Key Sites of the Hittite Empire

Oxford Handbooks Online Archaeology Business and Management Classical Studies Criminology and Criminal Justice Earth Science Economics and Finance History Law Linguistics Literature Music Neuroscience Philosophy Physics Political Science Psychology Religion Sociology Browse All Close Key Sites Of The Hittite Empire Dirk Paul Mielke The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia: (10,000-323 BCE) Edited by Gregory McMahon and Sharon Steadman Print Publication Date: Sep 2011 Subject: Archaeology, Archaeology of the Near East Online Publication Date: Nov 2012 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195376142.013.0048 Read More Go to page: Go • View PDF Page of PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2015. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy). Subscriber: University College London; date: 26 October 2017 Key Sites Of The Hittite Empire Abstract and Keywords This article discusses findings from excavations of key Hittite sites: Bo ğ azköy–Hattu ša, Ortaköy– Š apinuwa, Alaca Höyük, Kuşakli–Šarişşa, and Maşat Höyük–Tapikka. These sites shed light on both the characteristic features and diversity of Hittite urban forms. Keywords: excavations, archaeological sites, urban forms, Bo ğ azköy–Hattu ša, Ortaköy– Š apinuwa, Alaca Höyük, Kuşakli–Šarişşa, Maşat Höyük–Tapikka Archaeological and historical sources allow us to reconstruct a highly developed and organized system of settlements for the Hittite period (Mielke 2011; Schachner 2009b; and see Glatz, chapter 40 in this volume). It is therefore astounding that so few archaeological sites Click to view larger can be characterized as Figure 48.1. Map of Hittite key sites in key sites for Hittite central Anatolia. research. This state of affairs is partially attributable to the fact that settlement areas have only been exposed extensively in a small number of excavations. Furthermore, significant findings often have been insufficiently published. In this respect documents, in the form of clay tablets, are of particular importance, as they provide concrete historical insights. However, such tablets have only been discovered at a few locations (van den Hout 2011:fig. 5, and see van den Hout, chapter 41 in this volume). For these reasons, the field of Hittite archaeology has been largely dominated to date by the excavations at Boğazköy-Ḫattuša. Due to space constraints, only a small selection of key sites is presented in the following discussion (figure 48.1). Nevertheless, because of their varied significance, they illuminate the diversity of Hittite settlements. For a survey of additional important excavation sites, the reader should consult the overview by Genz and Mielke (2011) as well as Seeher’s contribution to this volume (chapter 16). The Capital: Boğazköy-Ḫattuša The impressive ruins of Boğazköy (Çorum province) drew the attention of numerous travelers to the Near East as early as the nineteenth century (figure 48.2), yet English and German archaeologists initially struggled in vain to obtain a license (p. 1032) for excavating this most promising site (Alaura 2006). Ultimately it was a Frenchman, Ernst Chantre, who made the first test Click to view larger excavations at Boğazköy in Figure 48.2. Plan of the capital Boğazköy- 1893–94. Not until the Ḫattuša (Boğazköy expedition). excavations led by Hugo Winckler and Theodor Makridi Bey in 1906–7 and 1911–12 were the ruins identified on the basis of textual finds as Ḫattuša, the capital city of the Hittites. These early excavations were directed primarily toward the discovery of clay tablets, but Heinrich Kohl and Otto Puchstein excavated the ruins in parallel and undertook an initial comprehensive survey of the architectural remains and topography, which remains valuable for research to this day (Puchstein 1912). The excavations organized between 1931 and 1939 by the German Archaeological Institute and the German Oriental Society, under the direction of Kurt Bittel, were then able to expand on this earlier work. These excavations, which focused on the royal citadel of Büyükkale, were able to place both the temporal depth and the material basis of Hittite culture on a solid foundation for the very first time. Interrupted by World War II, research at Boğazköy resumed once again in 1952 under the direction of Kurt Bittel (until 1977) (Bittel 1970, 1983). From 1952 to the present, excavation work has continued at Boğazköy without interruption. The work on Büyükkale lasted until 1966. Since then, research has concentrated on the lower city, but unfortunately has not led to any comprehensive publications. Under the new director of excavations, Peter Neve (1978–93), the focus of work shifted to the upper city and its numerous temples (Neve 1996). His successor, Jürgen Seeher (1994–2005), then brought the economic life of the city to the attention of scientific (p. 1033) (p. 1034) research through excavations on Büyükkaya and in the upper city (Seeher 2000). In addition, a new comprehensive topographic survey (Seeher 1999) was completed, and, in a major archaeological experiment, a portion of the city wall was reconstructed (Seeher 2007). The work he initiated in the western upper city has been continued more recently under Andreas Schachner, the most recent director of excavations (since 2006), and expanded through new research in the lower city. In addition to innumerable archaeological finds, about 30,000 clay tablets or fragments thereof have been unearthed in Boğazköy to date. These fragments have formed the basis for a discipline in its own right—Hittitology—and continue to lead to numerous new insights (van den Hout 2011). The more than 100 years of research undertaken at Boğazköy have brought forth an immense wealth of publications, only the most significant of which can be cited here. Preliminary reports on the excavations were initially published in the Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft (35, 1907; 70–106, 1932–74), and have regularly appeared since 1979 in the journal Archäologischer Anzeiger. Individual findings from archaeological work were published in the series Boğazköy (I–VI, 1935–84), and its sequel, Boğazköy- Berichte (7–8, 2004–6). In addition, the final publication series, Boğazköy-Hattuša: Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen (I–XXII, 1952–2008) is of great importance. The directors of excavations have published periodic summary papers about the current state of excavation work (Bittel 1970, 1983; Neve 1996; Seeher 2006e; Schachner forthcoming). Special publication series were founded for the numerous cuneiform texts, including Keilschrifturkunden aus Boğazköy (KUB I–LX, 1921–90), Keilschrifttexte aus Boğazköi (KBo 1–60, 1916–2009), and Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten (StBoT 1–48, 1965–2006). The settlement of Boğazköy is situated at the end of the long Budaközü valley that opens to the northeast. This valley was settled as early as the Chalcolithic period (see Schoop, chapter 7 in this volume). In the vicinity of the ruins of the Hittite city, archaeological evidence indicates continuous habitation since the early Bronze Age. The city is first mentioned in historical records with the name Ḫattuš during the kārum period (see Michel, chapter 13 in this volume). This settlement was largely destroyed, and an Old Hittite text even records its execration (Neu 1974:13, l. 48), yet after a brief hiatus, resettlement took place under the name Ḫattuša. In the following 470 years (1650–1180 B.C.E.), Ḫattuša, as the capital of the Hittite Empire, was one of the most important cities of the ancient Near East. The site of Boğazköy also provides important remains for the Iron Age period (see Kealhofer and Grave, chapter 18 in this volume). The remains of the Hittite city stretches out over a surface area of 180 ha. The area enclosed by the city fortifications rises from the north to the south, and its topography is sharply divided by mountain ridges, rocky crags, plateaus, and basins. The distinctive rocky crag of Büyükkale is located halfway up the eastern edge of the city and was the site of the so-called Royal Citadel. The postern wall that runs toward the west from this point divides the city area into an upper and lower city. Because the fortifications of the upper city are symmetrically aligned with the gigantic passageway complex of Yerkapı (Neve 2001), it was long believed that this area of the city was a later expansion. (p. 1035) Newer studies have shown, however, that the lands of the upper city already belonged to the municipal area at the time of the Old Hittite Kingdom (Schachner 2009b; Seeher 2006a, 2006b, 2008). The fortifications of Ḫattuša remain to be fully studied, but it is clear, especially in the lower city, that there were numerous intermediary walls that divided off individual districts (Neve 2004). A number of typical Hittite gate structures, with a passageway between two massive gate towers, guarded access to the city at a number of different places (Puchstein 1912; Seeher 2006e). A few of them were decorated with relief sculptures, such as the famous Lion Gate or the King’s Gate in the upper city. Some of the walls, such as the postern wall mentioned previously and those of Büyükkaya, additionally featured underground vaulted passageways, whose exact function—as a failsafe during sieges or for the daily passage of people and animals—has not yet been sufficiently clarified (Miglus 2005). Excavations in different districts over the years have generated a complex chronological framework (see the summary in Mielke 2006a:14–18), and it has proven problematic to link the sequence of layers with the historical record (Klinger 2006; Seeher 2008). Only in the past few years, thanks especially to the introduction of scientific dating methods, has it been possible to establish a discrete and independent chronological framework, which has made it clear that historical events and archaeological developments seldom occur synchronously (Schoop and Seeher 2006).

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