Mother of all peace treaties ever made!

Words, words, words. When did the humankind discover writing? Certain estimations date back to 4000-5000BC. OK. When did the human kind discover fighting? Immediately at the first second? And when was the first cease-fire; and the first peace? Second minute!

Hence, the earliest copy of a peace treaty ever found is of the Kadesh. Ramses Series once again made Egypt popular. As Conan (one of my favorite series in the boarding school years) says, ‘A chain always has two ends.’ There had been a real long competition between Egyptians and Hittites (Kings of Asia Minor) in controlling the Middle East. In 2500 BC, Hittite King Muvatalli and Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses met in Kadesh (on the Orontes River). It was a damned bloody fight; both sides killed bulks, huge enough to deserve ‘heroic’ titles.

Somehow, they decided to make a peace. They issued two copies and signed (sealed) both.

One of those copies is in Istanbul Musuem of Ancient Orient.

Mother of all peace treaties ever made!

Thousands of years ago, people could make peace on a baked clay tablet. Ramses in Kadesh

In our ultra modern mega electronic digital sophisticated civilized global liberal world, why can’t we make peace possible?

Perhaps we need to remember our origin once more; a baked clay. Dust to dust, ash to ashes…

Come on! Umit is not that boring sophisticated tour guru! Take a few steps back in the Museum. On the left is a bank of terracotta tablets; gossips, love poems, jokes…challenging the time, back again from 4000 years ago!

Come to Istanbul!

Umit Ozaydin
Your guide in Turkey

This article is also published on istanbullife.org.

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