Editing Archibald Sayce (section)

===Hittite language===
In the late 1870s, Sayce moved away from his Sumerian studies and concentrated upon [[Indo-European languages]].<ref name="Langdon"/> He theorized that the ''pseudo-sesostris'' rock carvings in Asia Minor, such as the [[Karabel relief]] which had been historically attributed to the Egyptians,<ref>{{Citation
 | first1 = Stephanie 
 | last1 = Dalley
 | editor-last = Derow
 | editor-first = Peter
 | editor2-last =  Parker
 | editor2-first = Robert
 | contribution = 'Why did not Herodotus mention the Hanging Gardens' of Babylon?
 | year = 2003
 | title = Herodotus and His World: Essays from a Conference in Memory of George Forrest
 | pages = 174
 | place = Oxford
 | publisher = Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 | url = https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodotus/herodotus-on-sesostris-reliefs/
 | title = Herodotus on Sesostris' Reliefs
 | date = 2003
 | publisher = Livius.org
 | access-date = 2020-05-21}}</ref> were actually created by another pre-Greek culture.<ref name ="Remini"/> In 1876 he speculated that the [[Hieroglyphic Luwian|hieroglyphs]] in inscriptions discovered at [[Hamath]] in Syria, were not related to [[Assyrian cuneiform|Assyrian]] or [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian]] scripts but came from another culture he identified as the [[Hittites]].<ref>{{cite journal
 | last = Sayce
 | title = On the Hamathmite Inscriptions
 | journal = Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 
 | volume = 5
 | date = 1877
 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/transactions05soci/page/22 22]–32
 | url =  https://archive.org/details/transactions05soci
 }}</ref> In 1879, Sayce further theorized that reliefs and inscriptions at Karabel, [[İvriz relief|İvriz]], {{ill|Bulgarmaden|de|Felsinschrift von Bulgarmaden}}, [[Carchemish]], [[Alaca Höyük]], and [[Yazilikaya]] were created by the Hittites.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last1 = Sayce
 | title = The Origins of Early Art in Asia Minor
 | journal = The Academy
 | volume = 36
 | date = 1879
 | pages = 124
 | url = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.d0002863710&view=1up&seq=144
 }}</ref> His hypothesis was confirmed when he visited some of the sites on a tour of the Near East in the same year.<ref name ="Remini"/> On his return to England, Sayce presented a lecture to the  [[Society of Biblical Archaeology]] in London, where he announced that the Hittites where a much more influential culture than previously thought with their own art and language.<ref>{{cite journal
 | last = Sayce
 | title = The Monuments of the Hittites
 | journal = Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 
 | volume = 7
 | date = 1882
 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/transactions07soci/page/248 248]–293
 | url =  https://archive.org/details/transactions07soci
 }}</ref> Sayce concluded that the Hittite hieroglyphic system was predominantly a [[syllabary]], that is, its symbols stood for a phonetic syllable. There were too many different signs for a system, that was alphabetical and yet there were too few for it to be a set of ideographs. That very sign standing for the divinity had appeared on the stones of Hamath and other places, always in the form of a prefix of an indecipherable group of hieroglyphics naming the deities. This led Sayce to conclude that by finding the name of one of these deities with the help of another language endowed with similar pronunciation, one might analyse the conversion of the aforesaid name in Hittite hieroglyphics. Also, he stated that the keys to be obtained through that process might in turn be applied to other parts of a Hittite inscription where the same sign were to occur.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Sayce dreamed of finding a Hittite ''[[Rosetta Stone]]'' to help with his research.<ref name ="Tarkondemos">{{cite journal
 | last = Sayce
 | title = The Bilingual Hittite and Cuneiform Inscriptions at Tarkondemos 
 | journal = Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 
 | volume = 7
 | date = 1882
 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/transactions07soci/page/294 294]–308
 | url =  https://archive.org/details/transactions07soci
 }}</ref> Sayce attempted to translate a short Hittite hieroglyphic inscription found with a cuneiform text on a silver disk featuring a representation of the Hittite king, [[Kingdom of Mira|Tarkondemos]].<ref>Now held in the [[Walters Art Museum]] (57.1512 ). {{cite web
 | url = https://art.thewalters.org/detail/5130/seal-of-tarkummuwa-king-of-mera/
 | title = Seal of Tarkasnawa, King of Mira
 | last = Walters Art Museum
 | access-date =2020-05-23
 }}</ref><ref name="Tarkondemos"/> He and [[William Wright (missionary)|William Wright]] also identified the ruins at [[Boğazkale|Boghazkoy]] with [[Hattusa]], the capital of a Hittite Empire that stretched from the [[Aegean Sea]] to the banks of the [[Euphrates]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Trevor|last1=Bryce|author-link=Trevor R. Bryce|title=Life and Society in the Hittite World|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordmoralskept00libg|url-access=limited|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordmoralskept00libg/page/n17 3]|isbn=978-0-19-924170-5}}</ref>

Sayce published his research on the Hittites in ''The Hittites: The Story of a Forgotten Empire'' in 1888.<ref>*{{Citation
 | last = Sayce
 | title = The Hittites : the story of a forgotten Empire
 | place = London, United Kingdom
 | publisher = [[Religious Tract Society]]
 | series = By-Paths of Biblical Knowledge
 | volume = XII
 | year = 1888}}</ref> Sayce produced many studies on the Hittites and their language, but they were criticised by fellow scholars as his work did not apply [[Historical criticism]], and his attempts to decipher the Hittite hieroglyphics were also unsuccessful.<ref name="ODNB"/>