Hittite history to open to the world with digital library

ÇORUM

The Hittite tablets, consisting of thousands of years of historical documents, will be opened to the world with a digital library, which is currently under construction.

Within the scope of the project, a first in the world, 1,954 Hittite tablets are being deciphered using artificial intelligence.

The project titled “3-D Scanning of Cuneiform Tablets in the Anatolian Civilizations Museum and Reading of Boğazköy Tablets by Artificial Intelligence” is carried out in cooperation with Ankara University and the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums.

It aims to decipher, scan and digitalize the Hittite cuneiform tablets in the inventory of the Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Istanbul Archeology Museums and Çorum Museum using artificial intelligence.

While the first phase of the project has been already completed, the Hittite Digital Library was launched at a meeting.

After deciphering the tablets, the data obtained from the tablets will be collected in a dictionary.

With the Hitit Digital Library, which will be created after the dictionary studies are completed, the information obtained from the tablets will be made available to all Hittitologists and history buffs.

Speaking at the meeting held at the Çorum Museum, Culture and Tourism Deputy Minister Nadir Alpaslan said that with the project, they combined technology with archeology and history.

Emphasizing that Anatolian lands are one of the most important parts of the world, Alpaslan said, “These lands are one of the greatest treasures of the greatest empires and civilizations of the world. From this point of view, Türkiye is one of the most critical, strategic, advantageous and luckiest countries in the world. It is also one of the most important regions of the world in terms of history and archeology.”

“For this reason, we care about archeological excavations, knowing the history and leaving the details to future generations. There are nearly half a million tablets as heritage in the world. It was extremely important to decipher the tablets and bring them to science in terms of knowing the Hittites. All of the tablets will be analyzed,” he said.