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Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the
Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...
in the late
Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern
Boğazkale Boğazkale ("Gorge Fortress") is a town of Çorum Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, located from the city of Çorum. It is the seat of Boğazkale District.Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
(originally Boğazköy) within the great loop of the
Kızılırmak River The Kızılırmak (, Turkish language, Turkish for "Red River"), once known as the Halys River () and Alis River, is the longest river flowing entirely within Turkey. It is a source of hydroelectric power and is not used for navigation. Geogra ...
(Hittite: ''Marashantiya''; Greek: '' Halys'').
Charles Texier Félix Marie Charles Texier (22 August 1802, Versailles – 1 July 1871, Paris) was a French historian, architect and archaeologist. Texier published a number of significant works involving personal travels throughout Asia Minor and the Middle Eas ...
brought attention to the ruins after his visit in 1834. Over the following century, sporadic exploration occurred, involving different archaeologists. The German Oriental Society and the
German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...
began systematic excavations in the early 20th century, which continue to this day. Hattusa was added to the
UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
list in 1986.


History

The earliest traces of settlement on the site are from the sixth millennium BC during the
Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...
period. Toward the end of the 3rd Millennium BC the
Hattian people The Hattians () were an ancient Bronze Age people that inhabited the land of ''Hatti'', in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). They spoke a distinctive Hattian language, which was neither Semitic languages, Semitic nor Indo-European languages, In ...
established a settlement on locations that had been occupied even earlier and referred to the site as Hattush. In the 19th and 18th centuries BC, merchants from
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
, centered at Kanesh (Neša) (modern Kültepe) established a trading post there, setting up in their own separate quarter of the lower city. A carbonized layer apparent in excavations attests to the burning and ruin of the city of Hattusa around 1700 BC. The responsible party appears to have been King Anitta from
Kussara Kussara (''Kuššar'') was a Middle Bronze Age kingdom in Anatolia. The kingdom, though apparently important at one time, is mostly remembered today as the origin of the dynasty that would form the Old Hittite Kingdom. Location Kussara is occasion ...
, who took credit for the act and erected an inscribed curse for good measure: though in fact the city was rebuilt afterward, possibly by a son of Anitta. In the first half of the second millennium BC, around the year 1650 BC the Hittite king Labarna moved the capital from Neša to Hattusa and took the name of Hattusili, the "one/man from Hattusa". After the
Kaskians The Kaska (also Kaška, later Tabal (state), Tabalian Kasku and Gasga) were a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontus (region), Pontic Anatolia ...
arrived to the kingdom's north, they twice attacked the city and under king
Tudhaliya I Tudḫaliya is the name of several Hittite kings or royals. It is not clear how many kings bore that name, and numbering schemes vary from source to source. *Tudḫaliya (sometimes called Tudḫaliya I) is deduced from his early placement in a lat ...
, the Hittites moved the capital north to
Sapinuwa Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite language, Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittites, Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy, Çorum, Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey about 70 kilometers east of the Hittite capital ...
. Under
Muwatalli II Muwatalli II (also Muwatallis, or Muwatallish; meaning "mighty") was a king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite empire c. 1295–1282 ( middle chronology) and 1295–1272 BC in the short chronology. Biography He was the eldest son of Mursili II ...
, they moved south to Tarhuntassa but the king assigned his younger brother, the future
Hattusili III Ḫattušili (''Ḫattušiliš'' in the inflected nominative case) was the regnal name of three Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Labarna II) * Hattusili II * Hattusili III It was also the name of two Neo-Hittite kings: * Hattusili I (Kummuh) * Hattus ...
as governor over Hattusa. In the mid-13th century BC Hittite ruler
Mursili III There were three Hittite kings called Mursili: *Mursili I, ca. 1556–1526 BCE (short chronology), and was likely a grandson of his predecessor, Hattusili I. His sister was Ḫarapšili and his wife was queen Kali. *Mursili II, (also spelled Mursil ...
returned the seat to Hattusa, where the capital remained until the end of the Hittite kingdom in the 12th century BC (KBo 21.15 i 11–12). At its peak, the city covered and comprised an inner and outer portion, both surrounded by a massive and still visible course of walls erected during the reign of Suppiluliuma I (–1322 BC (
short chronology The chronology of the ancient Near East is a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Historical inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers: "in the year X of king Y". Com ...
)). The inner city covered an area of some and was occupied by a citadel with large administrative buildings and temples. The royal residence, or
acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...
, was built on a high ridge now known as Büyükkale (Great Fortress). The city displayed over of walls, with inner and outer skins around of thick and of space between them, adding of the total thickness. To the south lay an outer city of about , with elaborate gateways decorated with reliefs showing warriors, lions, and sphinxes. Four temples were located here, each set around a porticoed courtyard, together with secular buildings and residential structures. Outside the walls are cemeteries, most of which contain cremation burials. Modern estimates put the population of the city around 10,000; in the early period, the inner city housed a third of that number. The dwelling houses that were built with timber and mud bricks have vanished from the site, leaving only the stone-built walls of temples and palaces. The city was destroyed, together with the Hittite state itself, around 1200 BC, as part of the
Late Bronze Age collapse The Late Bronze Age collapse was a period of societal collapse in the Mediterranean basin during the 12th century BC. It is thought to have affected much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East, in particular Egypt, Anatolia, the Aegea ...
. Excavations suggest that Hattusa was gradually abandoned over a period of several decades as the Hittite empire disintegrated. It has been suggested that a regional drought occurred at that time. Signs of final destruction by fire have been noted, but this destruction probably occurred after the city had already been abandoned by the Hittite royal family, elites, and state apparatus. Agricultural communities with a
material culture Material culture is culture manifested by the Artifact (archaeology), physical objects and architecture of a society. The term is primarily used in archaeology and anthropology, but is also of interest to sociology, geography and history. The fie ...
distinct from the Hittites settled in the remains of Hattusa as early as the 12th Century BC.


Archaeology

In 1833, the French archaeologist Félix Marie Charles Texier (1802–1871) was sent on an exploratory mission to Turkey, where in 1834 he discovered monumental ruins near the town of Boğazköy. Texier made topographical measurements, produced illustrations, and composed a preliminary site plan. The site was subsequently visited by a number of European travelers and explorers, most notably the German geographer Heinrich Barth in 1858.
Georges Perrot Georges Perrot (12 November 1832 – 30 June 1914) was a French archaeologist. He taught at the Sorbonne from 1875 and was director of the École Normale Supérieure from 1888 to 1902. In 1874 he was elected to the Academie des Inscriptions ...
excavated at the site in 1861 and at the nearby site of Yazılıkaya. Perrot was the first to suggest, in 1886, that Boğazköy was the Hittite capital of Hattusa. In 1882 German engineer Carl Humann completed a full plan of the site. Ernest Chantre opened some trial trenches at the village then called Boğazköy, in 1893–94, with excavations being cut short by a cholera outbreak. Significantly Chantre discovered some fragments of clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform. The fragments contain text in both the
Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218–280 was an East Semitic language that is attested ...
and what later was determined to be the
Hittite language Hittite (, or ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern ...
. Between 1901 and 1905 Waldemar Belck visited the site several times, finding a number of tablets. In 1905 Hugo Winckler conducted some soundings at Boğazköy on behalf of the German Oriental Society (DOG), finding 35 more cuneiform tablet fragments at the site of the royal fortress, Büyükkale.Crüsemann, Nicola, "Vom Zweistromlandzum Kupfergraben.Vorgeschichte und Entstehungsjahre (1899–1918) der Vorderasiatischen Abteilung der Berliner Museen vorfach-und kulturpolitischen Hintergründen, Jahrbuchder, Berliner Museen 42, Beiheft(Berlin:Gebr.MannVerlag), 2001 Winckler began actual excavations in 1906, focusing mainly on the royal fortress area. Thousands of tablets were recovered, most in the then unreadable Hittite language. The few Akkadian texts firmly identified the site as Hattusa. Winckler returned in 1907 (with
Otto Puchstein Otto Puchstein (6 July 1856, Labes – 9 March 1911, Berlin) was a German classical archaeologist. From 1875 to 1879 he studied philology, classical archaeology and Egyptology at the University of Strasbourg, where his instructors include ...
, Heinrich Kohl,
Ludwig Curtius Ludwig Curtius (December 13, 1874 – April 10, 1954) was a German archaeologist born in Augsburg. He is remembered for his investigations involving the development of ancient Greek and Roman art. He studied classical archaeology in Munich under ...
and Daniel Krencker), and briefly in 1911 and 1912 (with Theodore Makridi). Work stopped with the outbreak of WWI. Tablets from these excavations were published in two series ''Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazkoi'' (KB0) and ''Keilschrift urkunden aus Boghazköi'' (KUB). Work resumed in 1931 under prehistorian
Kurt Bittel Kurt Bittel (born 5 July 1907 in Heidenheim an der Brenz, died 30 January 1991 in Heidenheim an der Brenz) was a German prehistorian. As president of the German Archaeological Institute (''Deutsches Archäologisches Institut'' - DAI) and excavato ...
with establishing stratigraphy as the major focus. The work was under the auspices of the DOG and
German Archaeological Institute The German Archaeological Institute (, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office, Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Status, tasks and ...
(Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) and lasted 9 seasons until being suspended due to the outbreak of WWII in 1939. Excavation resumed in 1952 under Bittel with Peter Neve replacing as field director in 1963 and as director in 1978, continuing until 1993. The focus was on the Upper City area. Publication of tablets was resumed in the KUB and KBo. In 1994 Jürgen Seeher assumed control of the excavation, leading there until 2005, with the focus on the Büyükkaya and non-monumental areas including economic and residential spaces. From 2006 on, while some archaeology continued under new director Andreas Schachner, activities have been more focused toward restoration and preparation for tourist operations. During the 1986 excavations a large (35 × 24 cm, 5 kg in weight, with 2 attached chains) inscribed metal tablet was discovered 35 meters west of the Sphinx Gate. The tablet, from the 13th century BC, contained a treaty between Hittite
Tudḫaliya IV Tudḫaliya IV was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom), and the younger son of Ḫattušili III. He reigned –1215 BC (middle chronology) or –1209 BC (short chronology). His mother was the great queen, Puduḫepa. Early life Tud ...
and
Kurunta Kurunta () or Kurunti(ya) is the Hittite mythology, Hittite stag god and a tutelary god of the countryside. Name The name of Kurunta is spelled as (DEUS)CERVUS in Hieroglyphic Luwian, or as dKAL in Hittite cuneiform. As dKAL has to be read ...
, King of
Tarḫuntašša Tarḫuntašša ( and : ) was a Bronze Age city in south-central Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) mentioned in contemporary documents. Its location is unknown. The city was the capital of the Hittite Empire for a time and later became a regional power ...
. It is held at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. During 1991 repair work at the site a Mycenae bronze sword was found on the western slope. It was inscribed, in Akkadian, "As Duthaliya the Great King shattered the Assuwa-Country he dedicated these swords to the Storm-God, his lord". Another significant find during the 1990-91 excavation season in the "Westbau" building of the upper city, was 3400 sealed bullae and clay lumps dating from the 2nd half of the 13th century BC. They were primarily associated with land documents.


Cuneiform royal archives

Forty mercantile documents written in the Old Assyrian dialect of Akkadian were found in the early 2nd millennium BC karum. By the middle of the 2nd millennium a scribal community had grown up in Hattusa based on Syrian, Mesopotamian, and Hurrian input. This included the usual range of Akkadian and Sumerian language texts. One of the most important discoveries at the site has been the cuneiform royal archives of clay tablets from the Hittite Empire New Kingdom period, known as the Bogazköy Archive, consisting of official correspondence and contracts, as well as legal codes, procedures for cult ceremony, oracular prophecies and literature of the ancient Near East. One particularly important tablet, currently on display at the
Istanbul Archaeology Museum The Istanbul Archaeology Museums () are a group of three archaeological museums located in the Eminönü quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, near Gülhane Park and Topkapı Palace. These museums house over one million objects from nearly all periods an ...
, details the terms of a peace settlement reached years after the
Battle of Kadesh The Battle of Kadesh took place in the 13th century BC between the New Kingdom of Egypt, Egyptian Empire led by pharaoh Ramesses II and the Hittites, Hittite Empire led by king Muwatalli II. Their armies engaged each other at the Orontes River, ...
between the Hittites and the Egyptians under
Ramesses II Ramesses II (sometimes written Ramses or Rameses) (; , , ; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Pharaoh, Egyptian pharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty. Along with Thutmose III of th ...
, in 1259 or 1258 BC. A copy is on display in the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
as an example of the earliest known international peace treaties. Although the 30,000 or so clay tablets recovered from Hattusa form the main corpus of Hittite literature, archives have since appeared at other centers in Anatolia, such as Tabigga (Maşat Höyük) and Sapinuwa (Ortaköy).


Sphinxes

A pair of
sphinx A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. In Culture of Greece, Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, th ...
es found at the southern gate in Hattusa were taken for restoration to
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
in 1917. The better-preserved was returned to Turkey in 1924 and placed on display in the
Istanbul Archaeology Museum The Istanbul Archaeology Museums () are a group of three archaeological museums located in the Eminönü quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, near Gülhane Park and Topkapı Palace. These museums house over one million objects from nearly all periods an ...
, but the other remained in Germany where it was on display at the
Pergamon Museum The Pergamon Museum (; ) is a Kulturdenkmal , listed building on the Museum Island in the Mitte (locality), historic centre of Berlin, Germany. It was built from 1910 to 1930 by order of Emperor Wilhelm II, German Emperor, Wilhelm II and accordi ...
from 1934 until it was moved to the Boğazköy Museum outside the Hattusa ruins, along with the Istanbul sphinx reuniting the pair near their original location.


See also

*
Yazılıkaya :'' Yazılıkaya, Eskişehir, also called Midas City, is a village with Phrygian ruins.'' Yazılıkaya () was a sanctuary of Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, today in the Çorum Province, Turkey. Rock reliefs are a prominent aspec ...
*
Arslantepe Arslantepe, also known as Melid, was an ancient city on the Tohma River, a tributary of the upper Euphrates rising in the Taurus Mountains. It has been identified with the modern archaeological site of Arslantepe near Malatya, Turkey. It was na ...
* Ancient settlements in Turkey *
Cities of the Ancient Near East The earliest cities in history were in the ancient Near East, an area covering roughly that of the modern Middle East: its history began in the 4th millennium BC and ended, depending on the interpretation of the term, either with the conquest by ...
*
Short chronology timeline The chronology of the ancient Near East is a framework of dates for various events, rulers and dynasties. Historical inscriptions and texts customarily record events in terms of a succession of officials or rulers: "in the year X of king Y". Com ...


References


Further reading

*Bryce, Trevor, "Life and Society in the Hittite World", Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 *Bryce, Trevor, "Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East: The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age", London: Routledge, 2003 *Bryce, Trevor, "The Kingdom of the Hittites" Rev. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 * W. Dörfler et al.: ''Untersuchungen zur Kulturgeschichte und Agrarökonomie im Einzugsbereich hethitischer Städte''. (MDOG Berlin 132), 2000, 367–381. ISSN 0342-118X *Gordin, Shai, "The Tablet and its Scribe: Between Archival and Scribal Spaces in Late Empire Period Ḫattusa", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 177–198, 2011 *Kloekhorst, Alwin and Waal, Willemijn, "A Hittite Scribal Tradition Predating the Tablet Collections of Ḫattuša?", Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie, vol. 109, no. 2, pp. 189–203, 2019 *Larsen, Mogens Trolle, "A Revolt against Hattuša", Journal of Cuneiform Studies, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 100–01, 1972 *Plerallini, Sibilla, "Observations on the Lower City of Hattusa: a comparison between the epigraphic sources and the archaeological documentation", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 325–358, 2000 * *Neve, Peter. “The Great Temple in Boğazköy-H ̮attuša.” In ''Across the Anatolian Plateau: Readings in the Archaeology of Ancient Turkey''. Edited by David C. Hopkins, 77–97. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2002 *Kuhrt, Amelie, "The Hittites" In ''The Ancient Near East, c. 3000–330 BC.'' 2 vols. By Amelie Kuhrt, 225–282. London: Routledge, 1994 *Singer, Itamar, "A City of Many Temples: H ̮attuša, Capital of the Hittites", In ''Sacred Space: Shrine, City, Land: Proceedings of the International Conference in Memory of Joshua Prawer, Held in Jerusalem, 8–13 June 1992''. Edited by Benjamin Z. Kedar and R. J. Z. Werblowsky, 32–44. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 1998 *Torri, Giulia, "The phrase ṬUPPUURUḪatti in Colophons from Ḫattuša and the Work of the Scribe Ḫanikkuili", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 135–144, 2011 *Torri, Giulia, "The Goldsmith Zuzu(l)li and the Find-spots of the Inventory Texts from Ḫattuša", Altorientalische Forschungen, vol. 43, no. 1–2, pp. 147–156, 2016

Weeden, Mark, "Back to the 13th or 12th Century BC?: The SÜDBURG Inscription at Boğazköy-Hattuša", in Devecchi, Elena and De Martino, Stefano - Anatolia between the 13th and the 12th century BCE, pp. 473–496, 2020


External links


New Indo-European language discovered during excavation in Turkey - Phys.org September 21, 2023
* ttp://www.pbase.com/dosseman/bogazkale Pictures of the old Hittite capital with links to other sitesbr>UNESCO World Heritage page for Hattusa

Photos from Hattusa
{{Authority control Populated places established in the 3rd millennium BC Populated places disestablished in the 2nd millennium BC 1834 archaeological discoveries Archaeological sites in the Black Sea region Archaeological sites of prehistoric Anatolia Buildings and structures in Çorum Province Former populated places in Turkey Geography of Çorum Province Hattian cities History of Çorum Province Hittite cities Hittite sites in Turkey World Heritage Sites in Turkey Late Bronze Age collapse Capitals of former nations