A newly identified cuneiform tablet fragment discovered at Hattusa, the ancient capital of the Hittite Empire in central Türkiye, has been confirmed as part of a copy of the Kadesh Peace Treaty, one of the earliest known written peace agreements.

The fragment was found near Building E in the Büyükkale area of Hattusa, in the Boğazkale district of Çorum Province. Only one side of the tablet fragment has survived, and researchers spent approximately a year examining it before identifying the text.

Scientific analysis showed that the fragment belongs to one of the Akkadian cuneiform copies of the treaty concluded between the Hittite king Hattusili III and the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC.

The newly identified text corresponds to provisions contained in Articles 12 to 20 of the treaty, concerning people who fled from one kingdom and sought refuge in the other. Although the inscription is incomplete, its surviving sections refer to people fleeing both Egypt and the land of Hatti and include provisions relating to the protection of their homes from destruction.

The Kadesh Peace Treaty followed a long period of rivalry between the Hittite and Egyptian empires and is closely associated with the aftermath of the Battle of Kadesh, fought in the 13th century BC. The agreement established provisions concerning peace between the two powers, mutual assistance and the treatment of fugitives.

Versions of the treaty were preserved by both sides. The Egyptian text was inscribed in hieroglyphs on temple walls, while the Hittite version was recorded in Akkadian on clay tablets using cuneiform script. Fragments of these tablets were first discovered at Hattusa during excavations conducted between 1906 and 1912.

Previously discovered fragments are now held in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin and the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. The newly identified fragment provides another piece of the surviving Hattusa copies and is expected to contribute to efforts to reconstruct the original clay tablets.

Hattusa was the political and administrative centre of the Hittite Empire, one of the major powers of the Late Bronze Age. The archaeological site was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1986. Excavations at Büyükkale are continuing, with archaeologists hoping to locate further missing fragments of the treaty. The current investigations are being conducted by the Istanbul branch of the German Archaeological Institute under the direction of Prof. Dr Andreas Schachner.