The extensive archaeological documentation from the estate of the Czech Ancient Near Eastern scholar Bedřich Hrozný is gradually being published. Hrozný, who became famous for deciphering the Hittite language in 1915 and, ten years later, for discovering the cuneiform archive of Old Assyrian merchants at the mound of Kültepe in central Anatolia, devoted his life to many important topics in Ancient Near Eastern studies. The archival estate he left behind is extraordinarily extensive and diverse; however, due to its fragmentation across numerous Czech and foreign archives, it is difficult to systematically organise and classify.

In 1924–1925, Hrozný conducted archaeological expeditions to the Syrian mounds of Sheikh Sa‘ad and Tell Rifa‘at, as well as to the Turkish site of Kültepe, but he was unable to publish all his meticulous notes and archaeological drawings during his lifetime. Only now have these been thoroughly processed and analysed. Some of his finds – for example, basalt statues from Sheikh Sa‘ad or terracotta figurines from Tell Rifa‘at – have been subjected to more detailed analyses. The ongoing publication of all his records, notes, and archaeological plans continues to yield numerous insights that remain significant for stratigraphy and the mapping of Ancient Near Eastern history.

Thanks to detailed research and the study of surviving documents in recent years, a collection of nearly one hundred photographs has also been discovered, which – it turns out – were taken by Hrozný himself during his journey to the Near East in 1904, when he was invited to participate in the expedition at Tell Ta‘annek as an Assyriologist. Hrozný documented not only his voyage across the Mediterranean Sea by ship but also his stay at the excavation site of Tell Ta‘annek, where he photographed, among others, the excavation director, Professor Ernst Sellin. Moreover, his photographs include views of important monuments in Jerusalem and other locations, which have been identified thanks to the discovery of newspaper reports written by Hrozný himself after this journey. Particularly noteworthy are the photographs from Egypt, depicting not only the pyramids but also several important sites. Another remarkable discovery is a photograph showing Hrozný at the top of a pyramid. These unique and previously unknown materials are currently in press and will be published during the course of this year.