Self-taught Turkish 'Linguist' Keeps Dead Language Alive

Mehmet Kusman, 86, has devoted his life to preserving the ancient Urartian language, a pursuit that has consumed him for decades. Despite limited formal schooling, Kusman taught himself to read the inscriptions on the basalt rock at the Cavustepe fortress in eastern Turkey, where the vanished kingdom of Urartu once thrived.

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Before me there was nothing. But by the power of the god Haldi I founded this city.

Kusman encountered his first stele after military service in the 1960s. Discouraged by the head of excavations from learning the "very difficult" cuneiform script, he was spurred on by the rejection. "His telling me 'No' hurt me," he recalled. "I became relentless, thinking: 'In my lifetime, I will learn it.'" He spent three years mastering the alphabet and another 22 years learning 650 words.

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The inscription was very beautiful.

Academics acknowledge Kusman's dedication. Erkan Konyar, a professor of ancient history, described Urartu as a powerful state between the 9th and 7th centuries BC that unified mountain communities. Konyar noted that Kusman has spent 60 years at Cavustepe, introducing thousands of visitors to Urartian history.

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His telling me 'No' hurt me. I became relentless, thinking: 'In my lifetime, I will learn it.'

However, scholars caution against claims of speaking the language fluently. "Historians do not really know how it was pronounced," Konyar stated. "The available inscriptions allow us to understand it up to a certain point, but we lack vocabulary and texts." Mehmet Isikli, director of Near Eastern Archaeology at Ataturk University, added, "Even in the time of Urartu, people did not speak this language; it was only written." Kusman, however, calls himself "one of the last seven people in Türkiye to speak the Urartian language."

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In my lifetime, I will learn it.