Hugo Winckler

Hugo Winckler
Hugo Winckler
Born	4 July 1863 Gräfenhainichen, Prussian Saxony
Died	19 April 1913 Berlin
Nationality	German
Fields	archaeologist
Known for	Hattusa

Hugo Winckler (4 July 1863 – 19 April 1913) was a German archaeologist and historian who uncovered the capital of the Hittite Empire (Hattusa) at Boğazkale, Turkey.

A student of the languages of the ancient Middle East, he wrote extensively on Assyrian cuneiform and the Old Testament, compiled a history of Babylonia and Assyrian that was published in 1891, and translated both the Code of Hammurabi and the Amarna letters. In 1904, he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the University of Berlin.

Winckler studied at the University of Berlin with Eberhard Schrader, founder of the German Assyriology. He was awarded his doctorate on 24 June 1886, for his work on the cuneiform texts of Sargon.

Winckler became a lecturer at the University of Berlin in 1891. In 1904, he was appointed Extraordinary Professor of Oriental languages.

Winckler began excavations at Boğazkale in 1906 with support from the German Orient Society together with Ottoman archeologist Theodore Makridi. His excavations revealed a stockpile of thousands of hardened clay tablets, many written in the hitherto unknown Hittite language, that allowed Winckler to draw a preliminary outline of Hittite history in the 14th and 13th centuries BC. Winckler continued excavations at the site until 1912, during which time his finds proved that the city was once the capital of a great empire. The tablets were deciphered in 1924 by the Czech scholar Bedřich Hrozný.

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