Hattusha: the Hittite Capital* UNESCO World Heritage Site State Party  Turkey Type Cultural Criteria i, ii, iii, iv Reference 377 Region† Europe and North America Inscription history Inscription 1986  (10th Session) * Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

Hattusa (^URUḪa-at-tu-ša 𒌷𒄩𒀜𒌅𒊭; Ḫattuša, near modern Boğazkale (formerly Boğazköy), Turkey) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex As of 2008 there are a total of 878 World Heritage Sites located in 145 "State Parties" Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex This is a list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe. Asia Minor, Cyprus, all of the Aegean Islands, the Canaries A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex Boğazkale is a district of Çorum Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Hittites is the conventional English-language term for an ancient people who spoke an Indo-European language and established a kingdom centered in Hattusa The term Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced Metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use included techniques for The region is set in a loop of the Kızıl River (Marashantiya in Hittite sources and Halys in Classical Antiquity) in central Anatolia. Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural History centered on the Mediterranean Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black

Hattusa was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986. A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site (such as a Forest, Mountain, Lake, Desert, Monument, Building, complex

The surroundings

The landscape surrounding the city included rich agricultural fields, hill lands for pasture, as well as woods. Smaller woods are still found outside the city but in ancient times there were much more. This meant the inhabitants had a great supply for timber when building their houses and other structures. The fields provided the people with a subsistence of wheat, barley and lentils. Linen was also harvested, but their primary source for clothing was wool from sheep. They also hunted deer in the forest, but this was probably only a pleasure by the nobility. The source for meat was domesticated animals. There were several other settlements in the vicinity, such as the rock shrine at Yazılıkaya and the town at Alacahöyük. Yazılıkaya ( Turkish for "inscribed rock" was a sanctuary of Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, today in the Çorum Alacahöyük or Alaca Höyük (sometimes also spelt as Alacahüyük, Euyuk, or Evuk) is the site of a Neolithic and Hittite Since the rivers in the area are too small and unsuitable for major ships, all transport to and from Hattusa had to go by land.

Early history of the city

Twelve Hittite Gods of the Underworld in the nearby Yazılıkaya, a sanctuary of Hattusa

Before 2000 BC, a settlement of the apparently indigenous Hatti people was established on sites that had been occupied even earlier. Yazılıkaya ( Turkish for "inscribed rock" was a sanctuary of Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, today in the Çorum The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in present-day central and southeastern parts of Anatolia, Turkey. ^[1] The earliest traces of settlement on the site is from the sixth millennium BC. In the 19th and 18th centuries BC, merchants from Assur in Assyria established a trading post here, setting up in their own separate quarter of the city. Assur also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture The center of their trade network was located in Kanesh (Neša) (modern Kültepe). For the village in Azerbaijan see Kültəpə. Kültepe is the name of the modern village near the ancient city of Kaneš in central eastern Business dealings required record-keeping: the trade network from Assur introduced writing to Hattusa, in the form of cuneiform.

A carbonized layer in the excavations records the burning and ruin of the city of Hattusa around 1700 BC. The responsible party appears to have been King Anitta from Kushar (a city possibly to be identified with Alişar), who took credit for the act and erected an inscribed curse for good measure:

Yenicekale, between the Lion Gate and the outer city

The Hittite imperial city

Only a generation later, a Hittite-speaking king had chosen the site as his residence and capital. The Hittite Language had been gaining speakers at Hattic's expense for some time. Hittite or Nesili is the Extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas (modern Hattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC The Hattic "Hattus" now became Hittite "Hattusa", and the king took the name of Hattusili I, the "one from Hattusa. Labarna II was the first king of the Hittite empire to reign from Hattusa (while the earlier kings had been at Neša) taking the throne name of Hattusili " Hattusili marked the beginning of a non-Hattic-speaking "Hittite" state, and of a royal line of Hittite Great Kings — 27 of whom are now known by name.

After the Kaskas arrived to the kingdom's north, they twice attacked the city to the point where the kings had to move the royal seat to another city. See Kaska for the First Nations people in the Yukon and British Columbia Canada For kas-kas, or poppy seeds refer to Poppy Under Tudhaliya I, the Hittites moved north to Sapinuwa, returning later. Tudhaliya I (sometimes referred to as Tudhaliya II, or even Tudhaliya I/II was a king of the Hittite empire (New kingdom ca Sapinuwa or Shapinuwa (modern Ortaköy, Turkey) was a Bronze Age Hittite city Under Muwatalli II, they moved south to Tarhuntassa but assigned Hattusili III as governor over Hattusa. Muwatalli II ( m NIRGÁL) was a king of the New kingdom of the Hittite empire (ca Tarhuntassa is an as-yet undiscovered Bronze Age city south of Hattusa. Hattusili III ( Hittite: "from Hattusa" was a king of the Hittite empire (New Kingdom or Late Empire ca Mursili III returned the seat to Hattusa, where the kings remained until the end of the Hittites. Mursili III, also known as Urhi-Teshub, was the eldest surviving son of Muwatalli II.

At its peak, the city covered 1. 8 km² and comprised an inner and outer portion, both surrounded by a massive and still visible course of walls erected during the reign of Suppiluliuma I (circa 1344 - 1322 BC (short chronology)). Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites (ca 1344 – 1322 BC ( Short chronology) The short chronology is one chronology of the Near Eastern Bronze and Early Iron Age, which fixes the reign of Hammurabi to 1728 BC – 1686 BC and the Sack of The inner city covered an area of some 0. 8 km² and was occupied by a citadel with large administrative buildings and temples.

The Great Temple in the inner city

To the south lay an outer city of about 1 km², with elaborate gateways decorated with reliefs showing warriors, lions, and sphinxes. Four temples were located here, each set around a porticoed courtyard, together with secular buildings and residential structures. Outside the walls are cemeteries, most of which contain cremation burials. Modern estimates put the population of the city between 40,000 to 50,000 at the peak. In the early period the inner city housed a third that number. The dwelling houses which were built with timber and mud bricks have vanished from the site leaving only the stone-built-walls of temples and palaces.

The city was destroyed, together with the Hittite state itself, around 1200 BC, as part of the Bronze Age collapse. The Bronze Age collapse is the name given by those historians who see the transition from the The site was subsequently abandoned until 800 BC, when a modest Phrygian settlement appeared in the area. In antiquity Phrygia (Φρυγία was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey.

The Yerkapi rampart in the south

Discovery of the city

Ernest Chantre opened some trial trenches at the village then called Boğazköy, in 1893-94. Ernest Chantre (1843-1924 was a prominent French Archaeologist and Anthropologist. ^[2] Since 1906, the Deutsche Orientgesellschaft has been excavating at Hattusa (with breaks during the two World Wars and the Depression, 1913-31 and 1940-51). Archaeological work is still carried out by the German Archaeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologische Institut). The German Archaeological Institute (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut DAI) is one of the world's leading archaeological research institutions and a "scientific Hugo Winckler and Theodor Makridi Bey conducted the first excavations 1906, 1907 and 1911-13, which were resumed in 1931 under Kurt Bittel, followed by Peter Neve (site director 1963; general director 1978-94). Hugo Winckler ( July 4, 1863, Gräfenhainchen, Saxony &mdash April 19, 1913, Berlin) was a German ^[3] One of the most important discoveries at the site has been the cuneiform royal archives of clay tablets, consisting of official correspondence and contracts, as well as legal codes, procedures for cult ceremony, oracular prophecies and literature of the ancient Near East. One particularly important tablet details the terms of a peace settlement between the Hittites and the Egyptians under Ramesses II, circa 1283 BC. A copy is on display in the United Nations in New York as an example of one of the earliest known international peace treaties. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous

Although the 30,000 or so clay tablets recovered from Hattusa form the main corpus of Hittite literature, archives have since appeared at other centers in Anatolia, such as Tabigga (Maşat Höyük) and at Sapinuwa (Ortaköy). Maşat Höyük is a Bronze Age Hittite archaeological site northeast of Boğazkale / Hattusa, about 20 km south of Zile, Tokat Sapinuwa or Shapinuwa (modern Ortaköy, Turkey) was a Bronze Age Hittite city They are now divided between the archaeological museums of Ankara and Istanbul. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after İstanbul. Istanbul (historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see the other Names of Istanbul) is the largest city of Turkey

The sphinx

A sphinx from Hattusa was taken for restoration out of Turkey to Germany in 1917 and has not been returned. A Sphinx is a Zoomorphic mythological figure which is depicted as a recumbent lion with a human head Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. It was recently at the center of a Turkish move to apply restrictions on German archaeologists working in the country. It is currently on display in Berlin's Pergamon Museum^[4]

See also

• Hittites
• Yazılıkaya

Footnotes

External links

Bibliography