678 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



history of Syria since about the sixteenth century B. C, and the 

 significance of this fact was fully appreciated. 



From the Tel el-Amarna letters we learn that a people closely re- 

 lated to the Chatti had at that time pushed its conquests as far as the 

 borders of Babylonia. A recently discovered Babylonian chronicle 

 informs us that the fall of the first Babylonian dynasty, of which 

 Hammurabi was the middle king, was due to an attack of the Chatti. 

 As this attack must have taken place about 1800 B. C, we are thus 

 afforded chronologically definite information of the appearance of 

 this people and their empire. 



The accounts in all these documents proved that the center of 

 " Hittite " power had been not in Syria, as was at first believed, but 

 in Asia Minor, though in what part of that country could not be 

 definitely settled. Almost all of the inscriptions in " Hittite " script 

 had come from the region of the Taurus, or southern part of Asia 

 Minor, but this region could not have formed the center of a great 

 empire. The other alternative pointed to Cappadocia which, lying 

 in the very heart of Asia Minor, would be a fit center for a civilized 

 power. 



The Tel el-Amarna letters and some clay tablets in cuneiform script 

 found at about the same time as those of Tel el-Amarna in the mound 

 Kul-tepe near the hamlet Kara-eyuk, about three hours east of 

 Kaisariye, bore witness to the strong influence of Babylonian civili- 

 zation upon the countries of Asia Minor. They showed that the 

 " great King " of Chatti and other rulers of Asia Minor, like those 

 of Syria and Palestine, employed the cuneiform writing in their inter- 

 national dealings. 



As early as the thirties of the nineteenth century the ruins of 

 Boghaz-Keui, in the heart of Cappadocia, in the region of the eastern 

 Halys, east of Angora, became known through Texier. They were 

 diligently examined by Perrot and Humann. In the nineties they 

 were visited by E. Chantre, who did some excavating, and by Lieu- 

 tenant Schaefer and W. Belck, who were all impressed with the im- 

 portance of these ruins. On my presentation of the matter. Baron 

 W. von Landau offered the means for a trip of inquiry. The required 

 irade was speedily obtained with the aid of the imperial embassy 

 in Constantinople, and thus I reached the ruins in company with 

 Th. Makridy Bey in October, 1905. 



The very extent of the ruins indicated that it was a place of un- 

 usual importance and that it represented one of the centers of 

 " Llittite " civilization. The prospects of epigraphic acquisitions 

 were very favorable. In the three days during which we could ex- 

 amine the ruins some thirty fragments of clay tablets were discovered, 

 some of them picked up in our presence. In some cases their shape 

 showed that they were parts of tablets of extraordinary size. Ac- 



