2,700 Year Old Tablets Found

(Photo by J. Jackson)

A University of Toronto led excavation in Tall Tayinate, the capital city of a Neo-Hittite kingdom in ancient Palastine, located in modern Turkey, has turned up a cache of 2,700 year old cuneiform tablets. The tablets were located in a recently discovered temple, inside the temple's cella, or a room called the holy of holies. The writings appear to be part of some kind of archive and are remarkably intact. The tablets date to the Iron Age and may provide insight into Assryian religious and political life. The team also unearthed libation vessels, ornamented ritual objects, and implements made of gold, bronze, and iron.

Timothy Harrison, professor of Near Eastern Archeology and director of the University of Toronto's Tall Tayinate Archaeological Project, was quoted by Science Daily as saying, "The tablets, and the information they contain, may possibly highlight the imperial ambitions of one of the great powers of the ancient world, and its lasting influence on the political culture of the middle east."

Tayinate was once destroyed by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III, and was thereafter converted into an Assyrian provincial capital. Dr. Harrison says that Tayinate was, "equipped with its own governor and imperial administration." It was a very important city in the ancient Near East. This discovery may even hint at Biblical proportions.

Dr. Harrison informed reporters, "Scholars have long speculated that the reference to Calneh in Isaiah's oracle against Assyria alludes to Tiglath-pileser's devastation of Kunulua--i.e. Tayinate. The destruction of the Luwian monuments and conversion of the sacred precinct into an Assyrian religious complex may represent the physical manifestation of this historical event."

In any case, the artifacts were well preserved and tablets should reveal interesting data soon.