Bedrich Hrozny
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Bedřich Hrozný [listen] (May 6, 1879 – December 12, 1952) was a Czech orientalist and linguist. He deciphered the ancient Hittite language, identified it as an Indo-European language and established Hittitology.
Hrozný was born in Lysá nad Labem, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary. In the town of Kolín he learned Hebrew and Arabic, at the University of Vienna Akkadian, Aramaic, Ethiopian, Sumerian and Sanskrit, as well as the cuneiform used in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and Persia. He also studied orientalism at Berlin University.
In 1906, at Hattusa (modern Boğazköy) 150 km NE from Ankara, a German expedition found the archives of the Hittite kings in cuneiform, but in an unknown language. In the middle of the First World War Hrozný published a description of the language and its grammar showing that it was a Indo-European language. In 1925 Hrozný discovered 1000 cuneiform tablets containing contracts and letters of Assyrian merchants.
Later he tried to decipher hieroglyphic script used by Hittites and scripts used in ancient India and Crete but failed in his effort. A heart attack in 1944 ended his scientific work.
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