20 of the treaty, which regulate the treatment of people who fled one country and sought refuge in the other.
Although parts of the text are broken or missing, the readable sections refer to people fleeing from Egypt and the land of Hatti. They also contain provisions concerning the prevention of the destruction of homes.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced the discovery on social media on Sept. 21, World Peace Day.
“We have found traces of peace thousands of years old in the soil of Anatolia,” Ersoy said, adding that the newly identified lines carried a powerful message from thousands of years ago to the present.
The minister said the discovery once again demonstrated Anatolia’s longstanding role in the history of peace and diplomacy.
A treaty remembered in modern Çorum
The Treaty of Kadesh, concluded in the 13th century B.C. between the two major powers of the period, Egypt and the Hittite Empire, is widely regarded as the world’s earliest known written peace treaty.
The treaty’s clay-tablet copy was discovered during archaeological excavations at Hattuşa in 1906. Fragments of its Akkadian version are now held in the collections of museums in Istanbul, Ankara, Berlin and St. Petersburg.
The name of the historic agreement has also been preserved in modern Çorum, home to Hattuşa.
A public square covering approximately 12,000 square meters opposite the Çorum Governorship was named Kadeş Peace Square after the Treaty of Kadesh. Work to transform the area into a public square began in 2017, and after expropriation and landscaping, it was opened to the public in 2019.
The Çorum Municipal Council unanimously approved the name, which has been used for the square for seven years.
The square has since become one of the city’s main gathering places, hosting concerts, meetings, rallies and other social and cultural events.
The municipality has decorated the square with various Hittite figures and included quotations about peace by Turkish and Islamic literary figures including Yunus Emre, Mevlana, Necip Fazıl Kısakürek and Nazım Hikmet.
A replica of the Lion Gate at Hattuşa also stands in the square, alongside a monument dedicated to Çorum leblebi, a chickpea snack that has geographical indication status.
HH ‘A symbol of peace and love’
Çorum Mayor Halil İbrahim Aşgın said the name Kadeş Peace Square had been welcomed by residents.
“Çorum should have a square called Kadeş Peace Square because Çorum is also a center of peace, brotherhood, love and affection,” Aşgın said to state-run Anadolu Agency on World Peace Day.
He said the story behind the name went back around 3,500 years, when the Hittites and Egyptians made peace after fighting a war in Kadesh, located in what is now Syria.
Aşgın said the square was now used for almost all major public events in the city.
“Wherever there is a program, a celebration, a concert, a meeting, a democratic march or a rally in our city, they are all held here,” he said. “It has become a symbol of peace and love, just as its name suggests.”
He also described public squares as places where cities “breathe,” adding that peace was similarly essential for people and communities.