EXCAVATIONS AT BOGHAZ-KEUI WINCKLER AND PUCHSTEIN. 679 



cording to the assertions of the inhabitants of Boghaz-Keiii and of 

 other visitors, similar finds had previously been made. During the 

 excavations of the following year (1906) there was a rumor of large 

 bronze finds, consisting of axes and horse trappings. One of these 

 ax-shaped objects is in the Museum of Berlin (fig. 1). 



The finds made at our first examination of the ruins promised rich 

 booty of documents in cuneiform script, and through them the estab- 

 lishing on the soil of Asia Minor of a definite historical center that 

 might possibly be connected with other accounts concerning " Hittite " 

 history. The presumptive size of the tablets and the character of 

 the script recalled some of the letters of Tel el-Amarna, so that they 

 could be assumed to be of the same period. Two other facts pointed 

 to a connection between them. All the fragments found at Boghaz- 

 Keui were inscribed in an unknown language, but they were too 

 small to afford connected stories. A chain of circumstances, however, 



Fig. 1. — Flat bronze batchet from Boghaz-keui. S natural size. 



indicated that they were in the same language as two documents of 

 Tel el-Amarna (the letter of Amenophis III to Tarchundaraus, King 

 of Arsawa, and the one in which the prince Lapawa is mentioned), 

 and which goes by the name of the " Arsawa language." This again 

 pointed to an identical period for both sets of documents and a 

 possible closer connection between them. This impression was con- 

 firmed by three small pieces, which, by their very appearance and 

 the quality of the clay, strongly recalled the Amarna tablets, but 

 more so by their contents, Avhich were in the Babylonian language, 

 and formed portions of letters to a king. 



On the basis of these results the Society of Explorations in Western 

 Asia (Vorderasiatische Gesellschaft) and some of its members pro- 

 vided the means for further excavations. This work was undertaken 

 in the summer of 1906 and resulted in fixing the site and determining 

 its importance and there was discovered a large number of royal 

 documents. For a continuation of the explorations on a larger scale 

 88292— SM 1908 i4 



