Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum ( tr, Karatepe-Aslantaş Açık Hava Müzesi) is an
open-air museum
An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum.
Definition
Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere ...
in
Osmaniye Province
Osmaniye Province ( tr, ) is a province in south-central Turkey. It was named Cebel-i Bereket () in the early republic until 1933, when it was incorporated into Adana Province. It was made a province again in 1996. It covers an area of 3,767&nbs ...
,
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Karatepe ("black hill") is the location while Aslantaş ("lion stone") refers to the lion figure on stone sculptures. The site is situated inside a
national park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
with the same name.
Location
The museum is located north of the -high
Karatepe
Karatepe ( Turkish, 'Black Hill'; Hittite: ''Azatiwataya'') is a late Hittite fortress and open-air museum in Osmaniye Province in southern Turkey lying at a distance of about 23 km from the district center of Kadirli. It is sited in the ...
at Kızyusuflu village in
Kadirli
Kadirli, formerly called Kars, is a town and district of Osmaniye Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. It is located in the Çukurova plain, from the large city of Osmaniye. Population is 84,618 (urban) and 120,950 (including rural ar ...
district of
Osmaniye Province
Osmaniye Province ( tr, ) is a province in south-central Turkey. It was named Cebel-i Bereket () in the early republic until 1933, when it was incorporated into Adana Province. It was made a province again in 1996. It covers an area of 3,767&nbs ...
. Its distance to Kadirli is and to
Osmaniye
Osmaniye () is a city on the eastern edge of the Çukurova plain in southern Turkey and the capital of Osmaniye province.
Backed by the foothills of the Nur Mountains, Osmaniye lay on one of the old Silk Roads and was always a place of strategic ...
.
It is situated to the west of
Aslantaş Dam resorvoir, and is part of the
Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park
Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park ( tr, Karatepe-Aslantaş Milli Parkı), established in 1958, is a national park in southern Turkey. Situated on the banks of a dam reservoir, it contains an archaeological open-air museum.
Location
Karatepe-Asla ...
.
The location is named Karatepe-Aslantaş to distinguish it from other places with the name Aslantaş, which are named by the locals after lion stone statues.
The museum ground is located on a hill in a woodland landscape overlooking the Andırın Plain, and is a peninsula surrounded on three sides by the
Aslantaş Dam reservoir.
History
Karatepe is on the historic caravan trail, called ''Akyol'', ("white road") which connects
Cilicia
Cilicia (); el, Κιλικία, ''Kilikía''; Middle Persian: ''klkyʾy'' (''Klikiyā''); Parthian: ''kylkyʾ'' (''Kilikiyā''); tr, Kilikya). is a geographical region in southern Anatolia in Turkey, extending inland from the northeastern coa ...
with
Central Anatolia
The Central Anatolia Region ( tr, İç Anadolu Bölgesi) is a geographical region of Turkey. The largest city in the region is Ankara. Other big cities are Konya, Kayseri, Eskişehir, Sivas, and Aksaray.
Located in Central Turkey, it is bordered ...
over
Andırın
Andırın is a town and district of Kahramanmaraş Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located m ...
-
Göksün. The route was used by
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...
,
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
and recently by the
Yörüks
The Yörüks, also Yuruks or Yorouks ( tr, Yörükler; , ''Youroúkoi''; bg, юруци; mk, Јуруци, ''Juruci''), are a Turkish ethnic subgroup of Oghuz descent, some of whom are nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia ...
.
The site contains the remains of an ancient
fortress
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
dating back to the 8th century BC. Originally named
Azatiwadaya,
the walled settlement was founded by
Azatiwada
Karatepe (Turkish language, Turkish, 'Black Hill'; Hittite language, Hittite: ''Azatiwataya'') is a late History of the Hittites, Hittite fortress and open-air museum in Osmaniye Province in southern Turkey lying at a distance of about 23 km ...
, the king of
Quwê
Quwê – also spelled Que, Kue, Qeve, Coa, Kuê and Keveh – was a Syro-Hittite Assyrian vassal state or province at various times from the 9th century BC to shortly after the death of Ashurbanipal around 627 BC in the lowlands of eas ...
, a
Neo-Hittite
The states that are called Syro-Hittite, Neo-Hittite (in older literature), or Luwian-Aramean (in modern scholarly works), were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwestern ...
kingdom. It was built for defense against invaders from the north. The fortification and other territory areas of the kingdom were conquered by the
Assyrian Empire
Assyrian may refer to:
* Assyrian people, the indigenous ethnic group of Mesopotamia.
* Assyria, a major Mesopotamian kingdom and empire.
** Early Assyrian Period
** Old Assyrian Period
** Middle Assyrian Empire
** Neo-Assyrian Empire
* Assyrian ...
from the east either in 720–725 BC term or in 680 BC.
The site was accidentally discovered by sheepmen from
Saimbeyli
Saimbeyli, alternatively known as Hadjin ( hy, Հաճըն, translit=Hajěn), is a township and a district in the Adana Province, Turkey. The township is located at the Taurus mountains of Cilicia region, 157 km north of the city of Adana. The dist ...
. They informed Ekrem Kuşçu, the village school teacher, who in turn notified Naci Kum, the director of
Adana Museum. The government commissioned
Helmuth Theodor Bossert
Helmuth Theodor Bossert (September 11, 1889 – February 5, 1961) was a German history of art, art historian, philology, philologist and archaeology, archaeologist. He is best-known for his excavations of the Hittite fortress city at Karatepe, Tur ...
(1889–1961), German professor of archaeology at
Istanbul University
, image = Istanbul_University_logo.svg
, image_size = 200px
, latin_name = Universitas Istanbulensis
, motto = tr, Tarihten Geleceğe Bilim Köprüsü
, mottoeng = Science Bridge from Past to the Future
, established = 1453 1846 1933
...
, to conduct
excavations, which began in Spring 1946. Turkish female archaeologist
Halet Çambel
Halet Çambel (27 August 1916 – 12 January 2014) was a Turkish archaeologist and Olympic fencer. She was the first woman with a Muslim background to compete in the Olympic Games.
Private life
Çambel was born in Berlin, German Empire on ...
(1916–2014) was a key figure in the archaeologists team.
Bahadır Alkım (1915–1981) joined later the excavations,
which were accomplished in 1952. Upon Çambel's efforts, the archaeological site and its close surroundings were established as the
Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park
Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park ( tr, Karatepe-Aslantaş Milli Parkı), established in 1958, is a national park in southern Turkey. Situated on the banks of a dam reservoir, it contains an archaeological open-air museum.
Location
Karatepe-Asla ...
with effect of September 28, 1958.
Open-air museum
The ruined inner and outer walls of the fortress are high and thick. The inside of the double stone walls without
mortar were filled with rubble and soil. The fortification stretches over in the south-north direction and in the east-west direction. The wall construction is fortified at distance with 34 rectangular
bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
s in total, of which only 28 could be identified. The walls in the east-west direction were restored in accordance with the original.
The fortress has two gates, one in the southwest and the other in the northeast. At the southwestern gate, there are two lion stone statues. The walls of the two chambers flanking the gate are covered with reliefs on
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
stone, which depict the faith and way of life of that time. The
Karatepe Bilingual, an inscription in
Phoenician alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet (more specifically, an abjad) known in modern times from the Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. The name comes from the Phoenician civilization.
The Phoenician alpha ...
and
Hieroglyphic Luwian
Hieroglyphic Luwian (''luwili'') is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. It is written in a hieroglyphic script known as Anatolian hieroglyphs.
A decipherment was pr ...
with the same text, is situated there. Inside the gate, there is a stone statue of the
Ancient Egyptian dwarf deity Bes BES or Bes may refer to:
* Bes, Egyptian deity
* Bes (coin), Roman coin denomination
* Bes (Marvel Comics), fictional character loosely based on the Egyptian deity
Abbreviations
* Bachelor of Environmental Studies, a degree
* Banco Espírito ...
and a
-tall stone statue of the Phoenician
thunder god
Polytheistic peoples from many cultures have postulated a thunder god, the personification or source of the forces of thunder and lightning; a lightning god does not have a typical depiction, and will vary based on the culture. In Indo-European c ...
Baal
Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during Ancient Near East, antiquity. From its use among people, it cam ...
.
At the northeastern gate, two stone statues of
sphinx
A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...
, a mythical creature with, the head of a human and the body of a lion, are placed. The flanking chambers contain several reliefs and another Karatepe Bilingual. The Karatepe Bilingual enabled the decryption of
Anatolian hieroglyphs
Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous logographic script native to central Anatolia, consisting of some 500 signs. They were once commonly known as Hittite hieroglyphs, but the language they encode proved to be Luwian, not Hittite, and the ter ...
, which go back up to 20th century BC, with the help of Phoenician alphabet.
Atop the hill, grain wells and two burnt-out building ruins, which are believed to be palaces, are situated. The majority of the artifacts in the open-air museum were not dislocated. Only small items were taken into a museum building for exhibition.
Visitors can receive a multi-lingual visual presentation on Karatepe before starting their tour in the open-air museum.
References
External links
Karatepe-Aslantaş imagesat Hittite Monuments.
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karatepe-Aslantas Open-AirMuseum
Open-air museums in Turkey
Archaeological museums in Turkey
Tourist attractions in Osmaniye Province
Kadirli District
Hittite cities
1958 establishments in Turkey
Museums established in 1958