SEARCHING FOR TARHUNTASSA: USING GIS SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND DIVERSE DATA-SETS TO INVESTIGATE A QUESTION OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY IN HITTITE SOUTHERN ANATOLIA by MATTHEW ALEXANDER JONES A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Classics, Ancient History & Archaeology School of History & Cultures College of Arts & Law University of Birmingham September 2017 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Spatial analysis techniques, performed using Geographical Information System (GIS) software packages, have become commonplace, even ubiquitous, in landscape archaeology over the last three decades. However, they have not had as significant an impact in the field of Ancient Near Eastern historical geography, despite the inherently spatial nature of this area of research. Settlements and regions named in documentary sources are still sought using traditional methods of textual study and field survey, with digital methodologies rarely implemented. An excellent example of such a case is the search for the Hittite city of Tarḫuntassa - capital of the Hittite Empire in the early 13th century BC, then the seat of a vassal kingdom and a rival dynasty for the throne in the Empire's declining years, but as yet unlocated. This thesis first critiques previous attempts to locate the borders and city of Tarḫuntassa, putting forward a case for why and how GIS spatial analysis techniques can be used to assess the criteria on which these previous studies based their conclusions, and investigate the context of, and relationships between, Bronze Age settlements and the regional landscape. These analyses are combined to form a model of Hittite regional landscape use, which forms the basis for a new hypothesis as to the capital's location. Finally, it is argued that this innovative GIS-based approach can, alongside a broader understanding of Hittite interaction with the landscape in terms of settlement, religion and monumentalism, challenge current consensus as to Tarḫuntassa's location and expand the study of Hittite historical geography beyond the traditional methods of survey, excavation and toponymy. Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank Dr Henry Chapman and Dr Alasdair Livingstone, without whose expertise, support, motivation and encouragement, I would certainly not have been able to produce this thesis. I would particularly like to thank Dr Chapman for his excitement regarding this project, and for the highly positive comments offered throughout my studies, even when I thought them entirely undeserved. I would also like to thank Birgit Haskamp for her invaluable advice, particularly on Hittite Anatolia. I would also like to thank my parents Sue and Trevor Jones for their unending love and support (both emotional and financial!) throughout my studies, my sister Harriet for being there for me even when on the other side of the world, and all my friends who have made it an absolute joy to live in Birmingham for the last nine years, who are too numerous to list here, but you all know who you are. Finally, I would like to thank my partner Dr Catherine Smith, who has put up with me through thick and thin these last six years, supplied much needed common sense when I have acted a little too much the scatterbrained academic, and has made the whole PhD thing much easier - not least by doing it first, so that I knew what I was in for. Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 8 2.1 - Tarḫuntassa in Context 8 2.2 - Historical and Political Context 10 2.2.1 - Muwatalli's new Hittite capital 10 2.2.2 - The Tarḫuntassa treaties 14 2.2.3 - Two cities, two dynasties - Tarḫuntassa and the decline of the Hittite Empire 19 2.3 - Geographical Context 25 2.3.1 - Southern Turkey - a modern context 25 2.3.2 - The borders of Tarḫuntassa 31 2.3.3 - Environmental Record 44 2.4 - Archaeological Context 47 2.4.1 - Previously suggested locations of Tarḫuntassa 48 2.4.2 - Characterising Hittite Cities 62 2.4.3 - Monuments in the Region 67 2.4.4 - The Purpose of Monuments 76 2.5 - Addressing the Problems 79 3. AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND APPROACH 81 3.1 - Study Aims 81 3.1.1 - First Objective - Building a Database of Sites and Monuments 91 3.1.2 - Second Objective - Site Characterisation analyses 92 3.1.3 - Third Objective - Testing Site Location criteria through Spatial Analysis 95 3.1.4 - Fourth Objective - Landscape Modelling 97 3.1.5 - Objective Five - Comparative Analysis 98 3.1.6 - Sixth Objective - Predicting the Location of Tarḫuntassa 101 3.2 - Summary of Aims and Objectives 104 3.3 - Approach 106 3.4 - Thesis Structure 112 4. COLLECTING AND ASSESSING EMPIRICAL DATA 114 4.1 - Constructing a Database of the Archaeological Landscape 114 4.1.1 - Data collection 114 4.1.2 - Secondary Sources 116 4.1.3 - Primary Sources 118 4.2 - Method for building the database 121 4.2.1 - Difficulties in consolidating data 121 4.2.2 - Locating and measuring sites in Google Earth 125 4.3 - Raster imagery and DEM 127 4.4 - Results of Data Collection 128 4.5 - Methods for Site Characterisation Analyses 134 4.5.1 - Analysing site number and size across time periods 134 4.6 - Results of Site Characterisation Analyses 137 4.6.1 - Number of sites across time periods 137 4.6.2 - Distribution of sites by size across time periods 139 4.7 - From characterisation to location 146 5. SITE LOCATION ANALYSES 148 5.1 - Methodologies 148 5.1.1 - Distribution of sites by altitude and slope steepness across time periods 148 5.1.2 - Distribution of sites by proximity to rivers 150 5.1.3 - Settlement density 152 5.1.4 - Proximity of sites to the 'plain edge' 153 5.2 - Results 155 5.2.1 - Distribution of sites by altitude and slope steepness across time periods 155 5.2.2 - Site distribution by proximity to rivers 160 5.2.3 - Site density 162 5.2.4 - Proximity of sites on plain to plain edge across time periods 170 5.3 - Modelling the past landscape 175 6. LANDSCAPE MODELLING 176 6.1 - Methodologies 176 6.1.2 - Previous attempts to map historical trade routes in the study area and beyond 180 6.2 - 'Total' Least Cost Path Analysis 182 6.2.1 - Distribution of sites by proximity to roads 186 6.3 - Specific Routes of Interest 187 6.3.1 - Old Assyrian Trade Roads 187 6.3.2 - Late Bronze Age routes between coast and plain under the Hittite Empire 187 6.4 Results 188 6.4.1 - Results of the Total Least Cost Path Analysis 188 6.4.2 - Results of the Analysis by Proximity to Roads 198 6.5 - Interpretation of the Results 200 6.5.1 - Old Assyrian Trade Roads 206 6.5.2 - Late Bronze Age routes between coast and plain 208 6.5.3 - Proximity of sites to key roads 209 6.6 - Critique and comparison 210 7. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS 212 7.1 - Comparing Datasets and Some Statistical Observations 212 7.2 - Reconstructing Hittite Roads - Methodology 220 7.3 - Reconstructing Hittite Roads - Results 222 7.3.1 - Road 1 - Tawiniya to Hattuša 222 7.3.2 - Road 2 - Hattuša to Yassihoyuk 228 7.3.3 - Road 3 - Tawiniya to Zippalanda 231 7.3.4 - Road 4 - Hattuša to Zippalanda 234 7.4 - Summary of comparisons 236 8. PREDICTIVE MODELLING 239 8.1 - Methodology 240 8.1.1 - What is Predictive Modelling? 240 8.1.2 - Producing the Model 242 8.2 - Results 244 8.3 - Effectiveness of the Predictive Modelling Process 261 9. DISCUSSION 264 9.1 - Site Characterisation in light of the Predictive Modelling exercise 264 9.1.1 - Tarḫuntassa and the 'Virgin Ground' hypothesis 264 9.1.2 - Site number and size over time 267 9.2 - Site Location in the context of Predictive Modelling results 269 9.3 - Least Cost Paths and Communication Networks 272 9.4 - Comparisons to the Hattuša region 276 9.4.1 - Hittite settlement, roads and use of the landscape 276 9.4.2 - Direct comparisons of potential Tarḫuntassa sites to Hattuša 278 9.5 - Religious Context 282 9.6 - Monuments, Settlement and the Landscape 285 9.7 - A new location for Tarḫuntassa? 291 9.8 - Has the methodology been successful? 293 10. CONCLUSIONS 300 APPENDIX A. FULL DATABASES 306 APPENDIX B. RASTER IMAGES USED IN SPATIAL ANALYSES (CHAPTERS 3, 5 AND 6) 327 BIBLIOGRAPHY 336 List of Figures Figure 2.1. Diagram of the Hittite Kings under discussion, their familial descent, dates of their reigns in short chronology and key relevant information. 11 Figure 2.2. The area of modern Turkey where Tarḫuntassa is likely to be found, with names of key modern provinces. 27 Figure 2.3. The part of southern Turkey where Tarḫuntassa may be located, with important geographical features highlighted. 28 Figure 2.4. The borders of Tarḫuntassa as described by Dinҫol et al (2000), in blue as depicted on the map included in the article, with red line following May River as described in the text. 41 Figure 2.5. The borders of Tarḫuntassa as described by Melchert (2007) in black.