Royal Tombs of the Early Bronze Age

The graves of the Early Bronze Age found at Alacahöyük date back to the period from around 2500 to 2000 BCE. They are sometimes called the Royal Tombs, but we do not actually know the identities of the buried individuals. The tombs are of typical shaft design, about 1.5 meters in depth, sealed by wooden beams.

These graves shed light upon the Hatti culture, which formed the outstanding basis for the later Hittite civilization. The burials are also among the most important discoveries of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia.

There are fourteen different intramural graves (i.e. the burials within the city) in Alacahöyük. Six of them have been reconstructed according to the scholars' knowledge of the originals. The biggest grave has an area of around thirty square meters and is just one meter deep.

The deceased and the goods to be buried with them were carefully arranged and, almost in every case, the body of the deceased person was placed in the western part of the burial pit, with folded legs. The head was always turned towards the west and the face -- to the south.

The dead were richly adorned with silver and gold fibulae, diadems, belt buckles, and gold-leaf figures. Besides, personal items such as idols depicting deities, weapons, containers, and jugs were buried with them. Seven metal figurines were found within the tombs, with four of them being made of bronze and three -- of silver.

After the funeral, the rectangular graves, four sides of which were erected of stones, were closed with wooden planks and mortared with clay. Moreover, as a part of the funeral rites, the heads and legs of sacrificed cattle were put on platforms above the graves.

Alacahöyük Bronze Standards

The Alacahöyük Bronze Standards are a series of bronze objects that were found as grave goods in the so-called Royal Tombs at Alacahöyük. They are generally regarded as cult items and, most likely, as chariot accessories.

In the years 1935–1939, the Turkish archaeologists Hâmit Zübeyir Koşay and Remzi Oğuz Arık researched the site of Alacahöyük. Among other things, they excavated 14 burials from the Early Bronze Age, which have become known as the Royal Tombs or the Princely Graves. In addition to the burials themselves, either individually or in pairs, numerous grave goods were found, including over forty of the so-called standards.

The archaeologist Winfried Orthmann divided these artefacts into two main groups: pure animal figures and disc- or ring-shaped objects with or without additional animal depictions. He further divided the second group according to the shape and content of the discs or rings and according to the creatures depicted.

The animal-shaped standards show either a deer or a bull. Each animal stands on four supports that converge to form a spike that was probably used to attach them to a perishable material, likely wood. The stags have impressive antlers, while the bulls have long, arched horns. The highly stylized bodies are partly decorated with silver inlays, and some have antlers and snouts covered with silver or gold sheet.

The disc- or ring-shaped standards are round, semicircular, or diamond-shaped. Some are filled with a grid, have the edges decorated with attachments in the form of birds or flowers or a halo. Occasionally, movable pendants also appear. Several standards also show animal figures that are very similar to the individual animals. Here, too, mainly stags and bulls appear, but in contrast to the individual ones, they are sometimes grouped. For example, one stag is flanked by two bulls, while another one has two lions or panthers to its right and left, looking in opposite directions. Another example shows an animal that is interpreted as a~deer or wild donkey. At the bottom end, the discs and rings have a pair of outward-projecting, upward-curved horns. They end at the bottom in a~crossbar with two tenons, which probably also served as a fastening.

Speculations about the meaning and function of the artefacts are only possible to a very limited extent. The excavators Koşay and Arık assumed that they had a clearly cultic significance, and therefore initially rejected further interpretations. Because of the partially radial decoration, they were often referred to as sun disks, and the surrounding rings also symbolized the vault of heaven. Kurt Bittel, among others, also supported this possible interpretation.

The most common theory about their function was proposed by Seton Lloyd and James Mellaart, and expanded upon by Winfried Orthmann. It stated that they are parts of wagons that were placed in the grave of the buried. The pieces were placed on the drawbar, perhaps at the connection point to the yoke. The term "standards" comes from this assumption.

Such wagon burials are known from Ur and Kish in Mesopotamia, but also from the Bronze Age kurgans in Armenia. The corresponding rein rings were found there, which Orthmann compared with the standards from Alacahöyük. He saw further evidence in the skulls and foot bones of cattle found in pairs in the graves, which were arranged in a formation similar to a draft team.

It remains to be seen whether the ring and disc-shaped standards from Alacahöyük were also used to pull the reins, as it was the case in Armenia and Mesopotamia. The question of why no remains of the wagons were found in the graves, even though many remains of the wooden coverings of the graves were preserved, also remains unanswered.

The archaeologist Kurt Bittel showed that, after stylistic comparisons of the ceramics that were found in the Royal Tombs, it can be assumed that the standards were dated to before the time of the Assyrian trading colonies in Asia Minor, i.e. earlier than 1900 BCE. Based on the parallels between the metal objects and those from the Troy II layer, he concluded that the grave goods can be dated to the period after 2100 BCE. Since the different levels of the burials as well as the stylistic developments in the grave goods show that the cemetery was in use for a long time, possibly over two centuries, he assumed the period from the 22nd to the 20th century BCE, and thus the time of the Hattic culture, the forerunner of the Hittite Empire.

Alacahöyük Sphinx Gate

The Sphinx Gate found in Alacahöyük dates to the Hittite period, and more precisely, to the 14th century BCE. It has been partially removed from the site. While the sphinxes guarding the city gate can still be seen in the original location, the orthostats decorating the gate were removed to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. In Alacahöyük they have been replaced with the concrete copies.

The left side of the gateway (facing to the east) was decorated with the series of orthostats with the reliefs depicting, from right to left: the King and the Queen worshipping a bull, the animals for the sacrifice, the priests, the jugglers, including a sword-swallower and a man climbing a~ladder that stands up in the air, the musicians, and an unfinished relief with a bull and a chariot.

The right side of the gateway (facing the west) shows, most probably, the Sun Goddess of Arinna, worshipped by several persons. The six male figures, on the southward facing wall inside the entrance, may also depict the worshippers, venerating the Sun Goddess. Finally, the meaning of the scene with four people, depicted on the wall facing the north inside the entrance, remains unknown.