Hattusa (tr. Hattuşaş) was the capital of the Hittite Empire from the late 17th to the beginning of the 12th century BCE. Its remains are located in the Turkish province of Çorum near the town of Boğazkale (formerly known as Boğazköy) in the Anatolian highlands, about 160 kilometres to the east of Ankara. This area, to the north of Cappadocia, encompassed by the great loop of the Kızılırmak River (once known as the Halys River), was the core of the Hittite Empire with Hattusa at its centre.
Hattusa lies at the transition from the Budaközü plain in the north to steep mountainous terrain in the south. Hence, the terrain within the ancient city walls rises by about 280 meters over from the north to the south along the distance of around two kilometres. The area on the slope is broken up by numerous rocks, where various structures were built throughout the Hittite period. With an area of about 180 hectares, Hattusa it is one of the largest ancient city complexes in the world.
The population at the height of power was possibly between 10,000 and 12,000, based on the size of the available arable land and the agricultural possibilities at the time, as estimated by the archaeologist Andreas Schachner. The place was inhabited from the late 3rd millennium BCE to the 4th century CE, and again in Byzantine times in the 11th century CE.
During its time as the Hittite capital, Hattusa was surrounded by 6.6-kilometer-long city walls and could be entered from the outside via five known gates; another three gates were excavated in the section walls within the city. The far larger part of the site is still awaiting excavation. The architecture revealed so far consists mainly of public buildings, including the Royal Palace on the Büyükkale plateau. Moreover, the remains of over 30 temple buildings were discovered throughout the city. Due to the lack of written evidence, it is not clear which deities they are associated with. Only a small part of the residential quarters in the lower city have been uncovered until today.
In addition to numerous other finds, over 30,000 mostly fragmentary clay tablets were discovered in Hattusa, which were inscribed with cuneiform texts in Hittite, Old Assyrian, and several other languages. These texts provided valuable information about the Hittite Empire. In 2001, the cuneiform tablet archives found in Hattusa were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
The site of Hattusa has been archaeologically researched since the end of the 19th century. Between 1906 and 1912 the studies were conducted under the direction of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum and with significant participation by the German Oriental Society and the German Archaeological Institute Istanbul (DAI) and since 1931 under the leadership of the DAI. In 1986, Hattusa and the neighbouring Hittite sanctuary Yazılıkaya were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Both sites and the wider surrounding area belong to the Turkish Boğazköy-Alacahöyük National Park.
Topography
The Boğazköy site with the ruins of the Hittite capital is located in northern Central Anatolia. It is therefore in the centre of the Hittite heartland in the so-called Halys Arc, the arc that the ancient river Halys (Hittite Marassanta, today Turkish Kızılırmak) describes there on its way to the Black Sea.
The northern part of the city area is relatively flat, while the southern part stretches up a steep slope. With a north-south extension of about 2.1 kilometres, the terrain overcomes a height difference of about 280 meters.
Two streams rise in the southern mountains, which join together in the area of the modern town of Boğazkale to form the Budaközü River. This river crosses the northern plain, flows further into the Delice Çayı, which finally flows into the Kızılırmak.
The main part of the urban area of Hattusa lies on the spur between the two streams. The eastern of the two streams cuts the urban area in the northeast between Büyükkaya in the northeast and Ambarlıkaya in the southwest. To the north of this, there were parts of the Lower Town. The two streams create deep ravines, the eastern one of which is called Büyükkaya Deresi and the western one, which runs outside the city area, Yazır Deresi.
The southern steep slope is characterized by numerous limestone breakthroughs, including Kesikkaya, Kızlarkayası, Yenicekale, and Sarıkale in the west, the wall of Yerkapı in the south, and Büyükkale, Ambarlıkaya, and Mihraplıkaya in the east. These rocky outcrops were incorporated into the city planning, and most of them contain buildings from the Hittite and later periods.
The fact that the hills were easy to defend, and the area was strategically located due to the mountains in the south and the easily surveyed plain in the north was certainly a reason for the first rulers to choose the location. Another advantage was the numerous springs on the mountain slope, which, together with cisterns and later artificially created ponds, ensured the population's drinking water supply.
Agriculture and food production
The Hittites' food supply was based on agriculture and livestock farming. Due to the unfavourable soil conditions, they also resorted to gathering wild fruits to supplement their food supply. The largest contribution to feeding the population of Hattusa was made by growing grain, with barley, emmer, and wheat being the main crops. Barley comprised the largest share because it is more resilient and less demanding, meaning it can also produce yields on less good soil. Since the soil around Hattusa was not very productive, every available patch of land had to be used for cultivation. Pulses such as lentils, peas, chickpeas, and various types of beans were also grown, as were vegetables, including carrots, cucumbers, onions and garlic, and spices such as cumin, thyme, mint, parsley, coriander, and cress.
Furthermore, fruit such as apples, the fruit called by the Hittite texts "mountain apples" (possibly apricots), olives, wine, nuts, and berries were also grown. All the kinds of fruit mentioned in the texts have been archaeobotanically proven. Some grain was processed into bulgur for preservation, a method that has been documented in the Near East since the Neolithic period. Most of it was baked into bread, which came in numerous varieties. The Hittite texts speak of the types of bread with cheese, fruit, herbs, meat fillings, and many more, including honey glazes.
Another way of using grain was to brew beer. However, this bore little resemblance to today's beer, was thicker and had a lower alcohol content. Another use of the grain was as feed for horses. As an emergency supply for times of poor harvests, there were large grain silos in the city, one near the postern wall and large pits measuring up to 12 by 18 meters and two meters deep on Büyükkale plateau. The largest of these alone had a capacity of at least 260 tons of grain. They were sealed watertight and airtight and protected from pests so that the contents remained edible for several years. This storage method is still common today in poorer countries around the world. In contrast to private supplies, the contents of these silos were often heavily contaminated with weeds, which is probably because these were compulsory contributions to the state.
Livestock farming served as the second basis for food supplies. The majority of these were cattle, sheep, and goats, and, to a lesser extent, pigs. Sheep and goats were in the majority, but cattle formed the most important part, as they were far more productive in terms of meat yield. Examinations of bones found showed that the slaughter date for all animals was relatively late, in the second year of life for sheep and goats, and even later for cows. This indicates that the animals were not only kept for consumption, but also for the production of milk and wool.
Another factor for cattle was their use in field work. The animals were kept in herds that grazed outside the city during the day. An official instruction for the hazannu, i.e. the city commander, shows that the herds were mostly driven back to the city in the evening and were probably housed in stables belonging to the houses. Small numbers of remains of poultry (geese, ducks) and a few fish were found. Horses, donkeys, mules, and hinnies (the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey) were not kept for consumption, but as transport animals. Horses were used as riding animals and as draft animals for the fast chariots. Cuneiform texts also provide the evidence of beekeeping for honey production. Hunting was more for the ruler's pleasure and had only a secondary function for nutrition.
Climate and landscape
Due to its location between the mountain ranges of the Pontus Mountains in the north and the Taurus Mountains in the south, Central Anatolia has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. Since the annual rainfall is quite low at 550–600 millilitres, the land only allows one harvest per year. The possibilities for artificial irrigation are very limited.
The environmental conditions at the time of the Hittites are difficult to reconstruct, but pollen analyses indicate that the climatic conditions have hardly changed in the last 12,000 years since the end of the last ice age. However, during the period of settlement by the Hittites, the forest cover declined sharply. This is certainly due to the intensive use of wood for pottery and metalworking, but also as a building material.
Remarkably, after the place had been abandoned by humans, nature reclaimed large parts of the area. Old photographs show that large parts of the Upper Town were covered with dense forest until the 20th century, which is why the temple district had the Turkish name Ağaç Denizi (forest-sea) at that time. In the early 1980s, the then excavation director Peter Neve had a forest area south of Yerkapı fenced off so that it was protected from browsing by goat herds, in order to give visitors an impression of the former landscape conditions. The forest area is clearly visible from the Sphinx Gate.
Only sparse evidence has survived from the early Byzantine period, but in the Upper Town, on the northern edge of the temple quarter, the remains of a middle Byzantine settlement with a monastery and several churches from the 10th to 11th centuries were excavated and partially restored. Spolia from the 6th to 8th centuries were built into it, which suggest a small earlier settlement.
At Sarıkale, the existing Hittite complex was rebuilt during this period and equipped with a fortification. Remains of a Byzantine building have also been found on the Yenicekale rock to the south. The datable coin finds end around the 1060s, so it can be assumed that the settlement was abandoned at that time, probably as a result of the immigration of Turkish tribes from the east.
In the following centuries, no settlement activity can be proven in the Boǧazkale area. From the time of the Seljuk principalities from the 12th century onwards, there are only isolated coin finds, but these can most likely be traced back to passing nomads. In the 15th/16th century, the Seljuk Beylik of the Dulkadiroğulları was destroyed by the Ottomans. A scattered branch of the family, originally from the Maraş area, then settled in Yekbas (at times Evren), before finally founding the town of Boǧazkale, three kilometres further to the south in the 17th century. The relocation of the settlement from the plain of the Budaközü stream to the mountainous and thus more protected landscape was probably due to the turmoil following the so-called Celali uprisings.
The Konak, the family's stately residence of Ziya Bey and Arslan Bey, still exists today. It was members of this family who provided accommodation and support to Western researchers and archaeologists during their excavations at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.
Historical overview:
Pre-Hittite period
The first settlements in the area around Boğazkale emerged in the 6th millennium BCE, that is in the Chalcolithic period. Possibly, they were located on the Büyükkale plateau in Hattusa, and certainly in the 5th and 4th millennium BCE in Büyük Güllücek, Yarıkkaya, and Çamlıbel Tarlası in the immediate vicinity of Boğazkkale.
The settlers may have come from the Black Sea region as indicated by the elements of the material culture. The settlements did not form artificial mounds that were inhabited for a long period of time, as in the southern region, but were located at medium altitudes and consisted of a few, rectangular one-room houses. They were only used for a relatively short time, until the land resources were used up.
For the period from the late 4th millennium BCE to the late 3rd millennium BCE, no settlement is known within or near Hattusa. Then, at the end of the Early Bronze Age, a dense settlement began in the area between Büyükkale and the Lower Town to the northwest. The settlement included multi-room houses in which traces of craft activities such as metalworking and pottery were found. It is attributed to the Hattian population group, which appeared between the Black Sea and the Kızılırmak River bend from the 3rd millennium BCE. During this period, the term Hatti for the kingdom in northern Anatolia appears for the first time in a text from Mesopotamia.
At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, Assyrian merchants began to build a network of trading stations, called karum, from Assyrian for harbour, and figuratively as a port of the caravans. This network stretched from central Anatolia in the west to western Iran in the east. The Assyrian merchants travelled with donkey caravans from Ashur on the middle Tigris to Asia Minor to exchange local mineral resources such as copper, silver, and gold for tin and fabrics from Mesopotamia.
The centre of their trade routes was Kanesh, today's Kültepe near Kayseri, around 150 km to the south of Boǧazkale. The trading stations were each located on the outskirts of the Anatolian cities in their own city districts. Such a base was also established immediately northwest of the city, which at that time was concentrated on Büyükkale and the northwest slope.
At that time, there was already a princely seat on Büyükkale, the Hattian settlement was on the northwest slope, while the Assyrian karum was located northwest of it, in the area of the later Lower City and the Great Temple. The Assyrians were the first to bring writing to Central Anatolia in the form of Assyrian cuneiform. Numerous clay tablets with texts in the Assyrian language were found, especially in Kültepe, but also in Boǧazkale. Since they are mainly letters and economic texts from merchants, they provide information about everyday life in an Anatolian city of that time. This is also how we know the name of the city of Hattush.
The profit-oriented trade of the merchants contributed significantly to the prosperity and growth of the cities and their princes and thus to the acceleration of urbanization. The houses became more spacious, which shows a stronger separation of living and working areas. The area of the city, which also included scattered areas of the later Upper Town, was at least 48 hectares and thus corresponded to that of other contemporary centres such as Kültepe and Acemhöyük.
As early as the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, personal names interpreted as Indo-European were first found in Mesopotamian texts about Anatolia. Some researchers suspect that they originated northeast of the Black Sea. The attempt to expand their power led to disputes between the central Anatolian rulers. Archaeological traces in the city area show that the city was destroyed in a fire around 1700 BCE. In a later Hittite cuneiform text, King Anitta of Kanesh reports: "During the night I took the city by force, but in its place I sowed weeds. Whoever becomes king after me and repopulates Hattush will be struck by the weather god of heaven."
According to long-standing opinion, the place was not populated for about a hundred years after that. However, due to recent finds in the Lower Town, it now seems likely that a settlement continued to exist in Hattusa directly after Anitta.
Hittite period
Around the middle of the 17th century BCE, a Hittite ruler named (or titled) Labarna was the first Great King to make Hattusa the capital of his empire, according to legend, despite Anitta's curse. He came from the city of Kussara, which has not yet been located, but which is believed to be southeast of the capital based on various textual finds.
After his new residence, which now bore the name Hattusa, he took the name Hattusili, that of Hattusa. The excavator Andreas Schachner assumed that he did not choose the location at that time to create the centre of a great empire, but rather because of the strategically favourable landscape conditions. This made the city a safe retreat against the inner Anatolian battles of the time.
It is also assumed that he had already fortified the settlement, although his successor Hantili (in the early 16th century BCE) claimed to have been the first to build a wall around the city. This is probably the so-called postern wall, which later marked the border between the Lower and Upper Town, and the northern perimeter wall, which is now partially hidden under the modern village.
The fortification was initially directed against the Kaska people, a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontic Anatolia. As attested by the Hittite sources, the Kaska harassed the Hittites from there throughout their reign. Although the earliest written evidence of the Kaska dates from the 14th century BCE, it is assumed that they lived there before the 16th century BCE, and may even have been Anatolian natives.
At this time, the development of the city was concentrated at the two core areas of Büyükkale and the Lower Town. The fortified ruler's seat was already located on Büyükkale, the Lower Town took up roughly the area of the Grand Temple and its surroundings. Moreover, the northwest slope between the seat of government and the Lower Town was also built up according to archaeological evidence, where the remains of a large, underground grain silo were found right next to the postern wall. The built-up area thus covered an area of approximately 0.9 by 1.2 kilometres.
In the following centuries, the Lower Town was further expanded, and the remaining residential buildings on Büyükkale disappeared and were replaced by public or representative buildings. The residential buildings became larger and more regular, and from the 16th century BCE onwards they seem to have served not only economic but also representative purposes. A text from the time of Tudhaliya II around 1400 BCE reports a fire in the city, probably caused by the Kaska people.
While it was previously assumed that the expansion of the Upper Town only took place in the late period of the Hittite Empire, numerous finds now prove that this systematic reconstruction began as early as the 16th century BCE. On an elevated spot, northeast of what would later become the Lion Gate, firstly the granaries were built, then water reservoirs. Civilian buildings have been identified to the west of Sarıkale, a rock in the southwest of the city, and in contrast to the old town, they are laid out in a very straight and regular manner.
Between the 16th and 14th centuries BCE, a temple district with 27 cult buildings was constructed on a slope between Sarıkale and Büyükkale. It is not possible to say exactly when the fortifications of the Upper Town were erected. However, it is unlikely that the water reservoirs, the residential buildings, and the first temples, which were begun in the 16th century BCE, were not surrounded by fortifications.
In the early 13th century BC, Muwattalli II moved the capital of the empire from Hattusa to Tarhuntassa, a city in the region of the same name in southern Anatolia, whose exact location remains unknown. Also the reason for the move is unclear. Even though his successor Mursili III returned to the old capital after a few decades, the Upper City changed from a cult district to a craftsmen's quarter during this time. Most of the temples in the temple district of the Upper City were abandoned and built over by pottery workshops.
Mursili was deposed by his uncle Hattusili III. Under him and his son and successor Tudhaliya IV, Hattusa experienced a final period of prosperity. Above all, the palace complex on Büyükkale was monumentally expanded with courtyards surrounded by colonnades, an audience hall and the actual royal palace. Tudhaliya was also responsible for the magnificent relief decoration of the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya outside the city.
His son and last king of the Hittite Empire, Suppiluliuma II, was the creator of the large inscription of Nişantaş and to the east of it, in the area of the southern castle, a cult complex consisting of the two eastern ponds, two chambers and a temple. One of these chambers, which is decorated with reliefs and a large inscription, is called "DINGIR.KASKAL.KUR", which means something like an entrance to the underworld.
Why the Hittite Empire fell apart in the early 12th century BCE and the capital was abandoned is still unclear. Possible causes include internal disputes - possibly as a long-term consequence of the usurpation of the throne by Hattusili III - as well as famine, either due to climate change or as a result of excessive exploitation of resources. The so-called Sea Peoples, which at that time harassed the countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean, may also have had at least indirect effects as far as central Anatolia, as long-distance trade relations broke down. Although traces of fire were found on numerous buildings in the city, since the rooms had largely been cleared beforehand, an attack is unlikely. It is also not clear whether the fires occurred simultaneously or at intervals. The general opinion of researchers today tends to suggest a mixture of all these possible causes.
Post-Hittite period
Contrary to the earlier view that the end of the capital was followed by a break in settlement lasting several centuries, excavations show that a smaller settlement existed there, whose inhabitants may also have included remnants of the Hittite population. However, the finds also show that these people fell back to a cultural level that partly corresponded to the Stone Age. The inhabitants lived in small pit-houses, and the use of the potter's wheel for ceramics was soon forgotten, as was the use of writing.
The settlers may have been groups from northern Anatolia who took advantage of the resulting power vacuum. The settlement expanded over the entire surface of the hill over the centuries, and smaller settlements emerged in the rest of the city, for example at the House on the Slope, at Temple 7 in the Upper Town, and on Büyükkale. In the 7th century BCE, a fortification was again built on Büyükkale.
Due to finds such as a statue of Cybele and inscriptions in the Phrygian language on ceramic shards, it is generally associated with the Phrygians living in western Central Anatolia, although the material culture findings indicate an independent socio-political structure. In the 7th/6th century BCE, the Southern Citadel was built - probably at least temporarily in parallel - south of Büyükkale, in the area northwest of the eastern ponds and the Hittite cult grottos, and residential buildings were erected to the west. Both Büyükkale and the Southern Citadel were surrounded by strong walls.
The spread of the Medes in the early 6th century BCE and later of the Persian Achaemenids to Anatolia had no archaeologically visible influence on the material culture of the city; life continued until the city lost importance in the 5th century BCE. It is unclear whether the settlement was actually completely abandoned.
The Galatians, the eastern Celts, who advanced from southeastern Europe through western Anatolia to central Anatolia, brought about another cultural upheaval in the region in the 3rd century BCE. The Trokmer tribe had its centre in Tavium, about 20 kilometres south of Hattusa, from where they also took possession of the area of the city. This is evidenced by traces of residential buildings on the northwest slope, a small fortification near Kesikkaya, and isolated stone cist graves and pithos burials in the Lower Town.
After about 25 BCE, the Roman Empire took control of the Trokmer area and made it the province of Galatia. Only a few scattered village settlements in the area around the city bear witness to this period. In the 1st century CE, the Romans built a road from the provincial capital Tavium to the north, presumably to Amasia, which passed a few kilometres east and north of the Hattusa area. Within the ruins of the Bronze and Iron Age city of Hattusa, a Roman military camp was initially constructed, which was then built over with a spacious villa complex in the first half of the 1st century CE.
In the area around the Great Temple and in the Lower Town, an extensive necropolis from this period was uncovered, while the remains of a small fortification, probably from the late imperial period, were found on Büyükkale. Numerous work on rocks and on building stones in the Great Temple also proves that the Romans used them as a quarry. The traces are most clearly visible on the rock of Kessikkaya in the west of the city.
Archaeological research:
In 1834, the French explorer Charles Texier visited the central Anatolian highlands and discovered the ruins of the city. However, he thought they were the remains of the Median city of Pteria. In addition to the obvious ruins of the city area, Texier also documented and sketched the nearby rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya.
After Texier, other explorers visited the city area in the following decades, including the Englishman William John Hamilton in 1836, who made drawings of the Great Temple. He identified the site as the Galatian Tavium. In 1858, Heinrich Barth and Andreas D. Mordtmann visited the ruins and uncovered the smaller Chamber B of Yazılıkaya.
In 1861, the archaeologist Georges Perrot visited the site with Edmont Guillaume and Jules Delbet, where the architect Guillaume made more detailed drawings of the reliefs of Yazılıkaya and the doctor Delbet took the first photographs of Yazılıkaya, Yenicekale, and Nişantaş. Carl Humann created a topographical plan and had plaster casts made of numerous reliefs in Yazılıkaya in 1882. These casts are now on display in the Near East Museum in Berlin.
The first excavations took place in 1893/94, when the Frenchman Ernest Chantre carried out soundings in the Great Temple, on Büyükkale, and in Yazılıkaya. He also discovered the first cuneiform tablets.
Systematic archaeological research began in 1906. Hugo Winckler, a Berlin Assyriologist and cuneiform researcher, and the Istanbul Greek Theodor Makridi, a curator of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, carried out a first excavation campaign on behalf of the Istanbul museum, which was financed by the German Oriental Society. They were able to recover 2,500 fragments of cuneiform tablets and, based on the texts in Akkadian among them, prove that they had found Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire.
In 1907, Winckler and Makridi continued the excavations. That year, the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) under the direction of Otto Puchstein was also involved for the first time. The ruins were documented with numerous plans, photographs, and a more precise topographical map. In 1911/12, Winckler and Makridi carried out further excavations. Until 1912, excavations were carried out in the Lower Town (Great Temple), at the Royal Castle, and in the Upper Town (Lion Gate, King's Gate, Sphinx Gate).
By then, around ten thousand fragments of cuneiform clay tablets had been recovered. Using the tablets, Bedřich Hrozný succeeded in discovering the Hittite language in 1914/15.
Among the finds was a version of the peace treaty concluded between Ramesses II of the Egyptian Empire and Hattusili III of the Hittite Empire around 1259 BCE. The treaty, also known as the Eternal Treaty or the Silver Treaty, is the oldest known surviving treaty and the only one from the ancient Near East for which versions from each party have survived. Although it is sometimes called the Treaty of Kadesh, the text itself does not mention the Battle of Kadesh, which took place around 1274 BCE.
After the First World War, the excavations in Hattusa were suspended for more than a decade and were not resumed until 1931 by the German Archaeological Institute under the direction of Kurt Bittel. Due to the Second World War, work was suspended again from 1939.
In 1952, Bittel was able to continue researching the city. The focus of his work was the uncovering of the royal castle, large-scale investigations in the Lower Town and excavations in the area around Hattusa. Until 1975, the excavation work was carried out jointly by the German Archaeological Institute and the German Oriental Society.
Bittel's successor in 1978 was Peter Neve, under whose direction extensive excavations and restorations were carried out in the central and eastern Upper Town. In 1994, Jürgen Seeher became head of the excavations. In 2006, Andreas Schachner took over the excavation management.
Since 1952, the German Archaeological Institute has been excavating continuously in the city and uncovers new findings every year. Between 2003 and 2005, under the direction of Jürgen Seeher, a section of the city wall was reconstructed using old techniques and materials. Areas outside the city have also been investigated recently, including the Chalcolithic settlement in Çamlibel Tarlası.
The majority of the cuneiform tablets found at Hattusa are kept or exhibited in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, as well as in the local museum in Boğazkale.
Other finds besides architectural fragments include steles, household goods, and other ceramics as well as smaller art objects such as statuettes and cult vessels. Hieroglyphic inscriptions also came to light. Larger works of art such as statues of rulers or images of gods were not found; they were probably taken with them when the city was left after the fall of the empire.
The finds can be seen in the museums mentioned above, as well as in the Archaeological Museum in the nearby city of Çorum. The copies of the reliefs from Yazılıkaya, made in 1882, are in the Near East Museum in Berlin.
Bibliography:
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