Hattusa: Sacred Places Near Büyükkaya, Ambarlikaya and the Budakŏzŭ

Arnhem 2013-4 Anatolia in the Bronze age- ©Joost Blasweiler - student University Leiden. Hattusa: sacred places near Büyükkaya, Ambarlikaya and the Budakŏzŭ. The stronghold of Hattusa (Boğazköy) in central Anatolia is protected on two sides by gorges with little streams from wells in the surroundings. In the front (the north-west side of Hattusa ) it is easy to see from a great distance the gorge between Ambarlikaya and Büyükkaya1. Before the gorge there is a small valley, which is connected by footways with the lower city and Büyükkaya. Archaeological evidence indicates that Büyükkaya was inhabited from the 6th mill. BC and belongs to the oldest parts of the city Hattus(sa) of the kingdom of Hatti.

On the way from Sungurlu to the west side of Hattusa, the gorge beckons you to come to her, it catches your attention. And indeed this gorge is very remarkable and attractive. The small valley before the gorge is a good place for the herding of cattle and sheep, and to drink and to shelter them. A small stream, the Budakŏzŭ ( the name means pine-tree water according to the local people), streams fast from the hills, and after the waterfalls it oozes through the stronghold at Ambarlikaya. But just at the end of the wintertime, when the snow melts from the hills and the mountains, the stream will be very wild. The stream rises in the neighbourhoud of Derbent and Ibikçam, two different places with wells, situated on the hills about 10 km north-east from Hattusa (Boğazköy). It is interesting that Boğazköy means village at or of the gorge. It is likely that the name refers to the gorge of Ambarlikaya, but on the other side there is also a gorge, although less spectacular, with a stream, the Yazirçay, which rises from the wells situated near the village Yzair, south-east from Hattusa. Formerly Hattusa and her environment had forests, and even a lot of oaks were growing in the area. 1. Andreas Schachner 2011, Hattuscha, 69: mentioned a distance of c. 20 km. He described Büyükkaya and environment of the early Bronze period on page 51/52 and 104/109.

The archaeologists of the Deutschen Archäologischen Institut1 have been excavating the site of Hattusa since 1931, and they completed an enormous amount of work. However there is still an important part of the city which has to be examined, in particular the surroundings outside the city walls. 1. Since 1906 German archaeologists did excavations in Hattusa.

The maps below show the east side of Hattusa. The Budakŏzŭ streams along Büyükkale and through Amabarlikaya and Büyükkaya.

Boğazköy Map of Heinrich Kohl from 1939.

a map mentions the bridge near Ambarkaya (R.Naumann, RAI).

Here we are near the entrance of the gorge at Amabarlikaya with some quite interesting artifacts and in my opinion an attractive place with an almost sacred atmosphere.

In front on the right a rock of the small valley, behind Ambarlikaya and thereafter Büyükkale, May 2012.

The archeologist Kurt Bittel described lyric the playing of light and dark in the valley of Boğazköy : “Wenn die Sonne des Morgens hinter der Gebirge aufgestiegen ist und ihren Laufe die Höhe des Bergkammes erreicht hat, überflutet sie das Tal und die Ruinen der alten Stadt mit hellstem Lichte. Des Abends aber, wenn längst im Tale tief Schatten liegen und Schweigen eigekehrt ist, treffen die letzten Sonnenstrahlen die Häupter der Felsen, lassen sie in vielfachen Farbenspiel aufleuchten, ehe auch sie im Dunkel der Nacht verloschen. (Boğazköy-Hattusa IX -11).

Here we stand before Büyükkaya (left) and Ambarlikaya (right) with the gorge and on the picture (May 2012)below we see the small stream, when we look back (to the Lower City).

Near the entrance of the gorge at the right Ambarlikaya.

Some rock figures.

Inside the gorge we can see many holes in the wall of Ambarlikaya. These holes were possibly used to place a beam construction to hold a wooden platform or a footway (a chemin de ronde) so as Rudolf Naumann wrote in an article in 1962.

Rudolf Naumann1 tells us about an investigation, which had almost been forgotten to the many holes in the wall of Ambarlikaya and the remains of a bridge (?) over the Budakŏzŭ in 1954. The wooden footway along the mountain not only acted with a defensive function for the gorge, which forms an entrance of the stronghold, but could also have had a function to hold a wooden tray under the chemin de ronde to transport water to the northern part of city. He has made a reconstruction drawing of the chemin de ronde and the bridge as part of the stronghold of Hattusa (Vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen in Boğazköy in den Jahren 1958 und 1959, in Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft zu Berlin Nummer 93, 1962 -31).

1. Rudolf Neumann, was a long time ´the architect‘ of the excavation team of Hattusa, in the time period that Kurt Bittel was the´Director‘. Peter Neve, the successor of Kurt Bittel, described these platforms and „wehranlage“ also. He let us know; “Die Treppenstiege nach die oberen Terrasse von Ambarlikaya ist in Verbindung mit der Höhle am Südostfuß. Der eigentliche Aufgang zu der Felskuppe durfte jedoch mit einem breiten Spalt an der Südseite des Massivs angezeigt sein“. (Peter Neve 1985, Hattuscha Information, page Ambarlikaya).

The ‘chemin de ronde’ or the platforms, would be well seen from the valley before the entrance of the gorge. So it was a suitable location to show a performance or a ritual to inhabitants of the city. Like a gateway of the palace, the chemin de ronde could also have been an attractive spot to show a happening of the cult or of the power of the ruling Tabarna, in particular when the sun goes down in the west. The entrance of the gorge was perhaps also an appropriate and great setting to ask the gods of Hatti for their support for the inhabitants and rulers of Hattus.

An appropriate and attractive setting for rituals and for a request to the gods of Hatti ? The deities of the Land of Hatti did not originally live in temples. Before the city of Hattus was conquered by King Anitta of Kussara, it is likely the old city did not have temples1.

1. It is only in small shrines, such as the one at Büyükkale, that evidence of cultic practices, which apparently reflect Hattian roots, has been uncovered (Alberto R.W. Green 2003, The stormgod in the Ancient Near East,126). Three small chapels were found. The central part of one chapel is sunk below ground level and nearby were found two terracotta bulls. The central room of a second chapel is also sunk below ground level, the floor of this room was covered with layers of mud and sand and contained many votive vessels and nests of shells. Here was also a channel to the outside. The archaeologist K. Bittel states, that this room was open to the sky. The third chapel contained an underground pool, made accessible by a flight of steps. Above the entrance to the underground pool a scene is carved with a long figure, whose raised his hands in the standard gesture of adoration. Alberto R.W. Green concludes, that it is reasonable, that these smaller shrines or chapels with their deeply recessed rooms, which were connected to water sources, do belong nearer to the Hattian religion, than to the state temple cult. On the basis of what is known about the Hattian religion from written sources, they bore no relation to the ceremonies conducted in the state temples.

May 2012: Welling water in the Derbent area near Hattusa, in the old times it was the work of the gods. The water seems to come from nowhere or from the netherworld.

One of the principal ideas of the old Near East is that everything in nature and the cosmos was alive and was penetrated by divine forces1. This concerned the visible world of the people, like the sky and the stars, the earth, vegetation, animals, rocks, mountains, rivers and springs. But also the atmospheric signs like storms, thunder, lighting, rain and her consequences like fertility and dryness. The powers of the universe and the phenomena of nature are conscious living identities, they are acting by their selves: they are Gods. Each object contains non- visible natural powers, which belong to the whole universe. Each of these natural powers are admitted in great divine phenomena of a cult. The Rain and the Earth are the participants in the growth of the vegetation. That’s why Heaven, which gives Rain, Earth and Vegetation, are the concepts in the religion of the agricultures. The married couple of Heaven and the Earth, appears in all religions of the Mediterranean and in most of European- Asiatic religions of the agricultural Neolithicum. The mother earth goddess, the sun god and a sky- or storm god, are the personification of the powers of growth. The first rains show the impregnation of the Earth goddess by the Storm God with water. The vegetation arises from this act of the holy wedding and at the same time it is the start of a new year. The divine child is the personification of the new vegetation. According to professor Volkert Haas, the mother earth goddess had several forms in the Land of the Hatti. The Hattian name is Wurunsemu (wur = earth), under this title she is a goddess of the underworld. Her partner is the Hattian god Taru, their children are Telipinu and Mezulla. When she is the mother and goddess of fate, then her name is Hannahanna, grandmother2. When the goddess protects the Land of Hatti, she is called Inara, she is the mistress of wild nature; later on in the Old Hittite Kingdom her name is Sun Goddess of the town Arinna, a Hattian cult center (Manfred Hutter 1997-79).

Inara was the protector-goddess of the holy city Hattusa3. So the Hattian sun god is female too, in contrast with the male sun god of ‘the Hittites’ (the Nesites originally from Kussara and Kanesh) and Babylon. Inara is invoked as the sun goddess of the earth. This aspect originated from the concept that the Sun stays at night in the underworld, and in the morning she, as sun goddess of water, will arise above the watersurface, from the underworld, which was imagined to be deep under the sea. In an old Hittite text she still appears as women Earth and daughter Sun. The Sun goddess of Arinna was also connected with the underworld4 .When they wanted to meet her in this aspect, then the priests went to caves and holes, or they dug a pit. With bloody offers of sheep the ancient gods are requested to open the gateway to the underworld. The demons of the earth have to tie up the wrong and the trouble and, taking these with them, travel down to the underworld. The sun-goddess of the earth is a goddess of fertility and of the underworld, and that’s why she is the mistress of the water-wells. Arinna means in Hattian water-spring5. Normally Hattian names are formed by their qualities6: Wurunkatte = earth-king, Telipinu = strong-son, Kattaha/I = queen, Hanwasuit = who is sitting on the throne, Teteshapi = great deity etc. Volkert Haas stated also that the gods bear two names, one under men and one under the gods. For example Tahattanuiti is called by the gods ‘mother of the springs’, Wasezzili is called “a king like a lion” and the grain goddess Kait is called by the god Hayamma and Queen. Probably they believed that there was a language of the gods and a language of the people. Many Hattian gods are mentioned in old Anatolian myths. The royal clan from Kussara, who rebuilt the city Hattus started to worship the gods of the Land Hatti and they became participants in the Hattian cult, festivals and processions. Professor Alfonso Archi tells us a lot about the gods they were taken with them from Kanesh and how they sometimes integrated with Hattian gods6. They worshipped a male god Inar, who appears to have possessed similar functions with the Hattian goddess Inara. “Which provoked a kind of assimilation between the two deities, notwithstanding the difference of sex. The Hittite god consequently took the name of DInar-a-“. In the KI.LAM festival of the spring Inara is linked to Habantali, the Goddess of the irrigated land. Therefore this Inar would also have been a deity concerned with the realm of nature and thus ,possibly, the Tutelary-god of the open country. However, the royal clan were known to worship the gods they knew separately. Only a few gods were assimilated. The state cult in the capital does not meet the belief in nature of inhabitants of the city nor the royal family itself 7. The inhabitants of the city must have been heterogeneous, thus reflecting the ethnic and social differentiation of the population of the land of Hatti. Volkert Haas stated that besides the daily worshipping and nursing of the gods in temples, there were also many sanctuaries in the nature. In particular in the mountains, the wells, streams, rivers, lakes, seas, holes caves, rock-chambers and –caverns. Where would these sanctuaries of nature have been in the surroundings of Hattus(sa) ? 1. Volkert Haas,1977 Magie und Mythen im Reich der Hethiter 48-62: Professor Dr. Volkert Haas gave an attractive telling of reproduction in the believe in the heartland of the Hattian speakers. 2. Piotr Taracha wrote:”Hannahanna ist eine anatolische urzeitliche Göttin, ihre Name wird sumerographisch als DINGIR.MAH = mächtige Göttin oder DNIN.TU, d.h. mit den Namen der mesopotamischen Mutter Göttin wiedergegeben“(2003 Fremde Gottheiten und ihre anatolischen Namen , Offizielle Religion, Lokale Kulte und individuelle Religiosität, 451). 3. Jörg Klinger 1996, Untersuchungen zur Rekonstruktion der hattischen Kultschicht, 159. 4. Volkert Haas,1977 Magie und Mythen im Reich der Hethiter. 5. Ibidem, 53. 5. Volkert Haas1982, Hethitischer Berggötter,26. 6. Alfonso Archi 2004, The Singer of Kanes and his Gods, AOAT, 13. 7. M. Hutter 1997, Numen Vol. 44 No. 1, 83.

After the waterfalls upstairs near Yerakapi, the stream oozes through the gorge (May 2013). When the snow has melted the stream begins to grow strong and flow rapidly. The water level differs during the seasons, but the wells of the highland of Derbent and Ibikçam feed the stream with enough water, so that it would not go dry in summertime. Before the entrance there is a path on the left side, before ’Die Minare’. On the rock between this path and the stream you have to climb, just some meters, to see the remains of what seems to be a bridge over the Budakŏzŭ.

Remains of a bridge ?

Rudolf Neumann proposed in 1962, that there had once been a stone bridge built over the Budakŏzŭ in the Hittite Kingdom. The steps in the stone on both sides on the top of the gorge are remarkable. But Peter Neve proved in 1980 that this was not the case in the times that Hattusa was a fortress.

“Die Minare”, the minaret. It is likely the old inhabitants had religious associations with these remarkable rock formations. For them nature was alive and was penetrated by divine forces.

Construction drawing of Rudolf Neumann 1962: “Under the bridge probably gates could be placed in the water to protect the ‘entrance’. The drilled holes for it were found back, also the holes for wooden constructions to go straight upstairs to Büyükkale, the palace stronghold of Hattusa”. Kurt Bittel describes the results of the study of Neumann also in his book Hattuscha (1970-62), and proposed that this bridge construction was perhaps made at the end of the New Kingdom.

However in 1980 Peter Neve, the archaeologist who succeeded Kurt Bittel, wrote an article that the stone bridge had not existed1. He examined the site intensively and remarked that the drilled holes in the rocks of the east side of Ambarlikaya and the south side of the “Minare” were indeed made in the Hittite time period. But the other adoptions in these mountain walls (“Widerlager mit Nischen of 3,6 m x 3,9 m and c. 3,5 m high”) show that a large city wall was built on this side of the fortress Hattusa. He stated: the city walls of Hattusa were build at least 4 meter wide ! like they are over the stream on the North side. (his article, with all his arguments, is enclosed in the appendix).

There was a time that Hattusa did not have these large stone walls; king Hantili c. 1580 BC wrote proudly that he was the first who built walls2 around the city and it is know that the fortification of the city at the end of New Kingdom had been enlarged extensively. One can see that Büyükkale and Büyükkaya form two bastions at the Northeast side of the old city. The gorge and the footpaths between these bastions form a weak spot in the defense. When the enemy would come through this passage, the enemy could go everywhere in the city,

1. Andreas Schachner, the present director of the excavations of Hattusa, drew my attention to this research of Peter Neve (Festschrift Akurgal, Journal Anadolu XXI- 1978-1980, 67-70). I’m grateful that he informed me about the existence of this study of thirty years ago. In recent books the bridge over the Budakŏzŭ in the Hittite kingdom is still sometimes mentioned.

2. Probably there were in a earlier time period city walls around Hattusa, but perhaps these were not of stone or not so immense. The experienced army of King Anita had to besiege the city quite a long time, before this army could conquer the city Hattus in c.1780 BC. besides to the palace, which is a stronghold by itself. So to protect the small valley of Budakŏzŭ near Amabarlikaya from ‘unwanted visitors’ from the hills next to Büyükkaya or from the gorge, they had to make fortifications and gates in the stream, to close this entrance of the ‘fort Hattusa’. The rocks of the ‘Minare’ between Ambarlikaya and Büyükkaya are important in this defense system. It would then have been handy, indeed probably necessary, that soldiers could walk along this defense line over the stream on a wall or a bridge. I think it was in the old times not so difficult to make an wooden bridge over the Budakŏzŭ at the top of the gorge. Even today simple wooden bridges are used to cross the stream. There is another discussion concerning the holes in the wall of Ambarlikaya. Were they already used in the Hittite kingdom? And if so, for what activity ? Peter Neve has mentioned in his article that probably these were used to assist a construction to transport water in the time period of Byzantium. But perhaps this shows also that the holes in the mountain were already fixed in an earlier time period, because it was rather much work to make these holes in the rock, while on many spots in the neighbourhood water was available. What would have been the roads and footpaths from the palace to Büyükkaya, the Osmankayasi cemetery and the Yazilikaya sanctuary ? It has already been mentioned that Büyükkaya is one of the oldest parts of Hattusa. The routes to Büyükkale or to Büyükkaya via the gorge are steep and uncomfortable, making it is easier going upstairs by avoiding the gorge. In the cult this route might be attractive, because of the scenery, the very impressive nature, and the stream. Today you can easily walk on the east side of Büyükkaya up or down. The procession way on the north side of the city was certainly a cult route.

Which foot paths connected the palace, Büyükkaya and Yazilikaya ?

A suggestion for the old footways to Büyükkaya :

A path over the gorge would be the shortest connection between the palace, Büyükkaya and Yazilikaya. By taking the East route and avoiding the gorge it is more comfortable. The procession road NW is suitable for chariots and wagons. Objects in the routes are the south east gate of the palace and the main gate of Büyükkaya and the gate of Yazilikaya; the altitudes, the remains of a “bridge/wall” and the drilled holes in the wand of Ambarlikaya. The cult procession- route of the city was via an important northern gate, through the necropolis of Osmankayasi and then to Yazilikaya.

Büyükkaya seen from the hill at Ambarlikaya, May 2012. In his book Hattuscha (2011-105/107) Andreas Schachner1 tells us that the archaeological research of the direct surrounding outside the walls has only just started. By geophysical research of the area between Büyükkaya, Yazilikaya and Osmankayasi many building, which possibly date from of probably the Bronze age period are attested. And two water reservoirs with probably a function for agriculture became clear. Perhaps the farmers made diversions from streams of the high plateau to their fields and reservoirs. Schachner concludes that despite the beginning of the research it is already clear that the land between the sanctuary Yazilikaya, the necropolis of Osmankayasi and Büyükkaya was used intensively. To these buildings, according to Andreas Schachner building with different functions and probably even official buildings of the kingdom, belong a structure of roads and footpaths. So a route from the Budakŏzŭ was not necessarily going through the stronghold of Büyükkaya. It is obvious that Büyükkaya had also a defense function for its own surroundings and not only for the ‘lower and upper’ city of Hattusa. Perhaps we will speak in a few years extensively about the ‘northern city of Hattusa’. It is amazing and exiting how much archeological work2 still has to be done in Hattusa and her surroundings. These excavations will give a more clear insight in the (pre-)history of central Anatolia with all these villages and cities. The question arises how these northern buildings, Yazilikaya and the necropolis at Osmankayasi were protected, or will more remains of fortifications be found in this city-part? Schachner (2011-46) remarked that the first settlements in the area of Hattusa, like Büyükkaya, are all situated on the middle levels of the mountains and a short walking distance from a stream, which did not fall dry in summertime. The inhabitants could there-fore more easily use the lower and higher levels of the mountains for agriculture and the herding of cattle and sheep. In addition to the natural resources the inhabitants of the land of Hatti made water-depots, citterns and built even dams to collect and store huge amounts of water.

1. See also his reportage “Die Ausgrabungen in Boğazköy –Hattusa 2007”. DAI – academia.edu,145-146. 2. Also a part of the village Boğazköy is build on a part of the Lower city, which cannot excavated yet.

Ahmet Ünal has discussed this subject in a very informative article (1993, Public Health and Structures for Sanitation according to cuneiform texts, Essays on Anatolian Archaeology ,Vol. VII, 123-139). He tells us that almost all the references to water-pipes in the texts must be connected with the sewarage system. An instruction text (1993,129/139) lets us see the concern of the administration with the cleanness of the city (c. 25.000 people in the New Kingdom) and the (holy) forest and mountains: “[Let them] not[go up] to the mountain de[fecate there]into [ the big claypi]t(/). Do not remo(ve the excrements either] into[city of Hatt[usa.[Now be] very diligent in matters of defecation.[Moreov]er do not e[mpty] (the ashes of ) the hearths into the city of Hattusa. Carry (the contents of) the hearths down to the big clay pit. Moreover, whatever water containers there may be [in the area of] the palace, wherever they may be,[fix tem] and have all of (their bottoms) paved with stone and make them smooth and stable. Whatever wineyards and orcha[rds you own], up [there you may defecate(?)].[Let them] turn/carry all [the excrement (??)] to the orchards(?”. Ahmet Ünal analyzed: “Hearths of fire places may be served as temporary depositories for all kinds of garbage or refuse within buildings until it is disposed of at regular intervals. The reason why the cleaning and emptying of the hearth at the royal acropolis in Hattusa had to be regulated in an instruction text is understandable when we consider the austere climatic conditions at the Hittite capital. Here the inhabitants of the city must have needed a tremendous amount of firewood for heating the huge stone edifices and for cooking purposes. We can only imagine the amount of ash generated by burned firewood. If the ash was not disposed of carefully, the streets and environment would become polluted. In the arid summer month the wind would blow ash and dust all over the streets, and there would be the danger of conflagration from the glowing embers in ashes“ (1993-133). So when we read in texts or in excavation rapports about water canals, cisterns, depots etc., then these are not always used for fresh drink water, but also often used for drainage and sewer functions. The store of water could also be for washing, cleaning the floors, or even for extinguishing fires, so it might contained used water and not drinkable water. One would have to say that there would also have been water depots (temporally) for the cult, rituals and festivals. In the “Südburg” of Hattusa a huge water basin of 6000m has been discovered , which may have had also a cultic purpose. The pool was obviously connected with Chamber 2 , which represents a cultic structure of Šuppiluliuma II, the last Hittite king we know.

It is interesting that an instruction text for temple personnel CTH 264 §11 32’ mentions the “Labarna Spring” (SU la-ba-ar-na-as) . It goes as follows : “That one (=Temple-Man) however shall not fail to sleep up at his god. If however, he fails to do and if they do not kill him, let them humiliate him! Naked(he will be)! Let there be no clothes to his body, let bring water three times from the Labarna spring into his temple. Let that be his humiliation”. The translation by Ada Taggar-Cohen 2006 in her book, Hittite Priesthood. Ahmet Ünal (1993-125) wrote that the spring might be indentified with the present day fountain above Nişanteppe, not far from the King’s Gate. I think the name of the spring is connected with the cultic function of the Labarna’s in the Land of Hatti. It would be fine as a ritual or a myth1 could be connected with the ‘Labarna Spring’ of Hattusa by Hittitologists. 1. A scholar has made recently a striking explanation of a part of the Illuyanka Tale, in which a spring of Inara was entrusted to the king (so a Labarna): “after the Stormgod has killed the serpent and the goddess Inara went to the town Kiskilussa. Once there, she entrusts her house and an underground spring to the king. The "house" of a deity is a temple. The underground spring is a source of life-giving water and therefore another aspect of fertility. The king is being entrusted with a temple of Inara, a fertility goddess, and a spring, which is a source of fertility. The first purulli-festival is in some way connected with Inara's act, and in commemoration of the first purulli-festival the festival was annually celebrated ever after. We can at least conclude that by her act Inara has integrally bound the fertility of the land to the person of the king”. But the spring of the Tale was situated in Kiskilussa and not in Hattusa.

Was the little valley of the Budakŏzŭ a setting for rituals and requests of the inhabitants of Büyükkaya and environments to gods of Hatti?

We leave this rocky ‘deity of the stream’ to make a walk from the small valley to Büyükkaya.

We pass the foot of Büyükkaya (east side) and can go up :

A more comfortable path is a little farther to the east: (see page 5)

Already looking down

Looking down to the gorge and the lower city.

almost up near Büyükkaya (on the right hand, Mai 2013)

walking along the fence,

to the (remains of the ) wall of the stronghold and to an (defense) entrance, and walking along the edge of Büyükkaya.

this was the panorama of the inhabitants of Büyükkaya before the ‘lower city of Hattus(sa) was build.

View from Büyükkaya (the large rock) to the south-east. Büyükkaya had a large cittern, and pipelines were excavated, too (J.Seeher, Die Ausgrabungen in Boğazköy-Hattusa 1994, AA 1 95, 607). Büyükkaya would have used the water of streams in the north , because no springs are found back on the stronghold. Nearby there are springs around the necropolis. On Büyükkaya 11 grain silo’s were found in the ground, there were at least 15 of them (DAI info 2011), supposedly the most were build in the time period of the New Kingdom. These grain silo’s together with the more then 30 grain silo’s near the palace of Hattusa, were large enough, when they were all loaded, to feed the whole city for more than a year. These grain supplies form a basis of the power of the royal clan: from this supply the workers, the soldiers, the administration, the priests were feed and paid. The royal administration build silo’s in many cities, so that their armies could easily go on campaign. According to the archeologists the silo’s of Büyükkaya are used a long time-period, but not all together at the same time (Dai website June 2011). 1. Probably water was taped from the streams (or springs) on a higher level of the hills with wooden/clay - watercourses or with water-pipes of fired clay, like there are excavated in Yazilikaya .

The gates and ‘porternen’ of Büyükkaya.

The largest (the main gate) was situated on the east side, where you easily can walk down to the small valley of the Budakŏzŭ , and from there to the palace and Lower city. This way is not suitable for wagons and chariots. These would have had probably to go in the direction of the cemetery in the west (500 m) and then drive over the ‘procession road’ down to the Lower city. A second gate was in the northern wall and the website DAI website (2011 June) suggests that there was perhaps a road in a serpentine form going down. With further examination and excavation of the northern city around Büyükkaya the function of the stronghold will become more clear. I see that the main gate and the ‘porternen’ (defense gates) are in the east wall, and they found very large grain stocks in Büyükkaya. The results of the geophysical research of the area show many buildings around the oldest stronghold of Hattus. And then we have on this northern site very nearby: the necropolis, Yazilikaya, and the two Huwasi-Stones of the Stormgod :”the upper Huwasi-stone and the second” (see page 33). So some thoughts are risen about this urban structure. The king and queen, the Tabarna and the Tawananna, visited these Huwasi-stones of the Stormgod normally in the cultic festivals. Perhaps this area was already liked by the Stormgod in the time period of Hattus, before it was conquered by royal clan of Kanesh/Kussara.

May 2012 I have seen how impressive a thunderstorm in Hattusa can be. It came from the mountains situated in the northeast and the at Büyükkaya, the sky became ink black with green and purple spots, and there was also a profusion of lightning strikes and rolls of thunder at the same time. It took two hours before the Stormgod calmed down, someone has angered him quite a lot. Many villagers of Boğazköy went out to see how the Stormgod manifested himself once more that day.

It is interesting that the DAI reports that on Büyükkaya no traces of violence are found back, arising from when the Hittite administration left Hattus forever. In the so called “black time period” by the DAI, many artefacts of habitation are found on Büyükkaya, more than in the Upper and Lower city. Did these people live peaceful with their northern neighbours the Kaška tribes and with their southern neighbours the Talban, a neo-Hittite (Luwian) kingdom ? The archaeologists conclude that probably the Phrygians have settled themselves in Büyükkaya no earlier then in the 9th century BC. But they say also that perhaps the Phrygians did not settled in Hattusa at all. The ceramics parts from this time period indicate that they originate from a local Anatolian development. From this time- period beautiful painted ceramic is found. But perhaps this discussion is also a result of definitions. It is clear, I think, that the Phrygian Kingdom was made also by the ‘old’ inhabitants and their cultures, so when can we say it is Phrygian or it isn’t ? The archeologists speak wisely of artifacts of the Phrygian time period. Did Hattusa belongs to the Phrygian kingdom? or did it have had an own ruler, which was perhaps dependent to the Phrygian king?

Evan-Maria Bossert 2000, Die keramiek Phrygischer Zeit von Boğazköy.

Osmankayasi It is just a short walk from Büyükkaya to the necropolis of Osmankayasi or to the sanctuary of Yazilikaya (10 min.) The necropolis has a spring which gives perennial drink-able water. Kurt Bittel described the way from the lower city: ”at the point where the Büyükkaya-Deresi streams along the Dam, which was in ancient times the base of the city wall, we leave the city to Yazilikaya. Soon we will arrive, North of Büyükkaya, a small subsidence, which leads us slowly up till the spring. Two rock formations Bağlarbaşikayasi and Osmankayasi have cavern and holes, in which the remains of burials and cremations from c. 1800–1400 BC were found”. The tumulus nearby is of the Iron age time period .

There have been very few Hittite cemeteries found, and as of yet, no grave, whether a python or coffin of a Hittite king, a queen, or a royal clan member, have been unearthed. Many human skeleton’s of common people and animals skeletons and burned remains were found in Osmankayasi. The burned heads of horses and oxen are remarkable, probably they were burned for the cremation of the decedents. The burned heads of horses were almost all of stallions, they were strong and not old. (H. Otten 1958 Hethitische Totenritutale,138). The burial rituals for kings and queens are well known, those of ordinary people are less known. Heinrich Otten mentioned a ritual for an non-royal [person. The wife of the deceased is responsible for the care of the burial. It started in the evening and it will finish, when the deceased person is taken out of his house and his body is burned (KUB XXX 26,(Heinrich Otten 1958, Hethitische Totentexte, Hethitschen Grabefunden von Osmankayasi B.H. II, 1958). The body was buried either as an inhumation or a cremation, the latter being the rule under the Empire (New Kingdom). Funerary rituals transferred the dead to the new everyday state in the other world where they existed in their new status as spirits”. “Having left the body, the soul embarked on a journey that was for it a period of trial and tribulation. An incantation recited during a ritual for a dead woman describes the journey of

28 her soul to the netherworld. The text opposes the meadow, which is where the soul is headed to the evil tenawa, “where one [does not] recognize ( each other)” (Taracha 2009-160). The mythical text about the death mentions:“I will go to the sea; I will go to the plain; I will fall into the river, I will fall into the pond; I will go to the tenawa; I will go to […]. The tenawa- is evil […] (or the evil […] of the tenawa-) to the meadow […]”. Hoffner (1988, A scene in the Realm of the Dead,193) stated; “here we see the tenawa- as a location, perhaps a natural one like a plain, a river, a pond, or a meadow: “if the ‘great road’ of the ‘human soul’ is the road it travels after death, the evil tenawa- as a location on that road would recall the river of death (Styx)”.”The mention of the evil tenawa- immediately before the section describing the inability of close relatives to recognize one another might suggest it was either a phenomenon which restricted vision (such as dense thicket or undergrowth, or mist, fog or cloud) or that it was a magical ‘river of forgetfulness, like the river Lethe of the Orphic conception in the Greek religion. Another impression in texts is that the soul of a dead person went to a gloomy underworld, which was situated directly beneath the earth, from which entrances like springs and lakes lead to the other world (Volkert Haas 2000, Hethitische Bestattungsbräuche, AoF 27/1, 53).

springs

1958 Die Hethitischen Grabefunden von Osmankayasi, Kurt Bittel, Wolf Hene, Heinrich Otten, Manfred Rӧhrs, Johan Schaeuble.

Osmankayasi

Yazilikaya, the rock sanctuary.

Volkert Haas tells us that two roads were known to the ‘rock- and nature temple’ : one from the lower city of Hattusa along the city wall and the necropolis of Osmankayasi and the other one from Büyükkaya through a large gate. Both roads have “disappeared” (Haas 1994 Geschichte Hethitischen Religion, 632). Kurt Bittel has proposed that probably an northern city gate was used for the processions, and noted : “It is perhaps not without significance that the road connecting the city with the rock sanctuary should run through this necropolis and that the burial rocks leads on either side of the road, if not everywhere, at least in one place in remarkable concentration” (1970- 94). On the map of Karl Human in the summer of 1882 we can probably see that old way to Yazilikaya. Note also that several streams were drawn on the map in the neighbourhood of Büyükkaya and Yazilikaya.

Ruinen von Pteria, drawing Dr. Karl Humann.

Yazilikaya was used since the Old Kingdom of Hattusa at least. According to the archaeologist Jürgen Seeher the function and the importance of the site could not been explained clearly (2011, Götter in Stein gehauen,146). It is possible that the walls of the sanctuary were painted or reliefs already were made, but the reliefs, which we see today, were sculptured together as an ensemble in the 13th Century BC at the end of the New Kingdom . The basis were made flat, possibly so as to remove the old reliefs. Also in the New Kingdom period the function of the sanctuary is not really clear. Jürgen Seeher states: ”there are some hypotheses, one cavern (A:) might been used as “Huwasi” (a Stone house for the remains of the death or as a house for a spring festival, and one cavern(B) could be used for the “Gedenk- und Grabstatte” of king Tudhaliya IV”. Rudolf Neumann stated that even without reliefs or buildings, the rock formation was probably already an holy place or a remarkable place in the cult. The Hittite buildings before the cavern are temple buildings. V. Haas and M.Wäfler proposed to see these as a double temple to Teshub and Hebat, corresponding to Temple I in the city, others refuted this sugestion (O.R.Gurney 1977,43). Picture © Hattusa-Information Peter Neve 1985: reconstruction drawing by Rudolf Naumann, view from the south.

Nearby Yazilikaya are little streams. In the surrounding north and near the village Yekbaz are springs. Water was taped from a stream by water- pipes of fired clay (picture ©MDOG nr. 61). „ In der ganzen Anlage konnte ein ausgedehntes Wasser- leitungssystem festgestellt worden. Ein Strang führte auch durch den Hof am Felsen entlang nach Norden, vielleicht zu einem Becken am Aufweg“ (MDOG nr. 77, 1939- page 44).

In Anatolia the deities were first represented either by a symbol or by a stele, for which the Hittite word is ḫuwasi stone. A text fragment from Hattusa reports of an akkanza (a dead), and during the ritual the ZI (the soul)receives a libation three times, often the hastai (the bones) of the dead are mentioned (H. Ehelolf 1937, MDOG nr75, 68).

NA4 The stone house of the Gods (É.NA4 and the ḫekur) was the place where the bones of the deceased Hittite kings and queens were brought after the cremation ceremony. This was also the place where the king, warned by a foreboding omen, was taken to hide for seven days among the dead, while the substitute king took his place in the palace (Itamar Singer 2009, In Hattusa the Royal House declined ,172), this royal cemetery was probably a resting place for all members of the royal family. The statement of Shoshana Bin-Nun is also interesting (1975 The Tawananna in the Hittite kingdom,180): “Every king and queen seem to have their É.NA 4 prepared before their death to hold their bones. A ritual for the burial of the Hittite kings and queens says: “And they bring [the bones] into his mausoleum”. The Eḫesta house was originally a cult-centre for Hattian underworld deities, in particular for Lelwani, the ruler of the Under-world (O.R. Gurney, 1977 Some aspects of Hittite Religion ,25-27). This house was used later in some Hittite festivals at the end of the year and then ‘the year was carrying into the hesti-house’.

View from Yazilikaya to the east May 2013.

Kurt Bittel (1970-20) pointed to a text fragment of king Tuthaliya III (c.1440 BC) : “The Kaška invaded Hatti- land and Hattusa was burned down1 and only …. And the hesti-house of…. remained”. Was the text pointing to Yazilikaya ? or to another hesti-house outside the city1? Hans Güterbock pointed to an festival ritual2:“After the king washed his hands in a tent, setted down in Tippuwa , on his way of Tahurpa to Hattusa, he went up in the royal coach “to the upper huwasi Stone”. There he went off and made an offer to the Stone and then he went up “to the second huwasi Stone”, to which he also offered. From this spot he went down and on “the Large Road” to the city Hattusa:“this would fit both to Yazilikaya, if the term Huwasi stone can also be used for a rock sanctuary), as to Büyükkaya (if stone pillars were set up). It shows that there were two places ( the hesti house and the Upper huwasi), and Yazilikaya and Büyükkaya might be the candidates for it. But which one fits to which one ?”.

1. The burning down of the city by Kaška tribes c. 1440 BC was not attested by archeologists of Hattusa (Jӧrg Klinger 2002, Die Hethitisch-Kaskaïsche Geschichte, Eothen 11, 437). Was the damage of the city not as large as the text suggests ? Andreas Schachner pointed in his rapport “Die Ausgrabungen in Boğazköy –Hattusa 2007” -146 to burned buildings in the area north of Yazilikaya , which have perhaps a relation with the attacks of the Kaška-tribes. He remarked rightly that excavations of the surrounding of Yazilikaya and Büyükkaya are necessary.

Susanne Gorke wrote recently about another text which details the procession journey of the king and the queen in the KI.LAM-Festival. After the ritual has been performed in the temple of the grain-goddess, the royal pare leave Hattusa through the assu- Gate, and travel by huluganni-coach to the Huwasi Stones of the Stormgod. It is here that the festival will come to an end. Gorke remarked “the Huwasi-Stones are outside the city and might be connected with the rock sanctuary Yazilikaya”. (S.Görke 2010, Die Darsttelung von Orten nach den ,Reisefesten’, Ort und Bedeutung, 54-55)

An ‘huwasi of the Stormgod’ is known also from the AN.TAH.SUM festival. On the 14th and 16th the rituals of the festivals were performed at the huwasi of the DU in the grove of the boxwood trees. (GIS.HI.A GISTUG, KBo X 20 II 27 and KBo X20 III 8 - Hilary J. Deighton 1982, diss. The Weather God in Hittite Anatolia, 9 f.9).

Maciej Popko tells us about the hesti-house of Hattusa, which evidence suggests was situated outside the city. The text describes that much cult personal belong to the hesti-house. The word hesti- or hista- is often mentioned according to Popko with a determinative for god: “The people of the DHe-es-ta-a, [In?]the gate DHe-es-ta-a-as; The anointed of DHe-es-ta[-a…]; The people of the temple of DH[e-es-ta-a]. The scholar Popko stated that it is not clear if the words indicate to a deity Hesta.” If a God Hesta had not existed, than the determinative of the god points apparently to a cult of the hesti- House” (Maciej Popko 1978, Kultobjecte in der Hethitischen Religion, dissertation Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 35-36). Popko's remarks concerning the Huwasi-stele in his dissertation are also interesting (123-126) : the determinative

NA4 shows that it was mostly made of stone, while others were of wood or precious metal. The Huwasi represents a god, in the term is often meaned his holy spot together with the ring-wall and the gate of it. He pointed to some texts :” The king went out to the (holy area) Huwasi-stone of the Stormgod”; “when the queen arrived to the huwasi-stone of zikkanpazi, she bows and made a libation”. Popko mentioned also that many gods had huwasi-stones.

At Yazilikaya a view to the east May 2013: going up to the Upper Huwasi Stone ?

The role of Yazilikaya in the Festival Programme

About this subject professor Trevor Bryce wrote an extremely attractive and informative paragraph in his book Life and Society in the Hittite World (2004, 195–199). He remembered us: “that long has been suggested that Yazilikaya was the principal place were the Hittite New Year festival was celebrated, the Hittite House of the New Year“. Bryce also states that Kurt Bittel, the excavator till 1978, remarked on the strikingly careless manner in which the complex was erected. Kurt Bittel concluded that the lightly constructed buildings in front of Yazilikaya could hardly have withstood the regular ritual usage attested for the daily cult if it was a normal temple, and that the sanctuary was used only for special limited occasions in the course of the year. Trevor Bryce stated: “that perhaps the holiest of all open-sanctuaries in the Hittite world came a procession of the celebrants at the year’s beginning. Here at this time perhaps all the important gods assembled”. “There was no more crucial time of the year to seek the gods favors. There was probably no more important place where this was to be done. Yazilikaya may thus have served as a place for celebrating the rites of spring, in the presence of all chiefs deities of the land. In the kingdom’s last decades, it may also have served as mortuary chapel, a place of ancestor worship where the royal family paid homage to its dead. And here perhaps a Great King was interred”. “The prominence of the reliefs of Tudhaliya IV, the only human figure depicted at Yazilikaya suggest that Chamber B may have been his hekur, his tomb. We are told that his son Šuppiluliuma (II) set up a statue to him in his hekur”.

The sword deity in Yazilikaya. Mai 2012.

Upon the rocks formations of Yazilikaya May 2012. In the appendix are enclosed some important observations about Yazilikaya of Hans Güterbock in 1954. A note of R.D Barnett, BiOr 10, 1953,78 ff: “Thus it becomes plain that both by the Hittites and later by the Phrygians a bare vertical rock beside or near a source of water was deemed holly and a cult was set-up there”.

A view from Büyükkaya area to the gorge of Ambarlikaya and the Lower city May 2013. State cult and nature.

In the Hittite temple cult the natural enviroment was used, and in particular holy trees, lakes, rivers and streams. For example in the festval of Telipinu (the Ninth Year Festival in autumn1) on the third day a fresh evergreen tree was acquired, apparently through a trip to a mountain, to replace a relatively older cultic oak tree. On the fourth day images of Telipinu and other deities were ceremonially washed in a river. Special to the fourth day of other Telipinu festivals are the purification of sancta, including images of Telipinu, his consort Hatepinu, the sun god, and the weather god, as well as the cult pedestal. For the purification to be accomplished, the sancta were to be carried on a carriage from the temple of Telipinu to a river with a procession accompanying them. The entourage included the heir of the king and musicians playing harp and tambourine in front of the carriage and maidens who sang behind the carriage. Upon arrival at the river, the images and pedestal were washed in the river while some kind of “replicas” were made and a “washing” song was sung in Hattic. Although these mentioned examples are from texts about festivals in Hanhana and Kasha , I think we can assume that many of the more than 30 temples2 of Hattusa in the New Kingdom period, would have also used the natural environment of Hattusa for the cult and in festivals. Other ritual texts, which are found back in Hattusa confirm this: “In the morning a decorated carriage stands ready in front of the temple; three ribbons, one red, one white, one blue, are tied to it. They harness the chariot and bring out the god and seat him in the carriage.”Several women go in front, holding lighted torches”… and the god follows behind, after which they take the god down through the Tawinian gate (on the northern side of Hattusa) to the wood.” This is a ceremony in which the cult state of a god is driven to a forest, as the text continues, there the statue is cleansed – or rather bathed – in a brook3.

Maciej Popko mentioned that rituals in the open air were enriched with singing, music and dance, sport competitions and other entertainments could also included (1995- 78). Another example of a text is from the book of O.R. Gurney (1977, Some aspect of Hittite Relgion,27), in which the function of the huwasi-stone becomes more clear: “When it becomes spring and it thunders …the priests … carry the mountain-god Halwanna up to the mountain. If the area is controlled by the enemy, they carry him to the mountain and place him in front of the huwasi-stone, which stands under a tree. They break bread and offer beer. But if the area is not controlled by the enemy, they set him by the huwasi under the tree by the side of the river. They offer 1 ox and 8 sheep. They set down meat; bread and beer for the cult-stand and other bread and beer for display … they eat and drink, they full the cups, In the presence of the god there is a wrestling. They start fighting, they make merry. When the sun sets they carry the god down to the city and set him up in the temple“.

The dam and the reservoir-lake near Yazir where the Yazirçay rises, May 2012

1. Roy E. Gane, Andrews University Seminary Studies, Autumn 1998, Vol.36, no 2237-239. See also P. Taracha 1996, Zum Festritual des Gottes Telipinu in Hanhana und Kasha, AoF 13, 180. 2. In the last years of the Empire 6 or 7 temples were build, so before there were c. 24 temples in the New Kingdom. 3. Kurt Bittel 1970, Hattuscha, 13

The Budakŏzŭ . I have already pointed to the little valley of the Budakŏzŭ1 near the Lower city, which contains several striking rocks and the water oozes through the valley. It might be an appropriate place for washing the (statues of the) gods, for rituals by the Old (or Wise) Women and to offer to deities of the streams. Mostly the Old Woman is mentioned as the person who had the skills and trust to handle magic rituals2 . She is already attested in texts about the Old Kingdom, but probably she was of the ancient times before. The nearby walls of mountain-rocks may have been used to offer to mountain-gods or to honor ancestors and rulers. Volkert Haas stated that “the river- and spring goddesses” are imagined as water giving girls and are also connected with the underworld. For example the Stormgod of Nerik descends through his “beloved spring” to his mother in the underworld, and also the goddess of the underworld is emerging from a spring to the upper world (Volkert Haas1994 , Die Geschichte der hethitischen Religion, 465).

(drawing by Michael Hampshire and the text is of Jim Hicks 1974, the Empire Builders, Time Life). An Old Woman and four servants perform a purification ritual . They are putting a small boat in a canal to the river. The Old Woman will pour honey and oil in the stream, when the boat is launched. In the ceremony the Old Woman will say a prayer: “So as the river takes the boat and no track will be found of it anymore, so it will be with bad words, promises, cursing and all that was unclean in the presence of the God, the river will take it with it also!“ The consort Tahattanuiti of a local Hattian Stormgod is called the ‘Mother of the Spring”, she is Queen among the gods and his concubine Tasimetti seems to have been a spring-goddess, as well (Maciej Popko 1996, Religions of Asia Minor ,72).

1. Budak means ash, but according to Kurt Bittel the name is here probably connected with a personal name of Turkmenian tribes (1952 ,Boğazköy –Hattusa Vol.1). According to local people (2013) it means the tree-resin water. 2. Ahmet Ünal, 1996 The Hittite Ritual of Hantitassu from the City of Hurma -37: As a rule, magic rituals were in the Hittite Kingdom were carried out by a group of professionals such as the Old or Wise woman (= MUNUSSU.GI). Hittite Online: The sign MUNUS, used independently to mean "wife" or "woman," preceded names of women. When it precedes women's names it may be rendered in transcriptions as superscript F (e.g. FPu-du-he-pa, Puduḫepa, the name of a powerful Hittite queen of the thirteenth century B.C.E. and wife of Hattusili III). Before the names of men a single vertical stroke was used. This is often rendered in transcriptions as superscript M (e.g. MTe-le-pe-nu-us, the name of an early Hittite king). Before male occupational titles, the Sumerian sign LÚ 'man' was used (e.g., LÚA.ZU 'physician' or 'ritual healer'), and the sign MUNUS was used before female MUNUS MUNUS occupational titles, e.g., ŠU.GI, or, in Hittite, hāsawas 'wise woman, female ritual healer'.

39 connected to the subject of treaties and prayers. This became clear for example in the ’Invocation of the Gods of All Lands’ (Itamar Singer 2002, Hittite Prayers,87). In these invocations to the Gods of the land Hatti, one reads : “all the male gods and the female gods, all the mountains and the rivers of the Land of Hatti”. Then 65 area’s and cities are mentioned with all their main gods. It is interesting that mountain- and river-gods almost always are mentioned to these cities. Now we will continue our walk : after leaving the small valley of Ambarlikaya and passing a “It was extremely important to the Hittites to never forget to mention a god, who might be deity of the mountains”, we walk upstream the Budakŏzŭ.

We hear that the stream becomes more wild with waterfalls, and we will see that it streams through rocky landscapes.

Was this spot suitable enough to meet the deities of nature ?

And then after a while we will reach an exceptional form at the stream:

The spot is called Hoşur, it looks like snow on the pictures, but it is white chalk-stone. The stream slides over a grey-black rock before it transforms into a waterfall, and falls in to the creek. What were the thoughts of the ancient farmers, herdsmen, hunters, priests and the Old Women about this place?

Map of the surroundings of Hattusa with the position of the Budakŏzŭ and the Yazirçay. Kurt Bittel (1970 - 29).

The Ibikçam reservoir (picture above May 2012) and the reservoir near Yazir feed the Yazirçay. The Yazirçay, which flows on the east side of Hattusa, meets the Budakŏzŭ after the Lower city. Then they stream together to the west, to Sungurlu. After Hattusa they transform into a small river, which will stream into the Delice Irmak (‘the mad river’). After 40 km to the south, they will stream into the Kizilirmak (‘the red river’), which ends near Zalpuwa in the Black Sea. Back to the sea, back to the ‘Mother of the Rivers’. A lot of gods and goddesses are connected with a river. In a tablet it is mentioned that the priest drinks to the Tutelary-god of the River, the gods of the River, the gods of the h. (DINGIR mes hantiyassas, ir handus, hissalandus), to the fate deities of the Riverbank and the MAH (mother goddess) deities. (Alfonso Archi 2004 -21-KUB 9.31 (A + B). Rivers could be expressed to:“But you, Marassanta river (the red river) do not allow him (the god) in another river or spring!” (Heinrich Otten 1958, Hethitische Totenritutale,137).

Harry Hoffner mentioned that it is widely believed, perhaps correctly, that the conflict between the serpent of the Illuyanka myth and the Storm-god is about the waters, necessary for agriculture and life. The Storm god would presumably be the lord of the rainfall, while the serpent controlled the subterranean water sources. By defeating the Storm-god, the serpent thwarts the rainfall and remains in control of the subterranean springs, which he can cut off at will (Harry A Hoffner Jr.2007, A brief commentary on the Hittite Illuyanka myth 124-129). Water could purificate evil:“Reiningen soll das reine Wasser böses Verleumdung, Unreinheit, Bluttat, Frevel, Fluch – Wie der Wind das izzan (Salz ?) verjagt und übers Meer bringt “ (Heinrich Otten 1958 Hethitische Totenritutale,127).

River Ordeals. If a person was placed under suspicion of a crime against the king, but the king was uncertain if the person was guilty or not, the king could ask the goddess of the River to examine the accused person. How these river ordeals were organized in the Hittite kingdom, I do not know, but according to texts they have: “to go to the river”. The goddess of the River could prove their innocence. When the accused was innocent, he was kept alive. “To go the river” was a judgment, which was not described in the collection of Hittite law texts, but it appears to be an Anatolian way of proving your innocence1. In the Laws of Hammurabi of Akkad it is written that in the ordeal the accused had to dive in the river. When he (or she) came out of the river alive, it meant that he was innocent. However, so far no texts have been discovered which discusses how it was organized in Anatolia. Besides that the king could command the ordeal: “I (the king) entrust you to the river”2. A text KBoXII1 mentioned that the river- god could refuse (the ordeal or the accused ?). And the king commands that then the accused had to stay home, and not be held captived in a prison (E. Laroche 1973- 188 and O. Soysal 1989 dissertation).

In many cases the river ordeal appeared to be a measure against slander in the palace or against disloyal behavior to the king. Slander is often used by people, who have less power in autocratic administrations. Slander is a weapon to damage mighty people in a kingdom or another autocratic ruled system. There are quite a lot of Hittite texts in which the use of slander is condemned. Even Hattusili III, the brother of king Muwatalli II, had to prove his loyalty, when Arma-Tarhunta, a second cousin of Hattusili slandered him to the king. Muwatalli II decided to subject him to the ordeal of the “Divine Wheel”3. Kings and Queens could protect themselves against slander by rituals, called the rituals against the “Tongues” (Manfred Hutter 1988, Behexung, Entsühnung und Heilung, 114).

Alexei Kassian translated such a magical ritual, performed by the Old Woman with several female assistants. The Sungod of Blood and the Stormgod are conciliated in this ritual: “But they poured out the {ev]il tongues from the kurtali-container And said as follows: Just as these (i.e. the tongues) perish That ZI has inflicted upon the lord with his wife and his sons,, So let ZI’s sorcery and her evil words in the same way Perish! And let it not come back! But the kabarta-rodent Which she has offered to the sorcerous tongues- liver ………. And shoulder-blade she roasts on the fire”. (Alexei S. Kassian 2000,Two Middle Hittite Rituals Mentioning f Ziplantawija, sister of the king,67.

In the Anecdotes of Hattusili I in the Old Kingdom one can read about the river ordeals already. All the reported cases were concerned with the question of whether someone was loyal enough to the king. Harry Hoffner pointed to an instruction text4 about a water-carrier whose negligence resulted in a hair getting into royal drinking water. Which threatened the purity of the King. The culprit in question, bears the name of a well known Hittite river and its god – Zuliya ! Petra Goedegebuure tells us more5 about this incident and how the ordeal was working: “The soul of the king became in anger, when the king saw the hair in a bronze water bowl in the city Sanahuitta. He was annoyed with the water bearers: “This a pollution!” Armil said: “Zuliya was negligent“. The king said:

“Let Zuliya go to river. If he will get clean (parkueszi), than let him cleanse his soul (parkunuddu). But when he is not pure (papraszi), than he has to die!”. Zuliya was going to the rover, and he appeared not pure. On brought Zuliya to the city Sures[ta to the court ?] and the king [sentenced] him. He died”. With this text it becomes clear that the river (goddess) did not kill the accused person, apparently the river-goddess showed only if the person in question was pure or not pure. A court or the king himself had to ordeal, which punishment was imperative. The scholar Oǧuz Soysal of the Oriental Institute of Chicago made a fine translation of a river ordeal from the often very fragmentary text parts of the remaining tablets of the anecdotes in his dissertation of 1989:

1. Cahit Günbatti 2001, Fs. Veenhof, The river ordeal in Ancient Anatolia, 159-160. 2. Emmanuel Laroche 1973, Fleuve et Ordailie en Asie Mineure Hittite, Fs. H. Otten, 181- 189. 3. The meaning of the “Divine Wheel” is obscure, once it was written with determinative for wood and once with a god determinative (www.hittites.info/history). Hattusili appeared not guilty. Arma-Tarhunda together with his wife and his son were condemned in trial of the palace, because they had set Samuha, the city of Hattusili with sorcery. Hattusili released him after the trial on behalf of the request of the king, but his wife and a son were banned to Alasiya (Cyprus) and a half of his land was confiscated. Professor Bryce was so kind to confirm me that: the reference to the 'wheel' occurs in Hattusili's Apology section 4 where the king Muwattalli names his brother for 'the wheel', apparently in response to legal action taken against Hattusili by Arma-Tarhunda. No- one has been able to provide a convincing explanation as to what this means, beyond the fact that it seems to indicate some form of legal process. But what the wheel is defies our current knowledge of these matters. 4. Harry Hoffner1980, History and Historians in the Near East: The Hittites, Orientalia Vol. 49, 303. 5. Petra Goedegebuure 2002, Rituele Reinheid bij de Hethieten, Phoenix 48-2, 98: KUB 13.3 iii 21 -35.

Roads, ground, trees, mountains.

Not only watercourses are holy, but according to professor Haas also ‘the roads stimulate the pathogenic elements of the Land’. He stated: “The gods of the Road got bread offerings at the crossing of the road, on the left side (the side of the evil), so that they will ‘catch and guard’ the evil, and that they will not allow the evil to come back”. (Volkert Haas 2012, Die linke Seite im Hethitischen, Orientale 79, 168).

Ground was important in (cathartic) rituals. Normally cathartic rituals took place outside the settlement and the land that was used by people for example agricultural land. The remnants of the purgation had to be buried in enemy lands or land which was not habituated, so that their settlement was not infected with evil powers. Volkert Haas gives a text example of the Ritual of the women Anniwiyani: “ A virgin, accompanied by a dog and [a ram], takes the remnants of the ritual to an “untouched place” in the mountains, “where no plough can go” (Volkert Haas 2004, Rituell-magische Aspekte in der althetishen Strafvollstreckung, AOAT,215).

Out of the earth. In the ritual of Tunnawiya, probably a healing ritual, two storage pits are dug out at daybreak, in front of the Old Woman (= MUNUSSU.GI) Tunnawiya. They filled these pits with slaughtered sheep and a billy-goat. Afterwards within the storage pit of the Sun goddess of the Earth they dig a little hole downwards. They make it a small inner chamber and they put the models of beds inside. They spread many bedclothes. Within the storage pit the small bedroom of the Sun Goddess of the Earth is then dug out (Piotr Taracha 1990, More about the Taknaz Da Rituals, Hethitica X 175). Tunnawiya preformed the ritual for a royal couple. The offer principals, the king and the Queen are lying on the ground, while the Old Woman spreads a kind of sleep upon them. At the same time she performs the incantations. At the conclusion of the ceremony she will take the king and the queen “out of the earth”. Manfred Hutter explained that the expression ‘to take out of the earth’, is probably meaning a rescue from the (premature) death1.

1. Manfred Hutter 1988, Behexung, Entsühnung und Heilung, 118-120 : Wahrscheinlich ist der Ausdruck nicht anders zu verstehen als een Aufnehmen des Opfermandanten von der Erde, auf dem er liegt, oder sitzt. Der Opfermandant hat sich von seinem normale Sitz (der Thron)auf dem Boden erniedrigt. Danach schwenkt die Beschwörungspriesterin ein Schlaf über ihn und rezitiert die Beschwörung, dass die Opfermandant wieder gesund werden soll. Das liegen auf der Erde kann verglichen werden mit bekannten Gebrauchen, wenn man den Lebenden ritual begrabt , um ihm wieder Gesundheit zu verleihen. Manchmal ist das Eingraben des Menschen mit Pflügen der Erde verbunden, wobei eine solche Kombination besonderes als Heilmittel gegen Hexerei anzusehen ist. Wenn man den Boden gepflügt hat, richtet man den Behexten wieder gesund vom Erdboden auf. Die heilende Kraft der Erde strömt in den Kranken, wobei die Heilung praktisch eine Neugeburt darstellt. Nach der Meinung von Manfred macht der Zusammenhang zwischen Heilung und Neugeburt die enge thematische Verwandtschaft zwischen den Ritualen der Tunnawiya deutlich. Da ,, Aus der Erde Nehmen“ ebenfalls ein ,, Geburtsvorgang“ im übertragende Sinn ist, zielen alle Rituale der Tunnawiya auf einen gemeinsamen Wusch ab, nämlich demjenigen, für den das Ritual vollzogen wird, ein (neues) Leben zu gewähren. Piotr Taracha proposed that the magic performance ‘to take off the Earth’ was character -sized by to absolve a suppliant from his sin against the powers of the Earth.

Plants and trees are beings with a soul, which are protected by mountain- and protector- gods of the wild nature. A holy tree is the oak (the large tree), which had a cult in several areas of North Anatolia. The tree is closely connected with Telipinu, the vegetation god and the son of the Stormgod and the Sun-goddess of Arinna. The oak is also the hieroglyph as the image of Telipinu (Volkert Haas 2001, Religionen des Alten Orients Teil 1, 177). Volkert Haas has discussed a Hattian myth, in which a struggle occurred between the Large Sea and the Sun goddess. During this conflict the Large Sea kidnaps the Sun goddess and keeps her captive in his house.

The Stormgod commands his son Telipinu to get back the Sun goddess. Because the Sea is anxious before Telipinu, he gives Telipinu not only the Sun goddess back, but also his daughter. Soon after the Sea wants a counter gift from the Stormgod for his daughter ‘from’ the sea. The Stormgod asks the mother-goddess what the best thing to do would be, after which Hannahanna advises the Stormgod to give the Large Sea a gift (Volkert Haas 1994, 444). Mountains are important in Hittite sacred topography. They were often indentified as the seats of important local gods, such as the storm-gods of Arinna and of Zippalanda. Frequently, they were personalized as divinities (mountain gods) invoked by and involved in ceremonies and rituals, such as Mountain Tudhaliya, an identified peak probably in the surroundings of Hattusa. This peak was so important that three kings bore the name of the mountain, starting with a very important king of the New Kingdom: Tudhaliya I.

Gods on top of the mountains, drawing Yazilikaya- Charles Texier 1834.

Maciej Popko1 and Volkert Haas2 have both told us much about the significance of the mountains in the lives and beliefs of the Anatolians. The wild areas like the mountains are suitable places for the healing rituals. The dispelled evil of the patient cannot be a threat for other people. A text mentions: “then I go up the mountain, towards the Sun-goddess”. The rocks are equivalent with the mountains (M. Popko 1987-98). Mountains gods, like Sarruma, are often worshipped in the mountains. The mountain (or rock hill !)Tippuwa of the AN.TAH.SUM festival was lying in the neighbourhood of Hattusa (M. Popko 1987-101),the king is found offering at two steles. Popko stated that on the Tippuwa mountain there had to be three steles. A text which makes mention of these steles states that the god was angry, because the stele “under the puarsi-tree” had been taken out and because they had ploughed sacral places. Popko concluded the stele would have been on the base of the mountain, on the border with arable land, and therefore on the north side of Hattusa.

1. Maciej Popko 1987, Berg als Ritualschauplatz, Hethitica XIV, 97-108. 2. Volkert Haas 1982, Hethitischer Berggötter und hurritsche Steindämonen.

It is obvious that the surroundings of Hattusa contains many holy spots: on the hills and in caverns, at streams, wells and springs and near trees and stones. Spots in and outside the city wall, which were ever connected with names, myths and with gods and deities or demons. If it is possible to connect them with ancient texts, archaeological results, cultural historical analyses and what is known about the cults of Hattusa, then it would assist us immensely in becoming “closer” to the lives and thoughts of the people of Hattusa in the Bronze age time period.

I like to thank Debbie Turkilsen, student of the University of New England (Sydney-Australia), and my daughter Annemiek Blasweiler for their help to improve the English language in my article. And I like to thank Murat Bektaş our guide, who brought us everywhere we wanted.

1. Volkert Haas reports that the mountain-mother Kubaba origins from North Syria. In this region the mountain gods and the mountain-mothers were close connected. In the 18th c. BC. Kubaba was the ‘goddess and queen’ of Karkamish, and she is already known from the Old Assyrian trade texts with the name Kubabat. Her companion is the god Adamma, perhaps a compellation of Ada (father) and Amma (mother). Adamma was perhaps a hermaphrodite, like Kybele (Rhea) was originally also in a Greek myth. Volkert Haas stated that hermaphroditical gods are not attested in Hittite texts, but on Büyükkale, in an ‘Old Hittite level’, was found a figure of terracotta, which was bisexual (Haas 1982,Hethitischer Berggötter, 99, see also Bittel 1955, MDOG 88, 22), and he continued: “Perhaps common people worshipped hermaphroditical beings”. The Phrygian Kybele is close connected with Kubaba (Haas, 1982-97, R. Gusmani , Der lydische Name der Kybele, Kadmos 9 1969, 158). There is a discussion if Kubaba could be connected with Kybele. Recently Mark Munn has described the discussion, and he concludes that although there seems no account of the relation between their names, it a obvious that Anatolian Kubaba is a clear name, while Kubeleya in the Phrygian Matar Kubeleya is an epithet, that plausibly can be derived from the older name of Kubaba. More over the Old Greek scholars became familiar with Kybebe, a goddess of the Phrygians and the Lydians and they understood her to be the same goddess known from her many sacred places, called Kubeleya. (Mark Munn 2008, Kybele as Kubaba in a Lydo-Phrygian Context, Anatolian Interfaces, 159-164).

Appendix:

1. Faculties of the Rain cult in Boğazköy-Hattusa.

In 1971 Peter Neve wrote an intriguing article “Regenkult-Anlagen in Boğazköy-Hattusa” (Facilities of the Rain cult, ISMITT beiheft 5). He made an analysis based on basis of artifacts, texts(explanations) and anthropological- and historical data of Central Anatolia about the existence and the importance of the Cult of the Rain in the Bronze age for the city and the land of Hattusa. With the outcome of this analysis the archaeologists of the DAI could probably better explain the use and the meaning of many water facilities in the capital (the Lower-, Upper city and Yazilikaya).

Peter Neve pointed in this article (40 years ago !) among other things to: a. The existence of Rain ceremonies in Anatolia in 1971. They were called yağmur baba (Rain father) by the local people. These ceremonies took place in the high mountains. Also woods of old trees and old graves were mentioned for the ceremonies of yağmur baba. Normally some villages together used a sanctuary. On a mountain near Boğazköy, near a grave, some stones acted as a sanctuary. Here they prayed and eat together in time periods of the year, when it was staying dry; especially when the rains of the spring and autumn did not come. When it was raining very hard, than many pregnant women would jumped in the swelled streams, while they teared off little parts from their cloths, stroked their bodies themselves and called the almighties out loud. According to Peter Neve, who have seen this happening by himself in villages, this was apparently done to get the divine blessing for their new “life fruits”. (see German text fragment below). b. The importance of Telipinu as a vegetation god , and the meaning of mountains in the vegetation myths. c. The importance of the rain in the cult as power for life and the growth, so as appears in the myth of the disappearance of Telipinu, d. The role of festivals of spring and autumn in the cults. e. The many different water facilities in the palace, which had probably cultic meanings, too.

Peter Neve 1971 page 36-38:

Map Yazilikaya.

2. Map Osmankayasi cavern. (1958 Die Hethitischen Grabefunden von Osmankayasi)

3. Some observations about Yazilikaya of Hans Güterbock (1954 MDOG 86,75-76):

4. Heinrich Otten 1989 about Yazilikaya and the Stone house (Vortrag 2. Zu den rechtlichen und religiösen Grundlagen des hethitischen Königtums. Innsbrucker Beitrage zur Sprachwissenschaft -42, pages 29- 35) .

5. Kizlar-kaya deresi streams to the Yazirçay.

Yazirçay Kizlar-kaya deresi and the spring which feeds the stream.

Published in Festschrift Akurgal, Anandolu (Anatolia)XXI 1978-1980.

DAI 2002 Büyükkaya from the north.

DAI 2002 Büyükkaya grain silo’s. The largest silo measures 12 x 18 m and more than 2 m deep (c. 260 tons of grain), filled in after excavation again.