Treaty of Kadesh

The Treaty of Kadesh, the earliest peace treaty known, was concluded between the two big political and military powers of the 13th century BC, the Hittite and Egyptian empires. The clay tablet containing the text of this treaty sealed by Hattusili III, the king of the Hittite empire and the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II was found during excavations at Boğazköy in 1906.

Before the emergence of this artifact, only the text of this treaty carved on a stele in the Egyptian Tempel of Karnak in Egyptian hieroglyphs was known. In the inscription, it is stated that Hattusili III had made the text of the treaty carved on a silver plate and sent to Egypt; but this version could not be found yet. The tablet in Akkadian, then the language of diplomacy, had many missing pieces and contained only about half of the text. During later excavations, four pieces belonging to the main text were found and the missing parts were completed. The text of the treaty sealed under equal conditions reads:

"It is concluded that Reamasesa-Mai-amana (the cuneiform transcription of Ramesses II) , the Great King, the king (of the land of Egypt) with Hattusili, the Great King, the king of the land of Hatti, his brother, for the land of Egypt and the land of Hatti, in order to establish a good peace and a good fraternity forever among them." Later, information about the ancestors of the two kings and their efforts aimed at achieving peace are described repeatedly, before the articles of the treaty. Those articles may be listed as follows:

"If domestic or foreign enemies marches against one of these two countries and if they ask help from each other, both parties will send their troops and chariots in order to help. If a nobleman flees from Hatti and seeks refuge in Egypt, the king of Egypt will catch him and send back to his country.

If people flee from Egypt to Hatti or from Hatti to Egypt, those will be sent back. However, they will not be punished severely, they will not shed tears and their wives and children will not be punished in revenge."

Since it is the first written peace treaty in the history, a 2-meter long copper copy of the original tablet was hanged on a wall of the United Nations building.

Whereabouts: Istanbul Archaeology Museums