Fragment of the oldest surviving peace treaty found in Turkey — Jerusalem Post

During excavations in the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusa in Turkey, a fragment of a clay tablet belonging to the Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty was discovered. The cuneiform inscription contains provisions concerning people who fled between Egypt and the land of Hatti, as well as references to protecting houses from destruction, the Jerusalem Post reports.

A find from the royal palace area

The fragment was found in 2025 at the Boğazköy-Hattusa archaeological site in the Boğazkale district of Çorum Province. Archaeologists believe that the Hittite royal palace was located there. Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the Bronze Age.

Researchers had been studying the cuneiform text since the tablet was discovered and established that it was the front side of one of the Akkadian copies of the treaty. Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy stated that the find demonstrates millennia-old traces of peace in Anatolia.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

One of the oldest surviving peace treaties

The Egyptian-Hittite treaty is also known as the Eternal Treaty or the Silver Treaty. It was concluded around 1259 BC by Hittite King Hattusili III and Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II to end the centuries-long war between the two states. The article calls it the oldest of the known peace treaties that have survived to this day.

The document is sometimes called the Treaty of Kadesh, although the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC is not mentioned in its text. The Egyptian version of the treaty was carved in hieroglyphs on the walls of the Ramesseum and the Temple Complex of Amun-Ra at Karnak in Thebes.

Fragments of the Akkadian text on fired clay tablets were found in Hattusa during the first excavations of 1906–1912. Previously discovered parts are kept in museums in Istanbul, Ankara, Berlin, and St. Petersburg. A copy of the treaty is also displayed at United Nations headquarters.