An ancient clay tablet found in central Turkey suggests that a little known rival ethnic group was closely involved in the establishment of the Hittite Empire more than 3,000 years ago, Japanese archaeologists said.

Text engraved on the tablet was in the language of the Hurrians, who are believed to have been once powerful enough to vie for hegemony in the ancient Orient with the Hittites and the Egyptians.

“The clay tablet has major implications for the ties between the Hittite royal family and the Hurrians,” said Kimiyoshi Matsumura, a researcher who heads an expedition of the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology (JIAA).

“We hope to shed light on details of the role that the Hurrians, who must have been a nemesis for the Hittites, played in the formation process of the Hittite Empire, which went on to prosper with its ironmaking technologies, the foundation of our contemporary society.”

CLOSE TIES TO ROYAL FAMILY

The tablet, measuring about 3 centimeters, was unearthed in June near palace remains in Buklukale, the ruins of a Hittite urban settlement in central Anatolia, Turkey, which expedition members believe had ties with the royal family.

An adobe building more than 50 meters long, presumably a palace, likely stood on the hilltop in its central part during the Hittite Empire, which flourished roughly from 1,700 B.C. to 1,200 B.C., JIAA officials said.

Buklukale, measuring about 500 meters per side, had previously produced large-scale ritual sites, each containing a heap of 3,000 or so earthenware bowls.

The text engraved on the tablet pertained to a Hurrian religious ritual called purification. The calligraphic style shows the tablet was made during the cradle years of the Hittite Empire, officials said.

The Hurrians, who lived about 1,000 kilometers to the southeast, built the Mitanni Kingdom in an area stretching from present-day Syria to northern Mesopotamia.

The kingdom, which thrived roughly from 1,500 B.C. to 1,300 B.C., has remained shrouded in mystery. Even its capital, known only by the name of Wassukkani, has yet to be located.

Mark Weeden, an associate professor of ancient Middle Eastern languages with University College London, said the latest find is a “key discovery” that shows Buklukale, an important site for the Hittite royal family since the early days of the Hittite Empire, had close ties with the Hurrian population.

“There are only three other places in Hittite territory where Hurrian clay tablets have been unearthed, all of which are known to have been closely associated with the Hittite royal family,” said Weeden, who worked with the JIAA expedition as a decipherer of Hurrian texts on clay tablets.

“In addition to evidence for large-scale rituals, clay tablets related to religious rituals written in ancient Hurrian were unearthed at the Buklukale ruins, suggesting that rituals in the Hurrian language were probably performed there by the Hittite royal family.”

GLASS VESSEL ANOTHER LINK

A glass vessel found at the palace remains in Buklukale in 2010 also suggests that the Hittites were under the influence of the Hurrians, who likely possessed the most advanced skills for glassmaking at the time, JIAA officials said.

A 146-millimeter-long fragment of the upper part of the pear-shaped bottle was the only portion of the vessel to be unearthed. Its opaque white base is decorated with patterns as well as pieces of colored glass embedded in it.

All glass vessels from the earliest period have so far been unearthed at sites associated with the Hurrians.

An approximately 3,500-year-old glass vessel fragment unearthed at Turkey’s Tell Atchana site on the Syrian border, which falls near the westernmost end of Mitanni territory, had previously been assumed to be the oldest of its kind.

The find from Buklukale has been dated to about 100 years before and could be one of the oldest glass vessels, officials said.

The JIAA, affiliated with the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan, has been digging at sites in Anatolia since 1986. The institute is currently conducting studies at three locations, including Buklukale, where excavations began in 2009.

Archaeologists hope to find out how Anatolia, the central base of the Hittites, was influenced by surrounding areas and how different ethnic groups and cultures rose and fell in the ancient Orient.

Around the time when the Hittite Empire was established, Babylonia, a kingdom in Mesopotamia to the southeast of Anatolia, began to show signs of decline after reaching its height under King Hammurabi. The kingdom of Egypt to the south was also politically unstable due partly to invasions by other ethnic groups.