• Hrozný, Bedřich

Bedrich Hrozny (Bedřich Hrozný in Czech notation) was born in Lysá nad Labem, Bohemia, in 1879. He was employed at the Imperial University Library in Vienna starting in 1902. In 1904, in his capacity as an Assyriologist, he was involved in the excavations of Tell-Taannek in Palestine. The following year he was appointed professor of semitic languages and assyriology at the University of Vienna. His excellent knowledge of languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Ethiopian, Aramaic, Akkadian, Sumerian, Sanskrit, Persian, and cuneiform writing) allowed him to decipher the Hittite language in 1915. He also managed to demonstrate the Indo-European roots of that language, and he spread knowledge of the Hittite civilisation by publishing his research in German and French. Having been appointed university professor in Prague in 1919, he directed excavations in Sech-Saad and Tell-Erfad in Syria (1924–5) and at Kultepe in Turkey. It was at this last site that he discovered traces of Cappadocian handwritings as well as cuneiform characters, dated to the third millenium BC. He was consequently elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres at the Institut de France in 1937. At the end of his life he attempted, without success, to decipher Hittite hieroglyphs, such as the writings of ancient India and Crete. He died 1952 in Prague.

In January 1939, Hrozny was elected a member of the ICIC for a period of three years. However, his mandate ended with the termination of the ICIC’s activities at the outbreak of the Second World War.

• UNESCO Archives, Archival Group 1 : IICI/01. Bulletin de la Coopération intellectuelle, n°95-96,"La Conférence de Santiago du Chili". Biographie de Bedrich Hrozny, p. 615-616.
• "Bedřich Hrozný". Article Wikipédia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed%C5%99ich_Hrozn%C3%BD Accessed 29 October 2011.
• Renoliet, J.-J. (1999). L'UNESCO oubliée. La Société des Nations et la coopération intellectuelle (1919-1946). Paris : Publications de la Sorbonne. P. 185.