Hugo Winckler | |
|---|---|
 Hugo Winckler | |
| Born | 4 July 1863 |
| Died | 19 April 1913 (1913-04-20) (aged 49) |
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | Hattusa |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Archeology |
Hugo Winckler (4 July 1863 – 19 April 1913) was a Germanorientalist,[1]archaeologist, and historian who uncovered the capital of theHittite Empire (Hattusa) atBoğazkale,Turkey.
A student of the languages of the ancientMiddle East, he wrote extensively onAssyriancuneiform and theOld Testament, compiled a history ofBabylonia and Assyria that was published in 1891, and translated both theCode of Hammurabi and theAmarna letters. In 1904, he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at theUniversity of Berlin.
Winckler studied at the University of Berlin withEberhard Schrader, founder of 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 theUniversity of Berlin in 1891. In 1904, he was appointedExtraordinary Professor of Oriental languages.[2]
Winckler began excavations atBoğazkale in 1906 with support from theGerman Orient Society together with Ottoman archeologistTheodore Makridi. His excavations revealed a stockpile of thousands of hardened clay tablets, many written in the hitherto unknownHittite 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.[3] The main language on the tablets, known as theBogazköy Archive was deciphered in 1915 by theCzech scholarBedřich Hrozný.[4]
Otto Rank, inArt and Artist, describes Winckler as the "rediscoverer of the ancient Oriental world picture in the fifth to sixth millennium B.C.[5] Winckler's popular description: "The whole universe is the great world, the macrocosm; its parts are small universes in themselves, microcosms. Such amicrocosm is man, who is himself an image of the universe and a perfect being. But the great universe is likewise a man, and as it is 'God,' God has human form.In his own image, therefore, was man created. This was still the belief of medieval medicine, which we know to have had (chiefly for the purpose of bleeding) a method of dividing up the human body according to the twelve signs of the zodiac (head, ram; neck, bull; arms, twins; and so on). On this 'scientific' treatment of a patient was based..."
Rank also wrote inArt and Artist, regarding the significance of macroscosmic symbolism, "In the first, and still the best, summary of this sort, which Winckler gives us in the chapter "Myth, Legend, and Play" of his popular account of the intellectual culture of ancient Babylon, the fundamental fact is established that the festivals connected with various games had all a seasonal character, with a definite calendar as their basis. In these festivals and the associated games, "the events in heaven which the festival represents—for example, the death and rebirth of the deity, the victory over the powers of darkness, the dragon—are represented and played before the people."[6]
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